Since I’m in school most of the time these days, there’s not that much interesting to report. So I thought I’d write down a few of the peculiar things that make Kyrgyzstan….special.
One of my favorites, which I will warn still causes a gag reflex, is that I’m sure we find hairs in our food a significantly larger amount of time than in America. And this is thick, black Kyrgyz hair too (I really hope no one is eating their breakfast while reading this post). I’m talking so significant, that it’s almost rare for someone not to find one. Apparently, the Kyrgyz find that to be good luck – though there must be overly benevolent, bald cooks all over the country. The scary part is that boxed, sealed food is not exempt from this tradition – though I chalk that up to ridiculously underpaid Russian factory workers just trying to get even. On the third occasion that I found a hair in my box of muesli, I asked a friend and was told that in Russia they don’t have the health and safety concerns of the Western world. I pour cereal really slowly these days for a hair check.
Kyrgyzstan is also a very superstitious country. I particularly enjoy the superstition that if you eat ice cream on the street in the winter, you will without fail catch a cold. Wednesday during talking club I was bantering with our teacher about this and we decided to hold an experiment. During the break we walked across the street, bought ice cream, and then ate it standing in a snowy part of the sidewalk. If only I could have taken pictures of the looks we got from people on the street. This superstition is so engrained; they looked at us as if we had serious mental disorder - people to be avoided, surely. Though completely against my will I actually had the thought that night, “Oh man, I hope I don’t get sick from that ice cream – that was really tempting fate”. I have officially been in Kyrgyzstan too long. I can happily report that I have felt perfectly fine ever since.
Another Kyrgyz tradition is having one’s own personalized car horn. Some sound angry, some sweet, and some play Kyrgyz/Russian pop tunes. Our driver to Tash Rabat had one that sounded like turkeys. And as it happened, we came upon a group of turkeys on the road and spent a while getting them all excited by the car horn. It honestly never gets old to hear a turkey gobble. There is also the manner in which one honks their horn. A few beeps may mean, “Please, walk in front of my car as I will gladly stop for you”, while another says, “If you walk in front of my car I will not only hit you, I will also hang you on my wall as a trophy”. I’m still learning to decipher them.
No kidding, at this moment the electricity has just gone out – for the 3rd time today. Well done Bishkek, you have nothing if not good timing. So yeah, electricity and internet in Bishkek, ‘nuff said.
I have not yet mentioned toilets and such on the blog yet – afraid it might be vulgar and uninteresting. Well, vulgar at least – third world toilets are nothing if not interesting. But for those who have enough boredom to have read to the end of the post --- toilets here are the standard Asia fare. Squatters. The nice ones have a porcelain hole on the floor. And one must never flush toilet paper (you can actually flush the hole in the floor sometimes – it’s like an enigma) – this is a Soviet piping system after all.
Well, as toilet-speak is the clear conversation killer…I’ll just go watch a movie with the remaining battery on my computer. Evidently I’m not getting any homework done tonight with the lights off.
Friday, 11 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Orthodox Church
As i'm not done using up the cafe's internet on my computer, i'll go ahead and write a bonus post today. Also, i've had 3 cups of coffee here to try and justify staying for 3+ hours for "free-wi-fi" - so have some extra energy.
As much as I wanted to keep this a secret from my Dad, I wanted to share the pictures more. So yes Dad, we found an Orthodox Church here and you may or may not be getting a gift from it. Man, I have no ability to bluff....
Last Sunday 3 of us walked to the Russian Orthodox Church in town - it's very small, but most of the population here is Muslim anyway.
As much as I wanted to keep this a secret from my Dad, I wanted to share the pictures more. So yes Dad, we found an Orthodox Church here and you may or may not be getting a gift from it. Man, I have no ability to bluff....
Last Sunday 3 of us walked to the Russian Orthodox Church in town - it's very small, but most of the population here is Muslim anyway.
When we entered we found out that we needed to cover our heads with scarves, and my friend's jacket wasn't very long so an old Russian lady made her wrap a skirt around herself. This old babushka (grandma) was standing at the entrance to the church with a pile of skirts that she kept forcing on people. We entered while a service was going on - it was all in Russian, but I didn't understand most of it. People were singing and chanting alot and everyone was standing up (there were only a couple of benches in the back - and those were only for old ladies).
The priest gave a sermon, which I also didn't understand. He was yelling alot and some of the babushkas started to cry. And he was holding a large cross up to his mouth as if it were a microphone, which I found comically distracting. After a while our guy friend walked out and we tried to follow, but the babushka at the door wouldn't let us leave and shoved us back into the service. Apparently we didn't not look sufficiently saved. I think she expected us to be contrite and crying too - which we may have been, had we understood a single word of the message. We finally got out and my friend gave her borrowed skirt back.
Here's the other pictures I took of the church:
This one is a new section that is under construction:
Around Bishkek
I'm currently spending a relaxing day off in a cafe - in no small part due to the fact that I woke up this morning to find this:
I've gone on a few walks around the city recently and took some random pictures.
Here's a great one of the radio station - I love the giant red man shouting out to the nations (don't need to think too hard to figure out the symbolism there):
Snow!! This is the view outside my bedroom window.
Here's a great one of the radio station - I love the giant red man shouting out to the nations (don't need to think too hard to figure out the symbolism there):
And a Bishkek Police Lada - on the side it says it works in the Lenin district of town:
And a gym advertisement - I love how all the gym posters have crazy athletes on steroids:
We also bumped into the stock exchange (very unimpressive building) and a pretty view of what I think is one of the universities here (there are too many universities to count here):
One random fact about Bishkek I haven't shared yet, but find very amusing is that along the streets here you see people with bathroom scales - just sitting on the sidewalk. When I asked about it I was told that in Bishkek they don't sell scales for you to weigh yourself (a fact which definitely raised my opinion of this city). Instead, you pay a person roughly 5 cents to weigh yourself on their scale. So weird. I am not planning to partake of this unique cultural tradition - not only do I hate weighing myself in the privacy of my own bathroom, I cannot imagine subjecting myself to that in public. I'll save my 5 cents thank you very much :)
Monday I also had a breakthrough of sorts and walked around the city by myself for the first time. I had to walk 30 minutes to the Hyatt to the BMI airlines ticket office to change my flight date. Not only did I not get lost (okay...so i technically never had to make a turn), but I exchanged my flight all in Russian. I was a bit nervous in handing over my credit card - but it turns out I correctly specified the date I wanted and understood the fees involved. 2 months of intensive studying = being able to say: Change. Ticket. 17th of January please. Done? Easy. Thanks a bunch.
That's time and money well spent i'd say.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Naryn Part 2 – or “I’ll trade Jen for a Lada”
The second day in Naryn we took a taxi out to Tash Rabat – about a 2 hour drive each way. Tash Rabat is an old Silk Road caravan outpost full of lots of history which I’m sure you can Wikipedia or Google to find out about. The scenery on the drive was gorgeous – lots of snowy mountains.
There was this section of long straight road - I heard that it was used as an emergency Russian airstrip in case of war with China (we were really close to China on our trip):
Uber Cute puppy at Tash Rabat:
After we got back we were walking along the streets and encountered a hilarious group of 3 slightly intoxicated Kyrgyz men. We talked for a few minutes before they asked if I’m married and then talked up their friend as a potential husband. As bride napping is a national sport here, I learned how to say “I’m married” around my 3rd day here (just to clarify: I’m not actually married). The men replied that I may have a husband in America, but I don’t have one in Kyrgyzstan yet, so it’s okay. My friend then asked the guys what kind of price I’d fetch – a yak, a few sheep, etc. The guy said he’d definitely pay a Lada for me – I was quite flattered. He had a good hold of my arm, and though he said he was joking, there was definitely love in his eyes. So we made a quick escape before they could bundle me into a sack and steal me, and I narrowly avoided having to boil meat for a drunken Kyrgyz man for the rest of my life.
