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.