Кинофестиваль

Well, it seems I spoke a little too soon about the Georgian food. It was good - don't get me wrong. It didn't make me sick either. So I guess it's really a combination of everything I ate that day because I definitely ate EVERYTHING that day. That night I was awoken by a strange feeling in my stomach, which continued for most of the rest of that day. I had to turn down food at breakfast (they feed me so much here), and I skipped lunch entirely. Honestly, by the time dinner rolled around on Thursday, I still wasn't particularly hungry. I just had this weird feeling in my stomach all day that seems to have been a result of a massive bolus of food that my body simply could not process all at once.

Enough about my bowel movements on the public domain and now about Soviet housing. I live in a pretty nice apartment by Russian standards. We have two bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, toilet, shower/sink (separate room), and a small office, which was probably designed as a third bedroom. So, I'm living pretty comfortably with Iosif, Marina, and their dog Bonita (a male - I would say that Romance genders escape them, except that the general rules for word gender are the same in Russian as most other Indo-European languages. That is to say, I have no clue why they named their male dog with a feminine Spanish adjective). Given these higher standards of construction, I was surprised at a series of mishaps in the past 48 hours.

Wednesday, I came home to find that there was no hot water (вода нетичёт). No big deal, right? I've taken cold showers before. However, what I didn't count on was the fact that the ground temperature is lower here than in the US, meaning the pipe, which in the US means "not-hot" water pipe, here means "freezing-cold" water pipe. That is to say, I had early signs of hypothermia by the time I was done. This situation continued for about 36 hours, but thankfully I only had to take one cold shower.

During those 36 hours, I was sitting at home when Iosif came in from walking Bonita (Bonya). He had used the lift to get down (seven floors), but in the time it took him to walk the dog, the lift had quit working. It was at this point that Iosif made a joke about him having to pay me to live here since everything was breaking. Perhaps he spoke too soon.

While Iosif was cooking dinner a few minutes later, I was watching and giving updates on the football match (New Zealand and whoever they played last), which at this point had about three minutes left. Then the cable went out.

The fourth issue is evidently a non-issue I've been informed, but it's frightening nonetheless. You see, washing machines are rare, dear investments here. We have one in the apartment, but I'm not allowed to touch it. If I have clothes that need washing, I give them to Marina and she does it for me - not a bad system, honestly. The problem is that they left me in the apartment alone with the machine running, and although I knew it was loud from prior experience, I was quite surprised to hear a loud bang followed by several smaller bangs. Upon investigation, I found the machine practically walking itself across the bathroom. Of course, I called Iosif, who knows enough English to understand what I was trying to yell through the phone over the noise of this machine - half in Russian, half in English. His reply, "Oh yes, the machine is jumping again, yes? It does not damage anything right now? OK, it's fine. I have had words on this matter with Marina before. I will return now." Nevermind the fact that this thing was practically trying to attack me and trap me in the bathroom.

I'll leave that matter there because I went to the Moscow International Film Festival today and ate some Central Asian food. I don't have a lot to say on this matter really. Actually, I have a small query - if anyone knows what's in Tashkent salad and Ugra-osh, I would be very much obliged if you told me. That's what I ordered (because they were the two things that I had the least idea what was in them and obviously still haven't got the slightest clue), and it was delicious. The film we watched was Воробей (Sparrow), one of surprisingly few Russian films there. It was a pretty slow arthouse film - not that I have anything against arthouse, my issue is with the slowness and general boredom that pervaded the movie. Additionally, when I watch a Russian movie I expect an unhappy ending, but this movie was quite anti-climactic. Minimal plot resolution and really minimal plot development. Disappointing really.

UPDATE:

I found a recipe for Tashkent salad, although I don't think mine had any egg or mayonnaise:
http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Tashkent_Salad