Alright. This is my "I'm going to answer your questions" blog. If you have anymore questions feel free to comment and ask. For now, these are the questions that need answering.
Q: What did you think of the Mosque? What was it like?
A: I'll put a picture up as soon as I post this blog. It was really plain and boring actually. There is nothing on the walls because the only purpose the Mosque serves is giving the people a place to pray. They think that if they put anything on the walls that it will distract from the spiritual experience. Because of that, it was a very boring place. There were hundreds of carpets down for people to kneel on and stuff. Also, the wood detailing on the outside of the building was amazingly intricate. I liked it.
Q: What strengths do you see in the Tajik culture?
A: Tajik's are very family oriented. I think that is really cool! Also, I love their food. That's definatly a bonus. Tajik's are also pretty big on respect me thinks. There are many ways of showing respect to elders and I can't name them all, but in general what the elders say goes. I think it's good that they are so family oriented though. That's the best part.
Q: What things about Tajik culture do you think need to change?
A: The biggest thing is that the girls are not taken seriously at all. They are not respected and have no say in anything. Girls are expected to be married by the time they are 18, and most times they don't have a choice. I think that is something that needs to change. Also, the girls have to wear long dresses because showing off your legs I think is a no no. I met an old lady on the street a few days ago and she said that I am very beautiful, but I need to wear longer pants haha.
Q: What are your fellow US students like? Where are they from?
A: Patrick is from Maryland and he is 17. Silviano is 18 and he is from California. I think that they are good guys. I just need more patience. They like to joke around a lot and they love inside jokes. So that's what they're like haha.
Q: What foods do you like best so far?
A: I LOVE SAMOSAS! It's a triangle shaped pastry like thing filled with beef and onions. And it's baked. I also love Plov. Yesterday i tried some Tajik dessert, but I can't remember what it's called. It was so yummy though! In general, all Tajik food is pretty good.
Q: Do you eat the food with your hands?
A: No, I use a fork, but when you eat Plov you CAN use your hands. Samosas you can either cut it up or pick it up like a burrito.
Q: How do you deal with the heat?
A: I don't really haha. I just sit in the air conditioned house and try not to go outside. When I AM outside though I just stick to the shade and try not to think about how burned I'm going to be when I get back to the house.
Q: Have you gotten to make the bread?
A: No, the bread is always made before we get there. I would like to make the bread, but I'm afraid I'll mess it up haha.
Q: Have you gotten the chance to play any music or sing?
A: In the US Embassy they had a piano and they let me play it. That's the only opportunity I've had, and I definatly haven't sung. No way haha. There aren't very many instruments here besides the guitar, but I'll work on it.
Q: When are you coming back?
A: I fly out of Dushambe on the 31st of July, so I only have about 2 more weeks. I will get to Seattle at 10:45 on the same day. I think. It might be the 1st . . .
Q: Could you describe the bathrooms in length?
A: Well at Garth's house we have a regular toilet, but in public and in many of the Tajik homes, their bathrooms and only be described as a hole in the ground basically. It's always a good cultural experience when you have to go to the bathroom. Ewwwww.
Q: Can you drink the tap water?
A: No No No. That would be a very bad idea. If you want water you have to go to the store and buy bottled water, and even then I think it sorta tastes funny. We all think that Patrick got sick because he drank the tap water, but I think he's in denile.
Q: Do you have electricity?
A: Yep. At Garth's house we do have electricity and most all of the Tajik homes also have electricity. Garth told me that in the winter time hardly anyone have power, but in the other seasons it's not really an issue.
Ok, so those are the answers to most of the questions that people have asked in comments. If you have anymore questions feel free to inquire.
So Silviano and Patrick and I are going out to dinner at 7, so I guess my goal of not leaving the house at all today didn't really work out, but that's ok. I'm hungry haha. Bye Bye For Now!
-- <3 austi
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Livin' the dream.
OMG I have discovered that I can make my font different colors. Oh no . . .
