It’s been a long time since my last post. I guess it has been a little difficult to get back into work mode after being in vacation mode! Since we are only allowed to travel during school breaks I really try to take advantage of it when we have them. A group of four of us went to Almaty, Kazakhstan for 4 days. It was amazing. Almaty is only a 4 hour mini bus ride away from Bishkek and it only costs $6 to get there. Talk about a deal. The hard part of going there was that it is one of the top 50 most expensive cities in the world. More expensive than LA. My bank account really felt it, but it was totally worth it. And just like most of my vacations most of my money was spent on food. We went to many different restaurants that had food that I miss from America. There was actually a restaurant that we went to that was called American Bar and Grill and it lived up to its name. I had a bleu cheese burger! AWESOME! I think that the strangest part of the trip was one thing after another kept happening making the whole thing feel surreal. We started off by meeting a guy on the bus ride over to Almaty who used to live in America and he really helped us get over the border and got us a taxi to our hotel. He wanted to meet up with us to have drinks that night and after we had incredible Indian food (that was so good that one of the other volunteers I was traveling with almost cried) we walked around town and found an Irish pub called the Dublin. He joined us there… but sadly they didn’t have any Guinness so we had to go to another bar. This time we tried the Guinness bar, hoping that they wouldn’t fail us. They didn’t.
He also brought some friends who knew English too and it was really great to talk to them. I also heard before we left that Almaty had a Baskin Robbins so we were able to ask them where we could find it. :) That night as we were leaving we went to hail a taxi and a white LIMO stopped. The driver was so funny. After a little negotiating about the price we got in and had the most interesting taxi ride of our lives. He was speaking in English/Russian/Spanish and going off on rants that we could only partly understand. I was laughing so hard it was starting to hurt. He was so into what he was talking about he never actually dropped us off on the correct street. He got within a few blocks so we just got out, but it was hilarious.
The next day we went on a walking tour of the city and saw some incredible site that the city had to share. The city had some pretty interesting architecture but still had the old soviet feel to it that Bishkek has. At one point we were walking through a park and looked over and saw a huge building with bright colors. As we got closer we realized that it was a Russian Orthodox church. This church is very interesting because it is made completely out of wood including the nails that hold it together. It was magnificent inside and out. My friend Heather and I really wanted to go to a service but we were there an hour too early and then got distracted later in the day. Maybe next time I go to Almaty. We have already made plans because there was so many things we still want to see.
The third day we went to a museum and saw a lot of old Kazakh clothing and archeology. We also went to a mega center and found Baskin Robbins, Pizza Hut, and KFC. It was so good. I have always been a person who will never eat American food when I am traveling, but after being away from American for seven months I really miss it a lot, sadly. We also found a large grocery store in that mall and bought peanut butter, tortillas, tonic water, AVACADOS, and many other goodies we can’t find in Bishkek. Did I tell you that this was an expensive trip? OOPS… oh well! I was able to eat everything that I have been craving!!
The last day as we were leaving the coffee shop that we ate breakfast at, there was a Rols Roice sitting out front with a driver waiting in it. This city has money! It was a much different world than what I have been living in for the past seven months.
All in all it was a great trip. Eating all that great food really helped my slight homesickness. Though it was a little difficult to readjust to my life here it has been good to be back and live a more simple life.
When I was in Bishkek I had a lot of fun with my friends. Before and after my trip to Almaty I spent hanging out with friends and making great memories. Halloween was great and I was a duck.
Well we had 3 nights of festivities and I started as a ninja (a throwback to teaching at Corbett), then I was ballerina, then I was a duck the third night. All were good costumes and fun was had in all. On the Friday before Halloween we had a party at an orphanage. That is one of the volunteer’s site and so he threw the party for the kids and a bunch of volunteers came and helped out. It was great. We each had to create an activity and mine was a potato sack race.
The idea came to me one morning when I was sleeping at a friend’s house and when we woke up I really had the urge to sleeping bag wrestle. I know… I will always be a child at heart. There was also bobbing for apples, face painting, pumpkin toss and other fun activities. It was great!
After my trip to Almaty I met with some (I guess you could call them) extended family who have lived here for 8 years. My cousin’s husband’s aunt and uncle live here and took me to lunch. (Thanks Gretchen for letting me know that they are here) I have the strangest connects to this country. Have you ever really felt like you are in the right place at the right time? I think that’s how my life has been since I came here seven months ago. I still can’t believe it has been that long. Anyway, it was a really great lunch and really great to meet them. They are also doing great things in their community near Bishkek.
Oh yay… My host mom just came home from being away for over a month. She had to have surgery on something. I’m not sure what, but she is home now and she is looking good. Not moving too quickly, but her spirits are good. I really missed her a lot!
Anyway, that is the update for now. I hope you are doing well and just remember care packages and letter are always welcome. If you need the address it is posted in a June blog post or email me and I’ll send you a word document of it.
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