Kazan — summer 2014

I've been exploring Plovdiv a bit using Google maps. One of the main streets in the city is William Gladstone street. That took me by surprise. My history is pretty pathetic, but it lead me to read about Gladstone and the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria in 1876. Gladstone vociferously decried the atrocities, which resulted in Britain's refusal to help Turkey in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. Eventually Bulgaria was freed from the Ottomans. In memory of this Gladstone is commemorated in Bulgaria.

I'm pleased to report that all our student visas for Russia for the summer have arrived. Assuming Putin doesn't cross the Ukrainian border again, we should be in Kazan. I'm very, very pleased.

No surprise here: looks like cursive activates more brain than keyboarding, and also it looks like it may actually function in a different part of the brain than printing. Odd, eh? Mirror

Call it 24 hours of travel. Yes, I'm tuckered.

I'm going to do a lot of walking this summer, but my feet have somehow changed over the last year so that shoes that used to be comfortable for me now cause significant pain. I decided to buy a real pair of walking shoes. Got myself measured at a local shoe store of good reputation from whom I had previously bought shoes. Did some internet-sleuthing. Ended up deciding on the New Balance 985, which looks like this:

This was not a cheap decision. With shipping I paid nearly $141. I'm a tightwad. It was hard to pay that kind of money. Now I'm test-wearing them in advance to make sure they will work. I ordered them a size larger and a size wider than I had measured because I had determined that my feet had a quirk that required slightly bigger sizes.

Result?

O-M-G. These are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. Y'know, sometimes you get what you pay for. This was one of those occasions. I'm looking forward to seeing whether that opinion holds up.