Alright, so It's Sunday today, so I decided to not go shopping with Silviano and Patrick because today is my rest day. Instead of walking around in 107 degree weather, weaving through booths selling fruit and shoes, I am instead going to do NOTHING today. I'm not leaving the Pink Palace for anything, except maybe food. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to get food without leaving the house . . . but it will come to me. I'm sure.
To start off, I am going to take a video of the Pink Palace so that I can show my family how the house looks. Somehow pictures just don't do this place justice. I need to take a video. Next I will MySpace and Facebook for about 3 hours because there is NOTHING else to do. Maybe I will go out in the carport and throw some darts or something. Hm. I'll have to think about it.
Next, I will eat chocolate while watching either BBC or MTV. Haven't decided which would be more boring. Garth's TV only gets about 20 channels, and they are all news except MTV. Kind of odd, but at this point I'm so bored that I'll watch just about anything.
How about I tell you how my morning has gone down up till now:
I was asleep, but Patrick woke me up by stomping on the floor with his feet (seeing as how I sleep on the ground on a mat, this was a very effective way to wake me). That, of course did not put me in the best of moods, but then of course Patrick have to further infuriate me by yelling at me about how I didn't wash my bowl of cereal out and how he was going to body slam me if i didn't have my dishes washed by the time he got back. Of course I just stared at him for a very long time and then laughed out loud so that he felt like a total idiot, which did make me feel a little better, but still. It's funny how he thinks that just because I'm the only girl that that means he gets to yell at me like he's on some power trip or something. I don't know.
Since I was already awake, I decided to get up and brush my teeth. So I did. Then I thought that I should probably get out of my PJ's and into regular clothes. So I did. Then I remembered that since Silviano, Patrick, and Marty were all leaving, that I will have the computer all to myself. So I decided to go out in the living/kitchen/TV room and get online. So I did. The boys/guys/men left me all alone and I really wanted to eat a bowl of cereal. So I did.
We are now up-to-date with my day and I have nothing else to tell you about my day except for the fact that I am very excited about doing NOTHING all day. See my previous blog for further details. I'm gunna go and read some of my new comments that you lovely people have posted on my blogs, and my next blog will be a Q&A blog. Since I have nothing else to do. Till then!
-- <3 austi
Alright, so It's Sunday today, so I decided to not go shopping with Silviano and Patrick because today is my rest day. Instead of walking around in 107 degree weather, weaving through booths selling fruit and shoes, I am instead going to do NOTHING today. I'm not leaving the Pink Palace for anything, except maybe food. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to get food without leaving the house . . . but it will come to me. I'm sure.
To start off, I am going to take a video of the Pink Palace so that I can show my family how the house looks. Somehow pictures just don't do this place justice. I need to take a video. Next I will MySpace and Facebook for about 3 hours because there is NOTHING else to do. Maybe I will go out in the carport and throw some darts or something. Hm. I'll have to think about it.
Next, I will eat chocolate while watching either BBC or MTV. Haven't decided which would be more boring. Garth's TV only gets about 20 channels, and they are all news except MTV. Kind of odd, but at this point I'm so bored that I'll watch just about anything.
How about I tell you how my morning has gone down up till now:
I was asleep, but Patrick woke me up by stomping on the floor with his feet (seeing as how I sleep on the ground on a mat, this was a very effective way to wake me). That, of course did not put me in the best of moods, but then of course Patrick have to further infuriate me by yelling at me about how I didn't wash my bowl of cereal out and how he was going to body slam me if i didn't have my dishes washed by the time he got back. Of course I just stared at him for a very long time and then laughed out loud so that he felt like a total idiot, which did make me feel a little better, but still. It's funny how he thinks that just because I'm the only girl that that means he gets to yell at me like he's on some power trip or something. I don't know.
Since I was already awake, I decided to get up and brush my teeth. So I did. Then I thought that I should probably get out of my PJ's and into regular clothes. So I did. Then I remembered that since Silviano, Patrick, and Marty were all leaving, that I will have the computer all to myself. So I decided to go out in the living/kitchen/TV room and get online. So I did. The boys/guys/men left me all alone and I really wanted to eat a bowl of cereal. So I did.
