Photo Shoot

Thought you might enjoy a sampling of the (many) pictures I took yesterday with my friend Nuripa in her national dress. I'm not quite Kyrgyz yet, but getting there :-)

Me in the Kyrgyz national dress, and Nuripa

With the Kyrgyz national instrument--the komus (which I canNOT play, in case you were wondering :-))

This is me pretending to be Nuripa, and Nuripa pretending to be me. Okay... so it's a pretty lame attempt--all we did was give her my glasses!

Jalalabad & Osh

So after the concourse, I decided to celebrate the victory by promptly coming down with strep throat... another thing to add to the list of things that never happened to me before I came to Kyrgyzstan :-). But due to the miracle of antibiotics (another thing I experienced for the first time--can you believe I'd never been on antibiotics before?), this cleared up in a couple days, and I didn't have to postpone my trip down south to Jalalabad and Osh oblasts.

I left on a Friday and spent the weekend down in J-bad with my friend, Rachel. The weather was beautiful--sunny with clear skies--and I had a great time. The south is notoriously warmer than the north, so I enjoyed my first taste of true spring weather this year.

On Monday, I headed down to Osh (just an hour and a half south of Jalalabad). Osh is known as Kyrgyzstan's "second capitol"--it's the second biggest city in the country, and it's not uncommon for people who live in the south to never visit Bishkek, and vice-versa. I stayed in the center with a volunteer, Sarah. Unfortunately, the weather was quite overcast and rainy the whole time I was there. I still had a good time, but wasn't really able to get the "true" Osh experience. For instance, we hiked "Sulaiman Too" (pronounced 'toe'), but the view from the top was all fog. Normally, you're supposed to be able to see Uzbekistan from the top, and also have a clear view of the other mountain ranges. But like I said, it was still a fun and relaxing trip, despite the rain.

Thursday, I flew up to Bishkek (my first intra-Kyrgyzstan flight), got my computer fixed (yes, again! CD drive had to be replaced, but luckily, this was fairly quick and painless), and then headed back to Talas on Friday. I was greeted by snow! Yup, it was snowing in Talas all weekend. I just hope it's gotten it all out of its system by now so we can really enjoy spring!

So enjoy the pics, and Happy Easter!

Volunteer friends in front of one of the grand attractions of Jalalabad :-)

The fruit & veggies section of the Jalalabad bazaar. I think this bazaar is my favorite in all of Kyrgyzstan--it's so organized and colorful!

Sarah and I at the bottom of Sulaiman Too, getting ready to climb to the top.

Sarah & I at the top of Sulaiman Too.

The unfortunately not-so-good view of Osh from the top of Sulaiman Too. I think Uzbekistan is out beyond the fog...