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Rock, thefts and racism
2008-06-07 08:53:00 I didn?t write much about the rock festival that Katy and I went to last Saturday, as I was more concerned about my stolen wallet. (I?m still rather concerned about the loss of the drivers license, as according to the GA DMV website, you need to know your license number in order to replace it, and I don?t.) Anyway, as I mentioned in the post about the wallet, the sound quality at the rock festival was definitely sub-par. Even groups which we had heard before, which we knew normally sounded good (such as our friends in the band Cadillac), sounded terrible at this event. As such, I won?t bother wasting my time uploading any videos. I will, however, post some shots of Cadillac performing:While at the festival, we ran into Lyuba, a girl of 17 who is one of Katy?s former students. I told her how I?d just had my wallet stolen, and her reaction was, ?But you?re OK, right?? She then gestured to a vertical scar bisecting her lower lip and told me the following story:One night as she was walk...
Advanced Opinions
2008-06-04 08:52:00 This month I?m back to teaching all lower level classes, although during April and May I taught an advanced class. It was loads of fun, as my students were actually able to share their opinions with me (as opposed to the lower level classes, where conversation revolves around simple questions like ?What did you do yesterday??). I?m really going to miss my advanced class. Anyway, here are some of the (unedited) answers they wrote on their exam; I thought you might be interested in their opinions.What is your opinion of the ?compensation culture? that has developed in America?In America it is very stupid I think. Because in some situation the person guilty by himself, not because floor is wet or coffee was very hot. People should be more careful. If I were a judge, I never decide that people should take money if they wasn?t be careful. But in our country, if you are say truth and you are right, unfortunately, to win in judge is very difficult. You must give bribes for a jury. But if y...
Well it's June...
2008-06-04 08:46:00 ...and we still have running water, even though it's still cold. Additionally, for the past 3 nights, the power has stayed on ALL NIGHT! Are we returning to civilization??
Boobs in Bishkek
2008-06-01 14:10:00 Okay, so this post isn?t actually about boobs or Bishkek, but I simply couldn?t resist the alliteration; this is actually a book review. One of the books Ben Jr brought with him to Kyrgyzstan was Revolution Baby, the story of Saffia Farr, the pregnant wife of a British government aid employee who moved to Kyrgyzstan when her husband was transferred here shortly before the 2005 ?Tulip Revolution? [wikipedia]. After reading the book?s back cover, I was excited to delve into this book, although both Ben and Katy warned me that I wouldn?t like it. And for the most part, they were right.See, Saffia Farr is VERY different from me and my friends, and her life ? even when she was living here in Bishkek ? is vastly different from my own. I had a tough time relating to her, or even to her version of life in Kyrgyzstan. She essentially spends the bulk of the book complaining about life in Bishkek, bitching about being unable to find a good place to get her legs waxed (!) and constantly remindi...
Some fucker stole my wallet
2008-05-31 18:37:00 Katy and I went to a rock festival today. It was sort of a "battle of the bands" kind of thing, a competition between rock groups from different local universities. Our friends who have their own band were playing, so we went. The festival wasn't that great, mainly because the sound equipment was so bad that even the groups that were good sounded terrible. However, it was a beautiful day, and we had a good time hanging out with the guys and people-watching. Unfortunately, on our way to the festival, we took a marshrutka. These are notorious places for theives, so I'm always pretty careful with my things. I had my wallet in the outer pocket of my backpack - which was a pretty horrible place for it - but, I was holding tight to the zipper so no one could get into it. Then the marshrutka swerved suddenly, knocking me of balance, and I let go of my bag just long enough to grab the bar and steady myself. My hand was off it for about ten, maybe fifteen seconds... and yep, it got snagged...
????? ????? (seerum est?)
2008-05-29 17:20:00 Across the street from the school is a samsa stand, where nearly every day I buy a lovely, flaky, buttery pastry filled with cheese. This is known as a ????? ? ????? (samsa with cheese), or simply "?????" for short. Every day I go to this stand and ask, "????? ?????" (Do you have cheese?) because sometimes they've sold out of cheese, and other times the bazaars aren't carrying the cheese they use. The stand is run by a woman and her son, who is probably about 12 years old. The woman has always been friendly, but it took a while for her son to warm up to me, although now he always grins from ear to ear when he sees me. Anyway, a little after 9pm, I was walking to the internet cafe (where I am currently sweating away as their AC is broken and this place has no ventilation), when I heard a shy voice say, "????? ?????" I turned around and there were the boy and his mother, on their way home, grinning profusely at seeing me in some other context. Totally made my day. Now I'm going to ...
