Freezing

It is SO COLD. State heat hasn't been turned on yet, and I'm slowly freezing to death. In my classroom it's so cold that I teach in a scarf, hat, mittens, and a jacket. It's hard to sleep since it's very cold, and even harder to get out of bed in the morning! It doesn't feel that cold during the day, but at night it gets pretty chilly. My students tell me that the heat will get turned on on November 1st, but I'll believe it when I feel it. We'll see. I can't last much longer than a week though, it's miserable being anywhere since there's no heat.

Mike, Evan, Nicola, Andy, and I are going away this weekend. We booked a homestay at CBT in Bokonbaevo, where we were for the eagle festival, but this time, it's a horse festival. We'll leave Friday night after classes and come back to Bishkek on Sunday evening sometime. It will be interesting since none of us speak Russian. I'd say that I know the most, but it's not even close to being conversational.

We went to the circus on Saturday. I was expecting to feel sad at some points because I knew there were animals involved, but I didn't think it would be as bad as it was. There were cats, poodles, rats, a kangaroo, and some bears. Check out facebook for some videos. I cried. The acrobats weren't that bad, and the circus would have been even better if the animals weren't involved and allowed to be free and happy in the wild where they belong. After the circus, we went to a Chinese restaurant, the same one we were at the night I fell in the ditch, and I got a picture of the ditch to forever remember the place where I fucked myself up.

On Sunday, Mike and I went to Orto-Sai bazaar, another market/bazaar in Bishkek. This one is pretty close to our apartment, so we walked there because it was a beautiful sunny fall day. It is smaller and less confusing than the other bazaars, and it was a very successful shopping trip! I got a kilo of wonderful small plums like they have in Austria for 25 som (about 60 cents!) I also got some knitting needles and a bunch of yarn. I'm going to make myself some teal mittens, and I'm knitting Mike a green and brown scarf. I got a pig potholder, a nail file, a loofah, and we finally found rolling papers! We'd looked EVERYWHERE in Bishkek and they were nowhere to be found, and we'd finally given up. But then there they were! At Orto-Sai bazaar! The locals even say that they don't have rolling papers in Kyrgyzstan. So we've proven everyone wrong :)

After the market, I went to dinner at my friend/student's house. He hadn't told me that it was his wife's birthday party, so I was pretty surprised to see 8 people at their house! He lives about 30 minutes by marshrutka away from my house, close the mountains and on a dirt road. His wife was an amazing cook- there were 6 kinds of different salads as the first course, and a really great Georgian dish with beans and meat. She had also made compot/juice out of what I think were dates, and mulled red wine which was actually really tasty.We had our first course, and then took an hour and a half break because the plov wasn't done yet. We (and by we I mean they) sang karaoke- they had a DVD and microphone with a huge selection of mostly Russian songs! They forced me to sing Yellow Submarine and Hotel California, neither which I even know! But it was good Russian practice to read the Cyrillic song lyrics. His wife and all her friends spoke very good English, but didn't talk much to me. I tired very quickly listening to all the Russian they were speaking- I'm not used to so much of it! After our karaoke break, we finally ate plov. It was wonderful. It's just meat, rice, peppers, and carrots, but it tasted so much better than what you get in a restaurant. She ordered the rice all the way from Uzbekistan; the "real" plov rice comes from there. I got a ride home from one of their friends. It was nice to get out from the city and away from native English speakers, even though of course I enjoy every minute I spend with my friends.

I found a second hand shop just half a block from my apartment and bought a sexy, Marimekko-esque colored dress! I will start going there much more often.

Think warm thoughts for me, it's a long time until Saturday when the heat comes on. I'm off to curl up under 2 duvets and try to stay warm. No class tomorrow so I'm off to another bazaar/market, and I hope to meet up with my favorite Turkish student in the evening.