Bayan and I

I love Kyrgyzstan! Probably only here can you find out 5 days before the wedding that you will a bridesmaid in your friend's wedding, even though she's been planning the wedding for a month! So yes my friend Bayan is getting married on Saturday and I'll be her bridesmaid in her church service. This last month we've spent lots of time getting everything together, finding the dress, and finding the right hair salon etc, planning a bridal shower/bachelorette party, and now in just a couple of days it will be the day. This is a particularly exciting wedding to see take place, because they had been wanting to get married for over a year and a half and every time they wanted to plan it, something happened and they hadn't been able to; so right before New Years they got all the permission they needed to and decided to plan it, and now seeing the ways God is blessing them is a real treat! These are pictures from her bridal shower

snowballs are flying

This winter we've had a lot more snow in Bishkek, so I just throught I'd share a picture. I love it when it snows here because it is so beautiful and clean looking and the snow here always sits on the trees for ever. But the snow balls also start flying...first from the trees as they shed their snow, second from the university boys trying to get girls attention and third from little school boys just being obnoxious. My favorite was yesterday after church, I was trying to meet my roommate to give her keys, and we coudn't even carry on a conversation because she kept getting pelted with snowballs, and then finally this little boy appears from behind a van doing a little dance saying "yeeessss!!!" So although it's beautiful, there is an element of danger involved!

my wintery burst of creative energy

This post is for my mother, she always wants to see my most recent creations....So every winter I get a burst of inspiration to knit; this year I've gotten two sweaters done, three hats and have 2 hats, and 2 sweater left to go....will I get them done before the inspiration runs out? That remains to be seen. The green sweater I finished in a month and I wear at church because our church is really cold. Believe it or not I think this sweater is warmer than my winter coat!! The red sweater I finshed in 2.5 weeks, hopefully it will be nice a warm too, but not as warm as the green one or I won't be able to wear it:-) If I get the other two sweaters done I'll post them too!

Lasagna

Since my sister left I've had some much needed vacation time, and since pretty much the whole country is on vacation for a week or so after New Years (the President officially declared a week long holiday after New Years!!) I have had lots of time to hang out with friends and deepen relationships. Last night was lasagna making night, and several of us got together to learn to make lasagna. I think it was almost the best tasting lasagna I have ever made!! And we even made the noodles from scratch! Lots of fun and laughs and good time catching up with one another!

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:-)