Archives for: "July 2010"
Diet Pepsi
July 27th, 2010In the States when I'm at a junk food place, I order diet Pepsi. Here I've ordered nothing but sugar-filled drinks. It's not like diet isn't available, although it is less common. What's up with that? more »
Giardiasis, part 2
July 28th, 2010Wow, the metronidazole works fast. Within four hours of taking the first pill yesterday, I could already tell that gas production had eased. Within eight hours, much improved. I slept all night without having to get up once. Of course, now I have to… more »
Capital Coffee
July 28th, 2010When I am in the mood for an overpriced cup of coffee, I stop here at "Capital Coffee." The word "capital" here is used in the sense of "Das Kapital" and in the sense of financial assets.
In the former Soviet Union the name of the place would have… more »
Record-breaking heat
July 29th, 2010Kazan is having its hottest summer on record. It's already clear that the dry spell has destroyed the grain harvest for the year; this year they will harvest at best 20% of last year's amount. Food prices are already rising. In the winter and the… more »
Germans in Tatarstan
July 29th, 2010A former student just wrote to me:
I've enjoyed your pictures (can't believe how "modern" (i.e. Western?)) some of the scenes look. To what degree is Russian still a lingua franca in Central Asia? How about German? I know that there had been a sizable… more »
