A photoless update

I have two laptops here and the one with all my photos on it is not connecting to the internet today, so I will just be giving a verbal update. If this continues, I can transfer photos, but I have lots of things to do this afternoon, so maybe later. I'm not sure how long I can keep up this one-per-day updating schedule, but at least for the time being I have a backlog of a few photos and some topics I want to discuss.
The past couple days the science faculty have begun to create lists of things we need to supply the lab spaces. They are building two new lab rooms and they're currently under construction and I haven't seen them yet (the blueprint looks very nice), but they're supposedly going to be done by the time school starts (Inshallah). It's really difficult to think of every little thing that we'll need, especially because I don't know what labs I'm going to run yet. But, we compiled a pretty big list of basic chemicals and solvents, a bunch of glassware for the students, safety equipment, etc. Now we'll see how soon this stuff arrives.....I guess I have to plan at least a month's worth of labs with no equipment. It will be very difficult because I'm teaching the 2nd year students, who did not receive any chemistry or lab training last year (there was no lab space), so I need to push them a little harder, but without any previous training, I'm worried things will go very slow. I have a LOT of work to do put together an entire course from scratch!
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This morning was our first Bangla class and I felt like a mentally-challenged kindergartener. We practiced saying some vowel sounds (easy enough) and then all of sudden we're reading words. In bangla script. Which we don't know yet....I think I have some homework to do! We were given a pieced-together workbook (our instructor is an American christian missionary who has lived here for 40 years) and also a children's workbook--I might try and find some other children's books. The unfortunate part about learning Bangla is that there is no english-bangla dictionary that exists with the roman letter transliteration, so if I want to look anything up, I have to know the script....
Hopefully we'll be moving on to some useful words and phrases soon that I can just memorize.
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I also found the little gym in the basement of campus yesterday, and there are a couple exercise bikes and treadmills and weights, so hopefully I can begin to exercise a little more. It's weird because we're so limited to indoors. There aren't really any sidewalks or parks or any place at all to just walk without constantly dodging and weaving through traffic, big stinking garbage piles and giant holes or puddles. I've been doing a little bit of capoeira drills in my apartment (the empty room is coming in handy for something!) but I'd like to get a little more in, so I'm going to head there now before I tackle more of my work.
More photos coming soon, I promise!