In 3.5 weeks winter vacation begins, and I haven't started planning! Mike was denied days off from work, so he, Ben, and Evan aren't going to Iran anymore, which is wonderful (for me)! It means that Mike will come with me. We decided we are going to do Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan- 4 days in KZ: Almaty, Turkistan, and Shymkent, and then going to Uzbekistan and doing Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara. We have to get our visas sorted out SOON... tomorrow we'll probably go to an agency and get it done there, it's hard and time-consuming to do it directly with the embassy. I think we'll do land travel for most of it: buses, trains, shared taxis, and marshrutkas, but we might fly back from Tashkent, depending on timing. We finish work Dec 19, and start teaching again Jan 5. It will be wonderful, no matter where we end up going!
This coming weekend, the school is taking the "new" teachers to a village at Issyk-Kul. It will be great to have a paid-for weekend away! I'm not sure what there is to do there in the winter, but it will be great fun no matter what. Then, the weekend after, we will go to Cholpon-Ata on the north side of Issyk-Kul, and Kochkor, where the best shyrdaks (Kyrgyz rugs) are for sale. We have a 3-day weekend because Dec 8 is a national holiday here, so we'll spend a night in Cholpon-Ata and check out petroglyphs there, and then head to Kochkor to shyrdak-shop and wander around.
Weather has been AMAZING this week- I checked weather.com and then next week should be in the 60s! Hopefully it will be as nice for weekends away.
My new Russian teacher is HORRENDOUS. I'll give her one more lesson to redeem herself, otherwise I'll get a new teacher. Absolutely horrible. :(
Last night we had absinthe night, but we were all too tired to drink enough to feel it. We have enough left for next time, when hopefully we'll all be more in the mood.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and Josh arranged for the Kyrgyz restaurant around the corner to make 2 turkeys for us. Not sure if I'm interested in that- I might rather eat something completely different, than eat turkey that doesn't live up to American Thanksgiving. It will be about 300 som per person, and that is just for the turkey- no sides included. We'll see.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat extra for me :)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Warmth
After a few days of really wintery weather, it's been unseasonably warm the past 2 days. Today I wore my jean jacket instead of my winter coat, and I even had to take it off while we were walking around town. We tried to go to a Japanese Drumming Festival this afternoon, but when we got there all the seats in the theater were full and we didn't want to stand in the lobby watching the performance on a television screen. Instead, we went to TSUM, the biggest department store in Bishkek and wandered around. Ben is going back to England at the beginning of January, so he is starting his souvenier purchases. I bought a packet of 15 Soviet Bishkek postcards for 50 som, back from when it was called Frunze instead of Bishkek. Mike got Dark Knight in English on DVD, so he can finally join the rest of the world in having seen it. I also got a great pocket sized map of Bishkek for those days when we aren't where we think we are in Bishkek and need to get elsewhere.
My friend Derek, here on an NSEP scholarship from Arizona State, has decided to not return to Bishkek after spending Xmas break in the States. He has been stopped by the police a lot, and a few weeks ago had a gun drawn on him by some drunk policemen. The incident with Evan's mugging did nothing to make him want to stay more, and the murder of a Polish university professor here last week during a mugging (read about it here: http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=96149) made him decide to transfer to Vladivostock to do the rest of his scholarship year. It will be sad to not have him back, he's a lot of fun to hang out with. He cooks for us 2 nights a week too, and his food is wonderful. Last night I hosted dinner in my apartment, and it was so cozy having 9 friends sitting around and eating champagne chicken and drinking.
Next weekend or the weekend after, we're planning a trip to Kochkor, which is a town a few hours from Bishkek. They make cheap and great shyrdaks there (traditional Kyrgyz rugs) and Ben wants to buy some before he leaves. I guess there isn't much to do there, but it's just fun to hang out together, eat, and wander around Kyrgyzstan.
We had lunch at a wonderful Japanese restaurant today, and are branching out and trying new restaurants rather than our regular hangouts. New York Pizza, a semi-expensive pizza place, has the best pizza by far that I've had in Bishkek, and it even might beat some pizza I've had in the States. There's also a Georgian place, some Dungan places, and an Armenian place we want to try soon, as well as some other Kyrgyz restaurants.