There was this section of long straight road - I heard that it was used as an emergency Russian airstrip in case of war with China (we were really close to China on our trip):
Tash Rabat:
And of course, me:
Naryn Part 1 – Hotel of Horrors
Four of us had wanted to visit Naryn for weeks but kept postponing the trip. Whenever our teachers learned of the plans, including one teacher who grew up there, the only reaction was “why would you want to go there – there’s nothing there and it’s terribly boring”. After a long weekend spent investigating the sites, their estimation was proved entirely correct.
Great Lada pic - our taxi had to stop for a few liters of oil (which they sell in old Sprite bottles) at this auto shop.
Scenery on the way there:
The guy who organized the trip told me we were staying in a hotel; however, I neglected to read about the hotel in the guidebook until we were almost there. It states that you will be greeted with “dilapidated rooms and a stinky toilet”. Another helpful guidebook says “avoid this hotel at all costs”. For one of the first times ever, a guidebook was actually correct about something. I ended up bunking in a room with the married couple – they were going to go for the “lux” room until we saw that it was exactly the same room as the others, only with a completely broken toilet and 3 times the cost.
Here’s a picture of the lovely hotel and adjacent restaurant: (note due to all the windows in the restaurant being broken, we assume that it is only open during the summers - free air conditioning and such.)
To our good fortune, there was also a boxing team staying in the rooms directly across from ours. Here’s where the prostitutes enter the story of course. The first night our friend was awoken to the sounds of a “business transaction”, and the next morning he heard what sounded like the men beating the crap out of the poor girl. Now we debated talking to management – however : 1) the managers hated us after we tried to haggle the room price down; and 2) these things just kinda happen a lot here. Not a good idea to go around telling not nice Kyrgyz men what they should or should not do with their prostitute.
The second night we had a prostitute accidently come to our room. When we asked through the door who it was, she said “manager” - so we opened up thinking we’d done something else to make our hosts upset. Nope, instead some short, squat, disheveled prostitute was there – and her friend was hilariously signaling in the background that she’d gone to the wrong side of the hall. Well, it ain’t the Ritz.
After we settled into the hotel we took a long walk down the main street of the town and saw the mosque which was funded by Saudi Arabia. We then met up with one of our teachers, who invited us to her parents’ house to celebrate Kyrman Ait. We were too late for any goat slaughtering, but we saw some on the ride to Naryn. We saw one family taking apart a horse – must have been a big family. Our teacher provided us with lots of yummy donut sticks (borsok) with homemade jam and manti (steamed dumplings filled with meat and onions).
Being a Muslim holiday, there was no chance of finding drinks in town so we turned in early the first day. I wore lots of clothes to bed and slept with a t-shirt over my pillow because I was horrified at the thought of my skin touching the sheets. I had to pick off quite a few darks hairs from the sheets. ::shudder::
And some pics of me - for some reason i always get strange eyes when I try to do the long arm pics:
Great Lada pic - our taxi had to stop for a few liters of oil (which they sell in old Sprite bottles) at this auto shop.
The guy who organized the trip told me we were staying in a hotel; however, I neglected to read about the hotel in the guidebook until we were almost there. It states that you will be greeted with “dilapidated rooms and a stinky toilet”. Another helpful guidebook says “avoid this hotel at all costs”. For one of the first times ever, a guidebook was actually correct about something. I ended up bunking in a room with the married couple – they were going to go for the “lux” room until we saw that it was exactly the same room as the others, only with a completely broken toilet and 3 times the cost.
Here’s a picture of the lovely hotel and adjacent restaurant: (note due to all the windows in the restaurant being broken, we assume that it is only open during the summers - free air conditioning and such.)
To our good fortune, there was also a boxing team staying in the rooms directly across from ours. Here’s where the prostitutes enter the story of course. The first night our friend was awoken to the sounds of a “business transaction”, and the next morning he heard what sounded like the men beating the crap out of the poor girl. Now we debated talking to management – however : 1) the managers hated us after we tried to haggle the room price down; and 2) these things just kinda happen a lot here. Not a good idea to go around telling not nice Kyrgyz men what they should or should not do with their prostitute.
The second night we had a prostitute accidently come to our room. When we asked through the door who it was, she said “manager” - so we opened up thinking we’d done something else to make our hosts upset. Nope, instead some short, squat, disheveled prostitute was there – and her friend was hilariously signaling in the background that she’d gone to the wrong side of the hall. Well, it ain’t the Ritz.
After we settled into the hotel we took a long walk down the main street of the town and saw the mosque which was funded by Saudi Arabia. We then met up with one of our teachers, who invited us to her parents’ house to celebrate Kyrman Ait. We were too late for any goat slaughtering, but we saw some on the ride to Naryn. We saw one family taking apart a horse – must have been a big family. Our teacher provided us with lots of yummy donut sticks (borsok) with homemade jam and manti (steamed dumplings filled with meat and onions).
Being a Muslim holiday, there was no chance of finding drinks in town so we turned in early the first day. I wore lots of clothes to bed and slept with a t-shirt over my pillow because I was horrified at the thought of my skin touching the sheets. I had to pick off quite a few darks hairs from the sheets. ::shudder::
And some pics of me - for some reason i always get strange eyes when I try to do the long arm pics:
End of a hectic week
I’ve somehow survived one of the hardest school weeks here (I have over 500 new words to memorize by Monday just from this week alone). School on Friday was great – my teachers were so exhausted from an extra day this week that I ended up watching old Soviet comedy films for 3 hours of the day. Very enjoyable – until, of course, the teachers pause the film and ask what the characters were saying. In one memorable scene a character gives a traditional long drinking toast in which he tells the story of a bird that leaves the collective and flies into the sun and is burned to a crisp. The message of the toast was to celebrate the Soviet collective and to warn against having individual thought or action – lest you also be burned to a crisp. The scene directly following the toast was dead birds on kabobs over a fire. Classic stuff.
We celebrated Friday night with beers and Rambo 1 and 2 (with Russian subtitles). Party time indeed.
For ease of uploading, I’m going to break the Naryn posts into 2 – it was a very full weekend.
We celebrated Friday night with beers and Rambo 1 and 2 (with Russian subtitles). Party time indeed.
For ease of uploading, I’m going to break the Naryn posts into 2 – it was a very full weekend.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Back from Naryn
We've made it back from our weekend trip to Naryn. I can't post the full details and photos at the moment. We're having classes every day this week to make up for the holiday last Friday, so i'm a zombie right now and can't make it to the internet cafe to upload the photos.
But to try and sum up the trip - we stayed in an old Soviet-era hotel as one guy wanted "true Soviet atmosphere". Well, we got it - less than clean sheets, a toilet that didnt stop running - plus the Kyrgyz touch of having a prostitute show up at our room the second night. And my friend tried to sell me to a Kyrgyz man on the street for a Lada. (The man's words said joke...but his eyes said I can fit you in a sack and stuff you in my trunk). But luckily I have escaped bride-napping for another day.
But to try and sum up the trip - we stayed in an old Soviet-era hotel as one guy wanted "true Soviet atmosphere". Well, we got it - less than clean sheets, a toilet that didnt stop running - plus the Kyrgyz touch of having a prostitute show up at our room the second night. And my friend tried to sell me to a Kyrgyz man on the street for a Lada. (The man's words said joke...but his eyes said I can fit you in a sack and stuff you in my trunk). But luckily I have escaped bride-napping for another day.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!!
What I wouldn’t give to be eating turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie today instead of Plov. Nothing against plov, of course, it’s actually one of my favorite foods here – it’s just not Thanksgiving food. I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful day of family togetherness. And football – oh, how I miss football….
Tomorrow we are off school for the Muslim holiday –Kyrman Ait (or at least that is what it is called in Russian).Four of us are heading to Naryn, which my trusty guidebook calls the coldest city in Kyrgyzstan. I’m pretty excited and will be packing all of my long-johns. One of our coolest teachers’ parents live there and we are going to celebrate the holiday with them. I’m hoping to see a goat slaughtering, but my teacher keeps laughing when I ask about it and asking how I can want to see a goat die. But it’s cultural – might as well get see as much of the Muslim traditions as possible, as I’m pretty sure there will be no ritual goat slaughtering in our church back home in the near future.
