Hearing the “I think I might be sick tomorrow” excuse from one of my favorite smart ass students
Hearing the Kyrgyz equivalent of the “it’s clean, but is it mama clean?” question (at least it wasn’t directed at me haha
Hearing my absolute favorite line in a Kyrgyz new year’s toast (and I heard a bunch of toasts) here goes: “may all your daughters get married”
Giving my host siblings their crocheted scarves (the youngest three wore theirs all day)
Going to the village new year’s party- although, I think this deserves a paragraph to talk about instead of a bullet. I really wanted to go to this party, after all, I didn’t go home to America for the holidays so I could be here to celebrate, but I didn’t want to go by myself because the whole walking-alone-at-dark-thing is highly discouraged. My host sisters and I have been bonding and we conspired that I should ask the parents if they could go with me, because they’ve never been allowed to go. I asked. Ata was wavering and Apa said “no,” which sucked. The girls were kinda upset. I was too. Their reasons for not giving permission were uber frustrating (partly because I heard it growing up, too) My host dad is kinda a big deal in the village and Apa thought that if the girls went, they’d be what translated to the Kyrgyz equivalent of “easy girls” and it would reflect poorly on my host dad because people would think he wasn’t strict and yadayadayada. How many times did I get the “your behavior reflects on me speech?” Yeah, it still sucks haha. So the girls couldn’t go, and I resigned myself to not going to because I didn’t want to go alone. Then, one of my favorite 11th grade students (who is more like a friend than a students, because we’re like three or four years apart) came and asked if I wanted to come guesting at her house, so I did. I went and had chai and stuff with her family, and then we went to the New Year’s party. I think my host parents were a little overly strict because the majority of my 8th-11th graders were there, not to mention families with toddlers. Sure, there was a drunk guy or two, but you can encounter that just walking down the street… Anyways, I danced a bunch (I’m going to come home and wow you all with hitherto unsuspected dance skills haha) and met a bunch of kids who would’ve been my 11th grade students, but quit after 9th grade. We also played a bunch of games. I got dragged into playing tug-of-war and ended up on a team with my students against my teachers because they divide it by birth year, and I’m closer in age to my students than my co-workers (that is still weird to me) --Also, a side note on the birth year thing- often, instead of getting asked how old I am, I get asked what my year is. Since I’m 1988, as of January 1, I can start saying that I am twenty two because I will turn twenty two this year, even if it isn’t for another eight months. I think I’m gonna stick with twenty one, though. I’ve only just started answering twenty one instead of twenty. Time bewilders me here. I was still writing October in December. This 2010 switch is gonna throw me off until at least March. Sigh.)
I went back to my student’s house and we celebrated the countdown with sips of champagne and fireworks. I love fireworks. At midnight, what seemed like every single family in the village set off fireworks (I was much to close to exploding things for my comfort, but still had a great time) I felt like Jordan, or any other ADD kid haha, 360 degrees of sparkly, shiny things going off in every direction had my head spinning. I got home a little after 12. Apa was asleep, and Ata was watching T.V. It was just like being in America, haha. And that pretty much sums up new years, because I did absolutely nothing on new years day.
Today, I helped make borsok and just spent an hour cleaning the floor of my room. You know those little car “vacuums,” that are really just rolling lint brushes that you attempt to use for ten minutes before realizing that they don’t work, giving up, and paying the fifty cents to use the powerful sucker vac at the car wash? Yeah, that is what I use to clean my floor, without the fifty cent cop out option. We have an actual vacuum cleaner, but just take my word for it that the hand held non-powered option is easier.
Now I think I’m going to go wash my hair, because I’m going to be put on exhibit tonight and tomorrow, a.k.a. we have guests coming, and I’m pretty sure our weekly banya is not going to happen because of the aforementioned guests.
Miss you
Wishing you all the best in the new year,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
No comments:
Post a Comment