It's cool out and I felt well enough a bit earlier to venture out of the hotel. I asked a woman at the front desk where I might find a pharmacy and a place to buy DVDs that aren't dubbed into Russian. She, very sweetly, said, "Sir, it would be my pleasure to accompany you but I am on my shift." I hadn't asked her to accompany me! She told me she worked during the week at a nonprofit supported by Counterpart and USAID that works with women, and that the hotel job she does to make some extra money and to practice English. The best stores are apparently in a mall called Tsum or something like that, but it's closed on Sundays. Her weekday office is there, though, and she suggested that I come by so she could take me to the DVD store. In the meantime, she wrote a note in Russian saying I was looking for subtitled, rather than dubbed, movies and I was on my way.
Rudaki had remarkably few cars on it, but still, as I was approaching the park a black Land Cruiser smashed into a silver Mercedes, which spun around and went crashing through the low stone wall that lines the island running down the middle of the avenue. I was about 50 meters away. This, needless to say, was loud and drew a crowd. But the cops yelled at anyone who got close and seemed to get things sorted pretty quickly. No one was hurt, the Mercedes driver hopped out right away. Still, a pretty spectacular accident.
Right by the intersection where the accident happened I found a "chemsit's" and was able to pick up a thermometer (which doesn't work, haha) and some nail clippers for $2 total. I bought an ice cream bar - vanilla with dark chocolate candy coating - a bit further down the road and went into a couple of DVD/video game stores that I knew were next to Salaam Namaste, the Indian place that's becoming my go-to for lunch during the week. I'd been in one of them before to change money. Didn't have to use the note that my helpful friend at the hotel front desk wrote out because the selection in the stores was atrocious. It was funny, though, the DVDs were clearly pirated. Most had multiple movies on them, organized primarily by star. Obviously there were pictures, but it was fun to look at the transliterations, too. Helped me figure out one of the Cyrillic letters I hadn't been able to remember: "ж." It's "zh." So the Brad Pitt DVD had "Meet Joe Black," "Troy," "Inglorious Bastards," and two or three other movies on it. There were Jason Statham, John Travolta, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and Julia Roberts collections, among others. But not a whole lot that drew my interest. Oh well. Ah, one funny thing: The Johnny Depp collection said "джони деп: секс симбол," which is just a transliteration of "Johnny Depp: Sex Symbol." The picture on the front was him as Jack Sparrow.
Needless to say, I kept my money in my pocket.
On the way back I ran into my old friend Noor, who recently found out that he'd gotten into the master's program at Hopkins SAIS. I'd written a recommendation letter for him last year, so was very excited to hear about his success when he wrote me a couple of weeks ago. I also wrote him a letter for a scholarship application that'll enable him to go to DC for the program, if he gets it. It was nice to see him, his face lit up when he made eye contact with me and got past the beard, and he gave me a big hug. If I have to stay through next weekend I'll probably meet up with him for a drink or something. The next few days are going to be too busy.
Anyway, it was overcast and cool, a nice day for a walk, and it felt good to get fresh air and move around a bit. I'm still a bit out of it but I think I'll be better by tomorrow. I should do some work before bed tonight, but we'll see how I feel.
Rudaki had remarkably few cars on it, but still, as I was approaching the park a black Land Cruiser smashed into a silver Mercedes, which spun around and went crashing through the low stone wall that lines the island running down the middle of the avenue. I was about 50 meters away. This, needless to say, was loud and drew a crowd. But the cops yelled at anyone who got close and seemed to get things sorted pretty quickly. No one was hurt, the Mercedes driver hopped out right away. Still, a pretty spectacular accident.
Right by the intersection where the accident happened I found a "chemsit's" and was able to pick up a thermometer (which doesn't work, haha) and some nail clippers for $2 total. I bought an ice cream bar - vanilla with dark chocolate candy coating - a bit further down the road and went into a couple of DVD/video game stores that I knew were next to Salaam Namaste, the Indian place that's becoming my go-to for lunch during the week. I'd been in one of them before to change money. Didn't have to use the note that my helpful friend at the hotel front desk wrote out because the selection in the stores was atrocious. It was funny, though, the DVDs were clearly pirated. Most had multiple movies on them, organized primarily by star. Obviously there were pictures, but it was fun to look at the transliterations, too. Helped me figure out one of the Cyrillic letters I hadn't been able to remember: "ж." It's "zh." So the Brad Pitt DVD had "Meet Joe Black," "Troy," "Inglorious Bastards," and two or three other movies on it. There were Jason Statham, John Travolta, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and Julia Roberts collections, among others. But not a whole lot that drew my interest. Oh well. Ah, one funny thing: The Johnny Depp collection said "джони деп: секс симбол," which is just a transliteration of "Johnny Depp: Sex Symbol." The picture on the front was him as Jack Sparrow.
Needless to say, I kept my money in my pocket.
On the way back I ran into my old friend Noor, who recently found out that he'd gotten into the master's program at Hopkins SAIS. I'd written a recommendation letter for him last year, so was very excited to hear about his success when he wrote me a couple of weeks ago. I also wrote him a letter for a scholarship application that'll enable him to go to DC for the program, if he gets it. It was nice to see him, his face lit up when he made eye contact with me and got past the beard, and he gave me a big hug. If I have to stay through next weekend I'll probably meet up with him for a drink or something. The next few days are going to be too busy.
Anyway, it was overcast and cool, a nice day for a walk, and it felt good to get fresh air and move around a bit. I'm still a bit out of it but I think I'll be better by tomorrow. I should do some work before bed tonight, but we'll see how I feel.
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