Yesterday Kompanion had some sort of training pertaining to the ecology and environment of Kyrgyzstan (I wish I could’ve attended!) and as such I was without my morning class yesterday. I skipped my Kyrgyz class and slept until nearly 1pm. It was wonderful. Sadly, this means that next week I’ll be teaching my 8:00 Kompanion class on Wednesday morning in addition to the other four regular days – Boo!
Kompanion sends a car to The London School to pick me up in the mornings. My first two classes, I had drivers who were quite reserved, saying little more to me than hello. Thursday, I had a jolly, garrulous fellow as my driver, who wanted nothing more than to chat with me in order to practice his English. His daughter and grandson live in Tampa, so he was quite excited to learn that my father lives in Tampa. When he learned that his name, Evgeny, was the Russian equivalent to my dad’s name, Eugene, I swear he decided we were meant to be best friends. He says he’s going to try to get scheduled to be my driver as often as possible, which would be pretty cool.
Later Thursday, as I was taking a taxi to the Embassy, I had an interesting taxi driver. For one thing, he was totally hot, despite his mullet. Yeah, I said that. Shut up. He too was interested in chatting to practice his English. His car had the steering wheel on the right side instead of the left. While most cars here in Kyrgyzstan have the steering wheel on the left, I have seen a rather large number of cars with the steering wheel on the right. (Kendje and Bayan’s van has the steering wheel on the right, for example.) Anyway, my driver said that cars with the wheel on the right are much cheaper than those with the wheel on the left, so he purchased it because that way he could afford a car with more options. I asked him a question which, to be honest, has been bugging me for years: what are the differences when driving a stick on the right or on the left. I was imagining all the gears in reversed positions, and even possibly having to switch the clutch to the right foot... but apparently no. Everything is the same; it’s just that you’re shifting with the left hand.
My taxi driver then went on to tell me that if he gets pulled over for speeding, he just pays the cop 50 soms (less than $2) as a bribe, and everything is fine. However, if he gets pulled over for driving after drinking, he has to bribe the cop with $50 or $100, depending on the cop! Um, yeah.
Wednesday of this week was gorgeous: sunny and WARM. I was out and about without my jacket. For a while I was only wearing my t-shirt, and it was fabulous. I walked around the city, taking a bunch of random pictures for you to enjoy (below). The weather on Thursday had reverted to shit, and I was worried that we were going to have another spell of winter. Luckily, it seems to have been only temporary; today is gorgeous!
Kompanion sends a car to The London School to pick me up in the mornings. My first two classes, I had drivers who were quite reserved, saying little more to me than hello. Thursday, I had a jolly, garrulous fellow as my driver, who wanted nothing more than to chat with me in order to practice his English. His daughter and grandson live in Tampa, so he was quite excited to learn that my father lives in Tampa. When he learned that his name, Evgeny, was the Russian equivalent to my dad’s name, Eugene, I swear he decided we were meant to be best friends. He says he’s going to try to get scheduled to be my driver as often as possible, which would be pretty cool.
Later Thursday, as I was taking a taxi to the Embassy, I had an interesting taxi driver. For one thing, he was totally hot, despite his mullet. Yeah, I said that. Shut up. He too was interested in chatting to practice his English. His car had the steering wheel on the right side instead of the left. While most cars here in Kyrgyzstan have the steering wheel on the left, I have seen a rather large number of cars with the steering wheel on the right. (Kendje and Bayan’s van has the steering wheel on the right, for example.) Anyway, my driver said that cars with the wheel on the right are much cheaper than those with the wheel on the left, so he purchased it because that way he could afford a car with more options. I asked him a question which, to be honest, has been bugging me for years: what are the differences when driving a stick on the right or on the left. I was imagining all the gears in reversed positions, and even possibly having to switch the clutch to the right foot... but apparently no. Everything is the same; it’s just that you’re shifting with the left hand.
My taxi driver then went on to tell me that if he gets pulled over for speeding, he just pays the cop 50 soms (less than $2) as a bribe, and everything is fine. However, if he gets pulled over for driving after drinking, he has to bribe the cop with $50 or $100, depending on the cop! Um, yeah.
Wednesday of this week was gorgeous: sunny and WARM. I was out and about without my jacket. For a while I was only wearing my t-shirt, and it was fabulous. I walked around the city, taking a bunch of random pictures for you to enjoy (below). The weather on Thursday had reverted to shit, and I was worried that we were going to have another spell of winter. Luckily, it seems to have been only temporary; today is gorgeous!
Jessica and Nick gave me this totally awesome fabric to cover my couch - which should go quite well with the orange walls which should be appearing later today!
My coolest slippers ever aren't faring too well, as Bagira *loves* them a little too much. It's hard to tell from this shot, but I'm holding her up via the slipper. She's about 3 feet off the ground and refusing to let go!
I have *very* fresh garlic on my windowsill.
The London School is located on Baitik Baatur St (Байтик Баатыр), although this is a new, post-Soviet name. No one calls it Baitik Baatur - everyone still calls it by its old name, Sovietskaya (Советская). In some places, some people have expressed their displeasure at the name change with paint.
Bishkek, like so many formerly Soviet cities, is cursed with a lot of Soviet-era architecture.
Here's some more.
There's also this terrifying Soviet era "fountain" (minus water), which is oddly fascinating.
More fountain...
...and even more!
Ремонт обуви, or shoe repair - one of the best things ever!
A nice Bishkek street scene.
Those of you who know and love Cheburashka will be amused by this!
3 comments:
CHEBBY!!
Bishkek looks a lot like Vladimir in some places. That street scene could totally be the outer edges of Fakel.
Also reminescent of architecture in the grand old People's Republic of China- I've seen a million buildings that looked like that in both Beijing and Tianjin. They look like they are all just about to fall down even when they are building them...
~Matt~
I love sidewalk shoe repairs!!!!!!!!!!!1
C. Esing
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