valerie

June 19, 2023 - my host mom made cherry kompot today!

tea cup filled with hot, dark red kompot made from cherries

June 18, 2023 - train going through Ivanovka Station

green and light yellow-ish petrol train(?) moving towards left side of photo with a brown train parked on a different rail behind it

June 17, 2023 - Training Host Family Matching Day! Met my interim host family and I’ll be living w them for the next 3 months during training, the majority of which will be Kyrgyz language learning. Starting to understand why some people consider parts of this country as being in the “posh corps” 😅

large bedroom with a river in forest wall mural on the back wall. shelf and bed on the left side of the room and a table and chair on the right side

June 16, 2023 - mosque near our guesthouse

small white building with a gray roof, two small green and white domes and crescent moon pinnacles

June 15, 2023 - dining room of our guesthouse

open-air deck area with wooden floor and roof and two rows of mostly wooden tables and chairs

June 14, 2023 - evening walk

gravel road curving slightly towards green mountains in distance with a light pink cloud above at dusk

June 13, 2023 - Chong Kemin River

flowing gray river at morning moving towards mountains in distance

June 12, 2023 - back in one of my favorite countries. near Kemin, Kyrgyzstan

green mountains behind green fields with a blue sky

June 11, 2023 - Philadelphia

looking up to three tall buildings in the center of Philadelphia

June 10, 2023 - coffee shop in Philadelphia

shelves and door inside of a coffee shop

June 9, 2023 - Philadelphia

June 8, 2023 - last San Antonio sunset for a while

June 7, 2023 - tea cafe in San Antonio

June 6, 2023 - dinner

plate of 5 small beef street tacos topped with onion and cilantro, a green pepper and a few lime wedges in the middle, and a small side dish of beans on the right

June 5, 2023 - The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas. It’s fun being a tourist in my own city

entrance to the Alamo with a small green lawn in front and a blue sky with white clouds

June 4, 2023 - ominous rain clouds in San Antonio this afternoon

dark gray clouds in a gray sky over a distant neighborhood

June 3, 2023 - on the Greenway Trail, San Antonio

concrete pathway in the center first extending straight into the background and then veering left with green trees on either side and a blue sky with a couple of white clouds

June 2, 2023 - my friends and I made buñuelos chips today!

mostly pancake-sized buñuelos chips dusted with cinnamon and sugar stacked on two plates

June 1, 2023 - Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg, Texas

summit of a big granite hill wider than the photo, blue sky with white clouds in the background, and a person in the distance walking up towards the summit

May 31, 2023 - I am finding myself just as intrigued by American supermarket products as I was in Kyrgyzstan. There are so many new things that I haven’t seen or tried before

Pringles (American chips) shelf focused on the 'Las Meras Meras Habaneras' and 'Enchilada Adobada' flavors

May 30, 2023 - local Bass Pro shop had a nice-looking little Memorial Day display out front

small American flags placed in (styrofoam?) base, one base on either side of a store entrance. also a big (metal?) American flag standing upright behind the base on the left side

May 29, 2023 - on the way back to San Antonio

gray clouds but in center of image a break on the sky - a streak of pink on the left and a streak of orange on the right. mass of trees visible in lower left corner

May 28, 2023 - a black squirrel!!! the first one I’ve ever seen in my life! and interesting timing too because someone just asked me YESTERDAY if I had ever seen a black squirrel (it came up because we were talking about squirrels in general). Wish I could’ve gotten a better pic, though

profile view of a black squirrel with the tail on the left and the head on the right. behind black wrought iron fence bars

May 27, 2023 - morning view of a train from the 10th Street Bridge

incoming train on tracks seen from above headed towards bottom left of image; green trees on the left and piles of dirt on the right

May 26, 2023 - fountain in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse

fountain in lower left corner with water spurting from the top in front of a brown, romanesque revival style building