valerie

January 11, 2024 - Christmas/New Year’s tree in Karakol

tall, decorated Christmas tree and light decorations around

January 10, 2024 - watched my host parents feed up today. it was actually my first time since they usually do it when I’m at school. This is what they gave to the sheep, and the cows got something similar. it’s a mix of barley feed, potatoes and salt

pale orange plastic bucket of potatoes mixed with feed

January 9, 2024 - from today’s walk in my village

snow-capped mountains with long, dark shadows from thin overhead clouds streaking across; a few brown trees and yellow grass among a field of mostly dirt

January 8, 2024 - went to FixPrice hoping to find any flavor of dairy-free milk that was not chocolate to make Thai tea…had to go to another store

sliding door fridge with 3 shelves (out of 4 in the picture) filled with nemoloko dairy-free chocolate milk

January 7, 2024 - how to fit 50 people on the road (in Russian and in Kyrgyz)
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

three pictures painted on a concrete wall showing the space requirement for 50 bicycles vs 1 bus vs 50 cars on a road

January 6, 2024 - returning to Kyrgyzstan. at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border but on the Kyrgyz side while waiting for our bus to pass through the border

white stray dog, dark gold stray puppy and black stray dog, waiting patiently in case we had food

January 5, 2024 - Almaty, Kazakhstan

Christmas and New Year decorations. big 2 0 2 4 in front of a building with columns and lights on the columns. Christmas tree on the right side

January 4, 2024 - my boyfriend: “Almaty is better is Bishkek, I don’t smell any air pollution here!”
me: takes this picture

bottom fourth of the picture covered by a gray haze with city buildings barely visible; above, a blue sky

January 3, 2024 - one of my requests for this trip was to try Wendy’s. my spicy chicken sandwich was pretty good. I don’t remember the American Wendy’s menu well enough to know how the selection differed between the two countries. Almaty, Kazakhstan

January 2, 2024 - this was our view outside of the bus for about 40 minutes. we were stopped on the side of the highway because of a blowout. Bishkek –> Almaty

white, snowy hill underneath an afternoon sun

January 1, 2024 - from yesterday’s adventure - close-up of the frozen lake surface that my host family and I ice skated on

ice with ski mark cracks running through it; teal water underneath

December 31, 2023 - fun way to end the year by ice skating on a frozen reservoir/lake with my host family. Ara-Kol, Naryn region, Kyrgyzstan

frozen lake with some ice skaters, a brown hill above with parked cars, and snow-capped mountains in the distance

December 30, 2023 - trash day means seeing bags like this outside. I don’t know where the trash goes…there’s a small dump outside my village, so maybe there. I’ll ask my family. No official trash vehicle from what I’ve seen, just a normal car that drives around town and honks relentlessly

three orange mesh sacks and one white sack leaning against a two-color brown brick wall and blue gate of a house

December 29, 2023 - decorations in the school cafeteria for the teachers’ New Year’s party this evening

table set with a lot of food; Christmas tree in the background and gold and green balloons on the wall, including big 2 0 2 4 number balloons

December 28, 2023 - Christmas gift from one of my coteachers. Apparently, she has a flower business. I got the name of the flowers in Russian, but I haven’t looked up the English name yet…anyways, I feel bad because they are so pretty, but given my track record, they’ll probably die soon ๐Ÿ™ƒ

pink flowers with dark green leaves in a flower pot with some gift wrap around them

December 27, 2023 - my host sister made me a Christmas tree?? it’s made of a garland and lights wrapped around something, but I don’t want to disassemble it to see what’s underneath. she also made colorful paper chains and a star which keep falling off

Christmas tree made of a dark garland with white ends and colorful lights wrapped around something

December 26, 2023 - yesterday we had a couple of relaxed lessons during which our students made Christmas cards (I did not ask the students to address the cards to me! that was their choice)

9 hand-drawn Christmas cards on white paper with pictures like gifts, Christmas trees and Christmas lights

December 25, 2023 - in Naryn region, driving back to Kochkor region

snow covered mountains against a blue sky

December 24, 2023 - Christmas tree (or New Year’s tree, in Kyrgyzstan) in Naryn City

tall Christmas tree with decorative light patterns and ornaments. star at the top. sign in front which reads "Happy New Year" in Kyrgyz

December 23, 2023 - at a rest stop before arriving to Naryn City

road extending into the distance with snow on either side and mountains in the distance on a clear, blue, but cold sunny day

December 22, 2023 - sunset picture from last week

bright, light gold sky beneath dark clouds. sun shining through the clouds

December 21, 2023 - pigeons on a powerline

7 pigeons sitting on a powerline against a blue sky

December 20, 2023 - typical notebook that my students use at school

green paper notebook with ั‚ะตั‚ั€ะฐะดัŒ written on the front ("notebook" in Russian)

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 ๐Ÿ˜…

3 brown foals (two light brown, one dark brown) standing side by side at a stall. picture taken from one end of the stall, so main view is of one light brown foal, and two others can barely be seen behind

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

fried, yellow beans in a plastic bag with a thin brown shell