Andy, Nicola, and I saw James Bond in Russian earlier this week. We went out planning on seeing a Kyrgyz folk music festival, but we couldn't find the building where the festival was being held. Instead, we decided on Bond, in Russian of course. I understood more of the dialogue than I thought I would, and I had read the synopsis before we went, so I basically understood the plotline. Casino Royale was better, but you can't really go wrong with Daniel Craig. We also found a bookstore with some cheap used books, and I bought a Kyrgyz language learning book, in Russian. So I can learn Russian through Kyrgyz. On Monday the new month of teaching starts, and I have 4 Russian lessons per week, as well as one hour of Kyrgyz! Mike, Nicola, and I are studying Kyrgyz together, and it will be great fun :)
Here's more about the Polish man who was killed:
Polish teacher killed in Kyrgyzstan
A Polish language teacher, Maciej Chowaniok, 28, from the Silesian University in Katowice, was murdered last night in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. Silesian University spokesmen told PAP on Tuesday that the circumstances of the incident are yet unknown. According to a local web portal Chowaniok was brought to a clinic in Bishkek with heavy wounds by a knife in his neck. The man died of blood loss caused by one of the wounds, which had severed an artery. (http://www.visegradgroup.eu/main.php?folderID=912)
All the articles that seem to have more information are visible only with an online subscription.
Supposedly the power will start being shut off again. We had three weeks of no power outages, but apparently the government will punish Bishkek and turn the lights off to get back at us for not conserving energy as much as we should have. We'll see if it really happens. I was getting so spoiled by constant lights that it will be really unfortunate to go back to headlamp and candles. Also, one of Ben's students said that Kyrgyz meteorologists are saying that this will be the coldest winter in history in Kyrgyzstan.
If you're ever interested in reading news about Kyrgyzstan, here's what I would say is the best website to do so:
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/kyrgyzstan/articles/index.shtml
My friend Derek, here on an NSEP scholarship from Arizona State, has decided to not return to Bishkek after spending Xmas break in the States. He has been stopped by the police a lot, and a few weeks ago had a gun drawn on him by some drunk policemen. The incident with Evan's mugging did nothing to make him want to stay more, and the murder of a Polish university professor here last week during a mugging (read about it here: http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=96149) made him decide to transfer to Vladivostock to do the rest of his scholarship year. It will be sad to not have him back, he's a lot of fun to hang out with. He cooks for us 2 nights a week too, and his food is wonderful. Last night I hosted dinner in my apartment, and it was so cozy having 9 friends sitting around and eating champagne chicken and drinking.
Next weekend or the weekend after, we're planning a trip to Kochkor, which is a town a few hours from Bishkek. They make cheap and great shyrdaks there (traditional Kyrgyz rugs) and Ben wants to buy some before he leaves. I guess there isn't much to do there, but it's just fun to hang out together, eat, and wander around Kyrgyzstan.
We had lunch at a wonderful Japanese restaurant today, and are branching out and trying new restaurants rather than our regular hangouts. New York Pizza, a semi-expensive pizza place, has the best pizza by far that I've had in Bishkek, and it even might beat some pizza I've had in the States. There's also a Georgian place, some Dungan places, and an Armenian place we want to try soon, as well as some other Kyrgyz restaurants.
Andy, Nicola, and I saw James Bond in Russian earlier this week. We went out planning on seeing a Kyrgyz folk music festival, but we couldn't find the building where the festival was being held. Instead, we decided on Bond, in Russian of course. I understood more of the dialogue than I thought I would, and I had read the synopsis before we went, so I basically understood the plotline. Casino Royale was better, but you can't really go wrong with Daniel Craig. We also found a bookstore with some cheap used books, and I bought a Kyrgyz language learning book, in Russian. So I can learn Russian through Kyrgyz. On Monday the new month of teaching starts, and I have 4 Russian lessons per week, as well as one hour of Kyrgyz! Mike, Nicola, and I are studying Kyrgyz together, and it will be great fun :)
Here's more about the Polish man who was killed:
Polish teacher killed in Kyrgyzstan
A Polish language teacher, Maciej Chowaniok, 28, from the Silesian University in Katowice, was murdered last night in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. Silesian University spokesmen told PAP on Tuesday that the circumstances of the incident are yet unknown. According to a local web portal Chowaniok was brought to a clinic in Bishkek with heavy wounds by a knife in his neck. The man died of blood loss caused by one of the wounds, which had severed an artery. (http://www.visegradgroup.eu/main.php?folderID=912)
All the articles that seem to have more information are visible only with an online subscription.
Supposedly the power will start being shut off again. We had three weeks of no power outages, but apparently the government will punish Bishkek and turn the lights off to get back at us for not conserving energy as much as we should have. We'll see if it really happens. I was getting so spoiled by constant lights that it will be really unfortunate to go back to headlamp and candles. Also, one of Ben's students said that Kyrgyz meteorologists are saying that this will be the coldest winter in history in Kyrgyzstan.
If you're ever interested in reading news about Kyrgyzstan, here's what I would say is the best website to do so:
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/kyrgyzstan/articles/index.shtml
Sunday, November 16, 2008
One final detail about Saturday's mugging
Mike and I were in his apartment eating dinner last night, trying to forget about the scary mugger in his room. The doorbell rang and I looked through the peephole before I opened the door. It was one of the office staff who lives in our building, just checking to see that we were okay and seeing if there was anything that she could do to make us feel better.
