valerie

September 27, 2025 - free pizza!!

slice of pizza in a black, styrofoam to-go box without a top, left on the first step of an outdoor stairwell

September 26, 2025 - pool building wall not far from my house. I assume it’s public, but I’m not 100% sure. You can’t see it from the picture, but there’s no water in the pool anymore because it’s fall and most people would consider it too cold to swim

Small building with "pool" painted on the walls (in Russian - so it's бассейн)

September 25, 2025 - school beshbarmak!
sadly, this was the blandest beshbarmak I’ve ever eaten, and it’s already a bland dish. Would have been better with some shorpo

beshbarmak on a plate on a brown cafeteria tray with a fork to the right

September 24, 2025 - cat rooftop slumber party

three light gray/white cats sitting close to each other with eyes half closed on a tin roof above a doorway

September 23, 2025 - Kyrgyz Language Day! School set up a yurt inside, which was definitely a fire hazard. The student performances were supposed to be outdoors, but we stayed inside due to rain. And I completely forgot to go watch my students’ performance 🤦‍♀️ was too busy thinking about my lessons..

half of a yurt set up inside the lobby of a school

September 22, 2025 - a pest killer machine in the produce section of a supermarket close to where we live

Small bug zapper machine above crates of produce (greens, cucumbers, and yellow/red bell peppers) at a supermarket

September 21, 2025 - ran 14k today!

runners on a road. building construction on the left, trees on the right, mountains in the distance down the road

September 20, 2025 - tried a Japanese snack yesterday that a JICA friend gave me before I moved to Bishkek. It was essentially a giant cheeto, and I liked it!

Part of a snack that looks like a giant cheeto with a hole in the middle, next to the snack wrapper

September 19, 2025 - last week saw and heard this little, yellow remote controlled car thing that was being used on a street near my apartment, I assume to flatten the road?

blue truck with a long truck bed. a very small, two-part yellow vehicle next to it, and a man behind the yellow vehicle holding something in his hands and looking at the yellow vehicle

September 18, 2025 - most classrooms have a smartboard with a screensharing app teachers can use to wirelessly share their laptop screen on the board. Mine doesn’t, so we have been using my personal HDMI cord, which bent so much that it no longer works

One end of a black HDMI cable with the metal part bent slightly downwards

September 17, 2025 - should I start a ‘cats of Bishkek ’ blog?

Gray/brown cat sitting next to a bush with some green leaves

September 16, 2025 - burger for lunch after running 10.5k on Sunday morning 😋 14k running event is next week, so had to prove to myself that I will probably be able to run it without dying

burger with fries on a plate

September 15, 2025 - entryway of a cafe near our apartment where my fiancé and I spent yesterday (Sunday) evening working 😭🙃 at least it was productive. I like the macarons. It’s funny because I don’t think they actually sell any

Half of a fake green garland arch in front of an entrance door. Fake flowers, fake macarons, and fake coffee cups within the garland

September 14, 2025 - from yesterday morning, when our power was out. You can see how the area closest to us was without power, but farther away the buildings have lights on

view of out a window at dawn. Buildings in the foreground are dark, but buildings in the background have lights

September 13, 2025 - walking 10 floors down the stairs with my fiancé (not pictured) because not only were we without power for most of the day, but the building generator wasn’t working for about two hours, during which we couldn’t use the elevator. Some parts of the stairs are not maintained..

tiled floor and stairs with some missing parts of tiles and some chipped tiles

September 12, 2025 - another stray cat I sometimes see, usually after work on my way home from the bus stop. This one will eat my snacks but is skittish about sudden movements, and in general any movements made toward it (so I don’t get to pet it)

brown and black striped cat with a white muzzle, neck and paws crawling out from under a thick, metal fence (blocking off construction)

September 11, 2025 - I have always seen this (coal?) plant from a distance, but this was my first time being there up close

Building with four smoke stacks visible across the street, close to a car repair shop

September 10, 2025 - one of my students bought the chocolate thing and dropped it in the hall outside our classroom. It broke and there was a pile of chocolate sauce on the floor 😒 at least it was on the side of the hall and not in the middle, but still, no one told me…I just found it there 😞

chocolate parfaits with marshmallows on top inside a clear coffee shop display case. Thick, round sandwiches wrapped in plastic wrap underneath

September 9, 2025 - I try to feed this cat snacks on the way to school, but it always rejects them. I guess that means it is fed enough, which is good

orange and white cat sitting under a bush

September 8, 2025 - when we went to Ala Archa Park at the end of August, four horses without any people attending to them passed us quickly at a particularly narrow part of the trail. It was a little scary because we were going up and they were going down to the river for water

horse walking down a rocky path

September 7, 2025 - cool sunset on the way home from the supermarket

pink/orange sunset visible at the end of a city street

September 6, 2025 - sign: no parking
car: well, I’m not directly in front of the sign or behind it, so must be okay

gray and white car next to a metal gate with 'no parking' painted on it

September 5, 2025 - Georgian restaurant. This tarhun tasted so different from the bottled, carbonated stuff in stores (in a good way!). And the khinkali salt and pepper shakers were very cute. The ambience of the place was cool, and the food was good, too

green drink in a clear cup on top of a dark red patterned table fabric, next to khinkali (Georgian dumpling) shaped salt and pepper shakers

September 4, 2025 - there’s a little park with sculptures like this around, though mostly of people. This one was called something like “relaxing”

statue of a big cat, probably meant to be a snow leopard because those live in Kyrgyzstan

September 3, 2025 - a student made these for me 😁

Three small pieces of paper, one with a pizza, one with a bunny, and one with a strange cat-like creature drawn on them. Also folded so that they stand up by themselves on a surface