My friend Carla just posted to Facebook a comment that she doesn't care for poetry, mostly. I rarely read poetry, but I once heard a recording of Edna St. Vincent Millay reading "Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies." The recording was from a book called "Poetry speaks," which was distributed with three CDs of the poets reading their own works.

Although it is not in the version linked here, in the recording Millay added one more line after the very end: "Oh, God! Mother!"

It ripped my heart out.

is still killing me. Went to sleep around half past midnight. Woke up at 4:30 a.m. They say that it takes a day of adjustment for every hour of time difference. Bishkek is 13 hours different from Phoenix, so the rule of thumb is that would take thirteen days to adjust, which means I've got the better part of another week. Or we could call it 11 hours if we count from the other direction.

A lot of our guys are going to want to work out over the summer: it's part of the Y chromosome thing. I've become grotesquely fat and want to do the same. I looked over the links we had been given for the city, tried to find the gym that was closest. Turns out that one has closed down. A shame, because their prices were reasonable.

While walking around town yesterday I noticed a place called "Fitness House." I wasn't in the mood to walk in, but I noted it down. Later tried to find it on the web. Couldn't. Walked by the place again. Entered. Turns out today is their opening day: they just registered the business officially yesterday. I was the second customer to sign up. It was way too expensive: $95 for two months. But here's the scoop: it is two blocks from our school, and the price includes personal training. I went for it. I want to return to ASU and have them all pine for their gorgeous but untouchable professor. I will be like Judy Tenuta: you cannot touch the goddess. (If you know who she is, I will be impressed.)

Still, I want to find something cheaper that will fit a student budget. In the mornings I like to have a latte at Café Misto on the third floor of the Vefa Center. Barista Maxim obviously works out. I ask him where to find the closest gym. Quoth he: "Cross the street. Turn right. There is a red five-story building. You enter from the side." Post-latte I searched for it. There are no red buildings within 5 blocks. There is however a pink one. It is labelled as a martial arts studio, but doesn't have a gym per se, and there is no way to enter from the side. Obviously that isn't right. I start walking back. I notice a ten-story white building. Yeah, that sounds similar. It looks like you can enter from the side. Bingo! Go down the stairs. 3600 som will get you two months if you workout between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., which obviously won't work for our students, and 4000 will get you two months if you workout after 3:00. Hm. Maybe some of them will go for that.

Later I stop off for a gnosh at Barclay's Pub. The waiter Ruslan suggests one near my apartment. That's far-ish from our school, but if the price is right, perhaps the students would use it. I'll have to check it out.

Not far from our school is a small mall called the Vefa center. When I went to the washroom yesterday, I noticed an unexpected snaky thing in the WC. What is it?

Yup, a hose. Wouldn't have thought of putting that in a men's bathroom.

My bathroom mirror is resting on the floor, and there is no way to attach it to the wall, so it is useful for contemplating one's toenails, but not for shaving, which is something I'm more concerned with. Plus there is no sink in the bathroom. There is a mirror in the hallway, but again no sink. There is a sink in the kitchen, but no mirror. Hm how should I deal with this? Ah, yes, purchase a hand held mirror with some kind of loop to hang on the cabinet above the sink as I shave. Spiffy. By accident I bought one that matches the cupboards. I'll be styling now!

My apartment has no air conditioner, and we can expect the upper 90s and lower 100s over the summer, which means I want ice. Are there ice cube trays in the freezer? Of course not. When I stopped by the grocery store this morning, I spotted the following oddity:

These are sort of like cling-wrap ice bags. When you unroll them, they look like this:

Then you fill them with water from the top through a little funnel-like channel, seal the top and put them in the freezer. Can this really work?

Sure enough, here is the result, and the ice cubes are completely functional. Whodathunkit? Still, the ice cubes are awfully small. I'll have to see if I can find real ice cube trays somewhere.

I had dinner this evening with James, an American expat who has worked in Bishkek for 2.5 years now, and he brought along a Russian buddy, Alex. James speaks adequate-ish Russian, and Alex speaks adequate-ish English, so we bounced back and forth between the languages all evening.

We had dinner at Barclay's Pub. Wow, the food was pretty decent. Back in the Soviet period you couldn't get decent salad greens in the USSR to save your soul, and the salads we had tonight included fresh arrugula. I was stunned. So what was on the menu?

I grabbed two salads, the first being a "Borana Tower" salad, which is alternating layers of roasted eggplant, grilled beef and tomatoes on a bed of basil. Although it's not obvious from the picture, the salad was a good four inches high, so "tower" wasn't entirely inaccurate.

I added to that a salad called "Summer in Paris," which consisted of arrugula, pears, yellow peppers, feta, pine nuts, and some very thinly sliced lemon wedges.

James went for a skewer of chicken shishkabob.

And he added to that a Greek salad.

Alex went for a chicken fricasee with rice.

And he complemented that with a chicken caesar salad.

Times have really changed when you can get food like this in the fUSSR, even if it is a touch pricey.