Talking club at the pub last night was great – we ended up talking yesterday from 4pm-9pm all in Russian. I even explained the meaning of Thanksgiving as I was the token American in attendance. I was pretty impressed at my ability to follow and participate in conversations for hours.
Enjoy the holiday weekend! I’ll take lots of pictures this weekend and get them up next week.
Tomorrow we are off school for the Muslim holiday –Kyrman Ait (or at least that is what it is called in Russian).Four of us are heading to Naryn, which my trusty guidebook calls the coldest city in Kyrgyzstan. I’m pretty excited and will be packing all of my long-johns. One of our coolest teachers’ parents live there and we are going to celebrate the holiday with them. I’m hoping to see a goat slaughtering, but my teacher keeps laughing when I ask about it and asking how I can want to see a goat die. But it’s cultural – might as well get see as much of the Muslim traditions as possible, as I’m pretty sure there will be no ritual goat slaughtering in our church back home in the near future.
Talking club at the pub last night was great – we ended up talking yesterday from 4pm-9pm all in Russian. I even explained the meaning of Thanksgiving as I was the token American in attendance. I was pretty impressed at my ability to follow and participate in conversations for hours.
Enjoy the holiday weekend! I’ll take lots of pictures this weekend and get them up next week.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
TGIW. (Thank Goodness it’s Wednesday).
As I’ve mentioned before, Wednesdays are our day off from class (with the exception of an “optional” – aka: not optional – talking class at 4pm). I live for Wednesdays. Monday and Tuesday were disasters in school. On Monday the heaters were cranked up so high thanks to government kindness that I couldn’t concentrate on my first 2 hours of lessons. My teacher rewarded my lack of enthusiasm with an unprecedented amount of homework – 2 essays, a long grammar exercise (and it isn’t even grammar class!), and memorizing about 25 new words. My grammar class greeted me with superlative adjectives – which I neither understand nor really care to at this time. Honestly, when you start adding a prefix and a suffix to an adjective, plus “really” before it – I think you need some perspective on how great you think that something is. It probably isn’t.
And while I’m on adjectives (such an exciting topic) – the only one you really need to learn here is “clean”. They say it about absolutely everything – clean culture, clean food, clean city. It isn’t. Perhaps they are being ironic – I know we are when we say it. (They aren’t.)
I finished Monday with my new conversation teacher. My last one was horrible and I had to ask to change teachers one week before I was supposed to. She was fired. And before you go thinking I’m mean – she was new, a lot of teachers go through trial periods and are fired quickly here, and she taught me things incorrectly and would argue with me when I pointed out really large mistakes. Though I’m afraid teachers won’t want to teach me conversation – as technically I haven’t seen my first conversation teacher since I stopped having lessons with her (also a terrible teacher). Though now they’ve given me a veteran teacher and she’s great – however, she also gave me an essay to write! So Monday I had 3 essays, 4 grammar exercises, and new words to memorize.
And I managed to do all of it (very surprisingly). However, after going through all my homework with my morning teacher, she was quite perturbed that I did not memorize the reading on top of the other homework and kept bringing that up in class as if I somehow slacked off by only writing 2 essays plus her other homework. So I started the day in a bit of a bad mood. Plus she tore apart my essay on vacuuming (it was thrilling…I’m going for a Pulitzer) on the fact that apparently in Russian “I” cannot vacuum. Only “he or she” can vacuum. Honestly – which such a ridiculous rule, one would think you’d mention it before I do the essay on vacuuming.
When I mentioned the vacuuming debacle to another student he said that he had a whole page in a grammar book dedicated to the controversy over saying “I vacuum”. It is epic apparently, and I have reason to believe at least one major civil war was begun over the issue (it has now fizzled into low-intensity civil conflict). My teacher simply explained that “it sounds weird” to say I vacuum. So instead, I am supposed to say “I do vacuum cleaner”. She was right – much less weird to say that….
So after struggling through 2 days of class, it is finally Wednesday…thank goodness. My only major plan today is to trek up to the big grocery store in town and get another jar of peanut butter (why yes, it is worth 1.5 hours of walking). Then we have our talking class at 4pm and somehow the guys in the advanced talking class at 5:30 arranged for their class to be at the pub tonight. So we are all going to the pub for another round of class, but with the added benefit of beer.
And while I’m on adjectives (such an exciting topic) – the only one you really need to learn here is “clean”. They say it about absolutely everything – clean culture, clean food, clean city. It isn’t. Perhaps they are being ironic – I know we are when we say it. (They aren’t.)
I finished Monday with my new conversation teacher. My last one was horrible and I had to ask to change teachers one week before I was supposed to. She was fired. And before you go thinking I’m mean – she was new, a lot of teachers go through trial periods and are fired quickly here, and she taught me things incorrectly and would argue with me when I pointed out really large mistakes. Though I’m afraid teachers won’t want to teach me conversation – as technically I haven’t seen my first conversation teacher since I stopped having lessons with her (also a terrible teacher). Though now they’ve given me a veteran teacher and she’s great – however, she also gave me an essay to write! So Monday I had 3 essays, 4 grammar exercises, and new words to memorize.
And I managed to do all of it (very surprisingly). However, after going through all my homework with my morning teacher, she was quite perturbed that I did not memorize the reading on top of the other homework and kept bringing that up in class as if I somehow slacked off by only writing 2 essays plus her other homework. So I started the day in a bit of a bad mood. Plus she tore apart my essay on vacuuming (it was thrilling…I’m going for a Pulitzer) on the fact that apparently in Russian “I” cannot vacuum. Only “he or she” can vacuum. Honestly – which such a ridiculous rule, one would think you’d mention it before I do the essay on vacuuming.
When I mentioned the vacuuming debacle to another student he said that he had a whole page in a grammar book dedicated to the controversy over saying “I vacuum”. It is epic apparently, and I have reason to believe at least one major civil war was begun over the issue (it has now fizzled into low-intensity civil conflict). My teacher simply explained that “it sounds weird” to say I vacuum. So instead, I am supposed to say “I do vacuum cleaner”. She was right – much less weird to say that….
So after struggling through 2 days of class, it is finally Wednesday…thank goodness. My only major plan today is to trek up to the big grocery store in town and get another jar of peanut butter (why yes, it is worth 1.5 hours of walking). Then we have our talking class at 4pm and somehow the guys in the advanced talking class at 5:30 arranged for their class to be at the pub tonight. So we are all going to the pub for another round of class, but with the added benefit of beer.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Pictures!!
I've finally uploaded pictures to the blogs for: 10/20, 10/21, 10/24, 10/25, 10/30, 10/31, 11/1.
Haven't taken many other pictures, but we'll be traveling again next weekend so i'll get more then.
Enjoy :)
Haven't taken many other pictures, but we'll be traveling again next weekend so i'll get more then.
Enjoy :)
Quick Week
Not much to report this week. The week was mostly filled with school and studying and went by quickly. I’ve learned an incredible amount of Russian, but it’s exhausting – I’m looking forward to Christmas break!
We went to the pizza place in the little mall by our house for dinner last Sunday, which at night has a DJ and is apparently the place to be and be seen. There are tons of nightclubs around here, so one wouldn’t think that going to the pizza place in the food court would be so cool (it isn’t). But the funniest part of the night was that the DJ had re-mixed Obama speeches to techno music. They will put anything to a techno beat here. It was hilarious listening to “Yes we Can”.
The girls and I went back to the Banya (Russian baths) yesterday – very relaxing. We met this nice Kyrgyz lady who is the principle of the International School here and gave our friend quite the beating with a birch branch.
In weather news, it has turned warmer again. Regardless, the radiators in our rooms are still on full blast and will be for the whole season, as there is no way to regulate them. So we all have our windows open because our bedrooms are oppressively hot. Yay communism.
Me and a friend may try to go to the American pub in town later today to catch some football. They are kinda pricey but I’ve heard the food is amazing. Real hamburgers and onion rings – yummy :)
Then it’s back to making more flashcards – fun…..
We went to the pizza place in the little mall by our house for dinner last Sunday, which at night has a DJ and is apparently the place to be and be seen. There are tons of nightclubs around here, so one wouldn’t think that going to the pizza place in the food court would be so cool (it isn’t). But the funniest part of the night was that the DJ had re-mixed Obama speeches to techno music. They will put anything to a techno beat here. It was hilarious listening to “Yes we Can”.