Field Trip to Ala Archa
2008-05-26 13:27:00 I went to Ala Archa National Park, just south of Bishkek, back in March with Austin, Kevin and Ben Sr. While the scenery was spectacular, the day was overcast, dreary and cold. In contrast, this past Sunday was warm, sunny and gorgeous. The school decided to take whichever students and teachers were interested to Ala Archa for the day. This wasn?t an English studying excursion, simply a fun in the wilderness kind of day. We chartered a bus for the event, although our bus was... interesting. About halfway to Ala Archa, before we even started to climb in the mountains, some of the students sitting in the back of the bus began to panic and run to the front. Smoke was billowing up into the bus from underneath. The driver pulled over and went and fiddled around under the back of the bus for a while, then we continued on. As our road started to climb, he had to repeat this several times. Luckily, we did make it to our destination.The last time I went to Ala Archa, we followed the road/tra...
Further adventures at Dordoi Bazaar
2008-05-26 13:10:00 I really cannot ever go back to Dordoi ever again. I am hardly what one would call a shopaholic; in fact, I?m usually pretty cheap. Unfortunately, markets and bazaars just break down my resolve. My previous (and first) trip to Dordoi Bazaar netted me three ridiculous and utterly impractical pairs of shoes. Afterwards I swore that I?d never go back. Apparently I lied.Last Saturday Katy and I went to Dordoi for the purpose of buying black sandals. I made a point of bringing enough money to cover black sandals, lunch and transportation, figuring that way the massive amount of temptation would be rendered nonexistent. Unfortunately, Katy brought plenty of extra cash and kept saying, ?I can pay for it and you can just pay me back.? Really, I can never go there ever again; my salary is too small for this nonsense. But check out what I got, as it?s awesome :-)What I went there for in the first place...Some lovely balls to decorate the kitchen...How 'bout them apples?And obviously I had to...
Café Nooruz (???? ??????)
2008-05-25 16:25:00 Café Nooruz was, until quite recently, my favorite restaurant in Bishkek. Despite its not entirely stunning ambiance, the lagman (a Kyrgyz noodle soup) and shashlik (meat on a stick) was fabulous. Additionally, the fact that it?s located directly across the street from the school means that we go there all the time. And did I mention that it?s super cheap?The other night, a group of us went there, as we so often do, and promptly ordered mutton shashlik. Soon four skewers of meat arrived at our table, sizzling, fatty chunks of meat, obviously fresh from the grill. Equally obvious was the fact that this meat was by no means mutton.In many tales I?ve read over the years of visits made by Westerners to the Soviet Union and later to its former republics, I?ve encountered numerous descriptions of ?unidentifiable meat? ? but in all such tales the ?meat? in question has been processed beyond the point of recognition: not only is the species unidentifiable, but whether or not the substance i...
We didn?t need that hot water anyway...
2008-05-17 08:53:00 Years ago, when developing their infrastructure, the Soviets decided that hot water would be distributed to everyone from a central source; no one would have their own water heater in their home. Unfortunately, a system as vast as one which supplies piping hot water to the masses must be closed periodically for maintenance. In Russia, they usually do it by region; one neighborhood loses hot water for a week, then regains it as the workers move to a different region of the city. Here in Bishkek, they simply shut off the hot water to the entire city for a full month. The hot water went away last Monday, and there are rumors that the hot water will be off not for a mere month, but until September. Boiled water bucket showers, headscarves (my solution to unwashed hair) and stinky people ? woohoo!There are a lot of rumors about water flying about these days. My student who is a plumber (one might assume he would be in the know regarding such matters) has heard that ALL WATER in Bishkek w...
The most wonderful/evil place in Bishkek
2008-05-11 09:58:00 Just north of the city is a huge market called Dordoi. I put off going there for over four months because I knew exactly what would happen:
Thoughts on Language Acquisition
2008-05-10 13:46:00 I was talking to someone the other day (I forget who), and this individual brought up the fact that Condoleeza Rice?s Russian is ?so bad.? This person thought it was reprehensible that someone who studied Russian in university spoke the language so poorly. But the thing is, I completely understand.In order to maintain one?s foreign language abilities, one must constantly practice and study. I received my BA in Russian in 2001. At that time, my spoken Russian, while not fluent, was pretty damn good. However, from Summer 2001 to Summer 2005, I neither practiced nor studied Russian. Additionally, during that time I made two extensive trips to South Korea, traveled all over Costa Rica, and lived in Southern California within walking distance of the Mexican border. By the time I returned to Russia in August 2005, my Russian skills had greatly diminished; I spoke something I referred to as Spanglorusskikonglish.I was in Russia from August 2005 through June 2006, during which time my Russi...
Anton?s (? ??????)
2008-05-09 13:14:00 There?s a bar located just around the corner from the school. We would never have found it had one of the local staff not taken us there one night. Before we left she told us, ?You will be afraid. But don?t worry.? In order to reach Anton?s, first you walk through a wrought-iron gate into what appears to be a private courtyard. You walk nearly all the way to the back of the courtyard, then enter through a doorway on the right. There is no sign indicating that you?re entering a public establishment. At this point you go down a dimly lit staircase which leads to a long, winding, tunnel-like hallway. Eventually you emerge into a slightly dank basement containing a smoke-filled café/bar that simply reeks of atmosphere. This place is awesome. For some reason it?s decorated in a mountain climbing theme, but with periodic additions of masks, ranging from scary monsters to fencing masks. There?s both karaoke and a piano. Anton, the owner is a nice guy, and his mother is the chef. The fried ...
