Ilsa Around The World

The good news is that the weather has been fantastic. There isn't any snow left and it feels like spring. It's still quite ugly and dirty, but at least I'm not having a serotonin crisis. I got a new, and much improved, flat-mate (that's 'room-mate' for you non-Europeans). I like coming home knowing there's someone else around, even if we don't really see each other much. I've had to learn the few Russian words I thought I knew over again but I still remember some British.

At the weekend ('on the weekend' for you non-Brits) I found myself at another teacher's party. I will let you guess who are teachers or students. There was a good mix of both and everyone seemed equally sloshed. Quite a piss-up, even some 'snogging in the toilet (I heard).

The next morning my friend, who had crashed, reminded me it was April Fool's Day so we played a little joke (copyright C.Schraefel 1995) on the guy who had thrown the party. I got a school administrator to ring him (call him on the phone) and tell him an inspector was coming in two hours to look over the flat (apartment). It was quite believable since his flat-mate was about to move out. He called me 20 minutes later, frantic, and said 'Help, I need help. I have to have apartment cleaned in two hours'. In unison, my friend and I said 'April Fool's' to him but he wouldn't acknowledge it. Instead he whispered 'well, actually, I have my students (who had crashed) here cleaning and could you still bring over your hoover (that's vacuum cleaner for you non-Brits). So I carried the blooming thing, along with my aching head, two metro stops over to him... a little relieved, actually,that his flat was finally getting cleaned. He had kind of 'let it go', didn't he.

Sunday night I met a friend for Azerbaijan food. Azerbaijan is on the Caspian Sea and borders Iran, Georgia, Armenia, and Russia. I hadn't even heard of it until I moved here. But now, I'm teaching private lessons to some people originally from there and who are trying to immigrate to Canada. Anyway, the food was great and inexpensive. I asked my student about the meat and she said usually they eat ram instead of beef, but there was a stew that tasted very much like my mom's beef stew. Later we walked along Old Arbat, a pedestrian street catering to tourists. It's weird that this was my first time there since I've been here four months. The street wasn't all that impressive to me. I had seen the merchandise in other places around the city but I do know there is a lot of history which I will try to relay in another post one day. I hope they clean it up a bit for the summer. I'd do anything to sit ont a nice patio. But there are still so many places here I've yet to explore... and Bob's your uncle.

Ilsa recommends trying new things! Cheerio!