valerie
April 17, 2023 - пончики (donuts) from Daamduu, a fast food chain in Bishkek (and the name даамдуу means ‘delicious’ in Kyrgyz)
April 16, 2023 - statue of Mikhail Frunze in the rain
April 14, 2023 - Dmitry Kuklachev (Дмитрий Куклачев) advertisement seen in Bishkek. He (and his family) is famous for running a cat theater in Moscow
April 13, 2023 - bought kulich today, an Eastern European bread eaten around Easter. It was my first time trying it, but according to my friend, this one was mediocre
April 12, 2023 - Today is Cosmonautics Day, celebrated in Russia and some former USSR countries. Informational posters about astronauts in front of a Bishkek school including Gagarin (middle) and Salizhan Sharipov (right), an astronaut born in Özgön (Өзгөн in Kyrgyz), Kyrgyzstan during the USSR
April 11, 2023 - President’s Residence; Almaty, Kazakhstan. Current reconstruction after a lot of it was burned during the January 2022 protests
April 10, 2023 - Central State Museum; Almaty, Kazakhstan
(I’m back in Bishkek now though, my Almaty trip was very short!)
April 5, 2023 - bought a snack at the shop but the shopkeeper didn’t have enough change so she let me take a piece of gum
April 1, 2023 - just before the beginning of Ramadan I started seeing some papers in supermarkets that people could take with Bishkek’s fasting times on them. I don’t know how I missed this last year
March 31, 2023 - friend helped me rent a bike last weekend so I could practice riding
(I’m using the word ‘practice’ to fit the prompt, but really it was my first time learning how to ride! Never learned as a kid. And I felt like I made good progress in two hours! Except for turning 😂)
March 28, 2023 - an offhand comment to a friend about microwave popcorn prompted this purchase. Maybe it sounds dumb, but I honestly didn’t know you could buy microwave popcorn here. Blander than American popcorn of course, but still good and spices and such can be added
March 27, 2023 - close-up of support in the elevator. was curious to know if Braille here differs from English, but from what I found numbers are the same. also Braille numbers are preceded by a mirrored L shape (please feel free to chime in if you know about Braille, I’m not an expert by any means)
March 26, 2023 - instruments used for sumolok, a dessert made at Nowruz. One of my students invited me to her house to stir their huge pot of it. I was also told to make a wish while stirring! Then, a couple of days later, I received a HUGE jar of sumolok from her