The doorbell rang a few minutes later, and I went and looked through the peephole to see who it was. The light had been turned off in the hallway, so I could only see the silhouette, but it was clearly a man. I was too scared to open the door so Mike came out and asked who was there. The man started speaking in Russian, so we definitely didn't open the door. We thought it was the mugger, back for some more! Mike didn't open the door, so he started pounding on the door, jiggling the handle, and ringing the doorbell repeatedly. I called the office manager to see if she could ring the security guard sitting in our office, since I didn't have the number. She said she was nearby and she'd just come back. The guy kept ringing and knocking until she got there. It turned out that it was the policeman who'd taken our story initially. He knew we spoke little Russian, and what could he have possibly needed from us at 8 pm on a Saturday night, knowing we'd just been robbed and were likely very scared? Being that this is Kyrgyzstan, Mike and I think that he was coming to get money from us- he'd seen Mike's apartment, knew how much money we had, and wanted to get some for himself too. The office manager took him into the office and for about 20 minutes was talking to him there. She called me and said that he just wanted to hear the series of events again, which sounds just like an excuse. Tomorrow I'll have to ask more details about what he wanted. It ruined our evening, and we'd just started drinking some hot pepper vodka and were getting ready to go out. We still went out for a bit to celebrate Nicola's birthday, but we called it an early night. Hopefully that was the end of bad things in Bishkek. I onnly want to see the policeman again if he comes back with Mike's camera, my money, and Evan's phone.
The doorbell rang a few minutes later, and I went and looked through the peephole to see who it was. The light had been turned off in the hallway, so I could only see the silhouette, but it was clearly a man. I was too scared to open the door so Mike came out and asked who was there. The man started speaking in Russian, so we definitely didn't open the door. We thought it was the mugger, back for some more! Mike didn't open the door, so he started pounding on the door, jiggling the handle, and ringing the doorbell repeatedly. I called the office manager to see if she could ring the security guard sitting in our office, since I didn't have the number. She said she was nearby and she'd just come back. The guy kept ringing and knocking until she got there. It turned out that it was the policeman who'd taken our story initially. He knew we spoke little Russian, and what could he have possibly needed from us at 8 pm on a Saturday night, knowing we'd just been robbed and were likely very scared? Being that this is Kyrgyzstan, Mike and I think that he was coming to get money from us- he'd seen Mike's apartment, knew how much money we had, and wanted to get some for himself too. The office manager took him into the office and for about 20 minutes was talking to him there. She called me and said that he just wanted to hear the series of events again, which sounds just like an excuse. Tomorrow I'll have to ask more details about what he wanted. It ruined our evening, and we'd just started drinking some hot pepper vodka and were getting ready to go out. We still went out for a bit to celebrate Nicola's birthday, but we called it an early night. Hopefully that was the end of bad things in Bishkek. I onnly want to see the policeman again if he comes back with Mike's camera, my money, and Evan's phone.
Other Recent Bishkek Happenings
Let's forget about the bad feeling created in the last post. Here are some happy things I've done over the past weeks.
We found the cheapest and best restaurant yet just a few blocks from our house. It is the only place that serves the Kyrgyz national dish Beshbarmak (five fingers). Traditionally it should be eaten with your hands, hence the name. It's basically noodles with horse sausage and gravy. So that is another animal to add to my list of new kinds of meat I've had here in Kyrgyzstan. Dog was by far the best, the horse sausage was made with the actual intestine from the horse, and it was really fatty. But it was good to try, and good to say I've had the real Kyrgyz national dish.
Mike, Evan, Katy, Josh and I went to Osh Bazaar on Wednesday and I got all my Xmas shopping done. Nothing exciting, but I'll be sending out a few small packages from here in the next weeks.
I also bought a clay pig-shaped whistle/mouth instrument. I can't play it at all, but I needed a handmade Kyrgyz pig to add to my collection. Josh bought yarn so I've started making him a scarf, and Mike got some orange yarn so I can make him mittens. I found a great knitting pattern online for pig mittens, and I'm almost finished making one for myself. I bought new sized needles so I was testing the gage for the first time, and also making a new kind of thumb hole than what I used to use for mittens, but miraculously the thumb turned out perfectly and its exactly the right size for me- now I just have to get the second one to look like the first!
I'm going to go back to Osh Bazaar in the next few weeks and hopefully buy a sewing machine. I have to find out first how much they cost, but I'd be willing to spend $50 to get one. They are all the antique-looking, hand crank machines, but it would be good to be able to sew again.
