November

The longer you leave a blog alone, the harder it can be to kickstart it. With fear and trembling, I pick up my pen (read:keyboard) to tell you, gentle readers, about the last two months of my life in Bishkek.

Okay, that sounds like I'm dying or about to leave Bishkek. Regardless -

The weather is a safely innocuous place to start, if you can call six inches of snow innocuous. It's a been a freezing fortnight. I routinely walk to school in the dark, upon sidewalks with the shape and texture of a bowling ball, while my nose hairs freeze and my bazaar-bought boots leak a little ice-water. The first step from the padyest involves a coughing fit as my lungs seize up in -19 Celsius.

School is reasonably warm, however, and the apartment fluctuates between lukewarm and toastywarm. That is a true blessing, given the frequent electricity and gas outages.

Here's a brief overview of my weekly schedule: School, school, English conversation club, school, Bible study, school school school, drama auditions, SRC meetings, church, school school school. Did I forget anything? Oh yeah, school. Good thing I really enjoy school.

Any word becomes weirdly foreign when you say it repeatedly.

There's an exciting event on the horizon. I'm going to Thailand for ten days over Christmas to visit my sister and parents, taking only t-shirts and sandals (and related clothing) and a bag full of gifts, leaving an ice-bound city in my wake. This is a happy-making thought indeed.

 There. Consider my blog kickstarted. I'll try to write something more lively this week. In the meantime, here's a picture of me and my new flatmate (also colleague), taken on Twin Day. Note lens-less glasses and Germanic hairdo, both courtesy of said flatmate.