Why, that is just capital!

21:35 08 November 2009

I just got back from three days in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, and have a lot to report from the trip. First of all, I went during the time of our quarter-end break which was a week long but passed much more quickly. I went for two main reasons, to visit a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while and to hopefully buy tickets for a vacation this winter. Luckily, I was successful on both accounts. You’ve already read the sad story that was the dark cloud over my trip, but other than that I had a wonderful time.

Thursday night I spent with my youngest host sister Aijan who is studying in Bishkek. I hung out with her, her cousin, and one of her roommates in great Kyrgyz-style, eventually sleeping the four roommates and me all on the floor of a one bedroom apartment. I felt very integrated and treated like family. It was great, and I met for the first time my cousin’s older brother (I have met my cousin many times, she and Aijan both speak competent English but we usually speak a weird mix of Russian, English, and random Kyrgyz that they have taught me when we are together). But the brother used to be a member of an elite Kyrgyz military group and meeting him and seeing the pictures from his service (there was a lot of joint training with US military personnel) was really interesting for me.

Coming to my original host family, other than the sad news I already reported, I found out that my twenty one year old host sister Alyuna is getting married! She has been dating a guy since I have been in training and so amid their sadness there is the joy of Alyuna’s upcoming marriage. I am hoping to go once again this Friday to go to the wedding. Should be exciting and fun and a good event for the family to come together for a joyous occasion. I have been to and chronicled Kyrgyz weddings so I will be excited to see a Russian one, I am sure there will be many differences!

Ah, but perhaps the biggest news from my trip to Bishkek was that I bought tickets for a winter trip to Japan! As you can imagine, I have been missing Saori quite a bit since she left, and I will be overjoyed to be reunited with her in December for a few weeks. I have to admit, that I think that the culture shock will overwhelm me- Tokyo is even more developed than US cities and hearing her stories of the technology there make my head spin (their toilet is button operated and has all sorts of special features like a heated seat and music or something- my toilet flushes with a bucket of water…)

While I went primarily to visit Host Country Nationals that I have been close with, I also was excited my last night there to visit with some volunteers that are from Chuy oblast. I stayed with one of them (the one with whom I played Frisbee when I first got to my training village, if you remember that far back) and it was great to catch up with all of my friends from the capitol region. Also, I one a bunch at poker! Well, actually only about $3.50, but that’s a lot here! All in all though, it was a great trip to Chuy oblast and I am very happy that I was able to go.