Bishkek - Day 3

Okay... I'm sorry for slacking on getting a new post ready after replacing my computer... things have been incredibly rough for me since that happened, for various reasons... when it rains it pours, right? Anyway, there was a lot more data on my stolen computer that hadn't been backed up than I thought... including Bishkek Day 4, a lot of my edited photos, and all of my audio files which contained so many important and nostalgic sounds I wanted to share with you, to help you really get a glimpse of this crazy life I've been living. Regrets. I have them. But, that leads to more lessons I can pass on to you so you hopefully won't suffer through the same losses and frustration that I have had to deal with on these adventures. Always lock your shit up. Always. So, here's my last stream of consciousness post for my time in Bishkek...

Bishkek Day 3: June 23, 2015

Here goes showing y’all how much of an emotional roller coaster something like this is. Today wasn’t bad at all. Today was, dare I say, comfortable-ish? Now I just have to keep from crying myself to sleep tonight, and I’ll be progressing a lot faster than I thought I would have a few days ago. At least y’all are benefiting from my lack of internet at home, because I’ve been spending a good hour or two at the end of the night to recap the day for you. Or maybe you don’t like the longer posts and wish I’d just cut to the interesting stuff, well tuff. That’s another thing about living so far away from the city, I can’t stay out with my friends until 11pm every night, get distracted by a certain someone and then pass out before taking the time to write. The longer I go without internet and have limited opportunity to connect with anyone, the more I start thinking that maybe what I really need is to persevere and grow on my own, like I do with everything else. I just wish I had remembered to download new music before I left… there are way too many songs on my computer that stir up stupid emotions in my tiny broken Slavic heart. Yea, I know last year I was writing about a broken heart too, and just like that one, there are a lot of factors contributing to it. I don’t know how you people do this crap. I’ll adjust to Bishkek and eventually start liking it here a whole lot faster than I can get over being so stupid as to open this tiny Slavic heart to someone who never deserved it. In Russian – моё сердце разбыто – quite literally, shattered. Yeah, we don’t do subtle in this language. Он разбыл моё сердце и я ненавижу его из-за этого...

So… back to the comfortable-ish… well… thank God my neighbor has taken me on like a niece, because I didn’t pay attention to what today’s schedule was supposed to be, and I was prepared to get to school at 9am… classes start at 8:30am this year… oops… good thing Racha, the girl placed next door, pays attention and told her host family the proper time, so needless to say, I hauled ass out of the house without eating breakfast, putting on makeup, or even brushing my hair. My neighbor drove us to school this morning, which was really nice of him to do. I was placed in the 4^th year course, as expected, and I really like my classmates so far. We’re having a good time in class, and getting to know each other too. We’ve got two 50min grammar classes followed by a 65min reading class (really thinking that teacher doesn’t like me & Masha though), and then finally a 50min speaking portion, which was surprisingly fun. At 1pm we were free to go for the day.

Delicious eggplant salad... I can hardly believe I used to hate it!

Masha and I clarified what our schedule would be for Wednesday, and asked about the password to the website for our homework, then headed down the street to the Vefa center for lunch (It’s a small mall). The password wasn’t sent out yet as of 8pm, not that it would matter for me, since I still don’t have wifi at home… this will be my number 1 complaint about the program this year. If you’re going to have online homework, you need to make sure that host families are equipped with wifi, especially when we live so far away from the city. I can’t stay at school or at a local café until 8pm just to do homework if there’s a lot. I actually don’t have to be at school until 2pm tomorrow, but I’m gonna get there at 9:30am so I can do the homework that’s due Thursday, or at least get it started. I also plan to buy a wifi router tomorrow as well. Yep… that’s about a $100 expense that I wasn’t expecting. I know my host family is fine with me using their computer, but I don’t want to hog it, when that’s the primary source of entertainment for the kids in the evening and when it’s raining, like it was today.

We drink beer from crazy straws, because we're ladies.

Aaaanyway… For lunch we tried eggplant salad because it reminded me of one of my favorite Georgian dishes when I looked at the picture, and Lagmancun because that looked good too. We split those and ordered 2 beers… guess how much it cost? Go on, guess… I’ll wait…

About $7.40… our fancy coffees afterwards cost about the same too.

