valerie
March 19, 2022 - Kok Moinok Canyons (Кок Мойнок in Russian, Көк Мойнок in Kyrgyz) near Balykchy (Балыкчы), Kyrgyzstan
March 18, 2022 - American University of Central Asia (AUCA/АУЦА). Since Nowruz is on Monday (March 21), the university held a diversity/Nowruz celebration today in which international students sang and danced to both traditional songs (in traditional clothes) and modern songs
March 17, 2022 - paid for my March Russian lessons today. To pay, I take cash to a pay terminal (a machine that looks similar to an ATM), select the bank of the receiver, enter their phone number, then insert the cash. Finally, I have to get a receipt and send it to the company. The blacked out parts are the receiver phone number and the cost of my Russian lessons (if you really want to know the latter, feel free to ask…just didn’t feel the need to broadcast it)
March 16, 2022 - Since I was busy today, I grabbed a premade lunch while doing grocery shopping so that I didn’t have to cook, one of the few premade lunches (from the store) I’ve eaten here. The dish is called kuksi (кукси)
March 15, 2022 - another day, another cake. It’s becoming a habit to eat a slice of cake before I leave work. Is that bad?
March 14, 2022 - a post dedicated to my keys 🙃 tl;dr - left my apartment keys in a taxi yesterday evening and got them back today thanks to the help from several kind coworkers and the taxi driver
March 13, 2022 - Burana Tower near Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan
March 12, 2022 - couldn’t resist buying one of these as they’re currently on sale. The taste reminded of these strawberry shortcake popsicles that I used to eat at school as a kid
March 8, 2022 - low-effort lunch during my holiday: eggplant, rice and arugula (if not for this blog post, I wouldn’t have known that the greens were arugula. The Russian word for arugula is rukola/руккола and I just assumed that this was the name of yet another green vegetable that I didn’t know 🙄)
March 6, 2022 - the cutest little onions. Even though I have been understood in the past when trying to buy ½ kg of something, I ended up buying 1 kg because I felt self-conscious since I’m pretty sure that the way I ask for ½ kg is incorrect. Now I’ve got a lot of onions to eat 🙃
February 2, 2022 - recently finished this book. Found it to be a quick read with some useful reframes of perspective and creative/self-reflection exercises.
(also thank you @jasraj, I remember joining a silent writing session during INF Club times where we concluded with the three questions exercise. It was powerful then, and I really want to keep asking myself those questions more consistently)
January 30, 2022 - ramen to-go. It was good but not amazing. Maybe that’s what I get from ordering ramen at a poke restaurant? 😅 either way, my tummy and taste buds were still content. (yes there was broth, it’s just not pictured 🙂)
January 29, 2022 - close-up of a hat I received for Christmas (not handmade, at least by the gifter, but the thought was still very much appreciated as I posted during Fall 2021 about shopping for winter hats)
