Craft Market and New Apartment!

Sunday, Eve, Markus and I went to a beautiful crafts market that was set up downtown near Ala-Too Square. There were craftspeople from all over Kyrgyzstan selling their wares.

I scoped out some of the crafts for the new apartment and ended up buying an awesome new carpet for my bedroom in the new apartment…

…which we moved into this past weekend!  There’s not too much to say about, except it’s awesome!  We’re hosting a housewarming party tomorrow night.  Pictures of the revelry will surely follow.  Until then, here are some shots of the new flat.

Our living room

Our ginormous kitchen.

The bedroom part of my bedroom

The "salon" half of my bedroom...with new rug!

More pictures of both the market and the apartment can be found on my Facebook page.

Vocabulary:

Market: рынка (RUYN-kah)

Carpet: ковер (kah-VYOHR)

Doll: кукла (KOOK-lah)

Kitchen: кухня (KOOKH-nyah)

Living Room: гостиная (gah-stee-NAH-yah)

Mini-weekend

There are some major pluses and minuses to having my Russian classes only four days a week…with Wednesdays off.

Major plus: having every Tuesday night be a mini-weekend.

Major minus: having every Wednesday morning feel like the morning after a mini-weekend.

Yesterday after finishing class, Dennis – my fellow Fulbrighter – and I gussied ourselves up and headed over to La Bella Italia for a welcoming reception for Christian Wright, the new press officer at the embassy.  I’d met Christian a few times before, and he seems like a great guy.  There was a fair amount of schmoozing, free red wine, and free Italian food.  A win all around.

Afterwards, we met up with some of the other young expats at a Korean restaurant far on the other side of town to celebrate my roommate Stuart’s 24th birthday.   About half of the group indulged on Korean barbecue while the other half quaffed a few Baltika 7s and participated in general revelry.  After the restaurant manager informed us that they were closing at around 11, we hopped into a few cabs and headed to Anton’s, an underground bar in the basement of a building near the London School.  Anton’s serves two things: beer and vodka.  We all sat around in the musty, smoky, ammoniacal haze, sang songs, debated international politics and the effect of irridentism, discussed the merits of boxers versus briefs (boxer briefs!) and had a really drunk Russian guy tell us all about how to achieve peace in Kyrgyzstan.

After closing Anton’s down, we had a nightcap at Michael Jackson’s (yes, there is a bar in Bishkek called Michael Jackson’s.  And yes, it is a shrine to the King of Pop), and then all of a sudden it was closing in on 5am.  My three flatmates and I were the last four standing, and we caught a cab back to our apartment and finally called it a night.  So far this morning (nay, afternoon now), only Aaro and I have emerged from slumber.

At some point this afternoon I have to start my homework.   But I think right now I’ll take a nap…

Vocabulary

Reception: прием (PREE-yehm)

To socialize: общаться (ahb-SHCHAHT-syah)

Hangover: похмелье (pakh-MEL-yeh)

Nap: короткий сон (KOHR-aht-kee SOHN)

Paying it forward

This weekend I had the pleasure of actually getting to serve as tour guide to a new teacher at the London School.  This was awesome for two reasons.

First, it showed me just how much of Bishkek I’ve gotten to know.  There are certainly plenty of undiscovered nooks and crannies still out there for me.  But when it comes to the primary needs of an average expat in Bishkek, I’ve got a good chunk of them down.  I took him on his first marshrutka ride, helped him get a cell phone at Zum (a Soviet era department store), showed him the major sites in and around Ala-Too Square and pointed out the watering holes near the London School.  He was super-appreciative, but I really enjoyed being able to pay it forward and help out someone the way Baylen helped me on my first day here.

Secondly, my Russian was baller that day!  I asked for directions, got the cell phone set up, paid for the marshrutka and even had a random conversation with a dude on the street…all in perfectly passable Russian.  Mind you, these were all pretty run of the mill conversations, but I was able to accomplish things in real life — not just in the classroom.  And it felt good.  It also felt good to have someone compliment me on my Russian skills, even if I know that I still have a long way to go.