A new teacher has arrived, so Nicola and I are no longer the newest ones. He's from Appleton, WI and he seems really great. It's good to have another Midwesterner here, it's great to be able to talk Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry with! It's just great that he knows so many of the same things that I do.
Mike shaved his beard off, and it's taking a while to get used to. Now that I actually recognize him, I've taken quite a liking to it. He's going to grow it again though now that it's winter.
Last weekend we went to see Swan Lake at the ballet. I had never seen it before and didn't really understand what was going on, and I was actually quite bored with the dancing, but it was good to do something cultural. The orchestra was also really good. Next weekend the opera Carmen is playing so we'll likely go see that. Theater/ballet tickets here seem to be less than 200 som, so it's much much much cheaper than it would be in the US. After the ballet we went to a rabbit-themed restaurant. It was in a basement and the walls were painted to look like a rabbit burrow/warren. There were even fake carrots hanging from the shelves. To complete the theme, they also served many rabbit dishes. I had fried rabbit with mashed potatoes, which was quite good. They also seem to be quite a popular cocktail bar. We tried to go last night to celebrate Nicola's birthday, but the entire place was reserved so we'll have to go back some other time. Instead, we went to Stary Edgar's (Old Edgar's) which was like an authentic English pub. There was good live music playing and great cocktails, so we'll probably go there a lot in the future.
Tonight we're going to see the newest James Bond movie, in Russian. I've read the synopsis online so I know what to expect, and there's not so much storyline to have to follow with James Bond anyway. Just seeing Daniel Craig will be entertainment enough.
Next week will be an easy teaching week since it's test week again- I just have to write 4 tests before Wednesday. It's so hard to believe that I've been teaching for almost 2 months! My schedule next month is great- no morning classes and I have two classes of Intermediate 2 and two of Upper-Intermediate 4, so I'll only have to plan two lessons instead of four.
Josh, Katy, and I really have to sit down soon and plan our winter break trip to Uzbekistan. If Mike, Evan, and Ben can't get days off from work, they'll probably come with us instead of going to Iran, but everything is still up in the air. So no solid plans for Dec 19-Jan 6 yet.
I finally got a video from the Horse Festival posted to facebook- check it out!
We found the cheapest and best restaurant yet just a few blocks from our house. It is the only place that serves the Kyrgyz national dish Beshbarmak (five fingers). Traditionally it should be eaten with your hands, hence the name. It's basically noodles with horse sausage and gravy. So that is another animal to add to my list of new kinds of meat I've had here in Kyrgyzstan. Dog was by far the best, the horse sausage was made with the actual intestine from the horse, and it was really fatty. But it was good to try, and good to say I've had the real Kyrgyz national dish.
Mike, Evan, Katy, Josh and I went to Osh Bazaar on Wednesday and I got all my Xmas shopping done. Nothing exciting, but I'll be sending out a few small packages from here in the next weeks.
I also bought a clay pig-shaped whistle/mouth instrument. I can't play it at all, but I needed a handmade Kyrgyz pig to add to my collection. Josh bought yarn so I've started making him a scarf, and Mike got some orange yarn so I can make him mittens. I found a great knitting pattern online for pig mittens, and I'm almost finished making one for myself. I bought new sized needles so I was testing the gage for the first time, and also making a new kind of thumb hole than what I used to use for mittens, but miraculously the thumb turned out perfectly and its exactly the right size for me- now I just have to get the second one to look like the first!
I'm going to go back to Osh Bazaar in the next few weeks and hopefully buy a sewing machine. I have to find out first how much they cost, but I'd be willing to spend $50 to get one. They are all the antique-looking, hand crank machines, but it would be good to be able to sew again.
A new teacher has arrived, so Nicola and I are no longer the newest ones. He's from Appleton, WI and he seems really great. It's good to have another Midwesterner here, it's great to be able to talk Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry with! It's just great that he knows so many of the same things that I do.
Mike shaved his beard off, and it's taking a while to get used to. Now that I actually recognize him, I've taken quite a liking to it. He's going to grow it again though now that it's winter.
Last weekend we went to see Swan Lake at the ballet. I had never seen it before and didn't really understand what was going on, and I was actually quite bored with the dancing, but it was good to do something cultural. The orchestra was also really good. Next weekend the opera Carmen is playing so we'll likely go see that. Theater/ballet tickets here seem to be less than 200 som, so it's much much much cheaper than it would be in the US. After the ballet we went to a rabbit-themed restaurant. It was in a basement and the walls were painted to look like a rabbit burrow/warren. There were even fake carrots hanging from the shelves. To complete the theme, they also served many rabbit dishes. I had fried rabbit with mashed potatoes, which was quite good. They also seem to be quite a popular cocktail bar. We tried to go last night to celebrate Nicola's birthday, but the entire place was reserved so we'll have to go back some other time. Instead, we went to Stary Edgar's (Old Edgar's) which was like an authentic English pub. There was good live music playing and great cocktails, so we'll probably go there a lot in the future.