Adventures on the far side of Issyk-Kul
2008-05-07 09:50:00 (As usual, there are only a few photos below. To see the full set, CLICK HERE. They're not quite in order, unfortunately. After spending four hours in the internet cafe, I just couldn't take it any more.)Bright and early last Thursday morning, Kimberly, Ben Jr and I took a taxi to the airport to pick up Sara B (who works at the American Home in Vladimir where I used to work) and her friend Sasha. Apparently, Sara had been on the way to the train station when she bumped into her friend. Being a rather spontaneous type, as soon as she learned that Sara was going to Kyrgyzstan, she decided to buy a plane ticket there and then and join her! We picked them up and had our driver take us to the Western Bus Station, where we caught a marshrutka to Karakol. The good thing about the marshrutka was that it was only 250soms ($7) per person. The bad thing was that it was terribly cramped. Not as cramped as the inner-city marshrutki, but it wasn?t exactly comfortable. I was seated next to a win...
The Kyrgyz Pavaratti?
2008-04-30 10:27:00 This is from last weekend, but I've only just now gotten around to uploading all the video clips necessary for this post. Last Sunday was the 25th anniversary performance of ??????? ?????????? (Stalbek Almasbekov), the premier opera singer of Kyrgyzstan. He's also the father of one of my former students. This student now studies with Matthew, and decided to invite both of us to his father's performance. We received free tickets and prime seats in the fifth row, center. Too bad I'm rather a philistine and not all that big into opera. Anyway, while I'm ertainly no judge of operatic quality, he seemed to be an exceptional singer. I took numerous photos (below), although since it *was* opera after all, I took some videos as well, and have uploaded three short clips to YouTube. The show consisted of two abridged operas, ???????? ????? (Village Honor) and ????? (Pagliacci).Stalbek Almasbekov sings Village HonorStalbek Almasbekov sings Village HonorStalbek Almasbekov sings Village Hon...
In which I go to Kochkor and get ridiculously sunburnt
2008-04-29 09:28:00 [As often happens here, I took way too many pictures this weekend to post all of them on my blog. Only a small handful appear below. To see the complete set please CLICK HERE.]This week is our Spring Break, and as such, most of us are going on various travels around Kyrgyzstan. I had planned to spend three days in Kochkor, wandering about, trying to find and ride Bitchy Horse. Katy?s friend Carolyn flew in from Germany on Thursday, and soon they, plus Ben Junior and Matthew, had decided to join me in Kochkor. I was the only one who spent two nights in Kochkor; Ben and Matthew returned to Bishkek Sunday afternoon, and Katy and Carolyn set off for Karakol on Sunday morning. I returned to Bishkek Monday afternoon. That?s the short version. Here?s the long one:We left for the Zapodny Avtovokzal (the western bus station) at around 9am on Saturday morning, and less than five minutes into our taxi ride, I began to feel carsick. This happens to me quite often, although very rarely does it o...
En vino veritas
2008-04-21 17:54:00 I am not going to tell the full story of what befell us on Saturday night, as the story itself isn?t really mine for the telling. My role was peripheral, and as such, my coverage of the events shall be as well.My friends had decided to spend another evening out at the rock club Zeppelin; however, as we?d been there the night before, and as I was feeling decidedly head-coldy following my walk-n-ride, I decided to stay home. After a couple of hours sobbing my way through Battlestar Galactica reruns (in preparation for my attempt to acquire parts of season 4), followed by a few minutes of escapist mystery reading, the power went out. No surprise there; it?s been going out every evening around midnight. I figured that was a sign that I should go to bed. Not five minutes later, a loud ruckus from the courtyard convinced me that perhaps I should be out and about.Let?s just say that a former Kyrgyz friend of ours had imbibed way too much, causing him to turn into an angry, belligerent mons...
A free ride?
2008-04-21 17:33:00 Saturday afternoon, despite the beginnings of a head cold, I decided that the day was too beautiful to spend indoors. I walked south along towards Sovietskaya, in the direction of Park Pobedy in order to see what I could find. Along my way, I took some more Lada pics, a shot of the vet clinic where I got Lucy spayed, and a nice shot of an alleyway, just west of Sovietskaya.This is my vet clinic.It's located in the basement of this building.More Lada goodness :-)And they do come in colors other than green and orange...One thing I love about Bishkek is that when you get a block off of a main street, it's like you're in a rural village.When I reached Park Pobedy, I decided to continue following Sovietskaya (or whatever name the street takes on at that point) southwards, past the park. Just after I passed the southern boundary of Park Pobedy, I crossed Sovietskaya and entered a grassy area, filled with sheep.Sheep!More sheep! (It was kind of garbagy, but unlike the cow in Naryn, they...
More Cat Butt Pillow
2008-04-21 17:26:00 Grey Cat isn't picky about whose butt she uses for a pillow.Sometimes heads are OK too.This is a crap photo, but that's because all three of them were in a pile on top of me when I took it!
