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Kramer's Online Hovel: November 2009
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
Two weeks ago the aunt in my family got married and moved out. Weddings are historically such big parties in Tajikistan that the government has restricted their size and duration because families were constantly bankrupting themselves and borrowing sums of money that they could never pay back ( http:/ www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? When the procession left the restaurant it was still daylight. I had been abandoned by both my adopted family and my fan club, and wandered the city for a couple h...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: July 2012
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html
Tandurusti ("Body-correctness," or Health). As a recipient of funding for this language program, I’m required to contribute blogs entries to a website. I wrote the following about a week and a half ago in partial fulfillment of this requirement. I no longer seem to have much difficulty staying healthy here, and most other students adapt within a month or so. A far greater obstacle than staying healthy is negotiating local concepts of sickness and healthy living that don’t comport with our own.
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Kramer's Online Hovel: My Birthday and Other News
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-birthday-and-other-news.html
My Birthday and Other News. We made it home in one piece, and I immediately fell upon a platter of osh—the national dish of oil, rice, red meat, oil, carrots, onions, and oil—and shamefully gorged in the dark of the kitchen. This is not the first time you've made this mistake, Karim." "Tajik is easy! Some of the writing assignments I've done include retelling The Giving Tree, discussing all the animals I've eaten, explaining my family's annual cider-making event, translating song lyrics I've written, and...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: Tajik Language Fun Facts #2
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2010/01/tajik-language-fun-facts-2.html
Tajik Language Fun Facts #2. Like English, calling someone “honey” is a term of endearment. Unlike English, calling someone “my liver” has the same meaning. The explanation? You only have one liver (as opposed to a lung or kidney) and you need it to live. I’ve learned to not ask follow-up questions in Tajik class. The word for bat literally means "blind moth.". The categories for different species haven't been updated to conform to modern taxonomies. The word for "animal" really just refers to mammal...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: January 2010
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html
Tajik Language Fun Facts #2. Like English, calling someone “honey” is a term of endearment. Unlike English, calling someone “my liver” has the same meaning. The explanation? You only have one liver (as opposed to a lung or kidney) and you need it to live. I’ve learned to not ask follow-up questions in Tajik class. The word for bat literally means "blind moth.". The categories for different species haven't been updated to conform to modern taxonomies. The word for "animal" really just refers to mammal...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: October 2009
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Veteran's Day". I have never been so bad about taking pictures as I have been here. Here's a collection of the few photos I've taken since Old Man Autumn walked into Dushanbe on his flaky stick-legs. Cosby Show or Tajikistan? This is a street I walk on thrice a week. A little further down there's a nice store that only sells honey. Here some of my expatriate, NGO-working companions look on. Mostly Europeans, they seemed to enjoy themselves. These colors don't run. I said...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: June 2012
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html
Persian Language Fun Facts. One of the Persian words (at least in Dari and Farsi) for genitalia is "sharmgoh"* (شرمگاه). This can be literally translated as "place of shame," which I found hilarious. Speakers/learners of Iranian Persian will disagree with most of my transliterations. This is their mistake. Back in the Hovel. Since my last time here almost exactly a year ago, there have been a few changes:. It's old news now, but shortly after I left, the prudent government constructed the world's tallest...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: Abbreviated CV
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/p/abbreviated-cv.html
Madison, Wisconsin, USA. PhD, Geography (in progress). MS, Geography / May 2014. Thesis: Pastures and Pluralism: Forum Shopping and Community-Based Dispute. Resolution on Afghanistan's Rangelands. American Councils for International Education. Coursework in Dari language / Jun-Aug 2012. Coursework in Dari and Tajiki language / Feb-May 2011. Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. BA, Geography and Middle East studies / May 2007. School for International Training. 8211; Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Grazing and Browsing...
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: Convincing Advertising
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2009/11/convincing-advertising.html
The below text was in the classified section of a local e-newsletter I get. I don't think I'll do any googling to ruin the mystique. Is the unique repair technology in the world, which allows repair of machines,. Units and mechanisms and restore them to the level of regular exploitation. The key element of HADO technology is the creation of REVITALIZATION, which not only changed the whole concept of repair process, but also revealed new opportunities in exploitation of machines and mechanisms.
thundersauce.blogspot.com
Kramer's Online Hovel: The Wedding
http://thundersauce.blogspot.com/2009/11/wedding.html
Two weeks ago the aunt in my family got married and moved out. Weddings are historically such big parties in Tajikistan that the government has restricted their size and duration because families were constantly bankrupting themselves and borrowing sums of money that they could never pay back ( http:/ www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? When the procession left the restaurant it was still daylight. I had been abandoned by both my adopted family and my fan club, and wandered the city for a couple h...