Dmitry Ishanov

Matthew, the head of the international department, has a pipeline to concert tickets. We went ro a great concert yesterday afternoon. All we knew was that a pianist would be playing with the orchestra. It turns out the pianist was Dmitry Ishanov, an 11-year-old prodigy! My god, he was stupendous. He played Beethoven’s concerto no. 2 for piano and orchestra and then an encore. We had great seats about 7 rows back so we could see everything he did. What a great concert. Afterwards we walked through the rain down to the Georgian restaurant for dinner. I finished my main course of veal cooked in tomatoes and then they bring me my appetizer of mushrooms cooked with Georgian cheese. I’m still surprised at how restaurants serve food here.

I had spent the morning out on my bike shopping. I bought a shower curtain to put on the floor of the apartment to park my bike on. I hope that will satisfy the landlady. It was raining and nasty all day yesterday, so I was nice and wet when I got back.

At the conference on Friday, the guy from school gave us all a demonstration on how to use the smart board. Two of the Russian teachers and I decided to get together when my kids are asleep and mess around on my smart board and learn all the tricks. We’all all improve our smart board skills and hopefully I will improve my Russian a little bit.

This afternoon Sonia and I are headed out to the Uzbek restaurant with Lorene and Ravil. That will be a new eating experience. Then Sonia and I have tickets to a Flamenco performance.  I saw one when I was in Spain done by Gypsies in a cave.  This is one done by one of the Flamenco schools. It should be an interesting contrast.