Ballroom Dancing

Not much is new around here. New classes started, and all my my students seem pretty good this month.

Last night I went out with a bunch of guys from school to Golden Bull, the skeezy nightclub where foreigners get in free. It was great fun... getting in free is enough for me to have a fun night! We danced, watched the silly US army officers picking up Kyrgyz girls, and of course enjoyed the strip show that is a must at all Kyrgyz nightclubs. We didn't get home until 4 am-ish... it's great that nightclubs stay open late, rather than closing at 2:00 like in Minneapolis.

Even though I was exhausted, I went this morning with my friend Kole to watch the Kyrgyz Youth Ballroom Dancing Championship. One of my students told me about it yesterday, and I went to watch her. It was great! There were kids from probably 5 years old - about 16, and they were all amazing! They had fancy hairstyles and cute flowing dresses, and danced things like salsa, samba, jive, rhumba, waltz, tango, and cha cha cha. My student didn't make it to the finals, but we stuck around to watch anyways. It's strange to see tiny kids dressed up doing what is generally thought of as an adult thing. They all seemed much better behaved than American children would have been.

Then we had lunch at a great Uzbek restaurant, where we had to (as usual) argue about the bill because we were overcharged. We went to TsUM department store, where I bought an mp3 cd of my favorite Russian rock band, Zveri. If you don't know them, you should download their music.

Winter came back- we had a lot of snow on Tuesday, which turned into horrible slush by Wednesday, and which is now almost gone. Hopefully spring will begin, although my students tell me it will be cold and snowy until the middle of March.

Nothing new in Bishkek. Mike and I are counting down until we're out of here. We've applied to jobs in Prague, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Thailand, so who know's where we'll end up in August...

The big news is that my parents have almost 100% decided that they are both going to come visit my in Kyrgyzstan during my spring holiday, the last week of April/first week of May!!!