We are now up-to-date with my day and I have nothing else to tell you about my day except for the fact that I am very excited about doing NOTHING all day. See my previous blog for further details. I'm gunna go and read some of my new comments that you lovely people have posted on my blogs, and my next blog will be a Q&A blog. Since I have nothing else to do. Till then!
-- <3 austi
I know my way around Tajikistan now! I can get on a bus, and actually know when to get off and stuff like that . . . haha.
[[[This is a pre-message before you read this blog. It's late and I'm tired, therefore I may spell things wrong or forget punctuation marks or even forget to put in important words. Please forgive me.]]]
I love having nothing to do. I love waking up knowing that I can lounge around in my PJ's eating chocolate all day, with no where to be but home.
Of course that's not how my day went down. That would have been just TOO nice. I would have enjoyed that TOO much, so of course I had a very busy day which produced multiple blisters and frizzy hair.
I woke up at 11am and had to run out the door. That seems to be happening to me a lot lately. I did have time to eat though, which is more than I can say for yesterday morning. Anyways. Garth was already at the office when I woke up, and Silviano and Patrick told me that we were scheduled to have lunch with the '08 Alumni (the students that just returned from the US after a year-long exchange) at the PLAZMA Internet Center Cafe. We took a bus there and arrived a wee bit late. When I got there I was surprized to see about 30-40 Alumni waiting for us. I had only met about 10 Alumni prior to this lunch date and I didn't realize how many students were sent to America from Tajikistan. I also found that they had been expecting us at 10am because they were going to have a disscussion thingy with us about life in the US and Tajikistan, but obviously there was a glitch in our communication and we arrived at about 12:15. Oops.
The students told us (Silviano, Patrick, and I) all about their opinions about the US and how their exchanges affected their families, their towns, their host families lives, and their personalities. It was amazing to hear how spoiled they were in the US compared to in Tajikistan. In the US they had their own rooms, had late curfiews, had no chores, and had no real responcibility, which is about the exact opposite of their homes in Tajikistan. Children in Tajikistan are expected to clean, cook, watch younger children, wait on guests, be home by 8, and must always show deep respect toward elders. A lot of the Alumni were very hostile towards their parents and families when it came to fulfilling responcibility and they were seeing a lot less unity in their homes since they have returned from the US. Of course that is a very negative result of going to the US, but there was so much promise in the student's lives now that they had seen how independent they can be in the US. ALL of the Alumni want to go back because they don't believe that they will have a future in Tajikistan. They are pretty much right. Most of the girls will be married by the time they are 18 and the men will either be in the Tajik army or working in the same profession as their fathers. It's really sad.
So the time that I spent with the Alumni today was very ... educational you could say. I learned so much about Tajik life for teens and how the FLEX program affects their country. Very nice haha. I also made a bunch of friends and got a bunch of emails. It was a good afternoon.
After leaving PLAZMA Patrick, Silviano, and I walked to a small grocery store called Orima and I exchanged some money. We then caught a bus and went back to the Pink Palace. I forgot to "dib" the computer so Patrick and Silviano got to hog all the computers with internet so I was stuck with a comp that only had Solitare. Bummer. So I played 26 games of Solitare and then Malika and Sitora called us and invited us to go to the Botanical Gardens with some of the Alumni. So of course we walked to the Gardens (which were totally lame) and hung out with the "gang". Afterwards we all walked to a restaurant next to Orima and I ate a ton of Tajik food. I thought I was going to explode!
Tajik food is so yummy! They use a lot of oils, onions, dairy products, and meat. My favorite Tajik food is Plov (the food we had at Sachrinar), but I also like Samosa which is fried bread pockets stuffed with onion and beef. Deep fried anything is good, but this Samosa stuff is AMAZING! There is also a ton of bread and all bread here is fantastic! It's always fresh and soft and just so good O M G!
Haha, ok so after we all ate we send our goodbyes and P, S and I went back to the Pink Palace and I haven't left the house since. We got home at about 7:30pm so it was a pretty full day. Garth is actually at the US Embassy at a party and Marty is ... asleep I assume. Silviano is singing like a ... drunk or something. He's mindlessly singing Old McDonald, the "L is for the way you look at me . . . " song, and The Wheels on the Bus. It's getting annoying, but he's so tired that i'm sure it won't last much longer.