The girls and I went back to the Banya (Russian baths) yesterday – very relaxing. We met this nice Kyrgyz lady who is the principle of the International School here and gave our friend quite the beating with a birch branch.
In weather news, it has turned warmer again. Regardless, the radiators in our rooms are still on full blast and will be for the whole season, as there is no way to regulate them. So we all have our windows open because our bedrooms are oppressively hot. Yay communism.
Me and a friend may try to go to the American pub in town later today to catch some football. They are kinda pricey but I’ve heard the food is amazing. Real hamburgers and onion rings – yummy :)
Then it’s back to making more flashcards – fun…..
Saturday, 14 November 2009
What a weekend.
Well in true Kyrgyz fashion, i'm on another computer that won't let me upload the Word format of entries I write on my home computer. So I can't upload the absolutely ridiculous events of Friday night. But I can sum it all up: we went out with locals and the English teachers, the night deteriorated into drunken douchebaggery, and my 3 close friends and I ended up being the sober ones that had to cover a large chunk of the bill and talk to the cops. I was displeased. Greatly.
I have no idea what it is about some men (particularly Kyrgyz men) that feel the need to get completely wasted, then become agressive, start fights, and break things. One of the Kyrgyz guys tried to get handsy with me and i knocked him across the room (it felt great too!). And one of the English teachers got his hand really cut up by broken glass and had to go to the hospital (though i've since found out that he actually started the fight - so no sympathy there).
But in the end, you can really judge the character of the people I prefer to associate with by how we acted. I mainly hang out with 3 other people. One of the guys took the teacher to the hospital, and me and the other 2 had to talk to the cops after everyone actally involved in the fight ran away. I wasn't really afraid of talking with the cops - I was sober and the staff clearly saw that we were the ones trying to break up the fight. We talked about the night yesterday and all agreed that we felt like the parents of the group and also agreed that we would not be hanging out with that group again. Good grief.
So now i'm off to a marathon of vocab studying! woohoo!
I have no idea what it is about some men (particularly Kyrgyz men) that feel the need to get completely wasted, then become agressive, start fights, and break things. One of the Kyrgyz guys tried to get handsy with me and i knocked him across the room (it felt great too!). And one of the English teachers got his hand really cut up by broken glass and had to go to the hospital (though i've since found out that he actually started the fight - so no sympathy there).
But in the end, you can really judge the character of the people I prefer to associate with by how we acted. I mainly hang out with 3 other people. One of the guys took the teacher to the hospital, and me and the other 2 had to talk to the cops after everyone actally involved in the fight ran away. I wasn't really afraid of talking with the cops - I was sober and the staff clearly saw that we were the ones trying to break up the fight. We talked about the night yesterday and all agreed that we felt like the parents of the group and also agreed that we would not be hanging out with that group again. Good grief.
So now i'm off to a marathon of vocab studying! woohoo!
Friday, 13 November 2009
11/13 Friday – Blog goes live (hopefully)
So today I’m finally getting my entries off my computer and onto a blog for everyone to enjoy. I know it has taken a few weeks but the internet here is pretty sparse and slow. I’ve been trying to upload for a week, but the city keeps having internet blackouts any chance I get to head to the cafe. And there is that whole going to school for an obscene amount of time every day. And the flu. Feel free to make up your own Kyrgyz excuse and write it in – it can be like an at-home version of the game. Winner gets all the fatty mutton he/she can eat!
11/9 – Sneg!! (Snow!!)
Today is the first day of snow for the season – it is beautiful :) We’ve all been waiting impatiently for snow to come for one very important reason – we want the government to turn on the heating in the city. Apparently in communist wisdom, the central government has to come turn the heat on in our buildings. Rumor had it that it would be Nov 1st, but they decreed it to be too warm and that we would wait until snow came. Snow is here – I want some heat in my bedroom!! But alas – no word on when the government will turn our radiators on – local teachers think it will be awhile still. So my room is probably in the 50s and the classes are just as cold. My sleeping bag is very warm and I have a hot water bottle – but that doesn’t help in getting out of bed in the mornings! Painful I tell you.
11/8 – Sunday – Paying it Back
Finally broke my wonderful weekend of watching movies and studying in bed to go out to the store. My food stores were at empty and I required laundry soap so there was no more procrastinating. However, I had the nicest moment at the store when a guy in front of me in line clearly spoke no Russian and needed help locating a currency exchange. You really cannot get by here easily if you don’t speak Russian – as all the workers I’ve met at the store do not speak any English. So I told him where the exchange place was and he was so happy to find someone that spoke English that he started listing his other questions. Turns out he just landed in Bishkek this morning. I enjoyed helping him and made sure he found the exchange and had the name of the larger store which would have the western stuff he was trying to locate (well, maybe…he seemed to really want a Tide stain remover pen. I was like – ummm…this is Kyrgyzstan…). He was really grateful for the help and it felt really nice to be able to help someone and get to pay back a little help that I’ve received since coming here.
11/6 – Friday – More bowling
All the invalids decided to take a trip out to the bowling alley again tonight to get out of the dorms. We are all mostly feeling better, though I’m still run down as I went to class Thursday and today. We wandered around one part of town that the guidebook assured us had a cheaper bowling alley, but no one there had ever heard of it. So we went back to the expensive one and played one round sans beer. I doubled my previously score and was pretty impressed with myself. Still came in last, but with a 70 instead of a 39. The others then went to a party in the English teachers’ room, but I went to bed. Think it will be a relaxed movie watching weekend in bed. The weather has turned cold and rainy – everyone keeps predicting snow, but there hasn’t been any so far.
11/5 – Thursday – The flu continues
I’m not quite as sick as Tuesday, the fever has gone down, but I’m still finding it difficult to eat anything and have barely eaten in a few days. Luckily I pigged out before leaving America and have had properly stocked fuel reserves. With the eating, I have found a few local dishes that are quite tasty and not very fatty, and I do eat lunch on school days in the canteen where it is mostly tasty albeit oily. So I’m not entirely wasting away here. There is a grocery store across town that stocks some western foods and we went there, but they mostly import sugary foods (and for an astronomical price!). All the western food is imported from Shop Rite – so something that would have cost a dollar now costs 7. And I simply cannot justify paying 7 for imitation pop-tarts that are probably not very tasty and unhealthy. Except peanut butter – that is the only store you can find peanut butter and it costs about 7.50 a jar. Love the stuff - I ration mine out to make it last. And oddly enough it is found in the fridge section by the yogurt – no idea why.
Strange twist on the flu topic today – we started seeing lots of the local students wearing medical masks to school today and our friend said he heard on the news that swine flu was making landfall in Kyrgyzstan. Honestly thought I’d escaped the overreaction to the swine flu in the states. Maybe not. Either way, our small group has probably had as much flu as we’re getting this season, whether it be regular, swine, or even goat flu, so I’m not much worried about the impending epidemic.
Strange twist on the flu topic today – we started seeing lots of the local students wearing medical masks to school today and our friend said he heard on the news that swine flu was making landfall in Kyrgyzstan. Honestly thought I’d escaped the overreaction to the swine flu in the states. Maybe not. Either way, our small group has probably had as much flu as we’re getting this season, whether it be regular, swine, or even goat flu, so I’m not much worried about the impending epidemic.
11/3 – Tuesday – The Kyrgyz Flu
I spent yesterday sick in class and I have to moan a bit and say that it stinks to talk for 5 hours straight with a sore throat and ear ache. But this morning was the real kicker. I woke up really early, about 5:30am, to finish homework and started getting sick a few times before class. But I went to class anyway (I had just gotten up 2 hours early just to do homework) and struggled through reading class. Ironically, we were discussing illness that morning and I had a lot to say on the matter. Well, actually I found it hard to say anything as the only words in my head were “don’t vomit, don’t vomit”. It was funny – I had a little burp at one point in the class and I swear my teacher jumped backwards. Well, she probably didn’t find it funny. (“And then I had to go teach this stupid American and I swear she was going to toshnit on me!”).
