valerie
May 25, 2025 - host brother and two host cousins started repairing the roof of our underground storage room/cellar. The roof had caved in in some places when one of our young cows got loose and walked on it.
Almost every village family has a cellar like this for veggies and preserved food
May 24, 2025 - dining room of a guesthouse we stayed at in Kochkor after an emergency consolidation drill (so just a practice run). Volunteers do one every year
May 23, 2025 - last day of school! Spent the day chilling, talking to students, giving them stickers and candy (Starburst!), taking selfies, and playing Connect 4 (which was a hit!). Took this picture after one of my 5th class girls accidentally left her backpack in my classroom 😅
May 22, 2025 - The last week of school. Tomorrow is the last official day of school. One of my 6th grade boys gave me two notes today 😭 I have no idea where he found these words, but it was very sweet. Even with that & writing my own notes for students, I managed not to cry at school!
May 21, 2025 - played an end of the year review game with my 10th graders and asked both teams to choose an English team name. One team chose Smurfs and the other chose Minions. The Minions team drew this on their whiteboard while waiting to answer questions 😁
May 20, 2025 - in our front garden. I don’t remember seeing anything growing here before I left to America! It’s possible my family was growing it in a pot inside first, I guess? Or they bought it and planted it into their garden recently? Either way, it’s a pretty flower 🌹
May 19, 2025 - more gifts from my students 😭 this time from my three most advanced students. They said they wanted to give me something that I can remember them by (because they usually give me snacks). They also said they spent several months saving up for this gift 😭
May 18, 2025 - when you like a game so much that you graffiti the wall of your own outdoor kitchen with its name
(this is about my host sister…at least she is writing English 😂)
May 12, 2025 - probably won’t be a surprise to anyone who has had American fast food abroad, but KFC in Kyrgyzstan is better than in the US. Or at least I found this KFC in the LAX airport lacking. Or maybe it would be better to eat at a regular KFC in the US
May 6, 2025 - Flydubai’s animated aviation safety video featured women wearing golden face shields. At first, I thought it was just a random character design choice, but after looking into it, seems like it might be a battoulah? (Also I think the black is a veil rather than hair?)
May 4, 2025 - went to a Globus supermarket in Bishkek and they were selling emoji plushies which were put in Morrison’s bags for some reason (I assume to keep them clean, but it just looked weird)
May 3, 2025 - May 2nd is my host sister’s birthday, and May 4th is my host mom’s birthday, so my host family made chicken shashlik last night, and it was really good 😋 this is the second batch of skewers before they were cooked
May 2, 2025 - Shrek in Panfilov Park got a paint job done that makes him look truer to his color in the animated films. On the other hand, Donkey (not pictured) is darker now, but at least his second ear (which was broken) got repaired
