On Thursday, the consulate, and more specifically the Public Affiars Section (the office I was in charge of for a couple of weeks recently), was planning what's known as a media cookout, where we invite a bunch of journalists, stuff them with free food, and hope they'll give us good press coverage. Discuss the ethics of this practice on your own time, please. All that really mattered to me was that I was going to be working at the CGR(Consul-General's Residence) with Eric (Public Affairs Officer) and Gennady (CGR chef) to get pulled pork, ribs, hamburgers, cole slaw, brownies, and various sauces and snacks ready for 60 media people. We went shopping on Tuesday and bought a massive amount of food, then on Wednesday we spent about 12-7 at the CGR preparing stuff. I baked tons of brownies, ground up 40 lbs. of American beef, put dry rub on the ribs and pork, et cetera. The next day, I was to go at 9 to the CGR and not the consulate so that Eric, Gena, and I could cook all day. The dinner was to start at 6 and last until 9 or so, which meant 12-hour day. Sweet.
All seemed in order until I got to the CGR, and at 9:03, I got a call from Vera, a woman who works in Public Affairs. Eric, the PA Officer and amateur chef who was masterminding the operation, was in the hospital! Fortunately, Eric is okay, he just had to spend a few days in the hospital with a kidney issue. Suddenly, I was in charge (again), and people wanted to know if we would move forward, what needed to be done, et cetera. Not being apt to waste massive amounts of food and work, I decided we were going to push ahead. I got some backup from the consulate and PA office, and we went to work. I spent about 6 hours cooking all the ribs on a decrepit gas grill the consulate inherited from the marines who used to be stationed here, and it was almost impossible to control the temperature on it. Meanwhile the pork (which was the wrong cut, so we had to throw big chunks of lard on top to marinate the meat in the oven) slowly cooked and Gennady followed my cole slaw instructions. PA helpers chopped onions, lettuce, tomato, and pickles for the burgers, then we had a party to turn the 40 pounds of ground beef into patties with bleu cheese in the middle. I sent Nathan, of locking-me-out-of-the-apartment fame to fire up the charcoal grill and start the burgers, I helped Gennady shred the pork, and it was time to go. Fortunately, everything turned out perfectly. Obviously, I am biased, but I think the ribs were the best part--they had that perfect fall-off-the-bone consistency. I kept cooking until everyone was gone, and finally got home at about 10. Quite the day.
However, we had so much food left over, we decided to invite the consulate staff over the next day to eat it! Which meant back to the kitchen for me. So I spent much of Friday in the kitchen, reprepping everything. I think the CGR staff my have made off with some of the leftovers the previous night, but oh well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food the second time around. For my lunch break at about 2, I walked back to my apartment, fell asleep, then changed into work clothes again so that I could do all the stuff I had ignored for the previous three days. It was quite the week.
Also, my friend Elizabeth from grad school was in town with her parents, so on Wed. night I took them to the local Georgian restaurant. I was stunned at how well her parents liked it, but obviously I was glad I hadn't dragged them somewhere terrible. After the long day Thursday, Elizabeth came over and we picked up some drinks from the market down the street, where I was waylaid by some drunk Russian who wanted to talk my ear off and sell me a tour around the city (even after I impressed upon him that I *live* here). Elizabeth seemed to get a kick out of that. Last night, I needed to do something non-work in a bad way, and Elizabeth needed to do something non-parents, so we went out to this Irish pub that I frequented several years ago. It's kind of expensive, but it was a good time. Then I decided since we were out so late anyway, we should watch the bridges go up (they go up in the middle of the night, from around 1:30-4ish, depending on the monthly schedule and the bridge). I hadn't seen them in years, of course, and Elizabeth had never seen them, so we had quite a good time with that. Afterwards I took her back to her hotel, then started the long walk home (after stopping by a 24-hour McDonalds to get a cheeseburger and a bottle of water) and got back about an hour later, at around 3:45. You have to stay out all night at least once every time you are in St. P, and all things considered, this was a good time to do so. Then I slept like a rock and woke up sometime after 11 (this is quite a feat for me). The best part? For the first time in a month, I have a whole weekend without work duties. Sweet.
Oh, thanks to everyone who voted in my polls. Apparently the skontorkning setting is a gentle setting on the dryer. Good to know. And, as some of you know, Ukraine has won the competition for where I am going for my one trip outside the country! What's that? Ukraine didn't get the most votes? Welcome to Russian democracy, where I decide ahead of time, then let you vote to make you feel like you have a choice.
Besides, those of you who voted Helsinki: seriously? Pfft.
C
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