So, around 4:30ish, I headed back to the school to see if Racha was ready to head home, because she said her host dad would pick us up from school. Minor miscommunication, and my host mom (or well I feel like I should start calling her my hostess, because she’s actually closer in age to me than any of my actual sisters are) came to get us. She took us to look into the whole router situation and help us decide what we need, but turns out they need the original of my passport for it. She put our address in my phone in case I ever need to take a taxi, and tried to teach me what stop is ours on the Marshrutka. (It’s the name of the school that’s nearby, or apparently I can just say остановите в школу and that should work too. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow!) Then I just tried to study some of the new vocab before dinner.

Lagmancun... yes it's Turkish and not Kyrgyz... who cares?

Tonight dinner was reminiscent of some of the food I had in Georgia, simple pan fried potatoes with meat, sliced tomatoes, bread and of course tea (like 3 bowls). I’ve been a bit intimidated by the bread, because we were told that it’s pretty much sacred around here, so if you start eating a piece, you should really finish it, and if you waste it, it’s an insult. Also, it turns out that Mash also has a traditional Kyrgyz family, they just haven’t started cooking and eating in the outdoor area yet. She called me today to tell me that they tried to get her to drink some mare’s milk, but she couldn’t do it because of the smell lol… I’m sure y’all can’t wait until I start writing about that! It’s already getting easier for me to hold conversations in Russian, and my hostess and I are doing some more bonding too. We’ve made plans to take a walk around the neighborhood tomorrow after dinner.

The cultural aspect of the importance of family around here has already been brought up. That was important in Georgia too. Week 1, my host mom exclaimed that I was so old to not be married, which made me feel kinda terrible, but by the end of the program, she was offering to take me on walks down the Boulevard to find me a man, because OBVIOUSLY American men are idiots. Little by little my family and neighbors have pried into what my family life is like. 1^st night was asking how many siblings I have etc, last night they got to asking me if I was married or had a boyfriend, and tonight asking if it was normal to get married so late in America. I thought about making up a boyfriend, or trying to explain part of my broken heart to her, but instead chose to portray everything as normal, because it is normal for me. I don’t know why I don’t have a boyfriend, and I never thought I’d be my age and still be single, but that’s the hand I’ve been dealt, and in America it’s not completely terrible to have that hand either.

An array of Kyrgyz Som... believe me, it's not that much...

When it started to rain after dinner, we went inside and continued to chat and she asked me to teach her daughter a little English. I know I’m not supposed to, but I guess I really did enjoy teaching Russian… teaching English to some 8-9 year old Kyrgyz girls was quite a change for me… and maybe some good preparation/experience for the near future. I need to work on my vocabulary though if I want to explain things better. At least they just about had the alphabet down after an hour. I don’t like the book we were using though. I’ve noticed around here that people want to practice their English on you more than in Batumi. My host mom there rarely ever spoke in English, my sister who was fluent in English never spoke to me in it, my host brother tried to teach me Georgian (because I don’t think he spoke Russian) and my poor wee little sister rarely talked to me because she didn’t know a lot of English and even less Russian. Only once did I have someone who could speak Russian refuse to speak to me in Russian, and I am completely sympathetic as to why. He spoke to me in English, I spoke to him in Russian. Georgia has undergone its own cultural renaissance. I guess most former Soviet Republics have, but of the 2 I’ve spent an extended period of time in, Georgian patriotism/nationalism seems much stronger. They want to move towards the west, but are determined to keep their traditions and language, and that to an extent means keeping Russian around too. School children there learn English whether they go to Georgian school or Russian school. Maybe because you still have to go out of your way to learn English around here that people want to practice it more? I don’t mind all that much. I’m at a level where I don’t think it will make such a drastic difference to only be exposed to Russian. What I need is to work on including more Russian in conversations with my friends so I can have a good conversation about things that are more substantial than what I am used to talking about.

I’m thinking it’s time for me to pass out. I meant to be ready for bed by midnight so waking up at 7 wouldn’t suck… its almost 1, whoops… at least this means less time to be reminded of things before I fall asleep, and hopefully that will mean no crying tonight… that’ll be nice… 

End Day 3.

There was a much longer rant on language acquisition, but I decided to omit most of it to avoid boring the crap out of you, but there you go... the last of my stream of consciousness posts, because I'm an idiot... but here are some spoilers:

I didn't cry again my whole time in Bishkek. I persevered and grew on my own, as I always do, as I always will. I did adjust, and got comfortable in Bishkek before that broken heart healed. I have my closure now, and I can't believe I ever acted the way I did. I can't believe I ever let myself feel so hurt over something so stupid. Classes, and my classmates started to drive me crazy by the end of the 1st week, so much that I was ready to go home if something didn't change. Another thing about growing up - I learned to tell someone in charge that I wasn't satisfied with things, those things were changed, and I started enjoying class again, well except for the classmates driving me crazy part... the only thing that could remedy that would have been less time around them, which I could not get. I gave up trying to teach those adorable little girls because the book/English language just frustrated the crap out of me. Also, reading through this again, I realize I still haven't learned my lesson about opening my heart up to people who don't deserve it. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing either. Is it better to suffer the pain of heartbreak from putting yourself out on the line, or to keep yourself reserved and possibly miss out on something wonderful? Only time will tell.

