valerie
June 12, 2024 - Dolmabahçe Palace area entrance. The palace was built in the 1800s. Staff was very strict about not taking pictures inside the palace buildings. (Topkapi Palace also had no photography signs, but I didn’t see any staff members stopping people from taking photos like I did here)
June 11, 2024 - Grand Bazaar entrance, Istanbul, Turkey. (I’m back in my village now, just wanted to post another picture from my Istanbul trip last week)
June 2, 2024 - Istanbul, Turkey. I’m pretty sure this is what Kyrgyz people say when riding horses to make them stop. I wonder if there’s a connection there? (Turkish and Kyrgyz are both Turkic languages and have quite a few similar words)
May 28, 2024 - my host sister pointing at an orange and blue volleyball that we accidentally got stuck on the roof of a stable while my host mom is walking toward us in the background with a wooden ladder 😁
May 26, 2024 - potato field behind our house. my host mom said they finished this work while I was at school, which disappointed me because I wanted to help them (though don’t know how helpful I actually would have been 🙃) and see how they worked
May 25, 2024 - today was my school’s Last Bell ceremony (акыркы коңгуроо in Kyrgyz; последний звонок in Russian), which is essentially graduation
May 24, 2024 - my host mom told me before that these are bottles of medicine which some men buy to get drunk off of (because alcohol is more expensive). I rarely see these bottles, I assume it’s because I live on one of the main roads in my village (my house is on the same road as the school)
May 23, 2024 - spicy sauce that our family bought. I’m surprised to see my host brother and host dad eating some, because I thought the only person in my family who likes spicy food was my host mom (btw, өрт means ‘fire’ in Kyrgyz, so ‘fire sauce’ 😁)
May 22, 2024 - second-floor school stairwell. чыгуу is “exit” in Kyrgyz and this word was painted around school last fall, but today was the first time I saw this one. In what other situations would downstairs not lead to an exit unless it goes to a basement? (btw no basement here that I know of)
May 21, 2024 - homemade kattama! The dough is formed into a long roll that is rolled around itself to make a circle, then flattened and fried. My host mom also added green onions to this kattama
