After two days of travelling (with actually only around 18 hours of flying), I made it back to Tashkent! I had a warm welcome from my friends who hid in my apartment and surprised me after I got in around 5:30am this morning.
12 random notes about my trip over:
1. I flew first to Istanbul on Turkish air (it was good! the food was really decent.) The guy sitting next to me was Turkish and his name was Yakob… so I assumed he was Jewish, but he was actually Muslim. Anyway, he told me about how he moved to the States 8 years ago and was now running his own construction business. I asked “well, Turkey’s a growing economy – but you still found it hard to find work?” and he replied how with hard work, you can do anything in America – the American dream, right?
2. When I got to Turkey, getting a visa to go out was absurdly easy ( I had a 12 hour layover). I paid $20 and the guy put the stamp in my passport. I blinked and therefore missed him putting the stamp in there. I couldn’t believe it and asked the guy “that’s it”?
3. At the “left luggage” counter, the guy saw my passport “A-merican”, with a kind of a “macho”accent. Then he said “Konichiwa” to me, and I realized it was because my passport says that I was born in Japan. But I suddenly felt offended and snapped “but I’m American – I speak English” and he replied, “no, no, I like Japan… not America”.
4. Istanbul is a beautiful beautiful city that I will come back to someday. I went to see two of its most famous sites – the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque. This is where I did the stupidest of the stupidest stupidest things you could ever do. As I had sold my digi camera in Uzland and hadn’t bought a new one yet, I was using this Ricoh film camera. I took all these really great pics. Only later, in the evening, did I realize that I was TAKING PICTURES WITHOUT HAVING PUT ANY FILM IN THE CAMERA!!!! D-U-M!!!! I did manage to take some evening shots of the two buildings…
5. Though I enjoy travelling, I hate going anywhere where Koreans or Japanese people have descended before me in their characteristic huge crowds. I know the vendors are just trying to be nice, but I was getting VERY annoyed at all the vendors saying “konichiwa” and then when I didn’t respond to that “an-nyong-ha-se-yo” and then when I didn’t respond to that “ni hao”. Some of them would wave their hands very slowly and say “hello!” That’s when I would give a weak smile and say “hello” back.
6. Althought it’s necessary to visit all the tourist spots when you go somewhere new, I most enjoy visiting other places’ grocery stores. I was not disappointed in the one I found in Istanbul; I was able to buy 12 turkish tea cup for less than $2!
7. It was interesting to be in a modern, Muslim city. It’s the whole “women wearing head scarves while listening to their MP3 players and talking on their cell phones” thing. Or riding the tram and then when it opens, hearing the call to prayer. I have only been to developing Muslim countries, so these were weird juxtapositions for me (did I use that word right?) The thing I admired about Istanbul was that although it was modern, it was still very Turkish.. not too Westernized…. but with that European charm.. (like cobblestone streets).
8. Uzb.is a Turkic language, but Turkish and Uz. are not THAT similar. There are some common words (probably because those words have Arabic roots) but it was weird to hear it, because I felt like I should understand it. The numbers are exactly the same, though.
9. The flight from Istanbul to T.kent consisted of me and the girl in the window seat taking care of some young boy whose father decided to fall asleep and had no control over him. The boy was a bit wild, but we fed him and put him to sleep, and then all was okay. He was very cute, but very very spoiled.
10. Coming back into T.kent, I went through passport control, where the guy looked at my picture, looked at me, smirked, and then let me pass. At customs, I should have kept my mouth shut and not spoken any Russian, because then they feel the need to make conversation with you and ask you to open things up. I brought back a lot of guitar strings (for my friend), and the customs guy said to me “next time, don’t bring so many”. You should see the way and the amount of stuff people bring back from other countries – it’s insane! And the way it’s packed?? I don’t think any American airline would allow any of those misshaped and duct taped boxes to be checked (like it’s literally a garbage bag full of stuff that’s been taped over and over and over).
11. It’s now 9:30 am here and I will head to the office in a little bit. I am going to try hard not to fall asleep, though nothing sounds better than lying down to take a short nap… but I want to get over jet lag quickly, so gotta plunge in!
12. I am glad to be back with my friends here. I know the month will go by in a FLASH!
See you again in a month or so!
