For the first time in two weeks I got a full night's sleep last night. Damn, but it makes me feel better. I think this is day #12 since I started traveling, which pretty well corresponds to the theory that for every hour of time difference (here 13 hours) you need a day to adjust to jet lag.

To deal with various administrative issues, our Bishkek partner has granted me a desk in their main office. Nine other people work in this office that has tile floors and glass walls; in other words, sound bounces like crazy and it's an ideal environment to produce lots of sonic frustration.

But here's the scoop: Russians and Kyrgyz are taught to behave much more quietly than Americans. The office is astonishingly quiet. And after the first five minutes in this office, I realized I was grotesquely loud by their standards. Now I've quieted down for them. No one shouts across the room. If you have something to say, you stand up, walk quietly over to the person you need to address, and then you speak just loud enough to be heard by that person and no one else.

I have to laugh about the temperature as well. It's probably about 82°F in this room,but they don't turn on the air conditioner, and my colleague Katya has a sweater thrown over her shoulders. These are born Bishkekers.

Today was the first real day of class. The MTThF class schedule is broken down into four sessions roughly like this:

(The class descriptions are a bit misleading. A grammar class includes conversation and reading, even if grammatical things help organize it, and reading and conversation courses can't avoid the other aspects as well.)

The Wednesday schedule has one-on-one or one-on-two language coaching from 10:00 a.m. to noon and city excursions from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

MW also has peer tutoring from 3:00 — 5:00 p.m.

On weekends we will have some day trips out of town and some overnight trips as well.

On the whole things went well. We adjusted the placement of some students. On our first day in Bishkek we had one student slide into panic mode about being abroad, but once she was reassured that what she was feeling was pretty well par for the course, she adjusted and seems to be doing well now.

Today a group of our students had the opportunity to go to the local American Embassy. I was careful to warn them to have their passports with them. We got to the entrance, and I realized I had forgotten my own. This was shame #1. But I had a visa card with my name and picture on it, and that sufficed for entrance, to my great surprise. Waiting for the next round of security I noticed pictures of Obama and John Kerry on the wall. Between them was a face I didn't recognize; I asked the two kids standing next to me who he was. They didn't recognize him. I asked the rest, and received (shame #2) the incredulous response, "That's Joe Biden," to which Larissa added, "Are you even an American?"

Once inside, we were quickly escorted us to a non-secure conference room. First we had a security briefing by the Deputy Defense Attaché; the fact that it was delivered by a security professional really had an impact on our students. Then we met with the Public Affairs Specialist, a guy who, interestingly enough, had done a two-year stint in Turkmenistan with the Peace Corps. He is responsible for educational and cultural exchanges. Whodathunk that the US would participate in an international hip-hop event in Kyrgyzstan? Finally we met the Foreign Service Medical Officer, who warned us against, amongst other things STDs. I once translated for some physicians in St. Petersburg, and one of the topics they discussed was STDs, which I thought was actually quite interesting, so I asked for specifics about the STD issues in KG, which doubtless suggested lechery on my part. The doctor avoided the issue, preferring to point out that each of us would have an experience of the runs while we were here, and that this was due not to some parasite into the water, but simply due to the change of intestinal fauna when you make a major chaqnge of location. I thought to myself, "Way to avoid the topic, doc." The universe chid me for my sardonic attitude by having me spend parts of the evening on the porcelain throne.

We returned to our base of operations, and half the students had a cooking class (borshch and bliny). I tend to think these things are kind of silly, but the student response was that it was worth doing, so by heaven we will do it again next year. The other half met with their language coaches. And then the groups switched activities.

In the evening I went to a place called The Metro Pub, a place popular with expats, including Americans and Brits. Wednesday has a 'quiz game' conducted by a local gringo, accompanied by raucous commentary from the 12% of the attendees who are soused. My acquaintance Alex and I played on the same team with an unpleasant American drunk who had served in Mogadishu and a pleasant New Zealander who hikes the world and somehow supports himself with web design. He amused me by commenting how, due to security concerns, one of the best things a web site could do was block access to all requests from Russian IP addresses.

Classes as usual. All seems well for the moment.

Biggest current problem: the luggage of one of our students, Wynter, is stuck in Istanbul; it didn't make the hand-off from Delta to Turkish Airlines. Delta had required her to do a bag check at the gate. Bishkek is a pretty uncommon destination, so I'm not too surprised that they didn't pull it off. Her mom successfully found a "Baggage Identification Form" for Turkish Airlines with the help of Delta Airlines, but the TA website that has the form does not say where to send the form. Frustrating.

I gave a call to Turkish Airlines. They said they would send me all the information that Wynter needed to my gmail address. No sign of it. But I had also asked for a back-up address to which things could be sent, so I forwarded Wynter's form thither. In the meantime she also stopped by a local TA office. Hopefully it will all come through.