valerie
January 28, 2025 - someone in my village has a Spar truck? (Spar is here in Kyrgyzstan, but it arrived not long ago, maybe 2023? And as far as I know, the closest Spar to me is ~80 km away)
January 27, 2025 - sign for a ясо shop. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
(ok I’m just being silly, it’s мясо but with the м mostly faded. мясо = meat, in Russian)
January 26, 2025 - Cheetos for her (для неё) and Cheetos for him (для него). A Valentine’s Day promotion? Either way, I don’t understand why this is necessary
January 24, 2025 - grandma and grandpa’s room when they are here. But as my host mom said, “they are nomads” (they often stay with different relatives, sometimes for weeks or months). Most Kyrgyz houses have at least one room like this with a large stack of tushuks (sleeping pads) for guests
January 23, 2025 - winter pictures displayed in the school lobby. The picture on the left was made by one of my students. He brought it to our classroom today and said he wanted to put it on the wall and give it to us 😂 I don’t know why, maybe because I try to decorate the wall with student work?
January 22, 2025 - yes, I am comfy, thank you for asking. That doesn’t give you permission to take a picture of me!
January 21, 2025 - a smartboard was installed in my classroom yesterday. I didn’t know until I walked in today and was mad because they removed part of the chalkboard. Also, I worry about sustainability, will teachers learn how to use it and continue to do so? But gotta say… it’s pretty cool 😂
January 20, 2025 - a bag that I received a gift in some time ago. At this point, I don’t remember what the gift was or from whom 😅
January 17, 2025 - don’t tell the birds I know where their rendezvous point is (the other one is the school roof)
January 15, 2025 - when I was in Bishkek during my winter break, my (now) fiancé requested that I try sprats 🙃 reminded me of smoked salmon
January 14, 2025 - picture from last Thursday. You can see how it snowed in the valley north of my village. (There is another village there that I have not been to, but want to go to)
January 12, 2025 - my host sister made cinnamon rolls yesterday 🙂 they’re different from American style, of course, but they’re not bad! My only concern is how she made the cream on top, so I only ate half of one yesterday…(because I’m lactose intolerant 🙃)
January 11, 2025 - I finally bought traditional Kyrgyz clothes! There are two pieces here, a vest (чыптама) that you wear with a shirt underneath (usually white), and a wrap-around skirt (белдемчи). Looking forward to the next holiday when people usually wear these clothes! (probably Nooruz)
January 10, 2025 - hosted a reflection session for local English teachers. I gave 3 questions about 2025, asked them to choose one question to write an answer to and put their answer on the board. The questions came from Year Compass, and I also gave them the website (it’s available in Kyrgyz, too!)
January 9, 2025 - some huge clouds passed through my village yesterday. However, unlike Bishkek, there was no snow
January 8, 2025 - horses grazing in the morning. My first run of 2025! My goal is to run at least once a week. I know that’s not very consistent for running, but my hope is that it will be more consistent than last year
January 7, 2025 - yesterday’s strange cloud cover. The forecast showed a chance of snow, but alas, it did not. There’s another chance tonight, but I’m not convinced that we will see any
January 6, 2025 - dough was too thick, but otherwise our pizza yesterday turned out not bad, especially for Kyrgyz style pizza. The peace sign covering part of the pizza is my host sister
January 5, 2025 - relatively new sculpture in Kochkor’s small central park, located in front of the cinema, honoring a Kyrgyz film director who worked during the Soviet Union named Gennedy Bazarov
