Oog.

Yesterday was fine, I guess. The trip to the monastery in the afternoon was cancelled due to rain that turned out to be a rain of sunshine. So then we all had an afternoon to burn. I showed a friend where the supermarket was and went home (I've been told you can buy yarn in a shop near my house, but I've yet to find it). Then Lyuba and I watched a movie that she loved and that I had seen five minutes of the day before. I made a mental note then to hunt it down, and then I got home the next day and it was qued up in the VCR!

Of course, twenty minutes in, the workmen came anв I ended up doing grammar homework in the kitchen until they left, which was unfortunately not long since the pipe they brought wasn't long enough. They'll be back today, but I won't be there, so yay I guess.

Sort of having a craptastic day, for no reason in particular except that my nasty cough hasn't finished going away- the rest of it is much better though, so I really should be grateful- and that Grammar this morning sucked. There are still communication problems in there- she's our youngest teacher, and also the only one that speaks no English- and today I was just pathetic. I would understand the principle, but not the question, or I would understand the question, but not the principle, and then we had a partners exercise and I had no partner, so I just stared at it and tried to make anything vaguely grammatical coalesce with absolutely no luck. Finally the teacher came over and practicaly did it for me. Very depressing.

And guess what I'm missing, as of yesterday. Coffee shops. All my favorite coffee shops from home just keep wandering through my mind of their own accord. I'm not missing anything else, except being babied when I'm sick, but coffee shops won't leave me alone.

Our sick compatriot flew home yesterday. They ruled out all the illnesses that they could cure soon enough for her to resume the program, and it wasn't any of those, so she went home to get diagnosed for once and for all and to get cured. I sent my two English books- a novel and some short stories- to her, and she was glad to get them. It's a long flight to go without reading material.

As for comments:

Lots of people have cats. There's even a cat in our courtyard here, who everyone fights over- it just started pouring rain, and everyone in here was worried that the cat would get caught out.

As for finding a dog to pet, no. This is not a culture where you can pet other peoples' dogs, unfortunately. There are no yards here, whatsoever, but a lot of the streets are designed so that there is a strip of green space between the lanes, where people tend to do their dog walking. If a game of fetch or some running around is in order, there's a great big park down the road where I see a lot of giant schauzers and great danes and such.