valerie

October 7, 2024 - yesterday’s sunrise in the neighborhood. Sadly, it was gray and cloudy for the rest of the day

sunrise over a neighborhood from a second floor view

October 6, 2024 - coal trailer. Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

vehicle with a trailer hooked up to it, both containing coal

October 5, 2024 - one of the few things I got during yesterday’s Teachers’ Day celebration at school. This was from the school student council. Google Translate translates the words as, “you are a uniquely unique person”, which I think sounds funny

two mini Albeni chocolates taped to a paper with Kyrgyz words which translate to 'you are a unique person'

October 4, 2024 - small sports center in my village. Never been inside
(actually, I didn’t know this place existed until a taxi drove me past it once… it’s not far from my house, but there’s no reason for me to come this way)

small, pale yellow 2-story building with its name on the outside wall

October 3, 2024 - We did a review of clothes in today’s English club (since the last three clubs have been somewhat related). Then I gave each pair of students a blank person template that they had to make clothes for πŸ™‚ made a display afterwards of their work (on a board that no one looks at)

display on a board that reads 'English Club' and has 5 people made of paper (1 boy, 4 girls) wearing different things

October 2, 2024 - my friend Mr. Cow (Zoya’s older brother)

dark brown cow with its tongue in its nostril

October 1, 2024 - you know it’s fall when snow has fallen on the mountains

brown mountains half-covered in snow

September 30, 2024 - my host brother brought home these huge, monster strawberries, courtesy of his friend. We ate some, and the others are being turned into jam. My mom commented, “the last fruit of summer”, and that made me sad 😭

large green bowl with sliced strawberries and sugar

September 29, 2024 - went into the storage room where I keep my bike to find this… luckily, my family moved my bike to a different place, they just didn’t tell me that they had πŸ™ƒ

grain dunes completely covering the floor of an outdoor storage room

September 28, 2024 - next to the river I recently discovered in my village

spiky pink flower next to a river

September 27, 2024 - some fun guys in my village

golden mushrooms with brown spots on the caps, next to a tree trunk

September 26, 2024 - Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan. Funny that “St. Petersburg” (Π‘Π°Π½ΠΊΡ‚-ΠŸΠ΅Ρ‚Π΅Ρ€Π±ΡƒΡ€Π³) is written half in English, half in Russian (but all with English letters). Also, love the enthusiastic touch of three exclamation points

parked, yellow Vansped truck container with text "...with us to Sankt Petersburg!!! www.vansped.com"

September 25, 2024 - hotel view in Bishkek

6th floor view looking down on nearby buildings and streets

September 24, 2024 - relatively new restaurant in Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

bright, open area in a restaurant with a few tables

September 23, 2024 - my host dad breaking up large pieces of salt for the horses

ground-up salt with small chunks in the bottom half of an old bottle plastic container

September 22, 2024 - my favorite domestic animal is the scapegoat. It’s always good to have one around just in case I need someone or something to blame
(from a Kyrgyz/Russian/English book that I bought yesterday)

book page with pictures of domestic animals and the names underneath in Kyrgyz, Russian and English

September 21, 2024 - a mosque in Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

mosque with greenery around

September 20, 2024 - one of my coteachers has a black and white notebook that she uses for writing our lesson plans, and I just noticed today that the front reads “shine, damn it” in English πŸ˜‚ I doubt she knows what it means πŸ˜…

teacher's desk with two English textbooks (one open, one closed) and two notebooks,

September 19, 2024 - Last year I didn’t see a single bike at school, so I can’t help but to wonder if I am the cause of the increasing number of bikes at school πŸ˜‚ because as I have started to ride my bike to school more, I have been seeing more bikes parked near mine. Today I saw 4!

bikes leaned against a metal fence painted teal

September 18, 2024 - don’t you love when people leave their bags of trash on the side of road?
there aren’t even any houses around here

two white and two orange bags along the side of a road on a cloudy morning

September 17, 2024 - this past Sunday went on a bike ride and discovered a WHOLE RIVER that no one ever told me about?? And it’s not even that far from my house? It seems like a really nice place to just sit and relax

rivers with trees along the far edge. mountains in the distance behind the trees

September 16, 2024 - went to the Kochkor movie theater yesterday with my host family. I don’t know if they do public showings? We just had a small showing room (pictured) for the 6 of us. And it was a pretty homey set up, the movie was loaded from a USB drive (I assume that’s not the norm?)

small movie theater room with red theater seats and a screen over a stage at the front of the room

September 15, 2024 - yesterday, behind Ormon Khan Park, Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

yellow field in front of small brown mountains, in front of large, lightly snow-capped mountains

September 14, 2024 - the horses are home! Here is one handsome horse that was separate from the others. I asked why, and my grandma said something like he doesn’t get along with the herd, I guess because the dominant (and maybe only?) male sees him as a threat. Handsome horse is now gone, tho πŸ˜₯

white/gray horse with black spots standing and wearing a black bridle

September 13, 2024 - random TV appeared in my classroom yesterday 😢 turns out it’s the IT teacher’s old TV. Now we see if anyone thought about how the TV would be used before mounting it on the wall. At least a ‘motivational sign’ in the classroom that I didn’t like has been taken down as a result!

TV on a school desk