During the break after the first hour of class I discovered that 3 of us woke up that morning getting very sick. There was no common denominator on food we ate Monday so we figured it wasn’t probably food poisoning – so we are going with it is Kyrgyz flu. I ended up struggling through one more hour of class then called it quits and spent the rest of the day in bed. My fever got pretty high and definitely reached that point where you tell yourself it is just the flu and you aren’t going to die – but despite that you are like “nope, I’m going the die. This is it. Should’ve bought health insurance.” By the way – my “near death” experience did push me to purchase health insurance, thereby guaranteeing I will not be sick for the rest of the journey. Fingers crossed.
During the break after the first hour of class I discovered that 3 of us woke up that morning getting very sick. There was no common denominator on food we ate Monday so we figured it wasn’t probably food poisoning – so we are going with it is Kyrgyz flu. I ended up struggling through one more hour of class then called it quits and spent the rest of the day in bed. My fever got pretty high and definitely reached that point where you tell yourself it is just the flu and you aren’t going to die – but despite that you are like “nope, I’m going the die. This is it. Should’ve bought health insurance.” By the way – my “near death” experience did push me to purchase health insurance, thereby guaranteeing I will not be sick for the rest of the journey. Fingers crossed.
11/1 – Sunday – Back to Bishkek
This morning we were awoken with yet another delicious breakfast – small omelet, with the requisite bread/jam and all the green tea you can drink. People here love to supply you with endless amounts of green tea and I am loving it. I never liked green tea before but it has grown on me.
House in the village (not our guesthouse, just pretty view):
We negotiated a taxi for half of us to get home earlier than the rest of the group – having class in the morning and lots of homework to do pushed us to want to get home at a reasonable hour. So we went back up to the horse games for a bit, ate lunch in a different yurt which was sadly nowhere near as tasty as the one on Saturday, and left from the games about noon. Our taxi driver was incredible and somehow we made it home in about 4.5 hours. No police stops and only 2 bathroom breaks for one of the guys who was getting sick.
We were all run down from the weekend and I had gotten a cold. Everyone seems to be sick so I knew it was only a matter of time.
House in the village (not our guesthouse, just pretty view):
We negotiated a taxi for half of us to get home earlier than the rest of the group – having class in the morning and lots of homework to do pushed us to want to get home at a reasonable hour. So we went back up to the horse games for a bit, ate lunch in a different yurt which was sadly nowhere near as tasty as the one on Saturday, and left from the games about noon. Our taxi driver was incredible and somehow we made it home in about 4.5 hours. No police stops and only 2 bathroom breaks for one of the guys who was getting sick.
We were all run down from the weekend and I had gotten a cold. Everyone seems to be sick so I knew it was only a matter of time.
10/31 – Horse Games – and Happy Halloween!
(We didn’t do anything for Halloween – it’s not exactly popular in Kyrgyzstan. However, one of our classmates ended up going to the American pub in Bishkek and we heard that people wore costumes and strangely that they had a strip show at the pub. I’m glad I gave Halloween in Bishkek a pass. )
We got up bright and early for the Horse Games, ate an amazing breakfast, and walked about 2km to where the games would be held. We were at first told that everything would start at 9am, then 10am…somehow in Kyrgyz time that ended up being around noon. But it was a clear, crisp beautiful day (with fresh non-polluted air!) so we didn’t mind waiting around. The spot where the games were held was at the base of some mountains and had a great view of Lake Issuk Kul with the mountains in the background on the other side of the lake. The lake is so big that the snowcaps on the mountains looked like clouds in the sky.
There were a few different games played – with players on teams coming from around the region. The first game was with individual riders going at full speed and bending down to pick up flags on the ground. Another had the men wrestling to pull one another from their horses.
Then one of the favorite games was called Kiss the Girl (I forgot the Kyrgyz name). A girl and a man are on different horses going at full gallop and the man tries to catch the girl and give her kisses – it is 2 points a kiss. Then the girl chases the man and tries to whip him with her horse whip – again 2 points a whip. They are both dressed in costumes that make them look like princesses and princes. We actually missed this game the first day because we were eating lunch (most delicious Lagman I have tasted), but caught one round on Sunday. Tragically during the beginning of that round the girl’s horse slipped and fell on her – we think breaking her leg. On the bright side – she whipped the guy twice before falling. On the non-bright side, medical care out there isn’t really top notch and I’d hate to think how long it took before she got to a doctor. (I think there is a hospital a few hours away).
But the best game of them all is Kakburru – the goat game. I had mistakenly thought that the premise of the game was sort of a polo style match with a goat’s head. Not so – even more interestingly it was a rugby style match on horseback with a decapitated goat’s body. They boil the body to make the skin tougher because they really fight over this thing. The goal is to carry the goat’s body across the field and put it into a turned over tractor tire. These guys were pretty aggressive and there was some impressive usage of the horses for blocking. It didn’t take long for us to get into the game and it suddenly became quite normal to be shouting over who controlled the goat’s body. After the games, this poor battered goat body gets cooked up and is supposed to have magical healing properties. Yummy.
After spending a few hours at the games we walked back down to our guesthouse and one the way stopped outside a store so our friend could buy something to eat. While waiting a few minutes this Kyrgyz man walks up wearing a track suit with camouflage and a camo jacket. Now lots of men wear camo around here and it is pretty obvious who is and isn’t police/military (they have proper uniforms). So the guy comes and flashes an official police card, says KGB and asks us for our documents (which if he was a police officer we’d be obligated to show him). Seriously? Dude…you really think we’d believe you are KGB? But it is clear that is all he can say in English is KGB and documents. Our friend looks at the guys ID again and tells us in English to play dumb – which we can do with gusto. I’m thinking that worst case scenario this guy is legit (slim chance) and worst thing is we get “arrested” and have to pay a bit. We keep refusing him our documents and finally get on the cell phone to our host because the guy won’t let us leave. At that moment the guy sneaks to behind our group and then runs through a fence behind us to get away. Hilarious escape move. Our friend then told us that the picture on the ID was completely different and we all knew that what he wanted was to take our documents and demand a bribe for their return. There is no way that man was touching my passport unless I was actually in the police station being arrested! The whole scenario gave us a good laugh – plus the idea that you know that scheme has worked on other foreigners.
We capped the night off with a delicious meal of Plov, and soup, and bread with homemade jam. The plov was like a rice dish with carrots – I added raisins to mine and it was very tasty. This weekend I ate every meal until bursting, which was a welcome respite to the past 2 weeks of continuous hunger. We ate in the family’s yurt behind the guesthouse – they brought in a big heater and we all sat around a table on the ground. At the games we ate lunch inside a yurt too – that one had benches. The yurts are nice and warm and cozy. Usually they are only used in the summer, so it was a real treat to get to be inside one as most have been taken down by now.
After dinner Friday and Saturday we stayed up for a while playing cards. In this town all the electricity is shut off from midnight-6am, so when it got late we had to use candles. There was also one toilet we could use in the house at night time (so we didn’t have to go out to the outhouse), which was interesting to try to use in pitch black. As a consequence of no electricity, our room heaters also didn’t work at night – so I slept all bundled up in a few layers of clothes and wool socks.
Here are a few more pics from the Horse Games:
Venue where it was played:
Yurts where we ate:
Lineup of players/teams:
Fantastic picture of a yurt and Lada:
And the obligatory pictures proving I was there:
And before I forget - the tastiest Lagman i've eaten since coming here (along with what i think was called Haran - meat and onion filled dough), with green tea to drink:
We got up bright and early for the Horse Games, ate an amazing breakfast, and walked about 2km to where the games would be held. We were at first told that everything would start at 9am, then 10am…somehow in Kyrgyz time that ended up being around noon. But it was a clear, crisp beautiful day (with fresh non-polluted air!) so we didn’t mind waiting around. The spot where the games were held was at the base of some mountains and had a great view of Lake Issuk Kul with the mountains in the background on the other side of the lake. The lake is so big that the snowcaps on the mountains looked like clouds in the sky.
