valerie
September 15, 2021 - it’s hard to see, but there’s a green building to the left of the trees on the right side of the picture. That building is a Papa John’s. One day I will take a better picture of it. I was in a hurry today because I was about to be late for my Russian lesson
September 14, 2021 - the small cafeteria at my school. You can see the cook in the picture behind the shelves. I don’t recall what she was making, maybe pirozhki (buns with different fillings)
September 13, 2021 - picture from last weekend when I stayed at a yurt camp with a few colleagues. taken in the morning
September 12, 2021 - inside the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic (Филармония). This is the building I went to for the performance I saw on Independence Day. I wish I had better pictures of the inside of this building, but unfortuantely I only had my crappy phone on me that day
September 11, 2021 - agreed to meet a local friend for dinner at 8 but she ran late and didn’t show up until 8:35 or 8:40 😅 I took this picture while I was waiting. We ate Korean style chicken which was very tasty, but I didn’t get a picture of it because I was so hungry that I forgot about snapping a photo before eating
September 7, 2021 - (long distance) bus station in Bishkek. I didn’t know that there is more than one bus station in the city, but I’m pretty sure this was the western bus station. (Also, I’m not going anywhere! This picture was from my trip this past weekend.)
September 4, 2021 - stayed at a yurt camp with some colleagues outside of Bokonbayev, Issyk-Kul. This view was a short hike from the camp
September 1, 2021 - Bulochka (Булочка), a type of bun which has different possible fillings. I have no idea what was in this one, maybe cheese?
August 31, 2021 - Happy Independence Day! Today marks Kyrgyzstan’s 30th year of independence from the Soviet Union. A local teacher invited me to an event called an aitish (Айтыш). This is a Kyrgyz and Kazakh tradition where singers improvise verses as they play instruments such as the Kyrgyz komuz or the Kazakh dombra (both of these instruments are guitar-like). The singers compete against each other to see who can improvise the best verses, and they sometimes jeer playfully at each other. I was told their lines are often humorous, and indeed the audience laughed a lot. I was also told that some of the lines related to politics. I had no idea what was being said because everyone spoke in either Kyrgyz or Kazakh (from what I’ve been told these two languages are mutually intelligible, meaning that Kyrgyz speakers can understand Kazakh and vice versa), but it was really cool to experience nonetheless
August 28, 2021 - new mural on the way to the track where I run (at least I’m pretty sure it’s new…but it’s also very possible that I wasn’t paying attention and missed it every other time I walked by). I believe the first line is Kyrgyz and the second is the same line in Russian. It translates to “your city - your choice”
August 27, 2021 - why does the US only have boring toothpaste flavors? I remember seeing green tea flavored toothpaste from a Western brand (not sure if it was Colgate or Crest) in China. And in this picture there is herb flavored toothpaste (which I feel could be hit or miss depending on which herbs they use! but hey, I’d still try it) and pomegranate flavored toothpaste. I know the point of toothpaste is not consumption, but…these seem more fun than the 20 variations of mint offered in the US
