First: Congrats to Rehey and Drtaekim!  Also, congrats to Aim and John!  To celebrate these weddings, which I could not attend, I hung out with camels.  Camels are too cool for school but very uncomfortable to ride.

“… the disturber will be hund to justice..” — uh-oh…

Woman selling cabbages…

Thinking of BLUE at the Registan in Samarkand.  Do you think this is the first time anyone
has posed in front of this with a Michigan shirt on?  GO BLUE!

I surreptitiously (what a great word) shot this pic of this old man at the train station.

He has a goat… is you jealous?

He’s selling samsas… (“buy one… or else!”)

Beautiful scenery..

The Central Asian Steppe…

The yurts where we spent the weekend… (just one night). They were STINKY because of the wet wool.
This picture makes it look like it was really out in the middle of nowhere… but just in front was a silver
Soviet trailer where the owners lived and prepared our meals.

Just keep walking…

Now give me some comments. I got NONE last time.  And oh, nobody cared that the STRING on my boot was to hold
the darn thing together ’cause the zipper broke while I was out there.

** note, as an educational service, I have linked some of the words in my entry to wikipedia, so that you can learn the difference between a steppe and a desert; and Tatar vs. Tartar.. because you know you want to know these things… **

Five of us travelled to the Kyzl-Kum desert (we actually concluded that it was more like a steppe than a desert)  this weekend for a camel riding and yurt expedition.  I will post pics soon, but one of the “high”lights was talking to the guy who runs the thing… he was a staunch atheist, but also Muslim (he was Ta-tar by ethnicity, not Tar-tar, like the sauce – yummm… tartar sauce…).  He said “our astronaut [Gagarin] went up into space and didn’t find God… I have everything I need and God didn’t give it to me… “

Here’s one pic just to give you a taste of more pics to come… this is at the largest lake … (also, note the white string on my boot… can you guess WHY it’s there?)

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this picture was on the back of November’s Reader’s Digest!
I found this through another blog, and they were annoyed that the Michigan fans looked as blue-collar as
the OSU fans, though the cartoon seems to imply the socio-economic difference between the two teams…
(notice the difference in grills)… the OSU guy is sporting what is called a “Buckstache”. How tacky.
But our guys don’t look all that hip, either.

GOOO BLUE!  I am still trying to figure out a way to watch the game over here live.  
Apparently, US military and embassy staff get some kind of fancy satellite TV, so I need
to befriend one of these peeps quickly! 

Friday night – watched lots of movies, in English.
Saturday – worked, in English.  then hung out with all English speakers and played Taboo, in English.
Sunday – went to the bazaar with my American friend, with whom I spoke English.   I helped her buy jeans.  She communicated flawlessly in Uzbek with all the shop sellers. I uttered random phrases in Uzbek (“bigger” “smaller”). Then went to Sunday service, all in English. 
Monday  – more work, in English.  Then played Scrabble, in English, with all English speakers.
Tuesday morning – STUMBLED over my Russian lesson.  Taught my teacher English.

Argh.  I need to live in some remote Russian village where noone speaks or wants to speak English. Even my Russian friends want to speak English with me.

Ya hachoo gavarit po russki!

There are some things that get more valuable as they get older….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(remember when he was on the Golden Girls
and later on the Facts of Life before ER?)

 

 

… but usually, cars don’t, unless they are antiques.

As I live in the land where things often don’t make sense, these cars appreciate in value, as they are the
most affordably coveted car here.  A new one costs way too much for the average citizen, so you can often
sell this car for the same price you bought it 5 years ago!

 

 

 

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Bought this Bollywood movie when I was in India this past year.  Loved it!  The music’s catchy.

Thought SOME of you might get tired of my Michigan talk… so back to cultural observations…

One of the beloved pasttimes of mine is EATING, as most of you know.

And it’s no different here.  The other night, a group of us went out for shashlik, barbecued meat.

The restaurant is famous for its shashlik.. and smoke…

We all enjoyed it. We ate pork cha-la-gach (pork chops), which is either Armenian or Georgian ..
… moloti, which is a mix of ground meats… regular beef skewers… and even one fish skewer…

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I had never heard of this Eurovision Song Contest until I came here… supposedly, it’s pretty tacky, but it’s still something for the Europeans (and wanna be Europeans) to get excited about… and this year’s entry from Russia was Dima Bilan. I like the song – it’s catchy!  (it’s pop, after all)…

He’s kinda cute, too..

