you know you are in Central Asia when...

Well I'm off to the village for a week in 5 minutes so I thought I do a quick update....The Turks just built a mall here in Bishkek...a true western style mall, with a food court and all....it's a little strange and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it when I first went in since I'm not used to that kind of sight here. But then I started exploring, and discovered I really was still in Central Asia when I found two sheep heads celophane wrapped, sitting in the meat section next to the imported pepperoni. Its was a little disconserting to look over from the pepperoni and see two sheep heads smiling at me. But it reassured me that all was right in the world and I was still in Bishkek. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, because for those of you who have never seen a sheep's head like that, it is the oddest sight ever:-) Okay more when I get back in a week!

Little Cabin in the Woods, or lying in bed for 10 hours trying to fall asleep....

I wish I could adequately describe the vacation experience my friend and I just had. Unfortunately, I think you probably had to be there.

It’s summer here in Bishkek and all anyone in Bishkek thinks about during the summer is Lake Issy-kyl, and swimming and fresh mountain air. So my friend Bianca and I decided that we should take off and go to the lake. We made absolutely no plans, didn’t know where we were going to stay or anything, beyond wanting to do it as cheap as possible, and we wanted to be close to the beach. So we hopped on a marshurtka and our adventure began. We got on a good marshrutka and it had pleasant people on it. (That’s always important because sooner or later they find out you are an American and some respond more respectfully than others:-)

So one by one all the people got off the marshrutka, and by that time the driver knew we were looking for a place to go that didn’t cost much money, so he said hang on and I’ll take you to this resort and see what we can find. So we waited and he talked to a lady and found us a place for 5.00 dollars a night. It turns out that the workers at the resort rent our their rooms to make more money over the course of the summer so we ended up staying in a worker’s cottage on this resort. There was only an outhouse and a sink, no showers (well supposedly there were but we didn’t find them and didn’t figure we’d feel much cleaner after using them anyways:-) But there was light, and we were on the grounds of a resort, so we were a two minute walk from the beach, and the resort had one of the nicer beaches I’ve seen at the lake (and I’ve been at some of the nicest resorts on the lake as well) So we thought we were all set and had got a deal, especially when we looked at the hotel on the resort and realized it looked as bad as the cottage and cost three times as much! But then we tried to sleep...and come to find those walls on the cabin were as thick as a piece of paper and there were about four disco clubs on the resort playing music till 4 AM!! Needless to say we didn’t sleep at all either nights!! Especially cause the beds weren’t all that comfortable either!!!

So we had one of those random experiences where we didn’t know what to do with it all, but it was pleasant over all, we found a nice little cafe (by nice I mean friendly waitresses, cheap food that tasted good, and all the atmosphere of the cheapest central asian cafes...plastic lawn chairs, cheap plastic table clothes with holes in them, flies, and lots of beer and vodka,for the other customers) and ate there for dinner both nights. We saw camels on the beach, and horses on the beach, and people selling stuff, one lady was even selling pizza! Actually that just made me laugh, because you lie there by the water and all these village kyrgyz walk by selling their stuff, and they shout out what they have and what’s funny is that all the names of what they sell happen to rhyme and so it’s almost as if there is a constant song going on around you and you know all the words, and then some random lady walks by and says hot pizza!! and your mind does a double take because you aren’t supposed to hear those words in that setting!!

We came home tired but with good suntans/burns, plenty of bug bites (I have at least 23 on my feet and ankles), and ready to spend a little more money next year for a nicer place:-)!!!

Bianca and I

where we could have stayed

Bianca in our cozy little cabin

camel on the beach

Wedding in Bishkek

Well I've jumped back into life here in Bishkek after my quick trip home! I had a wonderful and very full time at home, but I won't post pictures cause you can see them at my mom's site...www.lynnlayton.blogspot.com. But I've already been busy since being back with seeing friends here, playing with my trio, going to the bazaar with my cousin and going to my friend Alena's wedding. Her wedding was soo much fun! They are very different and very similar at the same time to wedding's in America. But here they play lot's of games, like hide and go seek with the bride, and stealing the bride's shoe, and every wedding guest must make a toast, so that meant that about 70 people stood up and told the bride and groom, that they wished them happiness, and love, and joy...it was a lot of toasting! But I don't think I've ever seen my friend look more happy and in general it was a good night spent with friends from the conservatory! Now I'm settling into the nice quiet Bishkek summer, and taking my time to recover from traveling and start to organize and prepare for the fall, and work on Kyrgyz, and I'm very thankful that my apartment is nice and cool and I'm not too hot to get things done! I guess that's all for now!

unexpected packages!!!

This goes out to my small group, who sent me a wonderful, unexpected package, filled with my favorite candies, cookies, lotion!!! Thank you!

I'm always expecting my packages because my mom always tells me when they are coming so I can look for them. But I've gotten two unexpected packages in one week. The first was one from my brother (yes, Peter I got your package, and yes, I counted it as unexpected) He has been saying that he'd mail it since Christmas (I think it was my Christmas present right?) Finally he said he'd just wait to give it to me when he saw me, but I told he had to mail cause I wanted it here! So I got it, and I never actually expected him to get it in the mail. Unfortunately I think they took the card that said, "Hi Rebecca, here are your CDs" cause the card wasn't in the package (or maybe I'm expecting too much from my brother:-)

But then to get a call from my friend again saying there was another package for me was quite unexpected, and very enjoyable. So thanks for the yummy goodies and the surprise!! I am definitely enjoying it all!!

Koton

most of the time I'm a bazaar kind of girl, I love all the people, the pushing and shoving, the variety of sounds, colors and smells. But I'm also a Koton girl...which is the new store that opened in the center of Bishkek...I think I'm an unpaid walking advertisement for the store, because I've been telling everyone about it, but it's a great store!! It has plain old cotton t-shirts for a normal price! It's a big store with nice changing rooms, it has different sizes, they don't think every girl is the same size, and they are quality made. Pretty much its the Turkish version of Gap. So some days I'm a bazaar girl cause where else can you get a bright green one size fits all tank top for 1.50, straight from China (fortunately I'm that one size) but today I was a Koton girl and I'm enjoying my slightly more expensive but extrodinarily comfortable t-shirt from Turkey.

P.S. Blogspot is back in English?! Wonder what language it will be in tomorrow? Mongolian?

blogspot goes haywired!

Something happened last night, and blogspot is in Russian now!!! I went online to look at my grandmother's blog (I have an amazing grandmother, who at 82 started her own blog!!!) and everything is in Russian!? What happened??? Now I can't "create a new entry" "I have to Создать сообщение" I don't publish an entry, I "Опуликовать сообщение" I can't ever seem to get away from Russian!!