Working hard or hardly working...

The group is here, and they're a good bunch. We had an uneventful ride from the airport to Vladimir, and then two full days of orientation, placement testing, and meeting our language partners. One student already managed to injure a ligament, but my assistant got the fun of going to the clinic. Meanwhile, I had to field a variety of questions: how are they signing up for culture classes? what kind of pizza are we ordering today? is everyone happy with their host family? It was my mistake to not have at least one cup of coffee before leaving home. But the job is like that: one minute you're running around, dealing with 7 things at once, and the next you're sitting alone in the office, wishing you'd brought a book. I played a lot of solitaire last year, since the downtime is short and unpredictable.

By Saturday, things were more or less settled down, and I got my hot water back! (As promised, Friday afternoon.) Russia is really becoming more and more like the West: two young guys got carded for buying beer at the grocery store, even. But, there are still some issues to resolve: an African student was walking through my courtyard and guy (who turned out to be drunk) was yelling at him, then walked away muttering some racist comments. Still, the place is very different from what I saw in 2001. I mean, the cars already stop for you at crosswalks, even before you step out into the street!

I've been venturing out a little more, now that my sleeping habits are back on track. I stay up too late, but that's not jet lag, just a bad habit. I invited the group out to an outdoor cafe on Saturday night, and everyone stuck to Russian like champs. On Sunday, I went for my first run: about 4 1/2 miles. One drunk tried to mess with me during my warm-up walk, trying to block my path. I gave him a dirty look, and he let me by. After that, no problems. One of my students is a cross-fit trainer, so we may have to get a Vladimir team going. Maybe. I may just stick to running and yoga.

I also took my first trip of the summer to Globus, the first hypermarket in Vladimir (there's another one now, but apparently Globus is still better). I bought a Brita filter, and looked at the SodaStream carbonators. Yes, they sell those here now. Not worth it: sparkling water is cheap enough, though I do wish recycling were more developed. I wandered around the rest of the store for a long time. It's kind of overwhelming.




The biggest change I've noticed, not only at Globus but at my local supermarket too, is the introduction of pre-washed bagged salads. It's not cheap, and it's not the massive bags you can get at WholeFoods, but it's pretty great. There's actually a lot more lettuce in general, from what I remember. The "international" section was also impressive: tamarind, coconut water, 8 varieties of sushi seaweed (and roasted seaweed snack-packs!), even a lone can of reindeer meat stew. Plus organic soy sauce, Indian sauce packets, and lots of flavorful seasonings. Not to mention rice noodles, peanut butter, tabasco and more. I suppose it's nice that it's there, but I'll save my pad thai preparation for the US. Frankly, I'm still happy with my Russian cafeteria food. I will be making a trip to my favorite Chinese restaurant in town, but at home, I'm living off of pelmeni and buckwheat with mushrooms. And a nice green salad.