In other good news from the weekend, there’s a new Australian butcher shop that opened downtown.  And they have real bacon.  Real. Bacon.  It’s expensive as hell, but I’m going to have to treat myself to it at some point.  I also swung by a small crafts bazar, of which I’ll be posting pictures soon.

And we moved into our new apartment!  I have pictures, but haven’t uploaded them yet, because we don’t have Internet at the apartment yet.  That should be sorted out in the next few days.  But we’re all settled in, and it’s such a wonderful place.  We’re having a housewarming party this Saturday.  If you’re one of my few Bishkekian readers, you are totally invited!

So, it was a busy and productive weekend.  And I promise to have pictures up and about very shortly.  But now I’m off to do homework!

Vocabulary:

weekend: выходные (vuy-KHOD-nuy-yay)

apartment: квартира (kvar-TEE-rah)

butcher: мясник (MYAS-nick)

bacon: бекон (byay-KOHN)

party: вечеринка (vyeh-cheh-REEN-kah)

Shout-out!

Please check out my friend Max’s blog.  He’s an English teacher here at the London School, where I’m taking Russian classes.  He was kind enough to link to one of my posts, so I figured I could return the favor.

Plus he has a hilarious picture of a horse taking a pee.  Seriously.

http://www.bishkekblog.com

Surprise Vacay!

So I just found out that the London School is overbooked for the first two weeks of October, and since I only requested to extend my studies last week, they can’t accommodate me until October 18.  So I have two weeks free!  What to do?!

I might decide to take a small trip somewhere, but I’m leaning towards taking this opportunity to try to start making some contacts and getting the ball rolling on my research project.  I’m heading to a reception for one of the new embassy staff on Tuesday, and I’ve been told there should be a number of education bigwigs there, so that should be a good start.  If nothing else, I’ll make a few calls and emails and maybe try to get in touch with my contact at AUCA to start laying the ground work for school visits and the like.

And, we’re moving into our new apartment next week!  I can’t wait to post pictures of this place, because it’s ridiculously awesome.  There are going to be four of us living there (all guys, all expats, all trying to learn Russian), and I’m super stoked to move in!

Break on through to the other side

Today I felt like I had a nice breakthrough in my Russian classes.

Yesterday, I got about two thirds of the way through my grammar class, and my brain had just had it.  With about 20 minutes to go, my teacher looked at me and said, “There’s some more new information we could go over, but I think you’ve had enough? Yes?”  Reading class wasn’t too bad yesterday, and I had to skip my conversation class to attend my security briefing at the US Embassy.  I struggled through my homework and went to bed feeling a bit bummed out about my progress in Russian altogether.

And then today happened.  There was a particular grammar point yesterday that I just didn’t get.  So, before we started anything new, I asked if we could review that.  I got out of my seat and started writing sentences on the board to analyze, and eventually I got it.  And then we moved on to “который”, a Russian conjuction that basically functions as “what” or “that” (i.e., That is the person that stole my laptop.  Это человек, который украл мой ноутбук.)  It’s a grammatical function that I’m pretty familiar with, which made the rest of the lesson much easier.

Next came reading class.  My assignment from the previous class had been to make a list of the characteristics of two of the characters from the story.  I was a little lazy and a little sloppy and just used an online dictionary to translate some relatively obscure adjectives.  Which would have been fine if I’d cross-checked the definitions to make sure that I was on the right track.  Or if I’d bothered to write down the definitions of the words, so that I could at least explain to my teacher what I meant to say.  But I didn’t do that either.

So when I walked into class today with a list of adjectives that were clearly far beyond my vocabulary level, and then couldn’t even remember what any of them meant, I just started laughing.  And then I said that it was the dictionary’s fault.  Fortunately, my teacher had a great sense of humor about it and started laughing as well.  Particularly when the adjective for obtuse that I chose was the one that describes an obtuse angle.  Which didn’t make sense in Russian at all.  The best part was afterwards, after we’d both had a good laugh, I took my pen to the top of the page and gave myself a check-plus.  Which sent us both into giggle fits again.  Our later discussion about the differences between women and men– as prompted by the short story we read today, was quite the laugh fest as well.  I threw out just about every obnoxious stereotype I could come out with and started defending them, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.  And the teacher got my humor, and we laughed the whole way through the rest of the lesson.