Bishkek - Day 2

My dear readers,

It is with great sadness and frustration that I inform you that this will be my last post for the foreseeable future. My laptop was stolen, and it will be incredibly difficult to continue to present my adventures and photos to the world without it. I don't want to present you with anything that's half hearted - I'd rather present nothing to the world than something that isn't a quality I can look back on and approve of.

Right now, I am mostly hoping that I didn't lose too many photos and documents that were not backed up to cloud storage yet. My pride hurts. I'm determined not to let 1 bad memory ruin all of the good memories I've had here in Prague. However, I am now faced with the difficult decision of whether I can afford (and justify) replacing it. If so, how, and with what? Suggestions for what to get, and information on how to obtain an affordable replacement are very welcome. 

If you feel so inclined, donations to help ease the pain in my wallet, and budget for continuing this adventure, will also be graciously accepted via PayPal. (Kmt04@my.fsu.edu)

I will need the support and encouragement of you, dear readers, more than ever now. I can't help but think that this is a sign to give up on this entire travel writer endeavor. I hope to turn that sign around and create something even more fantastic in spite of it, though. 

In the meantime, I'll continue to post on other social media platforms, but just in case I do throw in the towel - I want to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for reading. I hope I have been able to entertain you, as well as open your eyes and hearts to things you otherwise never would have considered. 

And now, I present you with what I hope won't be my last post...  

I know y'all have just been DYING to know how things went after my first day in Bishkek, right? Did I have a panic attack? Did I cry all day long? Did I get auctioned off as a bride to the highest bidder? You'll just have to keep reading to find out!

Bishkek Day 2: June 22, 2015

So far, adjusting seems a little easier than it did last year. Maybe that’s because I can read most of the signage around me. Kyrgyz is the national language, but Russian is the official state language, so most signs are written in both, and at least it resembles Russian a bit. Georgian is beautiful, but so completely different from any other language that I know, that there was no hope for me to decipher anything. I know if I stick it through, it should make me a better person, right? And if any of you judge me for starting out feeling like all I want to do is get the hell out of here, and then ending up loving it – why don’t you try to do something like this? You’ll see just how hard it is. It’s a freaking emotional roller-coaster, add on top of that (even more so than last year) the stress of having nothing to come back to when it’s all over, you’d be ready to cry yourself to sleep every night for a few weeks too.

It’s still hard to wrap my head around why anyone would want to visit here, at least not for 2 months… and certainly not for their last opportunity to go abroad for such an amount of time… but the view I finally got to see when walking to the bus stop today… that may just be a factor in it. When I finally looked up from the rough gravel road I was walking down with my neighbor's daughter, and another student who was placed with the family next door, I finally saw the mountain range ahead. Holy crap. They seem so massive. It’s hot as balls around here right now, but still gets cool at night, and those mountains are still covered in snow. I’m not talking about just the very tops of them, a good hunk of those mountains are still white. After seeing that, I’m beginning to think that some of our weekend excursions will finally make me really appreciate this place.

The Tien Shien Mountain range as it appears from Street No. 5 in the Рухий Мурас (Roohee Mooras) neighborhood of Bishkek.

Trying to get to school today was fun, for everyone apparently. Some people were dropped off by their host families. It seems they were able to place everyone in at least moderately well off families, and some in much better off families too. Most of us are out in those suburbs, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to make me feel safer or not… yes it’s harder to reach them, and most of the families out here have to be fairly well off to be able to afford to build a house out here, but the difficulty to get to & from school, and the main areas of the city leave me a bit wary. The possibility of going out one night does seem within reach at least. Cabs are cheap it shouldn’t cost more than $5 to get home from just about anywhere in the city.

