valerie

October 6, 2023 - a teacher that I don’t know gave me a bar of handmade soap as a gift for Teacher’s Day 🥺 (which was officially yesterday, though there was a small celebration which happened today)

off-white circular bar of soap carved to look like a flower

October 5, 2023 - it’s no Tashkent plov, but a plate of fresh plov really hits the spot

plate of plov (Central Asian fried rice dish with carrots) on a table

October 4, 2023 - my coteacher was late to class, so my 5th grade students decided to write on the board 😂
(I usually introduce myself as ‘Valeria’ as most people have heard the Russian name. it sounds more familiar to them than ‘Valerie’)

two chalkboards side by side covered in hearts and English sentences like "I love you", "I love you Valeria", "I love you America" and "I love you Aizada" (my coteacher's name)

October 3, 2023 - Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan - road to Ormon Khan Park (new park that opened yesterday)

road with houses and power lines on both sides; mountains in the distance. a cloudy day

October 2, 2023 - Crazy day. Taught only my first 2 out of 5 classes for the day to hear news that the president of Kyrgyzstan was coming to a nearby city to officially open a new park and stadium, so my coteachers and I went to the event (w permission), which was huge and had a lot of attendees

looking down onto a football field in a stadium with spectators sitting on bleacher benches and in chairs on the field pointed toward one of the ends of the field, where about 7 yurts are set up

October 1, 2023 - my sister tried to teach me a Kyrgyz variant of hopscotch, but wow it is really hard to understand game instructions in another language. or maybe it is just hard to understand my sister 😂

light brown rocky ground with 3 faint blue chalk hopscotch spaces labeled with numbers drawn on it

September 30, 2023 - another Kyrgyz museum, another yurt. A true national treasure
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz felt yurt set up inside a room with chests, rugs and blankets visible inside

September 29, 2023 - contrast, the sky view from the street a few days ago

dark clouds in front of a bright sun, shortly before sunset. street with houses extending into the distance

September 28, 2023 - The Peace Corps medical team here gave every volunteer in my cohort a resistance band to use for workouts. They also gave us a jump rope, which my host mom, sister and I really liked, but it disappeared a week or two ago so we have to buy another 😥

red resistance band on a desk rolled up in a circular shape

September 27, 2023 - saw this kitty on the way to school that I wanted to embrace, but it just meowed at me and walked past without a care. But then ran into my host cousin who was returning home from school (he lives with us) and he embraced me (he’s 7 years old)

white cat with gray patches on head and a gray tail on a dirt road

September 26, 2023 - my current beverage collection

two boxes of Tess green tea; 1 liter Nemoloko carton of lactose free chocolate milk; and a MacCoffee instant cappuccino packet

September 25, 2023 - a cow and some glare that we’re going to pretend can be classified as flare. Or maybe the sun’s rays can be considered flare. anyways, I took this from inside a car as we were stuck in a livestock traffic jam on the way to the banya (no water in our bathroom that day)

a brown cow walking, taken from maybe 2 feet away

September 24, 2023 - September 23 was Kyrgyz Language Day, so some students at my school organized a celebration on Friday, September 22. Some students danced, others belted out songs, and others recited some poetry

stage where students performed. brown/orange platform with a red rug on it, curtains framing it; red, pink and white balloons on the wall at the back of the performing area and hand-drawn student posters about Kyrgyzstan beneath those

September 23, 2023 - a day in the life, this morning’s mountain view

trees in front of mostly snow-covered mountains

September 22, 2023 - down the road after the hail storm on Monday

dirt road in a neighborhood at sunset

September 21, 2023 - went on a picnic this past weekend with my host sister and her friends. A good activity to indulge in before fall when it will be too cold

four bags of chips and two teacups for Fanta on a blanket on the ground, which 5 people are kneeling on

September 20, 2023 - I think I was a disruption at today’s goose meeting. I pass them almost every day either on my way to school or returning home. They honk at everyone who walks by (especially if it’s too close), kind of like dogs

two brown and white geese sitting on the ground caught mid-honk with their beaks open; a standing white goose to their right with its neck extended, walking away from the camera

September 19, 2023 - projection going slightly off of the edge of the screen. in a classroom in my school, during a Kyrgyz lesson with my local Kyrgyz tutor (who is also a Kyrgyz teacher at my school)

A Microsoft Word document being projected onto a roll-down overhead screen in a classroom. The Word doc has Kyrgyz words on it

September 18, 2023 - it started hailing on my way home from school, so that’s how I ended up with ice on the nylon fabric of my raincoat

black nylon raincoat sleeve (being worn) extended out, with a few bits of ice on it

September 17, 2023 - went with my host sister to her friend’s house for a picnic and some intense dancing occurred
(video title is “Dance if you know this trend” in Russian. to be clear, these are TikTok trends 😂)

Xiaomi phone showing a YouTube video playing which is called "Dance if you know this trend" written in Russian

September 16, 2023 - oof!, aka, it was not a good idea to eat this pizza while my stomach was still recovering from something

girl with glasses sitting at a table in a restaurant in front of a whole margarita pizza

September 15, 2023 - red, the color of the peppers my host mom has drying out outside

red chili peppers on a string hung over a baluster

September 14, 2023 - statue of Turdakun Usubalievich Usubaliev who was born in Kochkor and worked as a politician during the Soviet Union
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

gray metal(?) statue of a man standing on a tall, light gray concrete/stone pedestal

September 13, 2023 - I have these glowing stars in my room because I am a child

glow in the dark stars of different sizes seen glowing in the dark

September 12, 2023 - might have unintentionally incited some panic in my students by giving them this test today
(it’s not for a grade. it’s part of our admittedly imperfect procedure to try and get data on whether lessons cotaught with a volunteer produce any results in students’ English ability)

5 multiple choice listening questions and a reading section with a text underneath. test primarily in English but also instructions in Kyrgyz and Russian