Skiing!!

We had a great time skiing and hiking in the hills too. We went for three days with a bunch of other ex-pats, which I'm sure was a relief to my sister after all the Russian she heard up until that time, and I was thankful for a break in translating! Unfortunately there wasn't much snow, but we all went anyways. I tried for my first time and had fun...maybe I'll have some more time to try this winter!

Visiting my roommate's house

We went for a night to my roommates house, and this is a picture with her older sister Ramila and Molly and I standing infront of traditional Uighur instruments. My roommates grandfather was a famous Uighur folk muscian, and those are his instruments. At her house we ate lots of good traditional food (it turned out to be a five course meal!!! I don't think I prepared my sister for that:-) But it was fun!

Molly and I making eggnog

Long overdue posts

Well it's been an unexcusably long time since my last post, and I probably don't have any readers left...although maybe my mom still checks on an occassion:-) But all the same, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! My New Year's resolution was to be better about posting so we'll see how well I do!.

My sister came for Christmas and New Years and we had a great time, despite lack of luggage and here are some pictures of our time together. This one is of my roommates and I (Rayica, Alina, and Rashida) Christmas dinner (on Tuesday with the roommates) in Kyrgyzstan consisted of Besh Barmak, shoro, eggnog, and Central Asian style fried chicken with ice cream sundaes to top it all off! Not exactly traditional:-)

On Earthquakes and Meetings(demonstrations) 5 days late

Well the rumor on the street is that there was an earthquake in Bishkek...4 points on the Riechter scale. Unfortunately I didn't feel it...I was either running around madly trying to get to class on time (creating my on earthquake) or on a marshrutka on my way to class (and who can feel anything on a marshrtka) Everyone tells me a different time for when it actually hit, so I don't know exactly why I didn't feel it:-) Oh well!

And yes the anticipated meetings did end up happening, just in Kyrgyz time, 5 days after the scheduled event. But fotunately they were peaceful and there were probably only about 40 people injured in the crowds and roit police kept everything in order. Once again I didn't actually see anything, cause I live far away from the center, and so I thought it was just quiet. But then my friends started talking about how there were thousands of people etc....so I turned the television on to see an almost riot happening right outside of the university where I study Kyrgyz. That was a little shocking! But by the next day it was all cleaned up and I had class, but it was still weird to come out of class and see the riot police exercising outside the building! The good thing is that the president worked with the opposition leader and they came to what seems to be a good compromise, and everyone is happy? So hopefully the out come of this meeting will be good and there won't be a need for meetings anymore!

So for all the unpeacefulness and unsettledness of Bishkek at the moment, I haven't felt any of it or seen any of it!! I think I'm glad I moved to the outskirts of town:-)

The show must go on...

These last couple of days have felt so surreal, I don't know if Kyrgyzstan made it in the news over on the other side of the world. I know they were hoping for it with another fizzled attempt at huge demonstrations. It all started a couple of weeks ago, when I started getting e-mails about being careful and watchful, and that there were demosntrations planned. This happened all last year and nothing ever happened so I didn't get to worried. But then the rumors started to fly, that the opposition was serious and that the riots would be worse than the Tulip Revolution 1.5 years ago...my roommates were flipped out, school was cancelled for two days, stores shut down and removed all the merchandise from the store, and every one was talking about 30,000 people coming into the city to protest. Meanwhile there is a concert, Symphony Ala-too, and the show must go on. So depsite that fact that no one knew what was going to happen on Thursday, they told us there will be a rehersal on that day (even though the university we rehearse in is right on the square where the supposed meetings were going to take place, and the fact that the university had closed down for Thursday and Friday.) They even said if there is a mob of rioting people, go around to back maintenance entrance and we'll let you in that way. No matter what the concert was going on.

Well it turns out the 30,000 people must have just ended up drinking tea at their relatives, because no one saw them. All the roads were block off for at least a block surrounding the square, there was much less public transportation, there was no one anywhere, and lots of police and national guard everywhere. All I ever saw was a couple hundred people camped out in yurts! We did have our rehearsal, and I think its the most scared I've been, leaving a desert building at 9:30 with complete darkness all around and no one anywhere except for police (which does't make me feel safe as an American) and then walking and no marshurtkas and everything deserted...it was like it was 2:00 AM not 9:30. But I made it home all right, and swore that if I was ever in another similar situation, I just wouldn't go to the rehearsal:-)

So then we had the concert the next day, and everything seems to be back to normal, there are still people camped out in yurts but other than that all seemed normal, but then I got the hall, and heard that the "mob" (which I still haven't seen) took over some Kyrgyz television program and that there would be increased security. Sure enough there was security at every side of the stage, and every door leading into the hall...it sort of felt like the Sound of Music at the end when there were guards every where at the last concert....Then heard after the concert that they hadn't taken anything and all was normal, so I still don't know why there were all the guards, but I guess they got paid to enjoy a concert!