Speaking of how cheap things are here… I took out 4,800 SOM today, that’s about $80USD… let’s see how far this goes… It’ll cost me 20 SOM per day for my marshrutka rides to & from school, 120/week to keep my local phone turned on, and lunch today, which I split with Masha, was a tasty  dish called Pide (I think it’s Turkish) and 2 bottles of water,  know how much that cost? 300SOM… ya know how much that is in USD? Less than $5… I told my host mom that today, and she said that was expensive, and suggested a cheaper place. Holy crap - it gets cheaper than that!? I wanted to lose weight while here, but I don’t know if I can resist such cheap tasty foods, because I know I can’t get them in the states.

Our pide 3 ways, cheese, egg, and meat - basically Turkish pizza

Tea, as my family poured it, red, as I like it.

Remember  how I was guesstimating how old my host “mom” is, well she finally asked me how old I am today, and was relieved that she was older… by 2 years… yep… she’s 30… but she’s also shown me a lot more around the house to help me feel more at home, probably because I’m so old lol. I’ve got the gate code, a key, have been shown where to get clean drinking water, been told there’s something called максим (maksim) in the fridge, I think? She showed me how to make my own tea (which I learned today that if you like it красный/red it means you like it strong), and also how to use the washing machine. My host mom last year wouldn’t let me do my own laundry, which is super sweet, and shows some cultural differences, I think. Even though I lived with her family for 2 months, I was always still considered, and treated, as a guest. Btw- tea is HUGE in Russian & Asian cultures if you didn’t already know that. Here (at least at home) it always comes in a concentrated form out of a tea pot and poured over a wee strainer with a few loose leaves in it, then diluted with hot water. It's served in a small bowl, called a пиала (piyala), add a sugar cube or a preserved strawberry and it’s even more delicious than it was originally. Speaking of strawberries… ermagherd… we got the BEST smoothies/смузис today! For about $3, it was so incredibly fresh and tasty… there will be many of those consumed this summer.

A fine example of taking your tea красный (red).

I’m pretty sure I’ve got a much more traditional Kyrgyz family than the students I’ve talked to today. Most of them had minimal exposure to their families and their customs because they just got in this morning at 5am, then had to be at school by 9am (for most of us it’s at least 25min to get to school) then we walked around the city… had I known we were going to walk so much, I would have worn a much different outfit… Yeah… walking around the city for hours on day 1 is one is pretty much one of my least favorite things to do… do you know how many of the things I remember from it? Umm… none. I remember where the nearest bank to get money is, and the shopping mall near the school, which is where I need to get off my marshrutka… we’ll see how well this goes tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have the girls come with me for a while before I need to figure it out on my own. I think I have a pretty good handle on it, but I need to get used to keeping an eye out for my stop somehow, having to ask to get off at a stop, and to flagging down the marshrutkas. In Moscow, we got on and off at pretty standard stops, so they always stopped, whether anyone was waiting or not.

One of the few marshrutkas in my area.

Oh, I guess I should explain what a marshrutka is, since most American cities don’t have them, though I hear NYC has a few underground ones. A marshrutka is a minibus/van that only goes along a fixed route. It costs a little bit more than riding a traditional bus, and is way more crowded, but they often stop closer to where you want to get on and off. There’s no A/C, and the driver breaks harder than I do… at least the one on the way home today did… needless to say, this is a place where I will be showering at night to get the nasty of the day off… and maybe taking some whorebaths with wetwipes during the day. I managed to find toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, Nivea hand cream, and bodywash today for about $17 total, but normal body lotion seems to be elusive, maybe it’s just the store we were in… and I forgot to look for hand sanitizer… I need that, my hands feel dirty all the time.

Just like Russia and Batumi, A/C doesn’t exist in these houses, but heating is provided by the city… too bad it’s not cold out… The room I was in for testing today had a small A/C unit, but it was too little too late. It was so stuffy and warm in that room that I started to fall asleep DURING my placement test… so… hopefully my results still place me in the proper level.

Also, as I’m typing this, the wee little hellion is pant-less, playing hide and seek with his big sister. Not gonna lie… I envy him a little. I already miss living alone. His happy noises are hard to differentiate from his upset noises too, unless he’s legitimately crying.

