valerie
April 23, 2023 - At-Bashi River
April 22, 2023 - eating square noodles, beef, potatoes, and drinking beef bone broth while waiting for beshbarmak to be prepared (in the largest bowl in the back of the photo)
April 21, 2023 - mountain view from At-Bashy, Kyrgyzstan
April 19, 2023 - in honor of my final Russian lesson, my Russian teacher (who is Kyrgyz) gifted me a souvenir yurt matryoshka. I would love to continue Russian lessons, but I’m visiting America before starting a new job (which I will share more about in a future post)
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 😂)