Tonight we're going to see the newest James Bond movie, in Russian. I've read the synopsis online so I know what to expect, and there's not so much storyline to have to follow with James Bond anyway. Just seeing Daniel Craig will be entertainment enough.
Next week will be an easy teaching week since it's test week again- I just have to write 4 tests before Wednesday. It's so hard to believe that I've been teaching for almost 2 months! My schedule next month is great- no morning classes and I have two classes of Intermediate 2 and two of Upper-Intermediate 4, so I'll only have to plan two lessons instead of four.
Josh, Katy, and I really have to sit down soon and plan our winter break trip to Uzbekistan. If Mike, Evan, and Ben can't get days off from work, they'll probably come with us instead of going to Iran, but everything is still up in the air. So no solid plans for Dec 19-Jan 6 yet.
I finally got a video from the Horse Festival posted to facebook- check it out!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The bad side of Kyrgyzstan
Today I had my first negative experience living in Bishkek.
First, some background information. My friend (and Mike's roommate) Evan got mugged at knifepoint on Wednesday night. He was walking home from visiting a friend after dark, and a Kyrgyz guy started walking next to him and chatting. Evan said they talked about how old they were, where they were from, what they did for a living, etc. As soon as they walked into an underpass, the guy pulled out a knife and demanded Evan's wallet. Evan said he'd had a bad feeling about it, but didn't cross the groad to catch a bus or anything just because. In hindsight it's much easier of course to think about what you should have done. Anyways. Evan caught a bus home and was really shaken up all evening. He had debit cards in his wallet which he cancelled, and he also lost his driver's license and his scuba license. Luckily the guy didn't take his super nice and super expensive camera, which he had in a bag around his neck.
Today, Mike and I were having a lazy day at his place. We made lunch and watched a pretty crazy Japanese movie called Battle Royale. So we were just in bed when we heard Evan come home, the doorbell ring, the door open, and sounds of things crashing. Evan ran into our room, followed by a Kyrgyz guy shouting in Russian. It turns out that he was the guy who had mugged Evan, and had somehow followed him home from the internet cafe this afternoon. When the doorbell rings it's always someone from the office or one of the other teachers, so he just opened the door. The guy wanted the PIN code for Evan's debit card. Evan gave it to him, but I told him that the card didn't work in Bishkek. The guy would have left with the code, but he definitely would have come back when he realized it didn't work. Evan cancelled the card, but I didn't know how to say that in Russian, so I just said that it doesn't work in foreign ATMs because it's an English card. The guy demanded money from Evan, and he gave him what he had in his pocket (about 100 som/3$). Mike got up out of bed and told the guy he had to leave, but he wouldn't. Mike is a boxer so he was ready to beat him, but he picked up a bread knife from the dishrack and started waving it around. He said that if we gave him 500 som, he would leave. Mike took out his wallet and gave him 500 som, but he still didn't leave. He said that he needed 5000 som instead (more than 100$) which none of us had. He picked up Mike's camera which was on the desk and put it in his pocket. He also made Evan give him his cell phone. He then was asking me what was in my purse, which was on the floor near where he was standing. I told him that my name was Mary and I was a student at the American University and that I didn't have any money on me except the 50 som that I offered to him from my pocket. He asked me to show him my wallet and prove I didn't have money, which I didn't want to do because I DID have money in it- I had just changed 100$ into som the night before and hadn't taken it out. But he picked up my purse, grabbed my wallet, saw 4800 som, and started yelling at me for lying to him. While he was distracted by the money, Mike punched him in the face twice. He dropped my wallet but took the money, and then took off running. Mike ran after him, even though he was shirtless and barefoot, and Evan and I followed them. The office staff heard the ruckus and ran out after us too. Mike disappeared around the corner, and when we saw him again he hadn't gotten the guy. But he had really hurt his hand from clocking the guy in the face (it was his hand that he already broke in the past in a fight) and his feet were fucked up from running on gravel. He would have caught up to the guy, but he slipped rounding a corner.
The office staff were upset and they called the police. 6 big burly Kyrgyz policemen came into Mike's room to take down our story. They were scarier than the mugger was, and now I have less faith in Kyrgyz police than I did before- now they just know how much money teachers at our school carry on them, so they'll just probably be more likely to stop us for bribes now! They took pictures of our room, asked for our story twice, and then sat with the staff in the office for about an hour taking notes. I'm sure nothing will come of it. So in the end, he got off with my $100, Evan's cell phone, and Mike's camera. I have to read my insurance policy to see if there's any way to recover stolen money (Mom, any chance you can get it back from property insurance?)