So, what makes a Kyrgyz family so different from other families? Well, in Batumi, my family’s flat was perfectly normal, actually I really loved it. Small, but cozy, well decorated, and that balcony… you couldn’t beat an evening sitting out there, watching the families of the neighborhood head out for evening walks, eating perfectly ripe watermelon as that cool sea breeze rolled down the streets. Here, well yes it’s different because we’re in the suburbs, but everyone’s house out here feels a lot like a compound. There’s high cement walls with gates around all of them. There’s a carport for the Mercedes my family owns (yeah, their car costs about as much as the student loan debt I’ve got now) and when you go inside, you immediately take your shoes off, if you didn't already do it outside. In Batumi, it didn’t seem super necessary that I take them off right away, I’d walk into my room and take them off there, but my host mom would always get on to me for not putting on a pair of slippers/flipflops for walking around the flat. Well, she kept it so clean, I really didn’t see a need to do such a thing. Anyway, here it’s fine to walk around inside the house without shoes or slippers on, which I prefer anyway. I know I can leave them by the door, but I don’t want to crowd things too much, so I’ve been carrying them up to my room. Also, you need a pair of sandals/flipflops for walking around outside. THIS seems to be what makes my family different from other families… there’s a table to eat at outside under the carport, and a garden behind the house, between 2 sheds, a separate kitchen for cooking in when it’s hot out (there is one inside the house), and a table in the room next to it for meals when it’s hot out, as well as another stove of sorts in there too. I think for bigger meals. To me, it looks like it’s meant specifically for making dishes like plov, or beshbarmak, but I’m betting that’s not the case. I'll give you a better tour in a later post.

Not having internet at home is still kinda rough. Last year that was a good hunk of what kept me from getting homesick. I really pride myself on being a bit of a nomad and able to just go anywhere without missing “home”. Yesterday, I wasn’t missing “home” because, well… I don’t have one anymore… instead, I was missing Istanbul, where in a matter of days, I felt at home. It helped that I had a sweet flat with wifi, and my cell phone still got free data and texts though. Here, like in Georgia, it’s $0.50/text and $5.99/MB of data, so… needless to say, I’ll be shelling out the cash soon to buy myself a 4G data plan and mobile wireless router with one of the companies around here. It’s a 10 hour time difference, so the only convenient times to have any hope of getting in touch with anyone back in US is late at night when I’m relaxing before bed, and early in the morning when I’m getting ready to go to school. Which is about 1pm or 9pm for most of y’all. If I just sit at wifi cafes after class I’m really going to be missing out on a lot of the socializing, which is really one of the most important parts of this program. (The friends I’ve gotten to hold on to from these programs are some of the most fierce friends I could ask for) Besides, at 2pm when class gets out, it’s still only 4am on the East coast.

Speaking of relaxing before bed, I’ve got just a little bit of mental energy left in me to work on some draft messages (since I can’t send any until I get to school in the morning). I really should work on getting to bed earlier. But at least my hair has a familiar and comforting scent to it now that I’ve been reunited with my favorite shampoo and conditioner scents, which aren't sold stateside for some stupid reason. Oh, and my family put TP in the bathroom- WOOT! (It’s the little things, right? Lol)

Side note… the call to prayer here sounds very different from what I heard in Turkey, I’ll have to make recordings and post them as well for you to compare. Maybe it’s because I’m further away from the source, and there aren’t competing calls, but it sounds very different to me.

End of Bishkek Day 2.

Is this home?

Добро пожаловать в Киргизию! Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!

The Kyrgyz flag flies atop the sentinel mound at the Manas Ordo Complex near Talas, Kyrgyzstan

In my last post, you got some insight to the mess that has been my Tinder experience around Istanbul. Update - it wasn't as overwhelming by the time I left. I suppose I got used to the bad pickup lines, broken English, and expectations of Turkish/Tinder men. I've met a few cool people, and had some shenanigan filled adventures, courtesy of Tinder, though. I may have even met a man or two that I wouldn't mind keeping in my life in some form or another while I was in Istanbul as well. Since I made my Instagram account public, that's been inundated with messages too. Apparently they think that social networking and dating are synonymous. So thank you, Istanbul, for trying to make me feel pretty and interesting. I miss you dearly.

Also since my last post - I have gone on adventures to France, Belgium, Germany and now the Czech Republic. I've had a lot of adventures in this short time, and certainly have a lot to write about to keep y'all entertained.

Anyway, it's time to rewind a bit... I'd go all the way back to my 1st visit to Istanbul, but I want to start sharing parts of this crazy ride I've been on more frequently, especially now that I've started traveling for real this time. So, we're gonna jump right into my time in Bishkek. The following few posts will be largely unedited, raw writings of my first few days there. If I were to edit them, you'd lose out on the fresh memories, some of which I'm happy to report I can now look back and laugh at. I think it's time to send you on the journey with me - through the struggle - with me. I thought that adjusting to Batumi last year was The Hardest Thing I Ever Had To Do... I was wrong. 