More pictures and some car lust
2008-04-16 15:40:00 Tan (???) is the most wonderful beverage in the world. The best way to describe it, however, makes it sound rather awful: it's like watery, carbonated buttermilk. Trust me, though, it's delicious. Buy it if you ever get the chance. The above bottle of tan is dill-flavored. I was worried it would be disgusting, but it's even more delicious than regular tan. I've been downing at least a liter a day. Awesomeness.This gigantic statue of Frunze (wikipedia entry) is located just across the street from the Bishkek train station. He sits atop an eerily anatomically correct horse. You can't tell from this shot, though.Bishkek train station - obviously taken facing the sun, sorry.More train station. Too bad the Kyrgyz train system is so... truncated.I want to buy an old green or orange Lada or Moskvich.I've been stalking them around the city.Moskvich #1Still Moskvich #1Moskvich #2More Moskvich #2A Lada. I think.Lada #2 ("parallel parked" a good car's width from the curb)Yum, more Lada.
Miscellaneous imagery
2008-04-13 08:38:00 What do you do in Bishkek when the power goes out?Take cool candle photos, of course!The official map of Bishkek only labels two religious facilities: the Orthodox Cathedral I photographed last week, and an Islamic Mosque. (Of course there are more than two, but as I gather it, these are the main ones.) Yesterday I decided to check out the mosque. I was hoping for something equal in splendor to the Orthodox Cathedral, but I was rather disappointed: all concrete and tin. I only took one photo, and it wasn't even all that great. I felt rather conspicuous, and wanted to hurry things up so I wouldn't seem offensive.See what I mean? Concrete and tin.Meanwhile, I found this ironic. The sign reads:For the dumping of trash there is a fine of 1000 somsLikewise. Sigh.Last night we went to Zeppelin, one of the few rock clubs in Bishkek.Cadillac, the band whose members we know, was one of three groups who played.Me and Young Ben drinking beer, before they ran out of beer-on-tap.Katy and Alyso...
A present from Ayana
2008-04-11 07:12:00 This is Ayana. She's the daughter of one of the local teachers who works at the school... and she loves cats. (Also, for those interested, Lucy's had her stitches taken out and seems to be doing quite well, although she has what appears to be an abnormal amount of scar tissue where she was spayed.) Anyway, yesterday Ayana brought me a present she had made for my cats: a box full of grass, leaves, flowers, pieces of bread and a plastic "pond" for them to drink out of. The cats loved it.
Kyrgyzstan Glittering Flag
2008-04-11 00:00:00 Kyrgyzstan Glittering Flag This is a glittering flag from Kyrgyzstan. Got a profile from Kyrgyzstan or a website themed on Kyrgyzstan? Use this glitter to spice up your page! You can use this as a glittering flag comment or as glittering flag clipart. Copy and paste this code into your page to use ...
A walk last Sunday
2008-04-09 10:15:00 Last Saturday here in Bishkek the weather was abysmal, and I stayed indoors most of the day. In contrast, Sunday was perfect: warm, sunny, with clear blue skies... the perfect day for a walk. So I took one. And, as you might suspect, I took a lot of photographs. Some are similare to those I took on my very first excursion into Downtown Bishkek way back in January, although now shown in the light of spring rather than under a blanket of snow. Others are of entirely new sights. Either way, enjoy!Square honoring the Martyrs of the (Communist) RevolutionDitto.Up close and personal......and likewise.Mmmmm, green.I really like this house a lot.Legendary Kyrgyz hero, Manas, [wikipedia entry]who once carried his horse over a rough mountain pass.A closer look.The White House.No, seriously, that's what the Kyrgyz President calls his office.Erkendik Park, a nice pedestrian park/boulevard downtownSome kind of drama theater.It had interesting detail work......and awesome columns......and one su...
Kyrgyzstan ?08- Days 1-5
2008-04-03 18:37:00 Our stop at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan was supposed to be a brief one. We arrived after midnight and thought we’d be on a plane back to Germany the next day. No such luck. We weren’t greeted by MWR people so we handled the lodging arrangements on our own. There was a problem involving Ira’s Visa that I was stuck dealing with and it got me to bed quite late. I finally crashed in my windowless room, figuring someone would wake me when it was time to go. After almost three days with little more than cat naps, I slept until after noon then tried to figure out what the situation was. The situation was Ira managed to book a flight back to the U.S. (via Ireland) later in the afternoon and I think there might have been a chance for me to get on that had someone notified me (and I’m not sure why that didn’t happen since my room was right next to the terminal). I spoke to the flight agents and learned there weren’t any flights going anywhere for four days...