So while I'm here. Blogging. Waiting for Garth to get home. I guess I could think of other stuff that I have done that maybe I forgot to tell you.
Oh yea. I walked down to Orima to buy chocolate. Big shocker haha. When I looked at the price it said 3.5 D so I thought that that meant 35 Diram. Which is SUPER cheap. So I was like SCORE! I only had 7 Somani (100 Diram is 1 Somani) so I was so happy that I wouldn't have to spend all my money on chocolate since it was so cheap. So I get in line to checkout and (by the way I went to the store with Patrick) all my chocolate and my water bottle rang up at 23 Somoni! OH NO!! Apparently the chocolate was NOT 35 Diram, but 3.5 Somoni. My bad. So I only got 2 candy bars and my water which was 9 Somoni all together so Patrick had to spot me 2 Somoni, which isnt even a full American dollar. But still. I was so annoyed that the chocolate was so much more expensive than I thought. Grrr . . .
That was my stupid little shopping experience I just felt like sharing.
Also another thing I feel like venting about is the fact that I'm the only girl on this trip. Like what the heck. The boys are driving my CRAZY and there is no other girl to vent to or get picked on with. They are rude and they smell bad and they fart a ton and they make fun of me and they won't let me sleep next to the AC and they don't share their chocolate with me and there's not a speck of gentlemen in any of them and and and . . . yea I'm sick of the boys that I'm here with. I guess that I need a Girls Night Out or something. I really do miss Reinna and Rachel and Kayla. *sigh*
Hm. Well. So I'm getting sorta drowsy so I think I will go to sleep now. Tomorrow Patrick and Silviano are going shopping with Malika and Sitora AGAIN, but I'm going to stay home and sleep in. I need a rest day so that I can live my fantasy that I described at the beginning of this blog. Hopefully it turns out alright . . .
-- <3 austi
I love having nothing to do. I love waking up knowing that I can lounge around in my PJ's eating chocolate all day, with no where to be but home.
Of course that's not how my day went down. That would have been just TOO nice. I would have enjoyed that TOO much, so of course I had a very busy day which produced multiple blisters and frizzy hair.
I woke up at 11am and had to run out the door. That seems to be happening to me a lot lately. I did have time to eat though, which is more than I can say for yesterday morning. Anyways. Garth was already at the office when I woke up, and Silviano and Patrick told me that we were scheduled to have lunch with the '08 Alumni (the students that just returned from the US after a year-long exchange) at the PLAZMA Internet Center Cafe. We took a bus there and arrived a wee bit late. When I got there I was surprized to see about 30-40 Alumni waiting for us. I had only met about 10 Alumni prior to this lunch date and I didn't realize how many students were sent to America from Tajikistan. I also found that they had been expecting us at 10am because they were going to have a disscussion thingy with us about life in the US and Tajikistan, but obviously there was a glitch in our communication and we arrived at about 12:15. Oops.
The students told us (Silviano, Patrick, and I) all about their opinions about the US and how their exchanges affected their families, their towns, their host families lives, and their personalities. It was amazing to hear how spoiled they were in the US compared to in Tajikistan. In the US they had their own rooms, had late curfiews, had no chores, and had no real responcibility, which is about the exact opposite of their homes in Tajikistan. Children in Tajikistan are expected to clean, cook, watch younger children, wait on guests, be home by 8, and must always show deep respect toward elders. A lot of the Alumni were very hostile towards their parents and families when it came to fulfilling responcibility and they were seeing a lot less unity in their homes since they have returned from the US. Of course that is a very negative result of going to the US, but there was so much promise in the student's lives now that they had seen how independent they can be in the US. ALL of the Alumni want to go back because they don't believe that they will have a future in Tajikistan. They are pretty much right. Most of the girls will be married by the time they are 18 and the men will either be in the Tajik army or working in the same profession as their fathers. It's really sad.