If you want a little background to establish my mental state at the beginning of these adventures, you can read my pre-departure post: One Year Later. The gist of it - I was in a state of fear and panic, as the path I had been intending to follow was swept out from under me, and I was left in the same position I was in when I finished my undergrad: unemployed and homeless, with no prospects in sight. All I knew was that it would be good for my soul, and career path, to go to Bishkek, even though it meant spending money I should have been saving. 

On June 12th, I took my final Master's Comprehensive Exam and walked out of the room confident that I had nailed it. I packed up my apartment over the following 2 days with the help of some amazing friends, moved all of my belongings into storage, and said goodbye to Tallahassee. On June 15th, I was leaving the USA, the entire time thinking: "I'm not coming back until you give me a reason. America, I dare you, give me a reason to come back!" Spoiler alert: I have no intention of going back any time soon.

Now, with all of that stress and uncertainty fresh in your mind, let's begin.

Bishkek- Day 1 – 21 June 2015

Boarding our delightfully under-booked flight with Atlas

Today has been a hard adjustment. For starters, my head just feels funny. I don’t know if it’s motion (well, land) sickness from the boat ride yesterday (we took the long Bosphorous cruise) followed by the plane, or if it’s altitude sickness. Yes, laugh as much as you want, but this Florida girl is used to an elevation of 0ft - Bishkek is about 2,600ft. Anyway, as we began our descent into Bishkek, Masha saw a few lights and a whole lot of darkness and said “I thought we were going to a city? All I see is some North Korea shit down there!” I laughed and reminded her that the airport was still about 30km away from the actual city center, so we probably still weren’t in a position to see it. Shortly after, we finally saw the lights of the city, but that reassurance I gave her will come back to bite me in the butt if you keep reading.

Cheap fares, good food & plenty of empty seats - fly Atlas!

So, after that we continued joking around about what we were supposed to tell customs officers if they asked us why we were there, and how long we planned to stay. I said (in a Christopher Walken-esque rhythm) “I’m here to sight-see, and I hear y’all have some sights to see! Show me the sights!” Mash chimed in with “The sooner you stamp that passport, the sooner I can see the sights!” and well, I’m sure everyone around us thought that the only 2 white girls on the plane (with the exception of our Turkish crew) were pretty special… Mind you, it was about 3am Bishkek time, 12am Istanbul time, and 4pm EST at this point. After spending 3 hours in the Istanbul airport (never arrive more than 2hours early for flights in this part of the world), and 5 hours on an under-booked flight that still managed to not have enough leg room, add on some nerves about the next 2 months, and you’ve got 2 delirious girls.

Masha and I in a slightly less delirious state as we prepared to take off for Bishkek.

Anyhow, right before all that joking began, the thought ran through both of our heads at the same time: “What the HELL did I get myself into?!” Last summer, she was in Kazan, Russia, a fairly large city, and well, IN RUSSIA. She fits in there. If y’all haven’t noticed from the photos I’ve posted on Facebook and Instagram, she kinda stuck out like a sore thumb in Istanbul. Now, I’m getting to enjoy that feeling for the 1^st time here in Bishkek. I never thought I’d miss my cultural ambiguity as much as I do right now.

In Russia last year, people didn’t think twice about whether I was Russian or not. In Batumi, people thought I was Russian, and once I got a tan, I started to fit in more with the Georgians. In Istanbul, an old man who reminded me a lot of my Italian Step-Grandfather assumed I was of Turkish descent even after I told him I was from America. Today, my new hostess asked about my ethnicity as well. She said I have Russian eyes. I’ve only met a few people here in Bishkek, but there’s a whole lot of “one of these things is not like the other” going on around here, and well… for once, it’s me. But enough about the whole diversity thing… I know y’all are wanting to know about life with a new family.

I know I didn’t post much about my time in Batumi last year. You can blame a hunk of that on where I was staying. A lovely flat just blocks away from the Black Sea, in one of the best locations in the city, with an incredibly outgoing, sweet, and caring, host mom and family. I didn’t really have much down time to reflect on my experiences between that, school, hanging out with friends, and harassing a certain person who became my rock and kept me smiling. So far, my new host family here is really nice. They’ve let me do my thing and fed me very well. I’ve got a harder time considering them as a host mom & dad, because, well… I’m pretty sure they’re about my age. They’ve got a beautiful little girl, I’d say about 9 years old (who’s room I also took over judging by the pink Disney princess curtains and dolphin sheets - last year when I took over my host brother’s room it was maturely decorated for a 15yr old boy), and a hellion of a toddler, hitting his terrible 2’s. Considering how most of the cultures of Eastern Europe/Eurasia that I’ve encountered marry young and have children young… I’m putting them at 35 max. I know my host mom last year was only about 13 years older than me, but she also had a college aged daughter, and treated me as her own daughter as well. I don’t think my new hosts will be able to wrap their heads around that anytime soon, and I can’t blame them. If you put someone in my house that was 7 years younger than me, well, they’d just be my friend, or a sibling figure. (Heck half of my friends are about 7 years younger than me nowadays anyway).