Horse Trekking in Kochkor
2008-04-02 13:20:00 Last Sunday Jessica and Nick departed Bishkek, after finishing up their time teaching at The London School. Before they leave Kyrgyzstan, they?re spending a few weeks traveling around the country. The first leg of their journey took them from Bishkek to Kochkor (where we bought the shyrdaks on our way home from Naryn) for some horse-trekking with CBT, and they invited us to go with them.Sunday morning, Nick, Jessica, Katy, Alyson, Ben the Younger (as opposed to Ben the Elder who went with me to Ala Archa), Matthew and I set out for Kochkor. Like our trip to Naryn, this journey began with crazy haggling for taxis in front of the bus station. I was able to negotiate us a private minivan to take us all to Kochkor for the price of 1400soms, which I thought was a pretty good deal. However, I swear we got the one sedate driver in the entire country of Kyrgyzstan. Now, it?s not that I want to complain at all about a driver actually following the rules of the road for once, but after spendi...
Vet care in Kyrgyzstan
2008-03-29 10:41:00 I was finally able to get Lucy spayed on Wednesday, and let me tell you, had I known how horrible it was going to be on her, I don't think I would have done it. Now I am a HUGE proponent of spay/neuter programs, and have even done some volunteer work helping to get feral cats fixed so they won't be able to reproduce in the wild. But that was all in the US where vet care is usually pretty good. Anyway, I dropped Lucy off Wednesday morning at around 10:30am and picked her up at 4:30pm. She was essentially catatonic and stayed that way the rest of the evening. At one point, I was holding her, trying to keep her warm as she had developed a chill, and she peed herself (and all over me too), and she didn't even react. I was convinced that she was going into shock and that she might die on me. It was really a rough nigh; I didn't get much sleep. She was a little better the next day, although she refused to eat or drink anything (including canned catfood and kefir) until late Friday aft...
Naryn and Tashrabat
2008-03-26 12:26:00 Nooruz ? the Muslim adaptation of the vernal equinox into a religious celebration [wikipedia entry] ? fell on Friday, and as such, we had a three day weekend. Eight of us (me, Jessica, Nick, Katy, Austin, Jonathan, Ben and Matthew) decided to make the trip down to Naryn (a town of about 50,000 people located 2000 meters above sea level and five hours south-east of Bishkek) for the long weekend. We booked everything via CBT and they were awesome and super cheap. As usual, I took an absurd number of photos on this trip, and have uploaded 180 to flickr. You can view the entire set by CLICKING HERE.Friday morning we left the London School at about 9:30, and took two taxis to the bus station. Public transportation in Kyrgyzstan is, sadly, pretty crappy, and CBT had advised us to go to the bus station and hire taxis to take us to Naryn. They also advised us that a taxi to Naryn would run approximately 1500soms. The driver of the taxi taking us from the school to the bus station immediatel...
Pre-Naryn updates from Bishkek
2008-03-20 12:00:00 Ok, so I know I said I wasn?t going to post again until after I returned from my three day weekend in Naryn, but my Embassy class was cancelled today, leaving me with a fabulous three hour break in the middle of my workday. So, I?ve decided to use this time to post some random images I?ve been saving up for some time now. Here you go:I?ve mentioned marshrutkas (mini-bus taxis) numerous times; now here?s your chance to see what they look like. See, the other day, I was sitting in my peachy kitchen/living room having lunch, when I heard tires squeal loudly, followed by a loud bump; a marshrutka had rear-ended a station wagon right outside my window. I went and got my camera. By the time I returned to the window, the drivers were screaming at each other at the top of their lungs. Meanwhile, most of the passengers had disembarked and were picking sides. Some were screaming at the driver of the station wagon, while others were screaming at the marshrutka driver. All in all, it was just a...
The Ides in Ala Archa
2008-03-16 07:11:00 Since neither Austin, Kevin, Ben (the new teacher), nor I had been to the Ala Archa National Park, the school arranged a trip for the four of us this weekend. Ala Archa is a large park in the mountains and valleys surrounding the Ala Archa river, located roughly 30km south of Bishkek. We were driven there at 10:00 Saturday morning by the school?s driver, and dropped off at the park gate, left to fend for ourselves until 4:00 when the driver planned to return. I must say it wasn?t exactly the best weather for spending six hours hiking about in the wilderness, as it was chilly, dreary and overcast, but we had a good time anyway. As always, I?ve only posted a few of the pictures I took below. The entire set of photos can be seen by CLICKING HERE.At the entrance to the park are two statues, one of a mountain goat and one of a snow leopard.Of course, we had to mount them.The scenery was spectacular ? even with the dreariness of the dayCamera-shy Ben, not realizing I was taking his photo,...
The continuing suffering of Lucy Cat
2008-03-16 07:03:00 When I was in Russia, one of the lessons I taught several times involved the following construction, ?Fall is a time when...? ?Halloween is a day when...? etc. Several of my students ? quite independently ? crafted the following sentence: ?Spring is a time when cats cry.? They insisted that cats always cry in the spring, as that?s when they want babies. Well, Lucy is continuing to support that claim. After writing my previous post, I managed to rig a contraption of plastic sheeting (the drop cloth from our paint party) and duct tape up over the bottom half of the windows, hoping that would allow me to keep the cats in while letting some fresh air in as well.My plastic sheeting in the window idea...Then, during my 20 minute break before my last class on Friday, four of my Korean students ran into my classroom to tell me that one of my cats was out in the street. Of course it was Lucy ? who else? While Bagira and Grey Cat took the plastic sheeting as a sign that they should cuddle up ...