So the time that I spent with the Alumni today was very ... educational you could say. I learned so much about Tajik life for teens and how the FLEX program affects their country. Very nice haha. I also made a bunch of friends and got a bunch of emails. It was a good afternoon.
After leaving PLAZMA Patrick, Silviano, and I walked to a small grocery store called Orima and I exchanged some money. We then caught a bus and went back to the Pink Palace. I forgot to "dib" the computer so Patrick and Silviano got to hog all the computers with internet so I was stuck with a comp that only had Solitare. Bummer. So I played 26 games of Solitare and then Malika and Sitora called us and invited us to go to the Botanical Gardens with some of the Alumni. So of course we walked to the Gardens (which were totally lame) and hung out with the "gang". Afterwards we all walked to a restaurant next to Orima and I ate a ton of Tajik food. I thought I was going to explode!
Tajik food is so yummy! They use a lot of oils, onions, dairy products, and meat. My favorite Tajik food is Plov (the food we had at Sachrinar), but I also like Samosa which is fried bread pockets stuffed with onion and beef. Deep fried anything is good, but this Samosa stuff is AMAZING! There is also a ton of bread and all bread here is fantastic! It's always fresh and soft and just so good O M G!
Haha, ok so after we all ate we send our goodbyes and P, S and I went back to the Pink Palace and I haven't left the house since. We got home at about 7:30pm so it was a pretty full day. Garth is actually at the US Embassy at a party and Marty is ... asleep I assume. Silviano is singing like a ... drunk or something. He's mindlessly singing Old McDonald, the "L is for the way you look at me . . . " song, and The Wheels on the Bus. It's getting annoying, but he's so tired that i'm sure it won't last much longer.
So while I'm here. Blogging. Waiting for Garth to get home. I guess I could think of other stuff that I have done that maybe I forgot to tell you.
Oh yea. I walked down to Orima to buy chocolate. Big shocker haha. When I looked at the price it said 3.5 D so I thought that that meant 35 Diram. Which is SUPER cheap. So I was like SCORE! I only had 7 Somani (100 Diram is 1 Somani) so I was so happy that I wouldn't have to spend all my money on chocolate since it was so cheap. So I get in line to checkout and (by the way I went to the store with Patrick) all my chocolate and my water bottle rang up at 23 Somoni! OH NO!! Apparently the chocolate was NOT 35 Diram, but 3.5 Somoni. My bad. So I only got 2 candy bars and my water which was 9 Somoni all together so Patrick had to spot me 2 Somoni, which isnt even a full American dollar. But still. I was so annoyed that the chocolate was so much more expensive than I thought. Grrr . . .
That was my stupid little shopping experience I just felt like sharing.
Also another thing I feel like venting about is the fact that I'm the only girl on this trip. Like what the heck. The boys are driving my CRAZY and there is no other girl to vent to or get picked on with. They are rude and they smell bad and they fart a ton and they make fun of me and they won't let me sleep next to the AC and they don't share their chocolate with me and there's not a speck of gentlemen in any of them and and and . . . yea I'm sick of the boys that I'm here with. I guess that I need a Girls Night Out or something. I really do miss Reinna and Rachel and Kayla. *sigh*
Hm. Well. So I'm getting sorta drowsy so I think I will go to sleep now. Tomorrow Patrick and Silviano are going shopping with Malika and Sitora AGAIN, but I'm going to stay home and sleep in. I need a rest day so that I can live my fantasy that I described at the beginning of this blog. Hopefully it turns out alright . . .
-- <3 austi
Saturday, July 19, 2008
So Tall, So White, So Clothed.
I just got home from the Disco, and it was freakin awesome!
A Disco, is basically a club and the best part about it is that there is no age limit. There are people there of all ages, but mostly 18-25. There are a ton of strobe lights and colored lazers with mirrors everywhere and loud, pumping, modern, TECHNO MUSIC! Plus a lot of very good looking Tajik/Russian guys. Does it get much better than that?