But I digress… I think I’ve begun rambling. Oh yes… back to our arrival in Bishkek...

We landed sometime after 3am, and Masha and I easily moved through customs, with no questions asked whatsoever. We were greeted by a pretty, young, Russian-looking girl from the school our program would be using. She led us to the creepy van that would take us to our host families, and gave us little welcome packs to help us settle in. The pack consisted of a tourist map of Bishkek, a bottle of water, "goldfish" crackers, a dinky local cell phone, and a roll of toilet paper... soon enough you'll see how that welcome pack wasn't very reassuring for my 1st day there...

For now, let's jump to how reassuring Masha that we weren’t going to North Korea came to bite me in the ass… ya know how suburbs are a pretty Western concept? Well, that concept has been spreading. The airport was already about 30min away from the center of the city, and the girl who welcomed us told us that we're both lucky and only have a short bus ride to school every day. We circled Masha's neighborhood a few times trying to find her house, once we did, we said goodbye, and set off to find my house... which is at least 10 minutes from Masha's house. A short ride to school you say? What do you think is short? Oh, and guess what we passed on our way out there? A YURT! THERE'S A FREAKING YURT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! HOW FAR OUT OF THE CITY ARE WE!? I’m at least 6km away from my school, and that’s only what I gathered from google maps today based on landmarks I saw as I was driven here at 4am this morning. I can’t see the Bishkek skyline from here, and at night, I can’t see much of anything. Street lights are not a thing out here… neither are buses… I’m gonna have to learn which marshrutka and which stop will get me home tomorrow.

Does THIS look like a capital city to you?

When I woke up after over-sleeping in order to avoid all the awkward "getting to know you" stuff a little bit, I heard the sounds of a child screaming. I'm not certain if it was joy or anger, all I know is I don't know how to handle children... great... anyway, in the afternoon, my host mom made me a late lunch, and showed me around a little bit, and had her daughter clear out some space in the hallway closet for me to unpack, turned on the computer, and went off to Mosque with the kids, giving me some time to gather myself and get situated before dinner. I unpacked my stuff, and started going through my welcome pack.

First I tried to figure out where we were on the map that was in my welcome pack only to realize that our neighborhood isn't on it at all... okay, so we are pretty far a way from school... the bottle of water was a nice touch, since it's best to assume that water from the tap in most countries isn't safe to drink. In Russia, the water tasted gross, and was likely to make you sick. Bottled water wasn't cheap either, so it led to us drinking a lot of soda and beer, since it only cost a little more when we weren't near our big jugs we bought for the dorm rooms. In Batumi, bottled water was cheap, and tasty too, but the water from the tap was AMAZING! It was some of the best water I've ever tasted! Quite a delightful surprise after we were initially told to not even brush our teeth with that water to avoid getting sick or catching a parasite of sorts. In Bishkek, bottled water is super cheap and the tap water isn't dangerous to drink, it just doesn't taste as good, and is really hard. My family has a specific tap for drinking water, but it's not nearly as cold as the water to come out of the normal tap. The pack of "goldfish" crackers was quite disappointing... they taste nothing like the real thing. They don't even taste like saltines, much more bready... the local phone they gave us didn't have any money on it, didn't even have what our own number is written on it, so we have to figure out how to find it somehow, and there's no list of who has what phone number, so... unlike last year, when I was given a list of student numbers so I could get in touch with them right away, I spent my 1st day wishing I could call Masha, but couldn't.