Feeling a tad cranky
2008-03-14 06:11:00 Lucy is in heat. She's the youngest of the three kitties I inherited when I moved to Bishkek, and she's the only one who came to me un-spayed. I knew she'd be going into heat soon, but kept putting off doing it because I don't have a cat-carrier and didn't so much like the thought of carrying her to the vet in my backpack. Anyway, she's started prowling around the apartment scouting - and crying - for a boy cat, and it is unceasing. Additionally, this started at exactly the same time that the weather became warm enough to open the windows (a must, as the state-provided heat is still blasting into my apartment). Unfortunately, as I live on the ground floor and my windows have no screens, I can't really do this, as Lucy just pops out the window and goes running down the street with her ass in the air. So I'm stifling in my apartment until I have time to both take her to and pick her up from the vet. Given my schedule and the vet's schedule, this doesn't seem likely to happen...
Kyrgyzstan: Where the Tourists Are
2008-03-10 10:55:00 The Azamat Report finds out from the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report that Kyrgyzstan - in spite of officially declared priority of developing tourism sector - is on the 113th place, lagging behind almost all of the CIS cou
By: mini wisdom
Women's Day Paint Party
2008-03-09 08:28:00 Saturday was Women's Day, which as I've mentioned in the past is a BIG DEAL in the former Soviet Union. While it was quite nice to get flowers and chocolate from my students, I could've done without the attendant drama (the unwanted attentions of the married man and the creepy twik guy, for example). Sigh. Why is it always the creepy and/or otherwise taken ones who are interested? Seriously, what gives? Ahh well.My friends and I celebrated the holiday in a rather unorthodox fashion: we painted my kitchen/living room orange! Well, more of a bright peach, really. It's *exactly* the color I want to paint my kitchen in Waycross, and after seeing the results I'm even more convinced that this is the correct color choice. Anyhow, I posted only a couple of paint-party photos below, but there's a whole album of hilarious shots on facebook, which you can view by clicking here. Enjoy!Before.Mixing the paint was an interesting affair. See, here in K-stan, you have to mix your paint yourse...
Of drivers and photos
2008-03-08 06:32:00 Yesterday Kompanion had some sort of training pertaining to the ecology and environment of Kyrgyzstan (I wish I could?ve attended!) and as such I was without my morning class yesterday. I skipped my Kyrgyz class and slept until nearly 1pm. It was wonderful. Sadly, this means that next week I?ll be teaching my 8:00 Kompanion class on Wednesday morning in addition to the other four regular days ? Boo!Kompanion sends a car to The London School to pick me up in the mornings. My first two classes, I had drivers who were quite reserved, saying little more to me than hello. Thursday, I had a jolly, garrulous fellow as my driver, who wanted nothing more than to chat with me in order to practice his English. His daughter and grandson live in Tampa, so he was quite excited to learn that my father lives in Tampa. When he learned that his name, Evgeny, was the Russian equivalent to my dad?s name, Eugene, I swear he decided we were meant to be best friends. He says he?s going to try to get sched...
I'm tired. ? ??????. ??? ????????.
2008-03-05 06:56:00 At least I can express how I feel in three languages. This month I was supposed to have an easier schedule. Instead of having my first class of the day begin at 9:00am, I would be giving that class to a fellow teacher and moving instead to a class at 11:30am, thus earning a good two and a half hours more of sleep time per day. The 11:30 class was scheduled to be held on-site at MercyCorps Kompanion... but after I'd agreed to take the class, they called and said that actually, a class at 11:30 would really disrupt their working day, and it would be best to hold the class at 8:00am. Yeah. And you know how stellar I am with mornings. The class itself is actually quite fantastic - the students are all at the same level, they're all highly motivated, participate in class, and do their homework. Plus they're all friendly and incredibly funny. It's a really great class... but 8:00am. Yesterday I returned to The London School after my Kompanion class just in time for my Kyrgyz lesson, i...
Haircut!
2008-03-03 05:23:00 After leaving the internet café on Sunday, I decided to set about getting my hair cut. I walked to a nice looking place about a block south of my apartment, and I managed to get myself a rather nice haircut for roughly $5. The scraggly mullet is gone... replaced with a much neater and shorter, and only vaguely mullety kind of do. It looks quite nice, actually.
