valerie
November 13, 2021 - I keep seeing/hearing this Kyrgyz word ‘үчүн’, and I saw it again at this recycling ‘bin’ (which is in the shape of a bottle). I took a picture of it to remind myself to find out what it means. Turns out it means ‘for’ (I think this is ‘for’ like ‘для’ in Russian). So my understanding is that the sign reads that the bin is ‘for (plastic) bottles’
November 12, 2021 - took a picture of this sign for a ‘кымызкана’. кымыз (kumis) is a traditional Central Asian drink made from horse’s milk. I have heard that it is difficult to find kumis in Bishkek. In fact, the Wikipedia article on kumis makes reference to the fact that there is no large scale production of mare’s milk, meaning you can’t just buy it at the supermarket. Usually you find it for sale in villages. I tried some when I went to Issyk-Kul with my colleagues. The batch we had was particularly mild - it wasn’t very sour. I didn’t have a lot though because I’m slightly lactose intolerant and I was worried about what might happen if I had too much. Also, kumis is slightly alcoholic, but the alcohol content is fairly low so it’s not a good beverage choice if you are looking to get drunk.
кана is a word that means something like ‘a place/building’. For example, ашкана means ‘kitchen/cafeteria’ (аш: food + кана: place/building = a place where one can get food). дарыкана means ‘pharmacy’ (дары: medicine + кана: place/building = a place where one can get medicine). So кымызкана would mean a place where one can get кымыз. But given the rarity of кымыз in Bishkek, I wonder what kind of a place that was, or if that was just an advertisement for somewhere else
November 8, 2021 - hot springs pool in Issykata (I was only in this town on Saturday, but I’m uploading more pictures from this place because I don’t have many interesting pictures at the moment)
November 3, 2021 - took a picture of this sign because it includes the possessive grammar I’ve been learning in Kyrgyz lessons
October 31, 2021 - went to watch a ballet today! It was good, but the story was quite dark. This is inside the Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theatre (I’ve posted a picture of the outside of this building in the past)
October 30, 2021 - Dom (дом) in Russian means ‘building’ or ‘house’, so I assume this was some kind of interior decoration or furniture store, but phonetically the name sounds a little bit like ‘dumb idea’ which made me giggle
October 28, 2021 - bought a pack of semolina at the store because it was on sale and found a recipe online that I wanted to try (https://www.mygorgeousrecipes.com/semolina-pudding-recipe/). The recipe was good but mine came out a little too watery. I think I didn’t let it cool off/sit long enough before eating it. My semolina to milk ratio also might have been a little off
October 27, 2021 - taken at an ATM I used. I was confused to see Turkish on the buttons. I don’t know if the ATM itself came from Turkey or if maybe there are a lot of Turkish people in this part of the city? Or maybe the words for these options are similar between Turkish and Kyrgyz so whoever installed the ATM just thought ‘eh, close enough’? But this is definitely written in Turkish because Kyrgyz is written with the Cyrillic script (like Russian)
October 22, 2021 - ad featuring Kyrgyz Olympic silver medalist Aisuluu Tynybekova. She is a wrestler
