valerie
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
October 20, 2021 - a persimmon that I bought without knowing what it was because to be honest I’m terrible at identifying fruit other than the standard fare. I also don’t recall if I have ever tried a persimmon, and I bought 4…so I hope I like them 😅
October 19, 2021 - one of my students drew a picture of me during class. I think it is a good sketch and that giving it to me was a kind gesture, but I also can’t help but to think that I look like the Grudge, especially without any eyes
October 15, 2021 - a plant. I think it might be a flower that looks slightly dead since winter is coming
October 14, 2021 - grabbed some pizza with a couple colleagues last night. I bought my own pizza, only ate half and then wanted to take the rest home. I used my broken Russian and hand signals to show that I wanted a container for my leftover pizza. The байке (Kyrgyz word for addressing a guy you don’t know) says, “пакет?” (packet), which is the Russian word for the plastic bags that you get at the grocery store. I said, “да” (yes) not really knowing what to expect because I’ve never taken home leftover pizza in a bag. He put my pizza between two styrofoam plates, which didn’t seal or lock or anything, and then put this in a bag. At least it was better than just putting the slices of pizza directly into the bag
October 13, 2021 - some food items for sale at Ortosai Bazaar. Of particular interest to me are the little orange berries with what look like orange leaves around it. Based on the internet searching I have done, they seem to be called physalis. The Wikipedia article for these berries says that they are endemic to the Americas, but I can’t say I have ever seen them in the US. I want to buy some one day to try them
October 11, 2021 - I took a trolleybus home and thought I was going to miss it because I was crossing the road while it was stopped at the bus stop. The doors had closed and the bus was just about to drive away, but the driver stopped for me and a couple other people and I just ran into the door that opened, not realizing until I stepped on that it wasn’t the door for general passengers. In some buses there is a door which leads to a space next to where the driver is, and I don’t know what that space is supposed to be used for. I don’t know if this makes sense without a full picture…but anyway, I think it was fine. Actually I would say it was better than fine because I was only in this space (partly pictured) with two other people instead of being packed on the main part of the bus with at least 50