A bazaar weekend
2008-03-02 17:15:00 Friday night a group of us went to the Georgian (as in eastern European Georgia) restaurant downtown (I need to find out its name). It?s probably one of the more expensive restaurants in Bishkek, so we certainly won?t be eating there all the time; however, for a once in a while treat, it was definitely worth it. In addition to fancy décor (including obviously quality linen tablecloths and napkins), the service and food were excellent. I loaded up on my all-time favorite Georgian dish, hachipuri ? yummy bread stuffed with incredibly delicious solugun cheese, AND made my evening even cheesier by purchasing an entire dish of bubbly melted solugun, mixed with tomatoes. Ahh, heaven. We split a bottle of some of the best wine I?ve had in recent memory (the Georgians do their wine and cheese to perfection), and left the restaurant feeling utterly content... if slightly light in the wallet.Hachipuri and wine :-)A giant bowl of bubbly melted cheese!Eating the cheese made me incredibly happy....
In which I feel a little like Salma Hayek in Desperado, among other things.
2008-02-27 09:44:00 The other day I had emerged from Tashrabat, the fancy Western-style shopping center on Gorkova where the "fast" internet cafe is located, and had just begun my trek back to The London School when an SUV with tinted windows pulled alongside of me and began honking. Now, in general, when a strange SUV with tinted windows pulls alongside of you and starts honking, the best thing to do is to ignore it, which is what I did. Then its window rolled down, and one of my students (er, former student; he's studying with Katy this month) appeared, leaning over, shouting, "Jane! Jane! Hello!" At which point he rear-ended the Mercedes in front of him. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I caused a guy to wreck his car. Luckily it wasn't serious, and he seemed more amused by it than anything else. He also told me that any time I needed a ride to give him a call. Because after seeing him wreck his car, getting into said car is exactly what I want to do.Later that day, I went to my class at the embassy. Sor...
Random images of daily life
2008-02-25 06:11:00 Creative candle holders in preparation for the inevitable blackout.Kitty by candlelightAwwwwww :-)Making teaEven the coolest socks in K-stan have to be washed...and dried!
A weekend at Lake Issyk Kul
2008-02-20 06:18:00 Last weekend my boss, Kendje, and her husband, Bayan took me, as well as Katy and Austin (other teachers) and Kelly (their host daughter) to Lake Issyk Kul. It was an incredible trip, and I took around 200 photos, nearly 80 of which I felt were good enough to upload. I?ve only posted photos a handful of photos below, so PLEASE CLICK HERE to view the entire set. Trust me, it?s worth it.If you look at any map of Kyrgyzstan, you will see a large lake in the north-eastern quadrant of the country. This is Lake Issyk Kul. At around 10:00 on Saturday morning, Kendje, Bayan, their daughter Aishyola, Kelly, Austin, Katy and I loaded into the van and began the roughly four-hour long journey. We headed eastward along the same road we?d previously taken on our trip to Burana Tower, although obviously we continued on much farther this time. After about two hours, we stopped at the bank of the Chuy River at the base of the mountains for lunch. The weather was chilly, but the sky was a brilliant b...
Back from Issyk-Kul
2008-02-17 13:55:00 I just got back from a wonderful and amazing weekend at Lake Issyk Kul. I took tons (perhaps even hundreds) of photos and quite a few videos. It will take a while for me to get them sorted and uploaded and to get a post written - so check back over the next few days. In the interim, read the two Valentine's Day posts below, which I would've posted sooner, except the internet cafe was without electricity :-)
My secret admirer?
2008-02-17 13:54:00 At The London School, in honor of Valentine?s Day, we had a mailbox downstairs for valentines. Today, when the admin staff were going through the few valentines deposited within, they found one for me: a letter written in both English and Russian. I?m quite skeptical of this epistle, as it is unsigned and as it reads rather like a segment of Evgeny Onegin. I?m half convinced it?s a translation of a modified version of either Tatiana?s letter to Evgeny or vice versa, but as it?s been a good seven years since I last read Evgeny Onegin it might very well not be. I?m also slightly concerned that it might be from that creepy twik guy; while his English is nowhere near this good, he could very well have had help. Or an electronic translator. But as it is unsigned, it will remain a mystery. Anyway, the English version, complete with grammar and spelling errors for authenticity is as follows:I write to the most charming girl on this world... Ah, what happiness that have this holiday. For th...
Valentine's Day Musings
2008-02-17 13:52:00 When I was 18 years old and in high school, I had what I considered to be a serious boyfriend. I was head over heels in love with this guy, and thought he was wonderful. It was pretty obvious to literally EVERYONE else that this was a bad idea, except for perhaps my one friend whom he managed to convince to become his surreptitious girlfriend. Yeah. He was a great catch. What were we thinking? She and I are both well rid of that asshole. (Er, no offense to any of his relatives who might very well be reading this, as they are awesome.) Anyway, during my senior year of high school, when I was besotted with said asshole, two teachers (who were at the time former teachers) took me aside on different occasions to tell me that my boyfriend was a bad apple and a bad influence, and advised me that perhaps I should consider finding someone different. At the time, I simply felt awkward and uncomfortable during those conversations, and of course, I thought they had no idea what they were talki...
Keeping you cats up to date...