He is Karachay-Russian., a Turkic people group of Russia.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/10/15/top.25.poll.ap/index.html/

7-0!  7-0!  I heard a radio announcer say that the only game Mich could possibly lose before OSU was PSU.  Well….   And they’re saying that OSU will run over everyone… until they meet Mich.  Yeah, Baby!  If only I could watch some of these games….

And I love how we clawed our way up from No.14. 

** Sophia moment **

Picture it: Houston, Texas, 1993.  Our Memorial High School basketball team – made up of only gangly white people and one very tall Korean-American – makes it to the regional championships for the first time… maybe ever…?  On the way, popular people and nerdy people (guess which group I was a part of) join hands and rally around our team… I distinctly remember one nail-biting moment when I found myself hugging and holding hands with some random popular blondie; we were just both so excited to see our team doing so well.

We were also excited to see the ARMS of a certain captain of our team.  Sigh.  High school crushes.  They were so fun.

Anyway, we didn’t make it past regionals. I think we got totally crushed by our opponent, whom I can’t remember. But those were still good times. I love when people rally together around a team like that!

GOOOOOO BLUE!

Anti-Safety

Moving away from the very fascinating topic of cute packaging (and this does NOT necessarily apply to people, as someone has suggested)… here is a very good example of the kind of culture I live in currently –

A foreign woman was pulled over recently for WEARING HER SEATBELT.  Yes, for trying to be safe.

The cop said to her “isn’t it uncomfortable?  DOESN’T IT HINDER YOUR DRIVING?”

She was able to get out of it by impressing the cop with her flawless language skills…

Anti-American

Being anti-American these days is as common and unsurpising as … being against, let’s say, killing kittens for no reason.

So instead of being against it, I sometimes join along with the American bashing.  Sometimes I do it unwittingly…

The other night, I was having dinner with our staff, and we were talking about mushrooms.  I was telling them how our very common, very plain, very cheap button mushrooms are called “champignons” here, the French word for mushroom.  Meanwhile, when we think “champignons“, don’t we think about some kind of fancy mushroom?  So I’m saying this, and my local friend looks at me and says “well, that’s the AMERICAN’s fault not ours!”  The other foreigner (non-American) cheered along with her.

 

Packaging people are geniuses. I used to make fun of my dear friend Jordyn for buying the Q-tips in the cutely packaged container, designed especially for women who like cutely packaged containers.

Well, I’ve fallen into this trap, too!  I just adore everything about the packaging of this lovely processed cream cheese spread from Denmark, imported from Dubai, probably, and sold here.  See —  the cute symbol.. the color scheme… the glass container… the blue tin top… the size .. (fits in my palm)… …. and the taste?  Well, it does taste pretty good (I spread it on crackers with some jam), but the package is what makes me reach for it.   

And the name – Puck – makes me think this cheese is whimsical & fun!  And therefore, if I eat, I, too, will be whimsical and fun!

Do you blame me?   A girl must find some simple pleasures during these crazy times…

This year, out of all the years that I graduated from fair Michigan (1997), I’m more enthusiastic about our fair football team.

I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m far away, about to come back… or maybe it’s only because we’re now #6 and well on our way to the National Championship (?? said cautiously, as high expectations for our dear football team come with heartache and sorrow as well..)…

Being a Michigan fan is so stressful.  We just never know when our wonderful football team will crack.

Maybe we crushed Notre Dame, but we could still lose to Michigan State (we didn’t) or Penn State (we could)… or Ball State.. or Northwestern, even!  Who knows.  It’s sometimes hard to support a beautiful team like ours.

Wouldn’t it be just the most supreme showdown in history if Michigan and Ohio State faced each other undefeated?   Oh MAN, I wish I could be with my Mich peeps for that game! (Nov 18th) I guess I’ll have to stay up late late late again to watch the game… and it would be fine, too, as others have noted, if we were not undefeated but still beat OSU.