Friday Night Chinese

February 3, 2008

By Friday, I was feeling mostly better, and was left merely with a sore throat, a voice like an old crone, and a hacking cough. Yes, this was an improvement. Friday night some of the teachers, J (an American studying Russian at the London School), I.T. and I met at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Bishkek (located roughly behind the circus). J used to live in China and apparently speaks fluent Chinese. He had been to this restaurant several times before, and had managed to befriend all the staff. I.T. arrived first and was told there would be no tables available for at least an hour (the place *was* packed), but then J sweet-talked the employees into essentially kicking some people out of a table and giving it to us! Also, I have no idea how much food actually costs at this place, because J apparently got us a huge discount. Six of us shared numerous incredibly delicious dishes and had two to three beers a piece, and the total came to around 1300 soms. For the massive amounts of food and drink we got, that was unbelievably cheap.

Anyhow, when we first entered this restaurant, they were playing Chorny Glaza at top volume. For those of you who have heard the phenomenon that is Chorny Glaza, you know how addictive and wonderful and happy it is. The dance floor was packed with mainly middle aged Kyrgyz dancing away. There was also a small child, probably about two years old, dancing with a ginormous cat. The cat was about as big as she was, and totally placid. The still photo doesn’t do it justice at all.

Additionally, we all got to take turns dancing with various people, most of whom were nice, but some of whom were sleazy and/or drunk. Sadly, one creepy dude kept dancing with me and I.T. (or trying to anyway) and seemed to think it was totally appropriate to stick his hand up the backs of our respective shirts. Boo! Also, I was asked to slow dance with this crazy middle aged Kyrgyz woman. Um, okay.