At last, a tubular guitar!

20:30 4 August 2008

Several exciting thins have happened over the past few days. To me, the most exciting is that I bought a guitar! I had previously looked for one at this big department-like store in Bishkek but found that the wares they had there was of very poor quality and extraordinarily expensive. So I held off buying one there because I heard of a rumor of an underground passage that had a market where guitars where sold. Luckily, this rumor was correct and when I went into Bishkek this past Sunday I was successful.

We were really put on a wild goose-chase finding this place. I was told it was in an underground near the Osh Bazaar, one of the larger bazaars in the city. When we got there (I went with 3 other people from my village and the host sister of one them who speaks excellent English). From the Osh bazaar, we were directed to go about 15 blocks down and I had a bad feeling that it wouldn’t be the right place. These feelings were confirmed as we got there and they looked confused and told us to turn around. Luckily, once we got back to Osh bazaar, we found the sellers relatively easily. I was also impressed with the price. While the guitar I bought is by no means a nice guitar, it has a flat tone, tinny treble, and not terribly high quality construction, but it is a guitar, and it is acceptable. The guitar says that it is an Alvarez, a brand I recognized, but somehow I doubt it because it is labeled an “Alvarez Acustic”. I’m not sure what an acustic guitar is, but I paid equivalent of about 70 USD for it, so I’m not complaining too much.

During the same trip into the city, my friends picked up things, had some Italian food (or at least the Kyrgyz take on it), and wandered around the city for a while. Anyhow, I have to get lesson planning for my English club tomorrow. All the best!