The Doldrums

And February drags ever on and on. Since I was a little kid, my dad and I have always agreed that February is the most boring month of the year. Football is over and Spring Training is yet to begin. Thus I give you, the Doldrums.

Now some people may read this post and think I am just not taking advantage of the plethora of opportunities by which I am surrounded on a daily basis. Such a person, however, must be reminded that I am in Tajikistan for an entire academic year. There is bound to be a stretch here and there that is utterly dull. I resent the fact that there is so much pressure on students to absolutely fall in love with all aspects of their experience abroad. Even after five months, life in Tajikistan is hard. That's not to say I hate it here. I am just looking to explain the title and overall tone of this blog entry.

Now then, I will try my hardest to make this post interesting. I explained to my mom only a few hours ago that there is no way to make the events of my past two weeks sound interesting. Then, after a considerable amount of thought, I decided to accept the challenge of making the tedious sound entertaining. So here we go.

Two weeks ago, I went to one of the few shopping centers in Dushanbe that I had still not explored. It had the same people peddling the same wares that are everywhere. This center did have one unique aspect though. The Саодат Supermarket is home to the one and only escalator in the entire Republic of Tajikistan. Having been in place for a while now, most city folk understand how the mechanism works. The intriguing part is watching out-of-towners take their first ever ride on an escalator. It's somewhat amusing, but also just sort of fascinating. 

I doubt very much that anyone I know in America could recall the tale of their first escalator ride. I discussed this idea with my host mother, who has only ever ridden an escalator a few times. I attempted to convey to her just how ubiquitous escalators are in the US, especially in a major city like DC. I'd imagine my host mom would be more than a little nervous riding any DC metro escalator. Anyhow, after explaining that escalators are incredibly common in the US, my host mother got a little defensive of her homeland. She wisely pointed out that Tajikistan is only twenty years old and already has one escalator. She asked me how many escalators existed in the US when it was twenty. The point was well taken. Tajikistan is obviously flourishing.

Somewhere in the last two weeks, one of my host family's former host students came for a visit. Out of the blue, he called the house during the middle of our dinner  and asked if he could stop by in ten minutes. One cannot get any more Tajik. My host family welcomed the student with open arms. Everyone was speaking in loud, fast Russian for about two hours, but in between conversations I got to talk to the former student in English. Apparently he was around Dushanbe in the first or second year that American Councils started its program here. It was strange speaking English in the eating area. In my mind, that space is always a strict Persian (or Russian) zone. So it was just odd breaking the trend. The guy was pretty cool and had an interesting past. He was in the same position that I am currently in when he studied in Tajikistan (junior in college, substantial funding, vague plans for the future). The whole experience made for a unique and pleasant evening.

This past weekend was a three day weekend. Though President's Day is not observed at American University in Washington, DC, American Councils wanted to make sure we observed the solemn day while studying in Tajikistan. What with it being February and all, the Doldrums were in full swing this weekend. The only highlights are as follows:

-On Sunday, Amanda and I went to see a movie in 5D. I honestly don't understand where they got the extra two dimensions from, but the experience was surprisingly entertaining. For the equivalent of three dollars, we got to take a virtual roller coaster ride for about five minutes. We went into this tiny theater with only four seats. There were handles to hold on to while the seats moved and some water was occasionally sprayed in our faces. We had to wear special 5D glasses too. I can't do the experience justice with this description. Just suffice it to say it was three dollars well spent.

-On Monday (yesterday), Amanda and I met with our peer tutor, Hani. Our friend Chris and his peer tutor, Saaid, who is Hani's best friend, also joined us. The meeting was sort of a going away party for Hani. Apparently she has some family matters to attend to back in Tehran. She's putting her last semester of study off until the Fall to go home and help out. I was honestly pretty bummed by the news. Hani has become a good friend.

In other news, the English class I'm teaching at American Corner is going fine. Amanda and I have already introduced DC, New York, and Chicago to the Tajik students. Everyone seems to be enjoying the class.

Also, yesterday at lunch I ordered a parfait-looking desert from the fridge at this Iranian restaurant. The waitress asked me if I wanted it with an egg. I was confused, but said sure. When it came it was literally just a cup of yogurt with chocolate syrup and nuts in the middle. And a raw egg on top. It was strange, and tasted pretty bad. But when in Dushanbe..

Hope I managed to make this blog post at least slightly compelling.

Sorry no pictures this time. Just a video of some Tajiks trying to ride the Саодат escalator. On YouTube, the description says the video is from Uzbekistan. But it's really from Taj.

Here's to hoping February passes quickly and takes all this winter weather along with it!