Oléeee, oléeee, oléeee, oléeee!

We are getting ready for the finale tonight: I made myself a flag! All you need is a flag from the supermarket, a stick from your yard, some tape and scissors. Make sure you tape the flag in the correct way (not upside down) to your stick. I got a little confused at this point...

Last year's pictures

For you to get a better impression about Kyrgyzstan and our life here, I'll give you the link to my old online album: This is our apartment before I moved in and these are pictures of our road trip last year. Because I already love those pictures I'm a little worried, that it won't be possible to get more interesting shots this year. But we'll see...

QUIZ: What kind of dish is it?

Today we were invited for lunch by two lovely elderly ladies. Philipp has known them for a long time now and they had always been so nice to him - inviting him for holidays, meals and of course lots of vodka. And they had even given us gifts for our wedding. I officially got introduced to them last week. Immediately they decided that there should be a welcome meal for me. So today was the big day! They had made lots of food for us: salads, a local dish called manti (similiar to German "Maultaschen") and dessert. They served all of this in their office, as this is where they usually gather. It was an original scene. I ate sooo much - because it was really good - and to be polite. They kept filling up my plate and my glass again and again. Everything was really good, but in the end (meaning after 6 manti and many side dishes) I just had to give up. The funny thing was, that after the meal, they took out injections. I was shocked "WOW - what's next for dessert?" - no for real, I didn't know what was going on. But then they explained that one of them used to be a doctor and that they regularly give each other vitamin shots. I was relieved. However I felt a little awkward.

I'm sorry not to be able to show you more pictures of our neighborhood and friends. This has to do with Philipp's work as we would like to treat everyone's private life confidential as long as we are here and as long as Philipp's work hasn't been completed yet.

TAKE THIS QUIZ:
1. What's the dish shown in the picture below? What is it made of?
2. What's the colorful drink in the other picture?

Please send me your answers (via mail or comment). Whoever gets both questions right first will get a traditional Kyrgyz gift when we return!!!

Check out the Link List

Hey folks, today I started a link list. You'll find it to the right of this text. I will continually add links related to Bishkek or Kyrgyzstan and of which I think they are intersting for you. You are also very welcome to suggest links... So happy link listing everyone!

And happy German-Turkish semi-final tonight!!! I keep myself awake by being online...

Our daily routine & the yard

In the past days nothing much has happened. Philipp works during the days, sometimes meets with his assistant or gives lectures at the American University downtown. Here is what my days usually look like at the moment:

I get up at 11 o'clock in the morning - seems like I still need to sleep a lot more than usually. Then I'm making breakfast for the two of us (usually Phil's second one). After this I take care of my back ache, as the bed still bothers me very much (it's too hard!) - sometimes tai chi helps. Then - being a good housewife - I think about what to eat during the day and I go out to the supermarket or/and the little bazar to buy groceries. We often have a warm meal at 4 o'clock in the afternoon (today: Fleichkuechle mit Nudelsalat, which I have never made before, pic). It's an uncommon time, but for us it works well, as we don't get hungry before that time and afterward not until the late evening, when we only eat a little something like cornflakes or bread. During the day I study some Russian, try to get used to the photo cameras, check my mails, write this blog, watch TV or listen to music. While I'm writing this, I'm wondering myself: What am I doing all day? Time just passes by so quickly. But if you get up only at 11, half of the day is gone already. And all the new impressions probably still take up a lot of energy as well. Like I wrote in a post before, we usually go out for a walk or play basketball and hang out with the "gang" at night. Bedtime around midnight.

As much as I love our yard (pic, taken around noon) and love to watch people gathering and children play (in the afternoon), it can get really annoying at night: Some people (old and young) hang out until late at night (i.e. 3-4 am) and talk very loud as if it was in the middle of the day. You can understand (ok, let's say those who know Russian or Kyrgyz!) every single word. It's also very popular to listen to pop music on mobile phones in public (by the way: Blue System is very alive here!!!). I already got used to it and don't mind it at all, but at night it gets quite annoying. So last night, I had a rough night - also because it was so hot with no breeze (windows open of course) that I felt like my head would burst into pieces any second. So I set up the little van in front of the sofa in our living room (facing north) and spent the rest of the night there...

Meat & Mountains

My cooking skills are progressing. After Philipp and I "finished" our diarrhea stage I can finally pursue my cooking goal again. Yesterday I wanted to do some meat - fat reduced turkey was our favored meat. But of course, we couldn't find it anywhere. So we bought something that looked similar to "Schnitzel". I had no idea what it was - and honestly I didn't want to know, because all I know is that most meat that is made and served here (i.e. lamb, mutton) I'm not a fan of. So below you can see the result. The meat was very hard-bitten, but I can't say if it was the type of meat or my lacking cooking skills. The sauce however (onions, garlic, pepper and cream) was awesome. The first sauce ever not made of KNORRfix or MAGGIfix!!!

The second pictures shows the beautiful mountains rising right behind the city's suburbs. I love how they are always covered with snow. I hope we can take a trip into the mountains soon...

Train Station II

Yesterday we went out for a walk in a nearby park. The park starts behind the Train Station No. 2 of Bishkek. I haven't been in the building yet, but from the outside it's quite nice. To get to the park we have to take an old wooden passenger bridge in order to cross the tracks. I think it's scary, because the wood seems so old and the bridge is shaking with every step - at least to me it feels like that. Phil has no problem with that bridge at all. Here are some black & whites...