There were a few different games played – with players on teams coming from around the region. The first game was with individual riders going at full speed and bending down to pick up flags on the ground. Another had the men wrestling to pull one another from their horses.
Then one of the favorite games was called Kiss the Girl (I forgot the Kyrgyz name). A girl and a man are on different horses going at full gallop and the man tries to catch the girl and give her kisses – it is 2 points a kiss. Then the girl chases the man and tries to whip him with her horse whip – again 2 points a whip. They are both dressed in costumes that make them look like princesses and princes. We actually missed this game the first day because we were eating lunch (most delicious Lagman I have tasted), but caught one round on Sunday. Tragically during the beginning of that round the girl’s horse slipped and fell on her – we think breaking her leg. On the bright side – she whipped the guy twice before falling. On the non-bright side, medical care out there isn’t really top notch and I’d hate to think how long it took before she got to a doctor. (I think there is a hospital a few hours away).
But the best game of them all is Kakburru – the goat game. I had mistakenly thought that the premise of the game was sort of a polo style match with a goat’s head. Not so – even more interestingly it was a rugby style match on horseback with a decapitated goat’s body. They boil the body to make the skin tougher because they really fight over this thing. The goal is to carry the goat’s body across the field and put it into a turned over tractor tire. These guys were pretty aggressive and there was some impressive usage of the horses for blocking. It didn’t take long for us to get into the game and it suddenly became quite normal to be shouting over who controlled the goat’s body. After the games, this poor battered goat body gets cooked up and is supposed to have magical healing properties. Yummy.
After spending a few hours at the games we walked back down to our guesthouse and one the way stopped outside a store so our friend could buy something to eat. While waiting a few minutes this Kyrgyz man walks up wearing a track suit with camouflage and a camo jacket. Now lots of men wear camo around here and it is pretty obvious who is and isn’t police/military (they have proper uniforms). So the guy comes and flashes an official police card, says KGB and asks us for our documents (which if he was a police officer we’d be obligated to show him). Seriously? Dude…you really think we’d believe you are KGB? But it is clear that is all he can say in English is KGB and documents. Our friend looks at the guys ID again and tells us in English to play dumb – which we can do with gusto. I’m thinking that worst case scenario this guy is legit (slim chance) and worst thing is we get “arrested” and have to pay a bit. We keep refusing him our documents and finally get on the cell phone to our host because the guy won’t let us leave. At that moment the guy sneaks to behind our group and then runs through a fence behind us to get away. Hilarious escape move. Our friend then told us that the picture on the ID was completely different and we all knew that what he wanted was to take our documents and demand a bribe for their return. There is no way that man was touching my passport unless I was actually in the police station being arrested! The whole scenario gave us a good laugh – plus the idea that you know that scheme has worked on other foreigners.
We capped the night off with a delicious meal of Plov, and soup, and bread with homemade jam. The plov was like a rice dish with carrots – I added raisins to mine and it was very tasty. This weekend I ate every meal until bursting, which was a welcome respite to the past 2 weeks of continuous hunger. We ate in the family’s yurt behind the guesthouse – they brought in a big heater and we all sat around a table on the ground. At the games we ate lunch inside a yurt too – that one had benches. The yurts are nice and warm and cozy. Usually they are only used in the summer, so it was a real treat to get to be inside one as most have been taken down by now.
After dinner Friday and Saturday we stayed up for a while playing cards. In this town all the electricity is shut off from midnight-6am, so when it got late we had to use candles. There was also one toilet we could use in the house at night time (so we didn’t have to go out to the outhouse), which was interesting to try to use in pitch black. As a consequence of no electricity, our room heaters also didn’t work at night – so I slept all bundled up in a few layers of clothes and wool socks.
Here are a few more pics from the Horse Games:
Venue where it was played:
10/30 – Friday – off to the countryside!
Today about 6 of us left to go off to the countryside near Lake Issuk Kul to see the Horse Games in Barskoon. The Kyrgyz revere their horses as pretty sacred – they are a shepherding people and horses have been used for that and they also eat horse here. You can still often find it on the menu, but it is a delicacy so is quite expensive (ok, like $8…but most meals only cost about 1.50). Don’t think I’ll be eating Black Beauty this trip. I’ve heard horse meat is tough and fatty – which would distinguish it so much from all the other meat here which is well, tough and fatty (it’s a nation of mutton…I’ve become a vegetarian).
But I digress. We took a marshrutka which is like a small local bus – they are everywhere in Bishkek to get around and are very inexpensive – about 15 cents or so a ride. To get all the way to the countryside it was only going to cost about $8 and the driver quoted us 7 hours. It doesn’t look far on the map – but the roads are pretty bad here and it can be slow going. As it was a marshrutka we had a few other passengers on board – including our requisite Boris the drunk. You must always have a token drunk Kyrgyz man around – it must be a law or something. He was terrible and kept trying to lay across our friend because he was “nauseous” – I didn’t get a whiff but was told that he had quite the odor (or maybe I’m just used to drunk old man smell after working with the homeless for so long).
About an hour outside of Bishkek the scenery turned amazing – Bishkek is such a terrible representation of Kyrgyzstan. Once you are outside it you can finally see the mountains and the tiny villages. We even drove alongside the Kazakhstan border for a bit – the countries were only divided by a small rock wall for some stretches of road. There was an official border entrance that had guard towers, but I suspect there aren’t tons of people clambering to run over the rock wall. The other side is just the same poverty as Kyrgyzstan.
We made a pit stop a few hours in at this roadside place that had tons of ladies selling piroshkies (well, something like them). One of the Kyrgyz men on board bought a bottle of vodka and started taking massive shots – in an odd cultural thing, you don’t buy a shot or two of vodka – you buy (and drink) the entire bottle. They are about 750ml big. When we started our journey again the man gave out about 2 shots to others, then drank the rest himself quickly and went to sleep. It is also very important here that men finish a bottle of vodka in about 30 minutes – seriously. It’s a bit disconcerting.
After about 6 hours we were pretty close and it was then that we found out our driver had never driven out to Issuk Kul before and had no idea where our town was. So then the drunk guys wake up and start to give directions. Well it was dark and the driver took the wrong road which led to the other side of a massive gorge (at least 100 yards across, maybe 200 it was dark) from where we needed to be. So then the bus stops and everyone was arguing loudly (I had to get the exact translation later). Apparently the driver did not want to admit he made a mistake and wanted us to get out right there and either walk the 6-7km in the dark or wake up a house and ask them to drive us – or we could pay him more money to drive us to our town. There was a lot of yelling for us to leave the bus immediately – I’m glad we didn’t!
It was kinda funny in retrospect b/c our only ally on the bus turned out to be Boris the drunk – who having slept the entire journey (and/or made us stop for numerous pee breaks in which we plotted to leave him on the side of the road) suddenly woke up and adamantly argued that he knew exactly where we needed to go. So I guess the one girl who spoke Russian well (friend of someone in the group) agreed to pay more to drive us to our town and the driver drove us to the road our town was on to a sign that said it was about 2km to the town and dropped us. Another argument ensued. We called our guesthouse and our host talked to the driver and agreed to come pick us up from the roadside. However, all our bags were locked in the back of the marshrutka and the driver refused to open it unless we paid even more money. Serious frustration. But we eventually paid up and got our bags and waited in the freezing cold on the roadside for rides to the guesthouse.
The guesthouse was absolutely amazing – it is run by Shepherd’s Way Trekking and was beautiful. Our hosts were very kind and greeted us with loads of homemade bread, donut sticks and jam, tasty soup and potatoes. I think I ate more than I have in weeks.
As for the bribes paid – well, that’s Kyrgyzstan. On a long side note, bribery here is just the way it is done. All cops are bribed – we were stopped by the police twice on the way to Issuk Kul and the driver paid both times. I had a class about it one day and learned that cops will stop you and just make up something so that you pay them about 50 soms (about a dollar). You are required to carry a copy of your passport everywhere and police can arrest you if you do not have one. Then you just pay a bribe to get out of jail. In class I was trying to explain that in America you can be arrested if you try to bribe a cop and the teacher just couldn’t understand so I had to say it in English. She was so perplexed at that notion that she thought I was getting my Russian wrong!