Conversation class was more serious, as we discussed Kyrgyzstan’s upcoming elections and the general states of democracy and various political systems.  Then we discussed globalization a bit.  So, there weren’t any major laughs to be had, but we had a good, pretty well-thought out discussion about all of our topics.

And throughout all three of today’s lessons, I felt more comfortable making sentences.  I was utilizing vocabulary and sentence structures that I certainly didn’t know two weeks ago.  The big pauses between sentences got shorter and shorter.  And overall I just felt much more at ease with the language than I did when I first got here.  That being said, I still have a really terrible vocabulary, and I still have miles to go on both learning new grammar and solidifying even some of the basic case endings, but the whole process seems significantly less daunting than it did three weeks ago when I got here.

Vocabulary

vocabulary: словарь (slah-VAR) (also the word for dictionary)

election: выборы (VUY-bah-ruy)

democracy: демократия (deh-mah-KRAH-tee-yah)

joke: шутка (SHOOT-kah)

sarcasm: сарказм (sar-KAH-zum)

stereotype: стереотип (steh-reh-ah-TEEP)

Be afraid! Be very very afraid!

So I had my security briefing at the American Embassy today.  Which consisted of a combination of perfectly reasonable common sense advice (don’t walk alone at night; don’t carry large amounts of money on your person), light fear-mongering (terrorists can strike ANYWHERE!), and mild xenophobia (avoid public transport; be wary of locals who are being friendly towards you).  I appreciate that they were doing their job, but there’s something about being told to avoid contact with locals as much as possible that just rubs me the wrong way.

I don’t know.

The rest of the staff that I met was quite lovely, and I was invited to a reception next week to welcome a new staff member.  So I’m definitely looking forward to getting to know the embassy staff, and hopefully being able to utilize their knowledge in making contacts for my research.  I think there’s just a different level of intent between a young(ish) guy who’s trying to understand and research aspects of Kyrgyz culture from the ground level and the average embassy employee.  Or maybe I’m being a travel snob.  Both are probably a little bit true.  Either way, I’ll be interested to see how my relationship with the embassy staff develops over the next year.

Vocabulary

xenophobia: ксенофобии (ksen-ah-FOH-bee-ee)

embassy: Посольство (pah-SOHL-stvah)

terrorism: терроризмом (ter-ah-REEZ-mum)

passport: паспорт (PAHS-port)

ambassador: Посол (pah-SOHL)

Sharing Culture

Yesterday, in my conversation class, we were talking about different sports.  This resulted in me attempting to explain the basic rules of American football to my instructor, whose a young Kyrgyz woman.  I got as far as what downs were and what the benefit of punting was.  And then it just seemed entirely too confusing.  Not to mention that I didn’t know most of the terminology in Russian. But I drew a field on the board and did my best.  And it was a lot of fun!

Vocabulary

American football: американский футбол (ah-mair-i-KAHN-ski FUT-bawl)

Field: поле (POHL-yay)

Yard: ярд (yart)

Attempt: попытка (pah-POIT-kah)

To Throw: бросать (brah-SAT)

To Tackle: блокировать (blah-KEER-ah-vaht)

Kurt’s Kyrgyz Culture Lesson #1

I’ve decided to introduce various facets of my life in Kyrgyzstan through a series of vignettes and informational lessons.  They will be accompanied by Russian vocabulary lessons and anecdotes from my life here.

Lesson One: Toilets (туалеты)

Kyrgyzstan, or at least Bishkek, has a pleasant ratio of sitties to squatties.  If you’re not sure what I mean, you need to leave North America more!  A sitty, as you may expect, is a Western-style sit-down toilet.  A squatty, on the other hand, requires its users to, well, squat.  Squatty potties are perhaps one of the more daunting aspects of traveling outside the “developed” world, but I promise, eventually you just get used to them.  And they’re really not that bad!  I won’t go into all of the usage details, but you can find detailed instructions on how to properly use a squatty potty by clicking here.

