Well, okay, you probably shouldn’t send me pepto, as by the time it got here I’d be back in the US. But I bet you can guess what happened. Yep, I had ANOTHER case of food poisoning or stomach flu or whatever the hell it is that I keep getting. This one wasn’t as severe as the previous three times, but it was made worse by the fact that I worked through it all. (Yes, this included running out in the middle of class…) Anyway, the week was pretty much a wash due to being ill and the fact that I had to work on Wednesday to make up for the day of work I missed because of being sick the previous week. Boo.
This weekend my friends and I had planned a super-cool trip to Song Kol, a high mountain lake which is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan. Well, they went; I stayed here nursing my stomach. At least after four days of yogurt I’m back on solid foods again.
In a fit of boredom I did something I hadn’t done in a good three years: I dyed my hair. Blonde. And not a natural blonde, but a crazy bright yellow. And almost instantaneously I had creepy guys hitting on me through my window. In eight months of living here, I had NEVER had anyone bother me through my window before. Seriously, WTF is it with guys and blonde hair? Or with creepy drunken dudes thinking that a girl is going to give her phone number to a strange guy harassing her from the street, ripping a hole in her plastic window-covering and trying to steal her cat? I ended up having to sleep with my windows closed, which meant cutting out the ventilation from the cool night air. Sigh. Nobody ever fucked with me when I had black hair; there’s probably a lesson in this somewhere.
Yep, absurdity reigns.
Although there might be another explanation for the behaivour of those dudes... Yes, a full moon. And that little glowy spot is Venus.
Anyway, on to cheerier topics: Kyrgyzstan has a legendary epic hero named Manas. There are monuments to Manas all over the place, and the Epic of Manas is allegedly three times longer than the Odyssey or something. I decided I’d like to know some of the actual Manas legends, so instead of purchasing the appallingly thick (and appallingly expensive) English prose translation of the epic, I purchased a beautifully illustrated children’s book of Manas tales in Russian. I’ve been translating it, and it is slow going. This book might be meant for kids, but it’s chock full of words like anointed and indefatigable, which I sure as hell don’t know in Russian. Plus it periodically throws in Kyrgyz words, so if a word isn’t in my Russian dictionary, I have to double check the Kyrgyz one, as sometimes it’s in there. Sometimes it isn’t. Anyway, the book has 14 chapters. I’ve translated the prologue and the first chapter. The words and phrases that I was unable to figure out, I’ve simply left in Russian, but you can follow the plot easily despite the few un-translated bits. The post below contains my first translations. It’s a pretty entertaining tale thus far – enjoy!
In one tale, Manas carries his weary horse over a mountain pass.
This weekend my friends and I had planned a super-cool trip to Song Kol, a high mountain lake which is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan. Well, they went; I stayed here nursing my stomach. At least after four days of yogurt I’m back on solid foods again.
In a fit of boredom I did something I hadn’t done in a good three years: I dyed my hair. Blonde. And not a natural blonde, but a crazy bright yellow. And almost instantaneously I had creepy guys hitting on me through my window. In eight months of living here, I had NEVER had anyone bother me through my window before. Seriously, WTF is it with guys and blonde hair? Or with creepy drunken dudes thinking that a girl is going to give her phone number to a strange guy harassing her from the street, ripping a hole in her plastic window-covering and trying to steal her cat? I ended up having to sleep with my windows closed, which meant cutting out the ventilation from the cool night air. Sigh. Nobody ever fucked with me when I had black hair; there’s probably a lesson in this somewhere.
Yep, absurdity reigns.
Although there might be another explanation for the behaivour of those dudes... Yes, a full moon. And that little glowy spot is Venus.
Anyway, on to cheerier topics: Kyrgyzstan has a legendary epic hero named Manas. There are monuments to Manas all over the place, and the Epic of Manas is allegedly three times longer than the Odyssey or something. I decided I’d like to know some of the actual Manas legends, so instead of purchasing the appallingly thick (and appallingly expensive) English prose translation of the epic, I purchased a beautifully illustrated children’s book of Manas tales in Russian. I’ve been translating it, and it is slow going. This book might be meant for kids, but it’s chock full of words like anointed and indefatigable, which I sure as hell don’t know in Russian. Plus it periodically throws in Kyrgyz words, so if a word isn’t in my Russian dictionary, I have to double check the Kyrgyz one, as sometimes it’s in there. Sometimes it isn’t. Anyway, the book has 14 chapters. I’ve translated the prologue and the first chapter. The words and phrases that I was unable to figure out, I’ve simply left in Russian, but you can follow the plot easily despite the few un-translated bits. The post below contains my first translations. It’s a pretty entertaining tale thus far – enjoy!
In one tale, Manas carries his weary horse over a mountain pass.
3 comments:
Glad you are feeling better. George thinks that the planet is more likely Jupiter. We have been watching it here this summer - he says that Venus is between us and the sun and is more likely seen at less than a full moon. If you look through binoculars you may seen the moons of Jupiter.
Good to know! If I had binoculars or a telescope, I'd totally try to check that out.
Oh, have I not mentioned that? Well, he was born there, but I don't think he spent much time there. He certainly doesn't come back to revisit his roots or anything.
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