valerie
December 19, 2023 - my family brought 3 foals(?) home over the weekend. my sister and cousin each told me that one is theirs, and the other belongs to their older brother. Idk if that’s actually true or if they just felt the need to ‘claim’ an animal 😅
December 18, 2023 - why do I feel like I’ve never eaten fava beans in America? These are so good. Fried, and (probably too) salty. It’s nice to eat something salty because it seems like we usually have more sweet snacks than salty snacks here
December 17, 2023 - in a Facebook group of language learners, one person recently shared a post which was that, according to the author, the best method for getting better at a foreign language is to journal in it. My Cyrillic cursive is horrendous, but wrote my first Kyrgyz entry yesterday
December 16, 2023 - the hospital in Kochkor decorated one of their trees for Christmas (don’t worry, we weren’t here for anything serious, just to use an ATM). There are a lot more Christmas decorations for sale in Kochkor than I anticipated
December 13, 2023 - ice on the window INSIDE my classroom. coteacher said this window has one pane, not two, which I didn’t see before. Government made a country-wide decision to have online school lessons today and tomorrow due to weather. here my weather app says high of -8°C and low of -23°C
December 12, 2023 - today is the anniversary of Chingiz Aitmatov’s birthday, the most famous Kyrgyz writer. He would have been 95. some students performed a court room scene. I’m not sure if the scene was related to his life or one of his works, but I will ask my Kyrgyz teacher at our next lesson
December 11, 2023 - my host sister was playing a weird mobile game on Saturday evening that let her send celebrities and fictional characters to Heaven or Hell
December 10, 2023 - more sheep friends! apparently they will all be sold at some point 😥 but I love their cute, inquisitive-looking faces and eyes. the rams are being kept separate
December 9, 2023 - despite almost every other place in Kyrgyzstan getting snow overnight, it only started snowing in the afternoon here and it didn’t snow much. still my sister and I went into the street and she drew this. then a drunk guy walked right through the middle 🙃
December 8, 2023 - tonight’s dinner - manti. filled with meat and potatoes, which is not my favorite kind. I prefer manti filled with pumpkin or Chinese chives. but my host mom is a great cook, so these manti still tasted good and weren’t too fatty or oily
December 7, 2023 - my family has been drinking a lot of bozo lately. it’s a fermented drink usually made from millet. I like it! Radio Free Europe has this video about Kyrgyz bozo on their website
December 6, 2023 - my host mom bought some Smart & Rich brand tea and hot chocolate today. She also received a booklet with info about their various products inside. This is the page about their hot chocolate (in Kyrgyz). I’m going to use this as reading practice
December 5, 2023 - I bought this instrument in Bishkek which goes by various names in English but in Kyrgyz is called an ooz komuz (ооз комуз). I’m definitely not an expert after an hour of trying to play, but I am actually making some cool sounds thanks to the help of this video
December 4, 2023 - picture from about a month ago of a bag of kurut that my Kyrgyz teacher gave me before our first jog together. I tried a little bit and it was good, but I’m afraid to overindulge in dairy produts with my lactose intolerance
December 3, 2023 - seen while shopping for a winter hat in Bishkek. Was not a fan of the different fonts, but otherwise resonated with the hoodie
December 1, 2023 - clear day to see the mountain next to our resort. you can see the wooden steps in the picture (same ones I mentioned in yesterday’s post. i also climbed them again today)
November 30, 2023 - climbed some steps that go up the side of a small mountain at our new hotel (actually a resort) today. this was maybe not the best weather for that. it was cloudy and misty and most of the steps are wooden. but hey, it was a good workout and we survived
November 29, 2023 - there was a small fire in our hotel, and our conference had to move to another hotel. it was a chaotic day, but it was also a little fun and broke up the monotony of our conference 😅
November 28, 2023 - staying at a hotel in Bishkek for a conference and noticed this on the ceiling of my room, a sign indicating the direction of Mecca. I’ve never seen this before, so I thought it was cool
November 27, 2023 - made gulab jamun yesterday using mix that I brought from America (there were more, but these were just the first batch, to see if they came out edible or not)