Essentials for adjusting to Bishkek

The last item in the welcome pack was, of course, the roll of toilet paper... when I saw this, I thought
"haha, cute joke by the administration" because last year in Batumi, the school we attended rarely ever had TP in the bathrooms... nope... not the reason at all... When I finally walked into our little bathroom, I understood why... it's not a universal thing around here to use TP... there was a damp rag sitting on top of the toilet... gross. So. Much. Gross. I remember talking with someone about how some people in the US are switching to using cloth rags instead, because they're hippies and don't want to waste paper, but they would have a bin to toss the used ones in and then just wash them in a machine... nope... pretty sure this one just gets washed as you go, and everyone in the family uses the same one... nuuuuuuuuuuupe! It was after this that I finally got on the computer to try to figure out where in the world I was, and see if anyone I knew was on Facebook for me to freak out to. That 10 hour time difference meant that sure enough, no one was online. I made a quick, stressed out, and slightly terrified, status update and went back to my room to try to settle in.

I was freaking out JUST a little..

So, I was expecting we would live in the city, like I did last year. Mash isn’t exactly close to it either, but I think normal buses go out to her area at least. This puts a damper on getting to live in a similar manner as I did last year: Have breakfast at home before I leave for school, hang out with friends all day after class, enjoy a few glasses (or liters) of wine, then go home, chat with my family a bit, watch some RuTV or whatever they were watching, get on the internet to finish up the day’s homework, catch up on some Facebook, and chat with the person who could relate so well to what I was going thru and really kept me from getting homesick, while kinda making me look forward to going home at the same time. That same person, who had become my rock, who had me excited to go to Bishkek, is no longer in my life. So, I’m not sure how things will work out this year, just yet. My host “dad” is going to find out the best way to go about getting my computer and phone hooked up to the internet so I don’t have to use his computer for everything. But that still leaves how far away from the city and school that I live, leaving nothing for me to do without navigating public transportation. Not to mention, my family is Muslim, and it is currently Ramadan. So… plans of going out clubbing and being young and stupid this summer may just be out of the question completely. I know staying in and studying and applying for jobs and learning more about Islam and what life is like in a Muslim family will make me a better person in the long run, but man I miss going out every night in Istanbul! I miss acting the way I should have acted when I was Masha’s age. I should have been going out and having fun. Stupid being too young to go out for most of my time at University...

Anyway, since Ramadan started a few days ago, I also feel a bit guilty that my host “mom” has to make me food, when she's fasting. My neighbor called her and his wife both models - they fast for 1 month and they’re skinny again. At least the people around me have a good sense of humor, and I’m sure we’ll get comfortable around each other eventually. 

For those of you who don’t know anything about Ramadan, here’s a quick intro: it takes place during the 9^th month of the Islamic calendar, which is considered to be the holiest month of the year. People fast from sunrise to sunset, and avoid impure thoughts and actions. Think that's not too hard? In the summer here, (Ramadan began in June this year) the sun rises at 4:30am, and doesn’t set until about 9pm. That is some serious dedication.

The food I’ve had so far is tasty though. I have NO CLUE what I’m eating most of the time… or drinking for that matter… I should have taken photos of my food today for you, but I’m sure there will be time for that later. Plus I didn’t want to seem TOO weird on day 1. I do know that for dinner, they made a dish called “5 fingers” or «пять палцев» (pyat paltsev) in Russian, or бешбармак (beshbarmak) in Kyrgyz, and they make it for special guests. It was noodles with meat pieces, a big hunk of meat on the side (which mainly the men and special guests ate directly from) and we drank bullion with it. Not too weird, for a totally different culture, right? My neighbor told that I needed to eat it the traditional way, with 5 fingers, but his wife informed me he was joking, and I could use utensils. Having them over for dinner tonight, certainly made things a little less awkward for me. It's nice to know the neighbors and feel welcome in the community.

When we were done eating there was a prayer that I’m not used to, and feel a little weird doing because I don’t want to come across as disrespectful, but trying to do it is me attempting to be respectful, and my neighbor did try to teach it to me, and I earnestly tried to learn it… anyway, we finished it off with some tea. Some damn good tea at that. Just like in Russia, every meal has tea. I don’t hate it. Maybe this time when I get back to the states I’ll actually learn to make it correctly and keep up with that habit. After dinner I took a stroll with the men folk, and their toddler boys. That was when I learned that this is basically going to turn into a suburb eventually. None of the houses here existed 5 years ago, it was just fields. The side streets aren’t paved, but there is an attempt at a sidewalk along the main road. I just have no clue how everyone manages to walk around here without any sort of flashlight.

End of Day 1. Stay tuned for Days 2 & 3, and plenty more tales of shenanigans and cultural experiences!

A view of the Government Flag Stock, which is supervised by a special guard all day, and the Aykol Manas (Magnanimous Manas) statue in front of the State Historical Museum from Ala-too Square, the main square (плошадь) in Bishkek.