valerie

January 17, 2024 - classroom left in disarray (not by me)

side of a classroom with a couple of desks and chair visible. flower pot on the windowsill, and a small area of dark soil scattered on the floor

January 16, 2024 - mural near Lighthouse Coffee in Karakol

mural on a tan wall of a 4-story building with a young Kyrgyz boy wearing a Kyrgyz hat, orange t-shirt, and jeans; and a little pale, blonde girl wearing a white strap dress. the two children are holding hands and both holding a bunch of flowers, skipping through grass

January 15, 2024 - back to work today, but no interesting pictures, so here’s one from our guesthouse in Karakol. the plant on the left was so tall - I took the picture while standing on a stairway. my host family has a plant like it in our kitchen, but it’s not super tall

house plants in a line against a pink wall next to a staircase. white radiator on the wall above the plants, and a window on the wall above the radiator

January 14, 2024 - we were approached by Korean missionaries in a restaurant in Kochkor today who very loudly asked if we are “Christian????”

hand holding a purple bandaid case with a white sticker in front that reads "Jesus loves you" in English, Kyrgyz, and Korean

January 13, 2024 - Issyk-Kul Lake shore near Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

light gray-blue lake next to a brown shore with snow-capped mountains in the background

January 12, 2024 - Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

sign with big, red block letters that reads 'I (heart) Karakol', but only a thin, white A where the second A should be. above and behind Karakol are two white swans in the same block style as the sign, facing each other so that their heads make a heart

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 🙃

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