It's my roommate Nicola's birthday tomorrow and tonight is celebration time, so it's a real bummer that Evan, Mike and I really aren't in the mood. I had to change more money, and now I hope to get by this week only spending $50 until payday on Friday, but going out tonight will be about a quarter of that probably. It's sad that my perfect image of life in Bishkek has now been a little marred, and I hope that I don't spend the rest of my time here looking over my shoulder to see if that guy is following me.
First, some background information. My friend (and Mike's roommate) Evan got mugged at knifepoint on Wednesday night. He was walking home from visiting a friend after dark, and a Kyrgyz guy started walking next to him and chatting. Evan said they talked about how old they were, where they were from, what they did for a living, etc. As soon as they walked into an underpass, the guy pulled out a knife and demanded Evan's wallet. Evan said he'd had a bad feeling about it, but didn't cross the groad to catch a bus or anything just because. In hindsight it's much easier of course to think about what you should have done. Anyways. Evan caught a bus home and was really shaken up all evening. He had debit cards in his wallet which he cancelled, and he also lost his driver's license and his scuba license. Luckily the guy didn't take his super nice and super expensive camera, which he had in a bag around his neck.
Today, Mike and I were having a lazy day at his place. We made lunch and watched a pretty crazy Japanese movie called Battle Royale. So we were just in bed when we heard Evan come home, the doorbell ring, the door open, and sounds of things crashing. Evan ran into our room, followed by a Kyrgyz guy shouting in Russian. It turns out that he was the guy who had mugged Evan, and had somehow followed him home from the internet cafe this afternoon. When the doorbell rings it's always someone from the office or one of the other teachers, so he just opened the door. The guy wanted the PIN code for Evan's debit card. Evan gave it to him, but I told him that the card didn't work in Bishkek. The guy would have left with the code, but he definitely would have come back when he realized it didn't work. Evan cancelled the card, but I didn't know how to say that in Russian, so I just said that it doesn't work in foreign ATMs because it's an English card. The guy demanded money from Evan, and he gave him what he had in his pocket (about 100 som/3$). Mike got up out of bed and told the guy he had to leave, but he wouldn't. Mike is a boxer so he was ready to beat him, but he picked up a bread knife from the dishrack and started waving it around. He said that if we gave him 500 som, he would leave. Mike took out his wallet and gave him 500 som, but he still didn't leave. He said that he needed 5000 som instead (more than 100$) which none of us had. He picked up Mike's camera which was on the desk and put it in his pocket. He also made Evan give him his cell phone. He then was asking me what was in my purse, which was on the floor near where he was standing. I told him that my name was Mary and I was a student at the American University and that I didn't have any money on me except the 50 som that I offered to him from my pocket. He asked me to show him my wallet and prove I didn't have money, which I didn't want to do because I DID have money in it- I had just changed 100$ into som the night before and hadn't taken it out. But he picked up my purse, grabbed my wallet, saw 4800 som, and started yelling at me for lying to him. While he was distracted by the money, Mike punched him in the face twice. He dropped my wallet but took the money, and then took off running. Mike ran after him, even though he was shirtless and barefoot, and Evan and I followed them. The office staff heard the ruckus and ran out after us too. Mike disappeared around the corner, and when we saw him again he hadn't gotten the guy. But he had really hurt his hand from clocking the guy in the face (it was his hand that he already broke in the past in a fight) and his feet were fucked up from running on gravel. He would have caught up to the guy, but he slipped rounding a corner.
The office staff were upset and they called the police. 6 big burly Kyrgyz policemen came into Mike's room to take down our story. They were scarier than the mugger was, and now I have less faith in Kyrgyz police than I did before- now they just know how much money teachers at our school carry on them, so they'll just probably be more likely to stop us for bribes now! They took pictures of our room, asked for our story twice, and then sat with the staff in the office for about an hour taking notes. I'm sure nothing will come of it. So in the end, he got off with my $100, Evan's cell phone, and Mike's camera. I have to read my insurance policy to see if there's any way to recover stolen money (Mom, any chance you can get it back from property insurance?)
