valerie
September 22, 2021 - it makes me smile to see things that I recognize here, even if the prices make me frown 😅
September 21, 2021 - a picture from the trail to Kol Tor Lake. This trail reminded me of hiking in Montana
September 20, 2021 - no interesting pictures from today, so here’s another picture of Kol Tor Lake from yesterday. Yes, the water was really that shade of blue! It was about a 4 ½ mile hike to the lake and then it was the same distance back to the trailhead
September 15, 2021 - it’s hard to see, but there’s a green building to the left of the trees on the right side of the picture. That building is a Papa John’s. One day I will take a better picture of it. I was in a hurry today because I was about to be late for my Russian lesson
September 14, 2021 - the small cafeteria at my school. You can see the cook in the picture behind the shelves. I don’t recall what she was making, maybe pirozhki (buns with different fillings)
September 13, 2021 - picture from last weekend when I stayed at a yurt camp with a few colleagues. taken in the morning
September 12, 2021 - inside the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic (Филармония). This is the building I went to for the performance I saw on Independence Day. I wish I had better pictures of the inside of this building, but unfortuantely I only had my crappy phone on me that day
September 11, 2021 - agreed to meet a local friend for dinner at 8 but she ran late and didn’t show up until 8:35 or 8:40 😅 I took this picture while I was waiting. We ate Korean style chicken which was very tasty, but I didn’t get a picture of it because I was so hungry that I forgot about snapping a photo before eating
September 7, 2021 - (long distance) bus station in Bishkek. I didn’t know that there is more than one bus station in the city, but I’m pretty sure this was the western bus station. (Also, I’m not going anywhere! This picture was from my trip this past weekend.)
September 4, 2021 - stayed at a yurt camp with some colleagues outside of Bokonbayev, Issyk-Kul. This view was a short hike from the camp
September 1, 2021 - Bulochka (Булочка), a type of bun which has different possible fillings. I have no idea what was in this one, maybe cheese?
August 31, 2021 - Happy Independence Day! Today marks Kyrgyzstan’s 30th year of independence from the Soviet Union. A local teacher invited me to an event called an aitish (Айтыш). This is a Kyrgyz and Kazakh tradition where singers improvise verses as they play instruments such as the Kyrgyz komuz or the Kazakh dombra (both of these instruments are guitar-like). The singers compete against each other to see who can improvise the best verses, and they sometimes jeer playfully at each other. I was told their lines are often humorous, and indeed the audience laughed a lot. I was also told that some of the lines related to politics. I had no idea what was being said because everyone spoke in either Kyrgyz or Kazakh (from what I’ve been told these two languages are mutually intelligible, meaning that Kyrgyz speakers can understand Kazakh and vice versa), but it was really cool to experience nonetheless