I should probably start from the beginning. After i finished my last blog we went to eat at one of the FLEX student's house for dinner. She went to Tousan, AZ on her exchange so of course Marty and her were best friends lol. We went to her house and ate a pretty filling dinner and chatted with her and her family. They were all very gracious and hospitible. It was a really good experience and i was really glad that i went, because at first i was like "Hm, idk . . . this could get boring and not fun, seeing as i don't speak Russian or Tajik . . . ", but once i had gone i was really glad that i did.
We (when i said we i mean Patrick, Garth, Marty and I. Silviano went to the US Embassy with a few FLEX guys, so he wasn't with us) left her (i say her because i cant remember name) house at about 9pm and i was planning on going to the Disco at 10pm. By the way, the reason i was going to the Disco in the first place was because some of the Alumni were having a going away party for 3 of the students that were leaving Tajikistan for a time. So they invited us (as in Patrick, Silviano, and I) to go to the Disco to see what it's like. Patrick was extremely tired, so him and Marty took the bus back to the Pink Palace (Garth's house) and Garth and I headed to the Disco.
We got there pretty early, so we ordered some tea in the cafe part of the Disco. The Disco itself was on the 2nd floor of this huge building, while the 1st floor was a restaurant. I had a cup of green tea and just chatted with Garth for about 15 minutes, and then some of the guys from FLEX that i met at the movie night yesterday showed up and joined us. Garth decited to leave me with them and went to the restaurant to hang out with a friend and wait for me to want to go home.
So here i am, sitting in a small restaurant, surrounded by about 8 guys at the time, who i barely know, about to go to a Disco, which i have never been to, and i'm the only girl, and i'm nervous, and, and, . . .
Haha, it was fine. I talked with them, laughed with them, and they told me all about themselves. I cant remember any of their names of course because they are about 15 letters each and sound a lot like giberish to me. But i tried my best and they helped me as much as they could by telling me their nick-names and such. It was about 15 more minutes before any girls showed up, and when they did i knew instantly that i was out of place.
3" heels, tight skinny jeans, X-TREMELY revealing tops, dark brown skin, long wavy black hair, brown eyes, very short. They all were like that.
Flip flops, baggy brown bermuda shorts, striped t-shirt, pale skin, short brown hair, big blue eyes, veeeeerry tall. That's what i was like.
You could definatly say that i stuck out like a sore thumb. I was like a blond elk in a brown herd haha. All the guys were like "Wow! You are so tall! You're eyes are so beautiful and blue! You are so pale!" Also, it was just my luck that EVERYONE thought i was 23, so i had a bunch of guys try to buy me drinks and stuff and i, of course, declined and explained that i'm only 16. Their eyes got all big and they were like "No way! Come on ... you can't be only 16 . . . " All the girls that i was with looked really young, like 14 and 15, when really they were 18 and 19. For some reason all the girls looked young and i didn't so i was getting way too much attention from the boys. At first i didn't mind (haha, of course...), but then it became clear that they were interested in more than just dancing. When they would try to get too close i would just walk away, or go sit at a table and talk to some girls. Some of the girls were getting annoyed because they went way out of their way to dress sleezy and get pretty so THEY could get attention from the boys, and the ONE girl that was wearing by far the MOST clothing out of all the girls was getting the attention instead of the other way around. I had to laugh.
The music was awesome, the lighting was awesome, the room we were in was awesome (mirrors everywhere, neon lights, cool furniture, stuff like that). It was so much fun!! It was by far the funnest "cultural experience" that i've had in Tajikistan. I can only imagine how much fun me and my BFF's would have in one of those Discos!!!! Rachel and Kayla, you should definatly be jealous . . . haha!
Anywho, a guy that i met at the movie night walked me to where Garth was eating. Garth was eating with one of his colleagues, so i felt bad about interupting his little get-together, but Garth was cool and he finished his food quickly. We walked his friend home, then caught a cab back to the Pink Palace. Now i'm home and i'm blogging haha. I love how right now it's pitch-black outside and i'm about to go to sleep, when i know my friends and family are out on the lake, playing outside, enjoying the sun. It's pretty cool!