But I digress. We took a marshrutka which is like a small local bus – they are everywhere in Bishkek to get around and are very inexpensive – about 15 cents or so a ride. To get all the way to the countryside it was only going to cost about $8 and the driver quoted us 7 hours. It doesn’t look far on the map – but the roads are pretty bad here and it can be slow going. As it was a marshrutka we had a few other passengers on board – including our requisite Boris the drunk. You must always have a token drunk Kyrgyz man around – it must be a law or something. He was terrible and kept trying to lay across our friend because he was “nauseous” – I didn’t get a whiff but was told that he had quite the odor (or maybe I’m just used to drunk old man smell after working with the homeless for so long).
About an hour outside of Bishkek the scenery turned amazing – Bishkek is such a terrible representation of Kyrgyzstan. Once you are outside it you can finally see the mountains and the tiny villages. We even drove alongside the Kazakhstan border for a bit – the countries were only divided by a small rock wall for some stretches of road. There was an official border entrance that had guard towers, but I suspect there aren’t tons of people clambering to run over the rock wall. The other side is just the same poverty as Kyrgyzstan.
We made a pit stop a few hours in at this roadside place that had tons of ladies selling piroshkies (well, something like them). One of the Kyrgyz men on board bought a bottle of vodka and started taking massive shots – in an odd cultural thing, you don’t buy a shot or two of vodka – you buy (and drink) the entire bottle. They are about 750ml big. When we started our journey again the man gave out about 2 shots to others, then drank the rest himself quickly and went to sleep. It is also very important here that men finish a bottle of vodka in about 30 minutes – seriously. It’s a bit disconcerting.
After about 6 hours we were pretty close and it was then that we found out our driver had never driven out to Issuk Kul before and had no idea where our town was. So then the drunk guys wake up and start to give directions. Well it was dark and the driver took the wrong road which led to the other side of a massive gorge (at least 100 yards across, maybe 200 it was dark) from where we needed to be. So then the bus stops and everyone was arguing loudly (I had to get the exact translation later). Apparently the driver did not want to admit he made a mistake and wanted us to get out right there and either walk the 6-7km in the dark or wake up a house and ask them to drive us – or we could pay him more money to drive us to our town. There was a lot of yelling for us to leave the bus immediately – I’m glad we didn’t!
It was kinda funny in retrospect b/c our only ally on the bus turned out to be Boris the drunk – who having slept the entire journey (and/or made us stop for numerous pee breaks in which we plotted to leave him on the side of the road) suddenly woke up and adamantly argued that he knew exactly where we needed to go. So I guess the one girl who spoke Russian well (friend of someone in the group) agreed to pay more to drive us to our town and the driver drove us to the road our town was on to a sign that said it was about 2km to the town and dropped us. Another argument ensued. We called our guesthouse and our host talked to the driver and agreed to come pick us up from the roadside. However, all our bags were locked in the back of the marshrutka and the driver refused to open it unless we paid even more money. Serious frustration. But we eventually paid up and got our bags and waited in the freezing cold on the roadside for rides to the guesthouse.
The guesthouse was absolutely amazing – it is run by Shepherd’s Way Trekking and was beautiful. Our hosts were very kind and greeted us with loads of homemade bread, donut sticks and jam, tasty soup and potatoes. I think I ate more than I have in weeks.
As for the bribes paid – well, that’s Kyrgyzstan. On a long side note, bribery here is just the way it is done. All cops are bribed – we were stopped by the police twice on the way to Issuk Kul and the driver paid both times. I had a class about it one day and learned that cops will stop you and just make up something so that you pay them about 50 soms (about a dollar). You are required to carry a copy of your passport everywhere and police can arrest you if you do not have one. Then you just pay a bribe to get out of jail. In class I was trying to explain that in America you can be arrested if you try to bribe a cop and the teacher just couldn’t understand so I had to say it in English. She was so perplexed at that notion that she thought I was getting my Russian wrong!
10/29 – Thursday - Dvoika
So far I’ve been picking up quite a bit of Russian – though the useful bits that I need around town have been slow to learn. My friends here have been great in teaching me useful phrases, helping me order off menus, and helping me buy fruit off vendors. And lest you think that the learning is all unidirectional, I’ve also taught the group probably the most used phrase nowadays “I need to drop a deuce”. (Mnye nada ahpuskat dvoika). Dvoika (deuce) has entered our everyday vocabulary – and I have to say that I’m pretty proud of contributing to the linguistic knowledge of my fellow students. (I can feel my parents beaming with pride now…that or hurriedly changing the locks and their last names).
The need for this phrase came about one day this week, when they shut all our water off from 9am-9pm – but of course they didn’t tell us this until 9am. So without the ability to flush our toilets – some of us were in a bit of a bind. One of the girls ran across the street and snuck into the bathroom of a restaurant, only to find out a little too late that their water was shut off too, thereby leaving a present of sorts. It was only one step short of just lighting it on fire on their doorstep. We go there quite often and were relieved to hear that no one saw her running away. Hate to be associated as the group that poops and runs.
The need for this phrase came about one day this week, when they shut all our water off from 9am-9pm – but of course they didn’t tell us this until 9am. So without the ability to flush our toilets – some of us were in a bit of a bind. One of the girls ran across the street and snuck into the bathroom of a restaurant, only to find out a little too late that their water was shut off too, thereby leaving a present of sorts. It was only one step short of just lighting it on fire on their doorstep. We go there quite often and were relieved to hear that no one saw her running away. Hate to be associated as the group that poops and runs.
10/28 – Wednesday – Bowling and the puppy
Last night we ventured across town to go bowling for one of the girls’ birthday. As you are seeing, Tuesday is our going out night quite a bit as we don’t have class on Wednesday – Tuesday is the new Thursday if you will. The English teachers don’t get off work until 8:30pm, so we headed out late. The bowling alley is out by the big Hyatt and some casinos – definitely the businessman’s part of town. It still boggles the mind that the Hyatt charges about $300 a night. They say it is because the governments and businesses pay for the people to stay there and individual people never stay there. 300 a month is a pretty high salary around here, there’s no way someone could spend that a night. On another side note, I’ve been told that you can buy a sort of black market edition of the International Herald Tribune there (they don’t sell any news in English here). Apparently the taxi drivers buy them off stewardesses and then sell them for a profit. I may try one day. I’m a bit news hungry.
Bowling was very fun – though incredibly overpriced for Kyrgyzstan. It was about $7 a game per person and over $2 for a tall can of beer. Which I know generally isn’t that bad – but that’s pretty high for things around here. We played one game and I tied the b-day girl for last place. Only because I’d hate for someone to lose on their birthday….of course.
Then we walked around for a while hunting food and finding none. We went back to one of the teacher’s flats where they were letting a puppy stay for the night. The security guard (this very sweet kid) found the cutest little puppy at the school that day and was taking him home the next day. But we didn’t want the puppy to sleep in the shed so we talked him into letting us watch it for the night. The puppy was adorable and snuggled with us and ate all our sausage. We were in love :)
Bowling was very fun – though incredibly overpriced for Kyrgyzstan. It was about $7 a game per person and over $2 for a tall can of beer. Which I know generally isn’t that bad – but that’s pretty high for things around here. We played one game and I tied the b-day girl for last place. Only because I’d hate for someone to lose on their birthday….of course.
Then we walked around for a while hunting food and finding none. We went back to one of the teacher’s flats where they were letting a puppy stay for the night. The security guard (this very sweet kid) found the cutest little puppy at the school that day and was taking him home the next day. But we didn’t want the puppy to sleep in the shed so we talked him into letting us watch it for the night. The puppy was adorable and snuggled with us and ate all our sausage. We were in love :)
10/26 – Monday – 2nd week of class
I have to start by saying that I did not drink last night and got a complete night of rest before class, thereby regaining a bit of my adult responsibility and levelheadedness (which I am sure to lose the next time the group decides to go out). Today I got 2 new teachers and I also dropped one hour of conversation. For one, I hate the conversation class and it’s at the end of the day, and also everyone else is only taking 5 hours a day. Mainly, it is because I still have about 3+ hours of homework a night and dropping the last hour of the day of class helps me not be a complete zombie when trying to do a massive amount of homework. Still – 5 hours of class a day is nothing to balk at. And being the only student – I talk the entire class. I read every exercise, answer every question, etc…seriously, if I don’t learn Russian now, it wasn’t meant to be.