2008-02-14 05:55:00 Well, not much of note has happened in the last week, I?m sad to say. I got the flu, and as a result didn?t teach my afternoon classes on Friday, and spent both Saturday and Sunday in bed feeling thoroughly miserable. Luckily, Jessica lent me the entire first season of Monk on DVD, so I had something to entertain me in my misery. Because I wasn?t able to teach my afternoon classes on Friday, I had to make them up on Wednesday, meaning that I didn?t have a mid-week free day to go stalking Chechens and/or Iraqis. Assuming that I am healthy, I *will* be having a bit of an adventure this weekend, however. Kendje (my boss) will be taking me, Austin and Katy to Lake Issyk-Kul (the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan) for the weekend. Granted, it?s not exactly lake-going weather, what with it still being frigid and all, but it should be an adventure nonetheless. I just hope I?m done coughing and sneezing by then! And, of course, I?ll tell you all about it as soon as I get back. Or perhaps on Monday...
Studying Kyrgyz
2008-02-14 05:53:00 Friday was our first day of Kyrgyz lessons. A group of 6 or so of us have decided to start studying Kyrgyz together once a week here at The London School. Unfortunately, on account of being out with the flu on Friday, I missed our inaugural class. I?ve been trying to catch up in preparation for this coming Friday. It doesn?t seem that I missed too much, and I hope I?m not deluding myself on this account. For those of you who are interested: Kyrgyz uses the Cyrillic alphabet (which I already know quite well), with the addition of three extra letters. One looks like a theta and sounds like the u in fur and church. One looks like a Cyrillic ? with a tail, and it makes the ng sound. The other is a super-stiff looking y (as opposed to the relaxed looking Cyrillic ?) and it makes a ew sound. (Sadly, even after installing what is allegedly ?Kyrgyz Cyrillic? on my computer, I still don?t have those extra letters!) There are a lot of Russian to Kyrgyz cognates (eg ???????, ?????), although t...
Colin Thubron takes on Central Asia
2008-02-14 05:44:00 I fell in love with Colin Thubron when I read In Siberia while living in Korea. He?s a travel writer who combines beautiful prose with a penchant for visiting obscure and exotic locales. He also holds a vast wealth of knowledge regarding the histories of his destinations, which he weaves in and out of his tales in a thoroughly engrossing manner. He travels without a camera (which frankly defies my comprehension) but his words are detailed enough to paint an intricate picture of all peoples and places in the reader?s mind. (Of course, Thubron is somewhat pretentious when it comes to his prose, and at times reading his works reminds one of studying for the verbal section of the GRE. I swear the man?s two favorite words are plangent and faience, and he uses them all the time. I don?t know about you, but I had to look those two up!) I brought two of Thubron?s books with me to Kyrgyzstan: The Lost Heart of Asia (published in 1994) and Shadow of the Silk Road which came out last year.I re...
Chechen Stalking and ??????? ????
2008-02-07 07:04:00 Ina has befriended a Chechen woman who works at a small kiosk along Chui, the main drag downtown. Apparently she had been stopping there every day for various items, and the woman eventually struck up a conversation with her and invited her into the back part of the kiosk for tea. As they got to know one another, Ina learned that this woman (Zina ? or perhaps Xena...) was acquainted with the president of the Kyrgyz Chechen Diaspora. Ina asked if perhaps it would be possible to meet with him (his name is Sayyid something), to interview him regarding the latest news out of Chechnya and his views on life here in the Central Asian diaspora of displaced Chechens. Zina said that she would try to set up a meeting. Ina thought I should come along too, claiming that my Russian was better than hers; it?s not ? although that certainly wouldn?t deter me from tagging along on this interview!Anyhow, during the course of their getting to know one another, Zina asked Ina if she had a boyfriend... a...
Just call me Madame Ambassador
2008-02-05 05:37:00 Okay, don?t actually call me that. I did, however, have my first class at the American Embassy on Monday. Going into the Embassy compound is just like going onto a military base ? something I?m very familiar with from my days as the long arm of the law. Of course, back then, my badge would get me in wherever I wanted to go, unescorted. It was an odd feeling to have my things searched and to then be given a bright red MUST BE ESCORTED badge. Amazing how things have changed in my life in just three years. The compound had such an overwhelming US government feel, even though I only spoke with one American, and that was merely to say hello. So many buildings in the former Soviet Union are built of poured concrete, but the buildings of the embassy (at least in the part of the compound where I was) were made of standard US concrete blocks, covered in a thin veneer of bland paint, just like the innumerable government buildings I?ve been in during the course of my life. And it even SMELLED ...
Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister to meet Pranab Mukherjee
2008-02-04 11:38:00 Kyrgyzstan Foreign Minister Ednan Karabaev will meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here today and hold talks on bilateral, regional and global issues. Karabaev arrived here early this morning on a three-day visit for strengthening bilateral economic and trade ties, and forging closer cooperation against terrorism. He will also meet Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh later in the day. He will give a lecture on 'Kyrgyzstan in Central Asian Dynamics' at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in the evening. Besides addressing the representatives of Indian industry, Karabaev will have separate meetings with Union Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni and Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday. Several agreements will also be signed between the two countries. (ANI)
By: B4U India
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