It's my roommate Nicola's birthday tomorrow and tonight is celebration time, so it's a real bummer that Evan, Mike and I really aren't in the mood. I had to change more money, and now I hope to get by this week only spending $50 until payday on Friday, but going out tonight will be about a quarter of that probably. It's sad that my perfect image of life in Bishkek has now been a little marred, and I hope that I don't spend the rest of my time here looking over my shoulder to see if that guy is following me.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Horse Games
So two weekends ago, Mike, Andy, Nicola and I went back to Bokonbaevo, the village near Lake Issyk-Kul where we went to the Eagle Festival. Our friend Josh tried to order a cab to pick us up after classes ended Friday night, but he couldn't get through to his cab driver, so I asked one woman in our office to call for us. When we went to the eagle festival we'd paid 2600 som to get to Bokonbaevo. This time though, it was 4000 som, and we were told this was "normal". We had no choice since it was last minute and we didn't think we could get a taxi any other way, so we agreed to it. Our driver didn't know how to get there (didn't even know if he was going to the northern coast of the lake or the southern) and had to ask for directions 4 times on the way. He had a tv screen built into the dash where the cigarette lighter usually is, and watched Disney movies the whole way there- I'm surprised we didn't die. He didn't even have good movies- Brother Bear, Pocahontas, Pocahontas 2, Mulan, and Mulan 2, all dubbed into Russian. The songs were dubbed into Russian, but rather than being sung, they were read out by a man with a deep monotone voice. But he did manage to get us to our homestay safely at 1:30 in the morning.
Our homestay hostess spoke German and no English, so I got to be the token spokesperson all weekend since none of us speak very good Russian. We met up with Loh, the Singaporean couch surfer who'd stayed with me in Bishkek the week before.
In the morning we got a cab up to the horse games. We drove for an hour on a dirt road into the mountains. We stopped about halfway up to let the engine get used to the height change, and some Kyrgyz men in an orange Moskvitch stopped too. We had our picture taken with them. It was a beautiful car and I should have asked them how much it cost!
We met up with some other friends we have from Bishkek when we got there, and also ran into an American guy who we met at the eagle festival who is self-publishing a photo book of Kyrgyzstan. There were about 8 yurts set up near a little mountain village, and speakers and a microphone. There was a big field where the games would take place. We got there in time for the Manaschi competition. Manas, the epic poem of Kyrgyzstan about the adventures of a man named Manas, is learned by heart and sung/chanted by men who are called Manaschi. There was a contest to see who performed the best. It is the most amazing music to listen to. I'm trying to get my videos on facebook, because it's impossible to describe the intensity of it. I have no sound here in the internet cafe so I can't say which is best, but check out these videos on youtube....
There were kiss-the-girl races, where a man and a woman race off on horseback, and the man has to catch up to the girl and kiss her. If he does before the finish line, he wins, if he doesn't, they race again and she gets to whip him the whole time.
We dressed for really cold weather, but it was sunny and quite warm for most of the day. We ate lunch in a yurt, and it was wonderful to eat plov and drink tea while sitting on the floor of a yurt, looking out of the roof opening and feeling the warm stove.
There was Kyrgyz wrestling, where men take their shirts off and wrestle on horseback. The goal is to get the guy to fall off of his horse. It's crazy how long they can stay on horseback!
It was fun just to sit around and peoplewatch too. There were majority Kyrgyz people here, but there were also quite a lot of foreigners- teachers, tourists, NGO workers, Peace Corps volunteers, and Germans doing their civil service year.
Once the sun went down behind the peaks around 4 o'clock, it got cold really quickly. We wandered around and played in the little snow piles there were scattered about, and then found our taxi driver and headed back down the mountain to Bokonbaevo. Our friends were staying in a yurt right at the festival, but we had already booked a homestay in Bokonbaevo and arranged round-trip taxi service, so we couldn't have stayed even though it would have been nice. But sleeping in a yurt in late October is very cold, so we'll wait and arrange a yurtstay in the spring sometime.
We went back to our homestay and walked into "downtown" Bokonbaevo for dinner. We found an open restaurant with heat and food, but they didn't have most of the things listed on the menu, and the food we got served was cold. It was called Goulash, but there was nothing resembling goulash at all. It was pasta, buckwheat, and rice covered with ketchup and some meat and gravy that wasn't mildly red-colored or spiced. It was an interesting experience. Back in our homestay, power came back on, so Mike, Andy, Nicola and Loh played card games and chess, and I knit the scarf I just recently finished for Mike. Now that people know that I can knit, I have a waiting list already 5 people long for requests- scarves, mittens, hats... I'm currently working on a pair of mittens for myself (pig-shaped!!), but when I finish I'll gladly make things for my friends, especially if they buy the yarn :) It's good to feel wanted/needed.
I have to go teach, so Day 2 of the horse games will come later. We had our first real snow last night and Bishkek is white! It's amazing and beautiful and I love the start of winter. Everything smells fresh and crisp and so much like Europe.
Our homestay hostess spoke German and no English, so I got to be the token spokesperson all weekend since none of us speak very good Russian. We met up with Loh, the Singaporean couch surfer who'd stayed with me in Bishkek the week before.
In the morning we got a cab up to the horse games. We drove for an hour on a dirt road into the mountains. We stopped about halfway up to let the engine get used to the height change, and some Kyrgyz men in an orange Moskvitch stopped too. We had our picture taken with them. It was a beautiful car and I should have asked them how much it cost!