Well anyways, i'm gunna go to sleep. Tomorrow the boys get to go to a wedding. I cant go because i am a girl and the part of the wedding they are going to is only for men to attend. It's not like a bachelor party, it's an actual ceremony thing. I dont know. All i know is that i get to sleep in, and the boys have to wake up early. Sucks for them :)
Nothing to do tomorrow, so maybe i'll just blog about some cool stuff that i've noticed about Tajikistan. And i'll upload photos . . .
-- <3 austi
ps. i did a bad thing. i forgot to take pics of the Disco. My family is going to kill me . . .
A Disco, is basically a club and the best part about it is that there is no age limit. There are people there of all ages, but mostly 18-25. There are a ton of strobe lights and colored lazers with mirrors everywhere and loud, pumping, modern, TECHNO MUSIC! Plus a lot of very good looking Tajik/Russian guys. Does it get much better than that?
I should probably start from the beginning. After i finished my last blog we went to eat at one of the FLEX student's house for dinner. She went to Tousan, AZ on her exchange so of course Marty and her were best friends lol. We went to her house and ate a pretty filling dinner and chatted with her and her family. They were all very gracious and hospitible. It was a really good experience and i was really glad that i went, because at first i was like "Hm, idk . . . this could get boring and not fun, seeing as i don't speak Russian or Tajik . . . ", but once i had gone i was really glad that i did.
We (when i said we i mean Patrick, Garth, Marty and I. Silviano went to the US Embassy with a few FLEX guys, so he wasn't with us) left her (i say her because i cant remember name) house at about 9pm and i was planning on going to the Disco at 10pm. By the way, the reason i was going to the Disco in the first place was because some of the Alumni were having a going away party for 3 of the students that were leaving Tajikistan for a time. So they invited us (as in Patrick, Silviano, and I) to go to the Disco to see what it's like. Patrick was extremely tired, so him and Marty took the bus back to the Pink Palace (Garth's house) and Garth and I headed to the Disco.
We got there pretty early, so we ordered some tea in the cafe part of the Disco. The Disco itself was on the 2nd floor of this huge building, while the 1st floor was a restaurant. I had a cup of green tea and just chatted with Garth for about 15 minutes, and then some of the guys from FLEX that i met at the movie night yesterday showed up and joined us. Garth decited to leave me with them and went to the restaurant to hang out with a friend and wait for me to want to go home.
So here i am, sitting in a small restaurant, surrounded by about 8 guys at the time, who i barely know, about to go to a Disco, which i have never been to, and i'm the only girl, and i'm nervous, and, and, . . .
Haha, it was fine. I talked with them, laughed with them, and they told me all about themselves. I cant remember any of their names of course because they are about 15 letters each and sound a lot like giberish to me. But i tried my best and they helped me as much as they could by telling me their nick-names and such. It was about 15 more minutes before any girls showed up, and when they did i knew instantly that i was out of place.
3" heels, tight skinny jeans, X-TREMELY revealing tops, dark brown skin, long wavy black hair, brown eyes, very short. They all were like that.
Flip flops, baggy brown bermuda shorts, striped t-shirt, pale skin, short brown hair, big blue eyes, veeeeerry tall. That's what i was like.
You could definatly say that i stuck out like a sore thumb. I was like a blond elk in a brown herd haha. All the guys were like "Wow! You are so tall! You're eyes are so beautiful and blue! You are so pale!" Also, it was just my luck that EVERYONE thought i was 23, so i had a bunch of guys try to buy me drinks and stuff and i, of course, declined and explained that i'm only 16. Their eyes got all big and they were like "No way! Come on ... you can't be only 16 . . . " All the girls that i was with looked really young, like 14 and 15, when really they were 18 and 19. For some reason all the girls looked young and i didn't so i was getting way too much attention from the boys. At first i didn't mind (haha, of course...), but then it became clear that they were interested in more than just dancing. When they would try to get too close i would just walk away, or go sit at a table and talk to some girls. Some of the girls were getting annoyed because they went way out of their way to dress sleezy and get pretty so THEY could get attention from the boys, and the ONE girl that was wearing by far the MOST clothing out of all the girls was getting the attention instead of the other way around. I had to laugh.
