valerie

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

Ziploc of kurut, round-ish white pieces of dried milk

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

black hoodie with a blue cat skating away on a skateboard. white text: "Not my problem", "Take a break", "Bye.", "I am too busy for you", "I don't care, thanks"

December 2, 2023 - walked around the resort last night and found this event room unlocked

dark dining room with tables and chairs, 3 large semi-circle windows in the wall (but divided into different panes) and wood/vine plant ceiling decorations

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)

mountain side with trees and wooden stairs going up about halfway

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

wooden steps going down and two people on them; fog behind with lights on a resort building visible, but not the resort itself

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 😅

small room with fire damage on the ceiling and upper half of the walls, which are black

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

rectangular sign on a white ceiling reading "Qibla" with a picture of the Kaaba in Mecca

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)

fried balls of dough in a bowl with sugar syrup

November 26, 2023 - Georgian food. my first time eating the khachapuri at this restaurant

khachapuri (bread with a lowered part in the middle filled with an egg, cheese and spinach ), plate of 6 khinkali, tea and half of a salad on a table

November 25, 2023 - Swan Lake ballet

11 female ballerinas in white tutus on stage with 2 male ballet dancers, one a protagonist and one an antagonist (wearing all black)

November 24, 2023 - my local colleagues got together for a “Thanksgiving” lunch 🥺 we had a rotisserie chicken instead of turkey, they bought a cake, and gave me three chocolate bars. after we had eaten from the food on the table, my coworkers said, “now let’s order two plates of plov!” 😶🙃😨

table with various plates: rotisserie chicken, cake, fruit, vegetable salads, tea

November 23, 2023 - happy Thanksgiving and happy first real snow from my village! (which is funny to say because all of the snow on the ground melted by 2 pm)

two geese on snow covered ground, small tree behind with some snow on the branches, all in front of a house

November 22, 2023 - host family’s cow eating at sunset

brown cow within a wide pile of hay eating; trees and sunset behind

November 21, 2023 - my host mom came to my room today and said, “витамины тебе” (Vitamins for you, in Russian) as she handed me this plate. I think my host mom’s native language is Kyrgyz, but she did go to a Russian school growing up, so her Russian is pretty good

plate with orange slices, tangerine slices and green grapes

November 20, 2023 - taken during fall break. my family made a kind of salsa that they called приправа (priprava), which is strange because as I understand it, this doesn’t fit the Russian use of the word приправа. I wonder how universal this use is in Kyrgyzstan

bowl of tomato sauce, second bowl of sliced tomatoes next to an ingredient mincing machine

November 19, 2023 - lahmacun that we ate in Kochkor yesterday. I have doubts about its authenticity since it is designated as a Turkish or Armenian dish (and I live in Naryn region, which I’ve read is 99% Kyrgyz), but the most important part, in my opinion, is that it was good

food on a plate that looks like thin pizza but without tomatoes/tomato sauce

November 18, 2023 - morning in the park. Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

trees without leaves and a tiled path in a park

November 17, 2023 - I like to think my grammar is pretty good, but I was stumped on why we use the form “pulled” in this sentence. Any ideas?

blackboard with a sentence on it: If your tooth hurts, you should have it __ out. Answers are variants of "pull", and the correct answer is "pulled"

November 16, 2023 - this plant was in my room when I first moved in, but I should not be trusted to take care of it. Recently, it grew a few flowers though, so maybe that’s a good sign?

plant in a plastic flowerpot with a couple of white flowers

November 15, 2023 - mural near the entrance of a local colleague’s school in Kochkor

mural on a white school building of a man wearing a white Kyrgyz hat, a little girl, and a woman holding hands. balloons in the woman's second hand and a couple birds and a rainbow above the people

November 14, 2023 - and his name is Jony Cena!
“Cen” (seen, haha, get it? 🙃) at my school

"Jony Cena" written on the bottom of a white windowsill in pencil

November 13, 2023 - mosque (maybe the central mosque?) in Naryn city

zoom in of a mosque with a golden dome roof and white and blue decoration

November 12, 2023 - been slacking on taking pictures lately, so here’s another picture I took on my way to Naryn city last week

field with two black cows grazing, mountains in the distance, blue sky

November 11, 2023 - sunrise during the morning jog. thought I would upload this photo to make it worth the pain my right hand went through to snap the pic (my weather app said “21°F/-6°C but feels like 12°F/-11°C 🙂”). I had gloves, but guess I’m finding out the hard way that they are dog poopoo

white mountains at sunrise with a couple of pink-orange clouds behind them

November 10, 2023 - my school recently painted the words ‘entrance’ and ‘exit’ in some places in the hallways. in some places, it’s obvious what kind of threshhold is in that direction, so it’s a little comical. чыгуу is ‘exit’. ‘Entrance’ is кирүү

school hall with the Kyrgyz word for exit 'чыгуу' painted in red on a beam