Иссык-Куль

This weekend I got to go to the most amazing lake, Иссык-Куль. It was incredible. Here are some photos!

We stayed at Ulaans parents house and they have chickens, so I got to hold this little guy. It's the simple things in life.

When we were at the lake, we were able to ride on their friends yacht and get some great views of the lake!

This is my host family!

Everything we ate this weekend was grown in the yard :) These are some of the best 

cherries I've ever had

week 2 update

Things here are good as usual, although unfortunately shawarma here is very sweet and doesn't resemble the taste I have been craving since St Petersburg. So I will wait a few more weeks!

This weekend I attended an excellent church service at the Methodist Church in Bishkek. The friends I met there are very sweet and I am excited to get to know them even more. Galina has given me several tours around different parks and is so wonderful to me. She has definitely shown me Central Asian hospitality! The pastors wife, Yulia, was able to connect me with a local orphanage. The first orphanage said they don't take foreigner volunteers after some pictures of the kids were posted on FB. It's such a shame that breaking that rule affected all of those children. So we went to a second orphanage. All of the kids there are social orphans (so they have parents). I worked with the three-four year olds and they were so hungry for attention. They are so active and amazing and I look forward to spending my Wednesday mornings with them.

Tuesday was an interesting morning. I started a small kitchen fire. Everyone was sleeping but my host brother awoke and helped me put it out. Unfortunately, he burned his foot in the process. My family was so kind about the incident and went back to bed after it was put out-things here are very relaxed.

Here is a picture of Burana tower, it's about an hour and a half out of Bishkek. The view was astonishing.

explore.

Being in Kyrgyzstan finally hit yesterday. As I was taking the bus to school and walking to grab lunch I realized this feeling of independence in the city is amazing. I am in city where I may not know where everything is, but I can discover so many new things. Also, people around here are so willing to help. At lunch I can grab food at Vefa center and I love the community at the London School. Coming home is great as well, because I get to see my host family, especially my little brother. He is so beautiful and probably the happiest child I have ever met. Laughing over the language barrier and miscommunication is a wonderful part of daily life here.

My host father killed a spider for me the other day, which was so kind. I swear that the spider had intentions to eat me as it continually got closer to my bed. Ulaan insisted it was small at first, but as time went on, it was like a fisherman's story and the spider got larger and larger.

Yesterday, we went to the art museum and some of the work was mind-blowing. There was a room dedicated to yurtas. The man had worked on this exhibit for eight years and each one of the wall-coverings for the yurta took him around four months. The passion and pride for his country was both astounding and beautiful.

days one and two

My first day I arrived at home around 5:00 AM. I woke up around 8:00 and got to meet the rest of my family-Cholpon (my host mom) and Ulaan (host dad), Alehan (their 11 month old son) and Uraan (Ulaan's brother). They took me to the bazaar and then dropped me off at the London school for orientation. I met some great friends-many from Canada and others from Australia and a few from the US. We looked around town and I got my cell phone. I am the only one staying with a host family (that I know of) but it has been a great experience. Then, my host brother picked me up and we went to the pool. It was a little over 100 degrees and there was no wind! So after walking around all day, the pool was awesome. Then he showed me where the marshrutka and autobuses are that I can take to school. Marshrutka's are like 10 passenger vans. This morning I counted 18 people standing and all the seats are of course taken. This does not feel fun when you are already sweating and more people are piling in. Also, it's almost impossible to see where you are going with all the people in front of you.

 Last night I went to bed at 9:00 (I was proud I made it until 9PM) and woke up at 10:00 completely rested. Unfortunately I had many more hours to go. Today (day 2) I woke up at 6:00 because I had to get to the school and take my placement test by 8:00. Then classes began at 8:30-it was exhausting, because the classes are all one-on-one. That means you can't space out for a second and you always have to be prepared to answer the questions. I have four different "classes" so the teachers basically cycle in while I learn grammar, reading, and conversation. Each class is 90 minutes (taught in Russian) and there is a half hour break for lunch. I was exhausted by the end and attempted to take the bus, but went "way" too far, according to the amazing Kyrgyz babooshka's who tried their best to explain it to me in simple Russian. Unfortunately, the apartment is not near a main road and doesn't have very many distinguishing buildings around it.I took a marshrutka back to a central point and walked a few minutes home. While stopping at the center, a very kind man called his daughter (who spoke English) and handed me the phone because he thought I needed help. What a hospitable culture!! I came home and Cholpan's little brother gave me maroshena (ice cream) it was wonderful! I also broke down (and only on day two) and drank tap water, because I literally thought I might die without it..this girl was not built for 100 degrees! Every weekend, we are going on excursions and this weekend is Burana tower.

the journey to get here

Tuesday morning I was finished with finals, Wednesday I moved into storage, and by Friday I was on the plane. Since there was a huge storm in NY the plane was delayed and there was a good deal of turbulence-but I love that stuff..it was the kind where everyone claps when you land... Jetblue was great and gave animal crackers as snacks (way better than peanuts or pretzels). Also, they gave us free movies since we were so delayed. On the plane I met someone who was also traveling from Seattle to Turkey and we were able to grab some delicious Turkish food together before our next flight. He was so kind and it really made me want to travel to Turkey one day. Turkish air was wonderful and we arrived in Bishkek 40 minutes ahead of schedule where someone from the school met me around 2:30 AM. We searched for the apartment and made it around 5:00 where my host mother was up to greet me :)

a trip abroad

In exactly one week I will be heading on the plane to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for a study abroad trip! Each day I will have around 4 hours of individual instruction of the Russian language. Then, I will go home to a homestay to be able to learn even more about the culture of Central Asia and practice my Russian. There is a lot to do before then, but I have just heard that my passport is on it's way back from the visa office :) Nothing is more exciting than knowing you're done preparing, and now you just have to wait. Of course, finals, signing a lease, packing, moving, applying for grants, and figuring out internships will keep me busy. For all of you who are currently wondering where Kyrgyzstan is, here's 

a map...