We met up with some other friends we have from Bishkek when we got there, and also ran into an American guy who we met at the eagle festival who is self-publishing a photo book of Kyrgyzstan. There were about 8 yurts set up near a little mountain village, and speakers and a microphone. There was a big field where the games would take place. We got there in time for the Manaschi competition. Manas, the epic poem of Kyrgyzstan about the adventures of a man named Manas, is learned by heart and sung/chanted by men who are called Manaschi. There was a contest to see who performed the best. It is the most amazing music to listen to. I'm trying to get my videos on facebook, because it's impossible to describe the intensity of it. I have no sound here in the internet cafe so I can't say which is best, but check out these videos on youtube....
There were kiss-the-girl races, where a man and a woman race off on horseback, and the man has to catch up to the girl and kiss her. If he does before the finish line, he wins, if he doesn't, they race again and she gets to whip him the whole time.
We dressed for really cold weather, but it was sunny and quite warm for most of the day. We ate lunch in a yurt, and it was wonderful to eat plov and drink tea while sitting on the floor of a yurt, looking out of the roof opening and feeling the warm stove.
There was Kyrgyz wrestling, where men take their shirts off and wrestle on horseback. The goal is to get the guy to fall off of his horse. It's crazy how long they can stay on horseback!
It was fun just to sit around and peoplewatch too. There were majority Kyrgyz people here, but there were also quite a lot of foreigners- teachers, tourists, NGO workers, Peace Corps volunteers, and Germans doing their civil service year.
Once the sun went down behind the peaks around 4 o'clock, it got cold really quickly. We wandered around and played in the little snow piles there were scattered about, and then found our taxi driver and headed back down the mountain to Bokonbaevo. Our friends were staying in a yurt right at the festival, but we had already booked a homestay in Bokonbaevo and arranged round-trip taxi service, so we couldn't have stayed even though it would have been nice. But sleeping in a yurt in late October is very cold, so we'll wait and arrange a yurtstay in the spring sometime.
We went back to our homestay and walked into "downtown" Bokonbaevo for dinner. We found an open restaurant with heat and food, but they didn't have most of the things listed on the menu, and the food we got served was cold. It was called Goulash, but there was nothing resembling goulash at all. It was pasta, buckwheat, and rice covered with ketchup and some meat and gravy that wasn't mildly red-colored or spiced. It was an interesting experience. Back in our homestay, power came back on, so Mike, Andy, Nicola and Loh played card games and chess, and I knit the scarf I just recently finished for Mike. Now that people know that I can knit, I have a waiting list already 5 people long for requests- scarves, mittens, hats... I'm currently working on a pair of mittens for myself (pig-shaped!!), but when I finish I'll gladly make things for my friends, especially if they buy the yarn :) It's good to feel wanted/needed.
I have to go teach, so Day 2 of the horse games will come later. We had our first real snow last night and Bishkek is white! It's amazing and beautiful and I love the start of winter. Everything smells fresh and crisp and so much like Europe.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Meh
I haven't updated for a while, sorry. Internet's been slow and I haven't been up to much. I finished knitting Mike a cute green and brown scarf today. Tonight I'm going to a German jazz band concert, and tomorrow I'm going to see Swan Lake the ballet. It will be a cultural weekend.
Today's a dreary, dismal day. Last night my friend Derek cooked really wonderful champagne chicken pasta for all of us, and I went out with some of the teachers to a trashy club. It was great fun, and it was a really cheap night, since foreigners get in free.
I'll try to update more next week, I still haven't talked about the Horse Festival.
Today's a dreary, dismal day. Last night my friend Derek cooked really wonderful champagne chicken pasta for all of us, and I went out with some of the teachers to a trashy club. It was great fun, and it was a really cheap night, since foreigners get in free.
I'll try to update more next week, I still haven't talked about the Horse Festival.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Horse Festival
This was a weekend in which I spoke German, Bulgarian, Russian, and the one word of Kyrgyz I know (jok=no), saw a game of headless sheep polo, got kissed by a drunk Kyrgyz man, ate plov in a yurt, posed for many pictures with Kyrgyz men, listened to an American from LA play a Kyrgyz guitar and sing in Kyrgyz, and was entralled by the Kyrgyz men singing/chanting the Manas national epic poem. It was wonderful and I will with more detail later this week. I didn't celebrate Halloween, but I think a weekend in the Kyrgyz wilderness beats a Halloween party any day.
I have many videos and photos that will be on facebook whenever I get around to it. I just finally put up the last of my eagle hunting photos.
I have many videos and photos that will be on facebook whenever I get around to it. I just finally put up the last of my eagle hunting photos.
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