In the end, the excitement and the hype turned out to be nothing, except for a city of a million waiting for something to explode. Praise God that nothing happened, but all the same you get a little sick of all the hype for nothing.

okay, I got the hint

So my mom told to update on her most recent update...I guess it has been a while, so that's why I've posted three times today, maybe that will make up for the lost time. Well It's not that perfect posts haven't been going through my head, like lice and Hep A, or why a pair of black pants are so essential to city life, or how much food I can prepare in 2.5 hours, but life just hasn't permited, because I've been shopping for that pair of essential black pants, and other clothes for the fall, and I've been trying to cook for four, and I've been teaching flute and learning Kyrgyz and playing my flute and the list goes on....but today I'm praising God because I caught a cold.

I don't normally get excited when I catch a cold, but I haven't had a chance to catch my breath in the last 6 weeks and so I really needed a couple of days to regroup for the next 6 weeks, and catching a cold gave me a great excuse to relax and figure out life, and fortunately it hasn't prevented me from getting stuff done. Actually I had the most productive day ever today...a nice long quiet time, finished knitting my brother a hat, went to the store for food, made lentil soup, bread, cookies, and calzones, posted on my blog site, did three loads of laundry, and clean my room and its only 5:15 PM. So I think I'm ready for the week now!!!

So highlights of the last six weeks are that teaching is going well. I have 9 students and teach for about 11 hours a week. It started a little rough, but every week it is getting better and I'm getting more organized and my students and I are getting used to each other. I'm still playing my flute a lot too, and my friends and I from church have had the opportunity to play at several different events so that's been a lot of work but exciting too. Kyrgyz is going well too, I had a couple weeks of frustration but I'm encouraged again so as long as I can keep going for a little while longer then it should really start to come together and make sense. Living with three girls is also going well, it has its moments of stress but in general its great! And I think that about covers it. Hopefully I'll get a little better with posting more frequently:-)

these are people I hang out with....

but fortunately they don't look like that all the time:-) The evening actually happened a while ago, but I just found the picture, so I thought I throw it on....oreo cookies, Napoleon Dynamite, iPod help session, and stir fry, made our evening lively and fun and gave us a chance to relax:-)

Why you should never get Hep A in Kyrgyzstan

Okay, so when the doctors told me I should get my shots before coming I did it cause I had no choice, but I didn't actually think it was that important, but then after a little conversation with my roommates I realized why...Do you know how they treat Hep A in Kyrgyzzstan? They make you swallow live lice which supposedly live until they reach your liver where they eat the virus. They actually sell lice in the pharmacies here, and there are people that breed lice for medical purposes. Doesn't it make you feel better to know they are sanitary lice, not picked off of someones head? So now I'm really glad that I got a Hep A shot and believe me I'll be staying on top of my shots from now on:-)

Surrounded by 17 year olds...

I just read my sister’s blog and realized it was time to update my blog too....so fall has started, the lazy days of summer are over, and for the first couple of weeks I thought I might go crazy. I realized it was the first time that I’ve been in the same place for a second year with the same schedule and same friends since college started. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it, but now I’ve settled into my routine, and I’m so glad I’m here for a second year. It’s so nice that there are some many things I don’t have to get used too. I know my friends here now, I know my work, and I know how to shop here, and I know how to speak the language...all that being said, my sister commented on having her life full of 16 year olds and I’ve been realizing that my life is full of 17 year olds! I’m living with 2 17 year olds, I have a 17 year old flute student, and I study Kyrgyz with a class full of 17 year olds. Before I never felt that much older than 17 year olds, but this year I’m realizing that I’m a lot older than them. I’ve never felt so old as when we were learning to say our ages in Kyrgyz and the whole class kept saying I’m seventeen and they come to me last and I say I’m 25. Oh well at least they are all still friendly with me:-) Practicing English with me etc...So in general life is going well, and praise God I’m not going to go crazy living in the same place for a second year!!

P.S. I think this is the first year in my life when fall is my favorite season, but I have to say that fall in Bishkek is a beautiful time of year. The air is so clean after the summer, we finally had rain after 6 weeks without it, and the air is crisp and there are apples and pears allover the place and it's just wonderful!!!