Dozvedanya

The staff at this hotel are excellent and very well trained.  They greet you every time they pass, and always smile. The only thing odd is that instead of saying “good morning” or “good evening” they all say  “refreshing morning” or “refreshing evening”.  It’s gotten so that I try to trick them by greeting them first, with a question, such as “how are you?” but after they answer, they still say “refreshing…”. I must remember this for the next time that a librarian says that you can’t make staff smile.

The day started with a person who was responsible for reviewing everything that was said yesterday.  It was fascinating to hear someone’s rendition of what I said, and to see which parts he underlined or bolded as being really important.  I felt like I had cracked a code today because I finally figured out what people were talking about when they referred to the Permsec.  It’s the Permanent Secretary for Education, similar to our Deputy Minister, who spent the day with us yesterday.

There was an amazing presentation this afternoon about how your perspective on reality shapes the way in which you do research – I realize this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – but I wish I had heard it before I tackled my thesis.  I ended up going for a beer in the bar with the speaker, which led to another beer. We were joined by two of his colleagues.  He had purchased a bottle of bourbon and wasn’t going to drink it all by himself, which led to the inevitable outcome: .a large and noisy, and somewhat incoherent  argument about reality.   Lots of laughter. The Zulu  dancers came along, and the learned professor, a man of substantial proportions, got up to dance with them and did a creditable performance.  I was admiring them, one in particular was very fine…The professor then came back and told us that they all had day jobs: one was a teacher, a bank clerk, and one, the one I admired, was a truck driver (Perhaps only my husband will think this is very funny and nod his head wisely.

About the time that my sense of reality told me that it was time for me to quit drinking, two hippos appeared on the lawn grazing.  I didn’t realize they came this far out of the water, nor did I realize they grazed. I doubt if I could bring one home though – a middle-sized female weighs something like 2600 lbs. It was a mother and a daughter. They are glossy and quite beautiful in a stately sort of way.

It seemed that there was time for another drink after all, and I ended up talking to one of the prof’s friends who did his PhD in Leningrad.  Back when the USSR had money they used to take bright students from Africa to do their PhD’s for free. The first year was spent learning Russian and studying Marxism.  When I really decided that it was time for bed, out of my mouth came “Dozvidanya”, more or less good-bye in Russian.  I was quite surprised since I didn’t know that I knew that…as was he.  I wonder if I drank more if I would become fluent?