This past Saturday, I spent nearly the
entire day working on my lesson plans for Monday. Luckily, the levels of the
classes I teach go in order (Elementary 2,3,4, Pre-Intermediate 1), so next
month when everyone moves up a level, I’ll only have to plan lessons for
Pre-Intermediate 2; I’ll be able to recycle the lesson plans from the previous
groups. Of course, this means that this month – in addition to having a morning
class – I am spending an absurd amount of time planning lessons. I can only
imagine how exhausted I will be by the end of the month!
Sunday I finally made it to downtown Bishkek. I was meeting someone in a café
downtown, and at that point didn’t know how long it would take me to make it down
there... as such, I left very early. As it turns out, downtown Bishkek is
approximately a 30 minute walk from my apartment. As I made it to my
destination with about an hour to spare, I decided to walk about for a bit and
take some pictures. All of the information I’m providing below regarding the
pictures is based on information in Lonely Planet, so if it turns out any of my
facts are incorrect, blame them.
The first thing of note that I came to when I reached downtown Bishkek was a
large square with a statue honoring martyrs of the revolution. One assumes they
mean Ye Olde Soviet Revolution, back in the day.
While pondering non-Pushkin, a man thundered past me on a pony which looked
way too small to be racing around bearing someone of his stature:
After leaving the area of non-Puskin
behind, I made it to Ala Too Square, which used to be dominated (as were all
central squares back in Soviet times) by a gigantic statue of Lenin. He’s been
replaced by what my book labels as the Erkindik (Freedom) Statue. It’s really
too bad that the sky was so hazy. On a clear day, one can see the mountains
from the square (I’ve seen pictures...), although I could barely make them out.
You can’t see them at all in my photos.
In addition to the Erkindik Statue, Ala
Too Square is also home to the Kyrgyz Flag, which remains under armed
ceremonial guard. I personally found it odd that a flag warranting two armed
guards would be so small.
Located directly behind the Erkindik
Statue is a historical museum. To its right sits a group of large stones, most
of which look like nothing more than, well, large stones. However, on some, one
can see that they have weathered carvings, giving them features. These stones
are balbals, which Lonely Planet defines as centuries old “Turkic, totem-like
stone markers.”
Not far from the balbal garden is the
statue of Lenin, who was relocated to a less prominent position after the
collapse of the Soviet Union. I didn’t actually make it over to Lenin, as at
that point I realized I needed to be heading back if I was going to make it to
my destination of the evening on time. (Turns out I needn’t have worried; I got
there with several minutes to spare.)
My destination was a restaurant with the unlikely name of Fatboy’s, located in
central Bishkek. There I met up with BI, a local fellow who runs a variety of
local blogs, websites, and other fabulous things, and who is completely
awesome. We had Turkish plov and... burritos! I have no idea how this is
possible, but the burritos at Fatboy’s tasted almost like real burritos. This
seems to never happen outside of the US and Mexico... and yet somehow I found
myself eating something damn close to a genuine burrito out here in Central
Asia of all places.
After dinner we did quite a lot of walking around Bishkek, looking at
architecture and prostitutes and whatnot. There were definitely some
interesting places that I must go back and photograph in the daytime. (No, not
the hookers, the architecture. Jeez.)
On Monday I had my first classes of the year, and I must say that it was quite
nice to get back into teaching. It’s amazing how much I actually enjoy doing
it, and my classes here are fantastic. Unfortunately, after six hours on my
feet I am exhausted, and want nothing more than to collapse into my bed.
Thus far the most amusing answer to a
question that I’ve received was to the question of “How long is our class?” I
was going for either 80 minutes or one hour and twenty minutes, but received
the answer of “About five meters.” I have several ethnically Korean students,
and one Korean citizen student. He’s in probably 9th grade, and currently lives
here with his uncle and cousin, but spent last year in Daejeon with his family.
I spoke a little Korean to him and he broke out into the biggest grin. Awesome.
I do wonder why exactly he got sent off to K-stan to live with his uncle,
though.
Tuesday, in between morning and afternoon classes, several of the other
teachers and I got to go to the national AIDS center to be tested. Apparently,
one must have proof of being HIV-negative in order to register as a resident,
and Kyrgyzstan only accepts tests done here in K-stan. The AIDS center was one
of the most depressing places I have ever been in my entire life – miserably
cold (where was their state-provided heat?), dark and prison-like. The
blood-drawing itself was quite sanitary... although then my syringe-full of
blood was squeezed into an open test-tube that was located on a rack next to
several dozen other un-corked test tubes full of blood. That was rather
disconcerting, and I would’ve loved to get a picture; however, I suspect that
would’ve caused numerous problems.
After leaving the AIDS center, I went to the Turkish Airlines office, which was
FINALLY open again after the winter holidays. Inside there was a New Year’s
Tree (like a Christmas tree, only without the Christ part), and underneath it a
huge pile of suitcases – and my giant red backpack was among them. Yay! I have
finally been reunited with the rest of my things. Life is wonderful.
Bee is always “nursing” on Gee, despite
the fact that not only is Gee not Bee’s mother, but Bee is the bigger of the
two cats. In some ways it’s really quite endearing. However, sometimes Bee just
starts slurping away so loudly and enthusiastically that it’s rather
disconcerting! (You might notice that the cats are most definitely indoor cats, directives against having cats inside notwithstanding!)
This thing (a nice Soviet skhaf) is in my living room / kitchen:
You might notice from my reflection how I
am not wearing my fabulous warm and fuzzy leopard print pajamas mom got for me
before I left. Instead, I’m wearing a tank top and shorts; it’s damn hot inside.
Kyrgyzstan suffers from that same oddity of Soviet-era engineering that plagues
Russia: state provided heat. This means that it is inevitably turned on several
weeks too late, is way too hot (and un-adjustable) throughout the winter, and
will undoubtedly be shut off several weeks before the weather actually warms
up. So for now, in the dead of winter, I’m lounging around my apartment in my
summer jammies.
I have yet to have any Kyrgyz food. Instead I keep finding Russian foods that
please me to no end. Like the chocolate – Russian chocolate is here! Oh,
happiness. And in addition, look what else we’ve got:
On the left we have the Kyrgyz take on
Korean Cabbage. While it’s slightly different from its Russian counterpart
(more herbs and peppers), it is nothing at all like kimchi. On the right we
have “Korean” carrot salad, which is *exactly* the same as it was in Russia. (This
“Korean” carrot salad is a staple throughout the former Soviet Union, and I’ve
never once seen it in Korea.) Yum.
Look what this isn’t. It looks like doshirak,
it tastes like doshirak, but it ain’t doshirak. At
first I thought that perhaps the doshirak people decided to
give their product a Russian name (doshirak means lunchbox in
Korean; lapsha means ramen in Russian), but upon closer
examination, this stuff is produced in Moscow, not Korea. Boo. But this makes
up for it:
An extra large sirok with sgushonka!
Need I say more?
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