Image courtesy of http://www.squidoo.com/squatty-potty

Western style toilets are still a relatively new phenomenon in Kyrgyzstan (and in much of the rest of the developing world), and you will occasionally find one with footprints where your butt would go.  Just as we Westerners seem to be averse to utilizing unfamiliar toilet technology, so too can our technology seem strange and unwelcoming to those who are not used to it.

Potty diversity aside, one thing that is important in Kyrgyzstan (even in the nicest hotel in Bishkek) is that you don’t throw anything at all into the toilet.  You practitioners of the Leave No Trace ethic will be familiar with the mantra, “If it didn’t come out of your body, it doesn’t go in the potty.”  That is certainly true here, as much of the plumbing dates to Soviet times and can’t handle anything other than organic debris (see how euphemistic I can be!).  In each toilet, there is usually a small trash can where you dispose of anything (even toilet paper!) that can’t go down the toilet.

And that brings us to toilet paper.  In North America (and increasingly in Europe), we are bombarded with advertisements trumpeting the softest most comfortable toilet paper around.  This luxury has definitely not made it to this part of the world, as most of the toilet paper I’ve encountered thus far has been slightly on the softer side of sand paper.  While effective, it’s not terribly absorbent, which means boys must be diligent about lifting the seat!  And while it’s not as soft and squishy as a Charmin bear, it’s not terribly uncomfortable either.  I’ve been here two and a half weeks now and can successfully report that I don’t have a chapped bum.

Hope this was, ahem, enlightening.  Please let me know in the comments what other types of topics you’d be interested in hearing about (food, drink, etc.) in this type of entry.

Thanks!  Спасибо!

Vocabulary

Toilet: туалет (too-ah-LET)

Toilet paper: туалетная бумага (too-ah-LET-nah-yah boo-MAH-gah)

To flush the toilet: спускать воду в туалете (spoo-SKAT vah-DOO ftoo-ah-LET-yay)

Trash can: мусорное ведро (MOO-sur-nah-yay ved-ROH)

To pee: писать (PEE-sot)

To squat: сидеть на корточках (see-DYET nah KOR-tatch-kach) (the ch- is like the final sound in the Scottish “loch”)

Why I’m really here

This weekend I got a taste of some of the research opportunity that exists for me here in Bishkek.  On Friday, I got an email from my contact at the American Embassy, Guljan, letting me know that there was an alumni reception Saturday afternoon and asking me if I wanted to attend.  I wasn’t entirely clear about which alumni the reception was for or where it was being held, but I figured I should start acknowledging my fledgling research sooner rather than later.  And it gave me a chance to break out my sportcoat for the first time since I arrived.

I got picked up early Saturday afternoon, and Guljan explained to me that the reception was for recent alumni of educational exchange programs such as Fulbright.  And that it was being held at the president’s house.  The president. Of Kyrgyzstan.  I quickly wished that I had worn a pair of dress pants instead of my nice jeans, but put that behind me quickly.  We couldn’t head back to my place so I could change, after all.

We arrived at the president’s compound and were handed agendas.  There was about two and a half hours of speeches, awards presentations, educational presentations and so on.  And it was all in Russian!  That shouldn’t have been a surprise, but my brain was definitely not ready for nearly three straight hours of Russian.  I probably picked up about 30% of what was said, but it was all interesting enough nonetheless.  After the presentations, there was a reception, where I met a few people from the embassy and others from various organizations around Bishkek.  I answered tons of questions about what I was planning on researching, and that process in and of itself helped me focus my research topic a bit more.  I had kind of been ignoring the whole research aspect of the Fulbright for the first couple weeks while focusing on my Russian skills.  Guljan assured me that was perfectly normal — acceptable even — and that I had plenty of time to work on my research.

The event also served to remind me that there are plenty of opportunities for networking out there.  I just need to make sure that I take advantage of them!