My first full day in Bishkek was not too eventful. I awoke feeling incredibly hungry, as I hadn’t had anything other than triscuits and peanut butter cups since my breakfast in Istanbul. After getting dressed I walked next door to the office of The London School, and one of the staff members took me to change my dollars into soms (the local currency) and showed me around a nearby grocery store. Look! Kefir, pineapple juice and beer cheese!
After lunch, I went back to the school (it’s located in the same building as my apartment) and was given a tour. I have my own classroom on the second floor, which is cool. I won’t have to be lugging all my stuff from classroom to classroom. I’ll be teaching an extra class in January. They’ve promised me an extra $150 for that, so I suppose it’s a good thing. The bad thing about this extra class is that it’s at 9:00am! You know how stellar I am in the mornings and all… I’m hoping that this will just be for the month of January, although the extra money will certainly come in handy. From what I gather, my five classes will all be in the lower levels of English skill, which is the level I’ve taught the most. My schedule (at least for January) will be MTTF (no Wednesday classes), 9:00-10:20, 2:30-3:50, 4:00-5:20, 5:30-6:50, and 7:00-8:20. Whew!
After going over my schedule and teaching procedures and such, I found “my” cats – they were left by the teacher who used to live in my apartment. I’d agreed to take care of them before she left and I arrived. Anyway, they were frolicking in the stairwell and totally thrilled to come inside my apartment. They promptly made themselves at home.
Grey Kitty (I don't know its name...)
Bagira
Lucy
I would like to say that I did something with my day yesterday, as I had no obligations and as it was quite beautiful outside... but after going to a nearby internet café (that’s where I’m blogging from, by the way) and buying some things for my apartment, I came home and crashed. I’m feeling quite rested today, and I hope that I’ve finally kicked this jet lag thing. We shall see. Keep you fingers crossed that my bag arrives tomorrow!
9 comments:
Cats! How exciting. :)
Your teaching schedule sounds like it will be great in February. Is there any fresh produce there?
Melissa
Oh- I 'm looking forward to reading about your adventures. I hope it's all fantastic! Im glad you already have kitties, but try not to have 30 of them, eh?
Wow, I can't wait to read more about your experience there. Alas, your pictures aren't appearing for me, anyone else having this issue? Maybe photobucket is down.
So it sounds like you have some intensives this month, too, We started ours today.
How much is the internet cafe, btw?
Melissa - Well, I guess you've seen the above post about how technically I'm not supposed to have cats... not that there aren't several on my bed right now or anything. There's fresh produce at the nearby (and super-expensive) supermarket, although not a wide selection. I need to find out where average Bishkekans buy their food, because the supermarket across the way from the school has American prices! Also, I'm not sure if this morning class will go away in February. I hope so.
w.shedd - i've only seen glimpses of the mountains from under the clouds - from what i can tell they live up to their reputation as "the alps of central asia" although i have yet to see them clearly. And sadly, we have been told that we cannot have internet in our apartments. Hell, we don't even have phones.
Jelly - I'll try to limit myself. After all, I've got so many at home...
Dave - The pictures are coming through on this end. Must've been a photobucket problem.
Gwen - Apparently this class has been around for a while. It's the only morning class and no one wants to teach it, because of how it makes the overall schedule so crappy. this means it gets stuck on the newbie. Sigh. not sure how long i'll have to do it. at least i get paid extra... also, the internet cafe is a little more expensive than the average PC bang (although i think the ones in Banyawol were cheaper than downtown) and the connection is slower :-( ahh well.
Two silly little things I can't help but comment on -
First, I noticed your cheese came from "Ramstor." I love that place! It hasn't made it to Siberia yet, and I have ambivalent feelings about it ever going out there, but if it wasn't for Рамстор in the Moscow suburbs, I would have had to read the last Harry Potter book three months after its release this summer, rather than two.
Second, that portrait of Lucy made me giggle. She seems so poised and dignified, it looked like the pet portrait eccentric British aristocracy would have hanging in their billards room or something. (Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but you catch my drift...)
-Brooke S.
They won't allow you to have a phone or the internet? Even on your own dime... er, soms?
Brooke - Ramstor is good in that it is totally right across from my apartment *and* it has EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, it's a little out of my budget. I have got to stop shopping there.
Gwen - I suppose if I offered to pay for the installation and all the fees, they would let me... except that when I asked, I was told that it would be really expensive, and cheaper to use the internet cafe.
Yeah, they do. I'm definitely going to have to get a cell phone.
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