Further Excitement

     Since my last post, there has been quite a bit of  excitement over here. I'll start with Thursday night. After my first night out in Dushanbe, I came home and couldn't sleep. While reading, I suddenly felt the whole house shake. The shaking lasted for about ten seconds. The longest ten seconds of my life. I was ready for the house to just cave in, but I suppose the tremor never got that intense. I went online right away, and found out there had been a magnitude 5.0 earthquake somewhere in central Tajikistan. The epicenter was over 150 miles away from Dushanbe, but as this was the first earthquake I had ever felt, I was still pretty freaked out. Naturally, this made sleep a little harder to achieve. I called home for a bit and then finally passed out. I mentioned the earthquake to my host family the next morning and they just shrugged it off as a common occurrence. Classic Tajikistan.

     The next day was Independence Day. Keeping in mind that Central Asian countries are known for their volatility and that this year marked the 20th anniversary of Tajikistan becoming a sovereign state, we were told to expect anything. I was just excited to realize that I'm actually older than Tajikistan. In the late morning, there was a massive parade down Rudaki Street for about two hours. The main feature was the unfurling of the world's longest flag. Tajikistan is already home to the world's largest flagpole, and now it also has the longest flag. Everyone is super proud. The flag is over two kilometers long and was carried by over 3000 citizens. Obviously, the thing can't realistically be flown. So it was just paraded around the city for two hours. In the morning, it was clogging up traffic and I really had to cross the road to meet some friends, so I got to walk under it. That's right, everyone, I walked right under (and touched) the longest flag in the world. Big stuff.

     The rest of the parade was pretty lame, in all honesty. No floats. Just a lot of people walking around in eccentric Tajik garb, waving flags and cheering as the entire ten-piece National Air Force flew overhead. My host mom actually got to walk in the parade, since she's a teacher at one of the state-run schools. She participated in the celebration, but did so reluctantly. No one else from my host family left the house all day. They didn't care for the parade, the fireworks display, the laser light show or any of the reenactments. Apparently this is a pretty common phenomenon amongst the denizens of downtown Dushanbe. The festivities attracted a lot of young people, country folk and foreigners, but not too many actual Dushanbears. (A Dushanbear is the demonym I've created for those residing in Dushanbe.) So, anyhow, that was Independence Day. No riots or explosions or anything. I think a lot of people felt let down.

     The following day (yesterday) we went on our first excursion with American Councils. The trip was to this beautiful Tajik oasis next to some foothills and a river in the countryside. The place is called Gooleh Maida, meaning Little Flower in Tajiki, and is about 45 minutes north of Dushanbe. I did a bit of hiking in the foothills, but I couldn't really keep up with the fast pace of the military guys on our program. So I went back to the giant cabana and read and ate. Later on we went down to the river and did some sitting and minor wading. I had some really nice conversations with fellow participants and got to know some of my peers a lot better. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

     In other news, my family and I have agreed not to speak Russian with each other anymore. I'm excited for the switch over to Persian, but the trouble is that they still speak a lot of Russian amongst themselves. I'll want to take part in the discussion, but not know which language is appropriate to use. So that can be challenging at times. Also I'm having the first session with my peer tutor (هم صحبت) tomorrow morning. He is a local Tajik student named Azimjon. He speaks Persian, but no English. I don't know what we'll be doing, but regardless I'm looking forward to some one-on-one conversation time in Farsi. 

     Right now I'm sitting in a cafe, enjoying an espresso with ice cream. I'm finishing up my Farsi homework and enjoying the nice weather. Everyday in Dushanbe is beautiful. The mountains block out the clouds and nasty weather. It has been clear, sunny and in the mid 90's since I arrived here eleven days ago. All in all, I think the semester is off to a promising start. I could definitely get used to this.

I suppose I'll just end this post with a big HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY wish to my elderly sister!!