valerie

June 6, 2024 - Istanbul, Turkey

bridge across the sea to another part of Istanbul at night

June 5, 2024 - inside Topkapi Palace, Turkey

room with old Turkish architectural elements

June 4, 2024 - Istanbul, Turkey

bridge over the sea connecting two islands with trees and buildings

June 3, 2024 - in Istanbul, Turkey

seagull standing on a fountain wall

June 2, 2024 - Istanbul, Turkey. I’m pretty sure this is what Kyrgyz people say when riding horses to make them stop. I wonder if there’s a connection there? (Turkish and Kyrgyz are both Turkic languages and have quite a few similar words)

stop sign in a parking lot with the letters DUR on it

June 1, 2024 - a friend I met yesterday

brown calf behind a patch of grass and yellow flowers in front of a potato field

May 31, 2024 - spring, almost summer, in my village 🙂

brown, slightly green snow-capped mountains in front of crop fields and grass fields at midday

May 30, 2024 - canal in my village at morning

orange/pink sunrise reflected in the water of a small canal

May 29, 2024 - we had a visitor yesterday 😁

small hedgehog next to a concrete step

May 28, 2024 - my host sister pointing at an orange and blue volleyball that we accidentally got stuck on the roof of a stable while my host mom is walking toward us in the background with a wooden ladder 😁

back of a girl in red shirt with a ponytail pointing at an orange ball on a roof

May 27, 2024 - yum 😋 🌿

brown cow with head raised and tongue extended to eat a small branch of leaves

May 26, 2024 - potato field behind our house. my host mom said they finished this work while I was at school, which disappointed me because I wanted to help them (though don’t know how helpful I actually would have been 🙃) and see how they worked

field with soil formed into rows

May 25, 2024 - today was my school’s Last Bell ceremony (акыркы коңгуроо in Kyrgyz; последний звонок in Russian), which is essentially graduation

decorations outside of my school for a ceremony

May 24, 2024 - my host mom told me before that these are bottles of medicine which some men buy to get drunk off of (because alcohol is more expensive). I rarely see these bottles, I assume it’s because I live on one of the main roads in my village (my house is on the same road as the school)

discarded, brown glass medicinal bottle without a cap on the ground

May 23, 2024 - spicy sauce that our family bought. I’m surprised to see my host brother and host dad eating some, because I thought the only person in my family who likes spicy food was my host mom (btw, өрт means ‘fire’ in Kyrgyz, so ‘fire sauce’ 😁)

small oval-shaped plastic container with a red chili dip inside

May 22, 2024 - second-floor school stairwell. чыгуу is “exit” in Kyrgyz and this word was painted around school last fall, but today was the first time I saw this one. In what other situations would downstairs not lead to an exit unless it goes to a basement? (btw no basement here that I know of)

stairwell. stairs going down have Kyrgyz word чыгуу in red painted on the ceiling above them

May 21, 2024 - homemade kattama! The dough is formed into a long roll that is rolled around itself to make a circle, then flattened and fried. My host mom also added green onions to this kattama

fried flatbread with green onion on a white paper

May 20, 2024 - fragrant flowers

small white flowers in a plastic container with water on a windowsill

May 19, 2024 - sunrise on a recent morning walk

dark mountains with a little bit of snow on them; pink/orange outline of sky above the mountain peaks, dark gray sky above that

May 18, 2024 - mosque on the other side of my village

beige mosque across a road

May 17, 2024 - today’s morning walk companions. I don’t think the cat belonged to anyone, at least none of the women with me, because they all ignored it (most Kyrgyz people dislike cats). But it was so sweet 🥺 Host mom is in the middle

three women and a cat on a road

May 16, 2024 - along the road where I usually walk or run in the morning. first time going out in about a week, and this was not here before. I assume they are bee containers. Wonder why the owner brought them here. And nobody will steal them, because they are bees?

trailer truck without paneling with bee cases inside of it, and other bee cases on the ground outside. mountains in the background

May 15, 2024 - from the day I went hiking earlier this month, though as you can see we stayed at the family friend’s house quite late. I’m not sure how to make night pictures look better, but at least this is kind of cool

hills/small mountains under a starry sky

May 14, 2024 - tractor on my street in the morning about a week and a half ago

blue-green tractor on a dirt road in front of a white house with a green roof

May 13, 2024 - жапжаңы, “supa fresh” in Kyrgyz. (Literally “brand new”, but we don’t describe produce that way). The Russian word below (свежесть) translates to “freshness”

produce display rack sign which reads "super fresh" in Kyrgyz and "freshness" in Russian