Back in the (Former) USSR

Okay let me just apologize for some things in advance. 

1) I know the title of this entry is cheesy, but I couldn't resist.

2) This entry is going to be 100% anecdotal. No photos.

3) A lot of friends/family in America have probably heard some of these stories already, but I still feel compelled to immortalize my tales here for posterity's sake.

Now then, I suppose I should begin from where I left off last year (whoa). Our flight out of Tajikistan was set to leave the morning of December 19th. The group coordinated transportation to the airport and I was supposed to be ready to leave around 1:30AM. At about 10:30PM, however, I received a call from my Resident Director (RD) with some of the most disheartening news a kid can get. The Dushanbe Airport ran out of fuel and supposedly wasn't due to get more until the day after Christmas. This meant I'd have to spend, at minimum, another week in the Winter Wastelands. After a semester of trying my hardest to stay positive in less than ideal conditions, this news pushed me right to the very edge of my breaking point.

Anyhow, to make a long long story slightly shorter, I called my parents. Then I called Turkish Airlines. Then the US Embassy. Then the consulate. All of these calls proved fruitless in the end. Finally after the worst 90 minutes I've had thus far in Tajikistan, my RD called me back and said that someone at the airport had misreported the fuel situation. There was fuel, just not enough to get us to our connection in Istanbul. This problem was much more easily remedied, however. Turkish Airlines simply scheduled a quick stop in Baku, Azerbaijan for our plane to refuel. So after much suspense, it was confirmed that our flight was going to leave on time. At that point I was cautiously optimistic, but emotionally drained too. 

The plane did leave as scheduled and stopped in Baku for about an hour. I had a very short layover in Istanbul, though. So spending time in Baku meant I had even less time to get myself sorted and ready to go in Turkey. Once off the plane in Istanbul, I had about an hour to go through four check points and sprint to my gate. I got on the plane with little time to spare. To my great surprise, I found out that I had received a free upgrade to business class. It was purely coincidence, but I like to think of it as a reward for surviving so long in Tajikistan. At that point, I just settled in for a nice eleven-hour plane ride, enjoying the charmed life. Many movies and gourmet meals later, I arrived at JFK and spent the following weeks visiting friends and family all over the US.

***

Getting into Dushanbe a few days ago was somehow even more harrowing than leaving in December. I won't go into all the minutia, but basically, due to a snow storm in Dushanbe, my connecting flight in Istanbul kept getting pushed back. We were supposed to depart around 8PM local time, but didn't end up leaving until 10AM the next morning. Luckily, I teamed up with some other Americans who were waiting for the same flight, and we managed to get Turkish Airlines to put us all up in the Hilton in Istanbul for the night. With the knowledge that I would be spending the next 3.5 months in Tajikistan, the free food and luxury at the Hilton was more than welcome. I got in to Dushanbe on Thursday evening. My host family had prepared a large, heaping plate of osh, mixed with animal fat and drenched in oil. I just dove on in. Once I was sufficiently stuffed, I went to bed and slept for a very long time.

Yesterday was my first full day back. I met up with my friend Amanda for lunch. We met at our usual place (an Iranian hole-in-the-wall restaurant) for kabobs and hookah. It was really nice to catch up and swap stories from our travels outside of Tajikistan. Later we met up with Hani (our peer tutor) and then walked over to American Councils to sort out our schedules for the semester. I am very pleased with mine. I'll be taking the same obligatory two hours per week of Tajiki along with Farsi Conversation, Persian History, Persian Literature & Culture, Dari Conversation, and Dari Grammar. I am quite excited to jump into the Dari classes. Dari is the dialect of Persian that is spoken in Afghanistan. So this means by the time I come back to the US, I'll have had some very serious exposure to all three dialects of Persian. This exposure is a considerable source of pride for me.

The only other tidbit to report is that while I was away, my host brother got wifi for the house. This is super strange for Tajikistan. I don't know of any other students on my program who also have wifi at their host house. It doesn't always work and it's not very fast, but at least I can check my email and the news and such from the comfort of my bed. For free. Exciting stuff. 

Everyone else from our group gets back to Dushanbe tomorrow (Sunday) night and classes start Monday. Surprisingly, I am a lot happier to be back in Tajikistan than I expected. After being in transit for so long, it's nice to once again be surrounded by familiar faces and places. Well that's about it for now. For my parents' sake, I'll try to be more vigilant about posting here this semester.

Oh, and one last thing. I just wanted to give a shout-out to my roommate, Chris, back in the US. He is currently recovering from a nasty slip on the DC ice. Feel better, bud! Can't wait to be reunited in our awesome apartment for the summer!