What my new years was like...

New Years 14 hours before my friends and family was interesting. It was really cute to watch my nieces because they were as excited for New Years as kids in America are for Christmas. There were so many things that were similar and so many things that were different. We had two large meals (one more than normal). The first one was at 7:30 pm and the second one was at 11pm. I made pizza and cookies that I thought were delicious. There was still most of the cookies left and some of the pizza today, so I’m guessing they didn’t like it too much. That’s ok with me because that means there was more for me to eat. We watched the concert that was on TV for most of the night (I snuck away for an hour or so to call home). All four of my nieces and nephew (and I) are all sick so two of my nieces fell asleep before midnight. My host mom and host sister decided that they needed to wake up for the New Year celebration. That turned into a lot of crying and pouting. My nephew is 9 months old and is teething so he was crying too. Then we lit sparklers (the kind that are illegal in America because they are metal and burn people) and my littlest niece burned her finger on it and she started crying. So at one point we had four crying children in the house. I managed to hold it together so no crying from me, but it was pretty entertaining to be on this side of it because I know I put my parents through the same things when I was their age.
Shortly after midnight I went to bed because I hit my limit. I’m pretty sure that they went to bed shortly afterward as well. Yesterday though, I was doing something with my camera and deleted all the pictures on it. Since my computer is acting up I wasn’t able to put the pictures on my computer and there are quite a few that hadn’t been transferred yet. Grr. .. But the good news is that after I cleared off my camera I am able to put the pictures on my computer. So I guess there is always a silver lining. The bad news all the pictures I took at the New Year’s party with all the Kyrgyz people are now gone and my camera is the only one we had there. That’s the hard part about technology.
I am really happy that I spend my New Year’s with my family because it was great to celebrate their largest holiday with them. Now I have a week of vacation to relax and do some planning for other projects. I probably should do some cleaning too.
Today at breakfast my host mom told me that January and February are the coldest months here, but not to worry because come March the temperature starts to go up. Ah I guess that’s good news. I remember when we first came to Kyrgyzstan on March 29, 2010 a day or two before that was their last snow of the year. Oh man, it’s going to be cold! I will be thinking warm thoughts and layering like crazy. I think my max so far with layers is seven at one time. I feel like the little brother on “A Christmas Story” when I go outside sometimes.
Жаны Жылныздар Менен (Happy New Year!)
Brooke
This picture is of my front door. The frost extends about 5 FEET to the right all along the wall, but the wall is white so you can’t see it. It is COLD here!