valerie
August 23, 2025 - first time eating Kyrgyz food (manty) since leaving my village…I don’t miss it 🙃 actually, it was not bad, but I just can’t stand eating it anymore. Seems like this restaurant is trying hard to preserve the use of Kyrgyz though, which is cool. (It says “eat!” all over the plate)
August 21, 2025 - it’s not in the picture, but I got a smartboard in my new classroom (the old school counselor’s office)!
August 20, 2025 - how many hours of waiting over three days do you think it took for me to get all these signatures and stamps?
August 19, 2025 - I have sadly moved classrooms, and now I am where the counselor’s office used to be. The room is mostly fine, there’s just 0 technology (which I can work with) and it is quite small for me and 22 4th graders
August 18, 2025 - took this picture to try to remember where I need to go when I return to this hospital. This is outside of one of the hospital entrances. I have to do a lot of tests for my work visa, sigh
August 17, 2025 - someone was enjoying a peaceful afternoon at the relatively new Chinese shop not far from our apartment
(speaking of the Chinese store, I bought Dayao (大窑) there, a carbonated drink I haven’t had since I lived in Hohhot!)
August 16, 2025 - Rakija (Serbian fruit brandy) that my fiancé’s friend brought as a gift when he recently moved back to Bishkek from Serbia. I don’t drink, and I’ve never seen my fiancé drink hard liquor, so I don’t know what we will do with this 😂
August 15, 2025 - made some butter cookies earlier this week. They weren’t great, but they also weren’t horrible. At least my fiance and I managed to eat them all
August 14, 2025 - my (currently empty) classroom for the upcoming school year! I will be teaching 4th grade. The first day that the students come is August 25
August 13, 2025 - my ‘welcome back to Bishkek’ gift. Today, I officially completed my 2 year volunteer service. Now, like before service, I’m just a teacher living in Bishkek. Unfortunately, my pictures will be less scenic from here on out. I hope to find more interesting things in Bishkek to share
August 11, 2025 - amusement park in Bosteri, Issyk-Kul. I went on the Ferris wheel with my host sister and her friend 🙂
August 9, 2025 - it’s my birthday! My host mom and sister bought the cake and we took it to a cafe to eat with our lunch. Each candle indicates one decade of life
August 6, 2025 - the Kochkor animal bazaar used to be here. Recently, it moved to a different location, and now this place looks abandoned
Never noticed the arch until I took the picture. It says “Tendik Bazaar”. (This is actually Tendik village, not Kochkor, but it’s right next to Kochkor)
August 5, 2025 - monument at the edge of Kochkor near two gas stations. I find it ironic that there are benches here to sit on, but besides people at the gas stations, who is going to come here to sit? It’s a bit of a walk from the center of Kochkor, at least 30 minutes
August 4, 2025 - car for students learning how to drive. I see very few of these in Kyrgyzstan, especially on the road
in Kochkor
August 3, 2025 - friend’s host family’s house in Jalal-Abad with a compound-style layout of several buildings around an open courtyard (which you can’t see here, the courtyard is behind where I stood). Outside the gate, the building in the distance is her school - 2 min walk to work for her!
August 1, 2025 - bowling alley in Jalal-Abad! when we arrived, my friend and I were the only people there, so the worker let us connect a phone to their Bluetooth and play our own music 😁
July 31, 2025 - Ferris wheel at the amusement park in Arslanbob. My friend and I wanted to ride it, but it wasn’t on :( we were able to do bumper cars and another ride, though