But my new teachers are incredible – they really challenge me and pick up on my strengths and weaknesses. My grammar teacher rocks (it’s my favorite subject – I kinda kick butt at grammar) – and she always laughs and is so perplexed and says “you know all the grammar and say things correctly, but why is it so hard to get you to speak?!” But alas, grammar is useless when you can’t remember any words!
But my new teachers are incredible – they really challenge me and pick up on my strengths and weaknesses. My grammar teacher rocks (it’s my favorite subject – I kinda kick butt at grammar) – and she always laughs and is so perplexed and says “you know all the grammar and say things correctly, but why is it so hard to get you to speak?!” But alas, grammar is useless when you can’t remember any words!
10/25 – Sunday – The Banya (Russian baths)
Today 2 other girls and I ventured to the local Russian baths – they’d been excited about it all week and I’m more along for the cultural ride. The description of the baths did put me pretty far outside my comfort zone. Apparently, at the baths all the women are stark naked together and then you go into a sauna where you whack each other with Birch branches. Ummmm….okay.
So we walked a good ways to get there and somehow they nominated me to buy the tickets (and no one here speaks English). So I stumbled along and we somehow got in (and the tickets only cost a little over $2!). We also stumbled through how to get a locker and towels (luckily one of the girls always brings a small dictionary along). We were clearly the idiot Westerner’s in the baths – for everyone else this was a regular activity.
Banya building:
So we all got naked and learned you are not allowed to use your towel in the baths – good gracious, I can barely change in a gym locker room and now I have to walk around and shower in the open in my birthday suit?! But I tell ya, it actually became easy pretty quickly and after a few minutes we all stopped noticing that we were without clothes.
Ok, so first you shower, then you go into the sauna which is incredibly hot and then you take these birch branches and either hit yourself all over or someone does it for you. It is supposed to be for exfoliation. Then you go back out to the showers and repeat. We used the birch branches for a few times before this really nice lady informed us that you have to bring your own and that we were actually using hers! Oops! Then there is also a cold pool in the next room that you go swimming in to cool your body off between saunas and showers. It was absolutely freezing, but became pretty fun to swim in.
We got really into the whole experience and I have to say that I’m really glad I did it and broke down a comfort barrier. Also – my skin was glowing and felt great afterwards! A $2 spa experience! Incredible. We definitely have plans to go again a few times before we all leave Kyrgyzstan. And next time we will remember to bring our own soap (they had a bit there), towels, and birch branches.
Post Banya:
On a side note – the boys had been to the banya a few weeks before we went and they said that in the men’s side there was this old Kyrgyz woman walking around with a birch branch and getting really mad at anyone who didn’t get themselves clean enough in the shower before going back into the sauna. They said it was a bit traumatizing.
So we walked a good ways to get there and somehow they nominated me to buy the tickets (and no one here speaks English). So I stumbled along and we somehow got in (and the tickets only cost a little over $2!). We also stumbled through how to get a locker and towels (luckily one of the girls always brings a small dictionary along). We were clearly the idiot Westerner’s in the baths – for everyone else this was a regular activity.
Banya building:
So we all got naked and learned you are not allowed to use your towel in the baths – good gracious, I can barely change in a gym locker room and now I have to walk around and shower in the open in my birthday suit?! But I tell ya, it actually became easy pretty quickly and after a few minutes we all stopped noticing that we were without clothes.
Ok, so first you shower, then you go into the sauna which is incredibly hot and then you take these birch branches and either hit yourself all over or someone does it for you. It is supposed to be for exfoliation. Then you go back out to the showers and repeat. We used the birch branches for a few times before this really nice lady informed us that you have to bring your own and that we were actually using hers! Oops! Then there is also a cold pool in the next room that you go swimming in to cool your body off between saunas and showers. It was absolutely freezing, but became pretty fun to swim in.
We got really into the whole experience and I have to say that I’m really glad I did it and broke down a comfort barrier. Also – my skin was glowing and felt great afterwards! A $2 spa experience! Incredible. We definitely have plans to go again a few times before we all leave Kyrgyzstan. And next time we will remember to bring our own soap (they had a bit there), towels, and birch branches.
Post Banya:
On a side note – the boys had been to the banya a few weeks before we went and they said that in the men’s side there was this old Kyrgyz woman walking around with a birch branch and getting really mad at anyone who didn’t get themselves clean enough in the shower before going back into the sauna. They said it was a bit traumatizing.
10/24 – Saturday. Krygyzstanication.
So last night a big group of us went out to the local basement pub for my flatmate’s leaving do. Cheap beer and karaoke – need I say more? A Kyrgyz man toasted drunkenly both to my white teeth and to the English Queen, an older Russian man serenaded me and kept playing ballads so we could slow dance (don’t worry, he didn’t get handsy…), and our guys did a rousing localized version of Californication. I also did my very first karaoke – Kokomo. A classic. I then proceeded to partake of a lot more karaoke in both English and Russian. My Russian karaoke sounds lot like a stuttering and slowly dying cat. My English is not much better.
Today I finally unpacked my bags and cleaned my room. This made it feel much more official that I am actually staying 3 more months. I also hung up pictures from home – I think I may have a shop print more out as I only brought a few with me. I’ve only been gone 2 weeks but I’m already missing home. I’m really enjoying this amazing experience, but it also makes me appreciate my home, family and friends a lot more :) Not to end this post on a schmoopy note, but I’m feeling really blessed right now for this experience and for all the fantastic people in my life. (Yeah, I know, that was only a small hop away from standing in a circle and singing Kumbahyah…)
The owner - Anton:
Today I finally unpacked my bags and cleaned my room. This made it feel much more official that I am actually staying 3 more months. I also hung up pictures from home – I think I may have a shop print more out as I only brought a few with me. I’ve only been gone 2 weeks but I’m already missing home. I’m really enjoying this amazing experience, but it also makes me appreciate my home, family and friends a lot more :) Not to end this post on a schmoopy note, but I’m feeling really blessed right now for this experience and for all the fantastic people in my life. (Yeah, I know, that was only a small hop away from standing in a circle and singing Kumbahyah…)
10/21 – Wednesday – Around the City
The jello shots party was a success – we all decided to wear silly Russian hats and danced until early morning. I still took it easy and feel pretty good today.
I took a long walk around the city today with another girl to see some of the main sights. There aren’t many. That’s not to be overly dour about my new city of residence – it is just fact that Bishkek does not have many wonderful qualities on the surface. The air is quite polluted with diesel fuel and burning trash – I got pretty sick to my stomach on the walk from it. And the buildings are all old Soviet concrete style and are crumbling apart. I think that during the Soviet era the best job to have would have been in concrete – because they made the concrete so poorly that it has to be repaired all the time. That’s some good job security right there.
So we saw one of the main squares and the Kyrgyz White House (they really call it that) – but that is their government building, not where the president lives. I’m not overly sure they have a president….meant to do a bit more research on the country before I left. And there’s not exactly internet access much here to look anything up.
Apartment building (all of them are falling apart like this):
Kyrgyz White House:
I took a long walk around the city today with another girl to see some of the main sights. There aren’t many. That’s not to be overly dour about my new city of residence – it is just fact that Bishkek does not have many wonderful qualities on the surface. The air is quite polluted with diesel fuel and burning trash – I got pretty sick to my stomach on the walk from it. And the buildings are all old Soviet concrete style and are crumbling apart. I think that during the Soviet era the best job to have would have been in concrete – because they made the concrete so poorly that it has to be repaired all the time. That’s some good job security right there.
So we saw one of the main squares and the Kyrgyz White House (they really call it that) – but that is their government building, not where the president lives. I’m not overly sure they have a president….meant to do a bit more research on the country before I left. And there’s not exactly internet access much here to look anything up.
Apartment building (all of them are falling apart like this):
Symbol of Kyrgyzstan:
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