The last week in June was a really good week. We kept busy whitewashing our new home, a process that is pretty cool. First you buy “white stones” (I think its Lyme) by the kilo. Then put the stones in a large metal container and add water. Once the water touches the Lyme reacts by boiling, within a minute or two your metal container is filled with what looks like white lava. After about 30 minutes the mixture is combined with more water to form a watery substance to paint with. Pretty cool.
On Tuesday, the Lytcee staff had an excursion to the silver river (yes, it has silver in it) right outside of Bakai-ata. It was a really beautiful spot for a relaxing day. We had shaslik (Shish Kebabs) for lunch and Demdema (meat, cabbage, carrots, and onions in some water and covered so that all the ingredients steam) for dinner. All of the food was cooked over open fire which was pretty neat and absolutely delicious. Alex and skipped stones and spent some time getting the know the staff at my school. Our History teacher invited us to go on a 5 day camping trip this fall; we would go farther up the river where the fishing is apparently amazing. He is also a certified guide which is nice to know. We are excited and hopeful that this trip happens. During the day he also told us about how more than a thousand years ago Kyrgyz people lived in undergroud cities and that one of these cities has been found in Talas but that there is no funding to excavate it. I'm not sure how much of this is fact and how much is legend, but I think its really awesome nonetheless.
We spent Wednesday afternoon in Talas City since a few of our friends from other oblasts came to visit. I had a really good cream soup with little meat filled raviolli type things inside---with a little garlic it would have been amazing (we're going to try it at home soon). We sucessfully got our pay out of the bank and visited the bazzar. The bazzar in Talas is quite a bit smaller than the bazzars in Bishkek but has quite an amazing selection for the size. You can find everything from chicks to car engine parts. ornamental cactuses to a decent variety of vegetables. I was excited to find parsley, chilli pepper, lettuce (!!!), and leek seeds as well as some plastic pots. I am on my way to a little garden and some extra flavor in my food. We also visited a little shop called Dr.Meod. It made me quite happy to find a medical shop that only contained honey and honey related products. I bought a bear container full of tiny pollen balls (somebody hand collects pollen from flowers) that are used here as allergy medication.
On Thursday, a whole bunch of our host mom's family came over and we had a big celebration. Friday and Saturday were spent relaxing, picking cherries, and eating apricots. Today, I left Talas for a conference I am working with in Bishkek. I sucessfully got to Bishkek and then to the hotel by myself without getting hugely ripped off---it's suprising what an accomplishment that is. I'm staying in a pretty little hotel WITH INTERNET ACCESS. Woot. Alright here's a link to a whole album of photos, enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.726210112027.2208934.7606386&l=bc7aec8455
Love you guys!
Athena
Nice hear about all the white washing, getting your new place ready. Picnic sounds awesome. You me and picnics. looks like you settling in. cannot wait to come visit your town.
ReplyDeleteMom
oh man, how I mish shashlik. Kak dela? vsyo normalna? I'll see about getting the Russian language pack installed on my work computer so that I may type in Cyrillic and throw Russian at you. Anyways, now that I've got your blog being followed on Google reader, you should see frequent comments from me (I just got caught up reading everything since your first post abroad). I hope you and Huss are doing well.
ReplyDeletesmooches,
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