The music was awesome, the lighting was awesome, the room we were in was awesome (mirrors everywhere, neon lights, cool furniture, stuff like that). It was so much fun!! It was by far the funnest "cultural experience" that i've had in Tajikistan. I can only imagine how much fun me and my BFF's would have in one of those Discos!!!! Rachel and Kayla, you should definatly be jealous . . . haha!
Anywho, a guy that i met at the movie night walked me to where Garth was eating. Garth was eating with one of his colleagues, so i felt bad about interupting his little get-together, but Garth was cool and he finished his food quickly. We walked his friend home, then caught a cab back to the Pink Palace. Now i'm home and i'm blogging haha. I love how right now it's pitch-black outside and i'm about to go to sleep, when i know my friends and family are out on the lake, playing outside, enjoying the sun. It's pretty cool!
Well anyways, i'm gunna go to sleep. Tomorrow the boys get to go to a wedding. I cant go because i am a girl and the part of the wedding they are going to is only for men to attend. It's not like a bachelor party, it's an actual ceremony thing. I dont know. All i know is that i get to sleep in, and the boys have to wake up early. Sucks for them :)
Nothing to do tomorrow, so maybe i'll just blog about some cool stuff that i've noticed about Tajikistan. And i'll upload photos . . .
-- <3 austi
ps. i did a bad thing. i forgot to take pics of the Disco. My family is going to kill me . . .
Friday, July 18, 2008
Jaberwocky attacks city, triggering massive landslides ...
So i hope that that title was exciting enough for you, because that was the only exciting thing about this blog. When my blog gets boring, just glance up and the title so that you will want to continue. For your sake yea? (tee hee I'm clever)
Let us start with Yesterday, seeing as how I failed to blog yesterday. Upon waking up, I ate a chocolate bar, brushed my teeth, and walked out the door. I found myself in the American Councils building once again because Malika and Sitora (nice ladies that work at the AC building) were going to take up shopping around Dushambe for souvenirs. Apparently Garth does not do a good enough job walking us around to buy stuff, so he had to seek professional help. Two 20 year old girls. Doesn't get more professional than that when it comes to shopping.
So from 9am to about 3pm we walked around and bought stuff. I spent $100 (about 342 somoni) all together and had quite a successful day. I got something for each family member as well as friends. Yay me!
At 3:30pm we went back to the AC building for a pizza party with the Alumni. The Alumni are the Tajik students who got to spend a year in the US through the FLEX program. Most of them were our age, and there were also some that were in College. They were all super nice and i enjoyed talking to them. We bought pizza and watched a movie.
So let me tell you about the pizza. Each pizza is about the size of ... a small plate. Not a dinner plate, but a small plate. They do not have tomato sauce (which if you dont mind me saying, is CRUCIAL to pizza) so there is a little tiny bit of tomato paste on the pizza. There is A TON of cheese and always a lot of onions. The pizza that we had was called Mediteranian Pizza. It had tomato paste, cheese, onion, a tomato slice on each slice, and a lot of garlic. A very plain pizza. It was good, but it wasn't Dominoes. Anywho, the movie we watched was CLOVERFIELD which is the Bomb.com. That is an awesome movie and if you havent seen it, find it and watch it. I don't know how i lived before seeing it. Dang that was an awesome movie.
After the movie, a bunch of the Alumni, Malika, Sitora, and PS&A (Patrick Silviano and Austi) went to go see another movie at the cinema, but we were too late so they wouldn't let us in. So instead we went to a local park by a Bazzar and played frisbee. Pretty fun, except for the fact that I am still "sick" and had to occationally remove myself from the game so that I could regain my ... compossure. Afterwards we drove home and after eating another bar of chocolate I went to sleep.
-TODAY-
Woke up late. My bad. Real shocker for my parental units I'm sure haha. Basically I woke up and brushed my teeth and was quickly rushed out the door. Again we went to the AC building and shopped. I only spent about $40 (about 12- somani) and bought a bunch of stuff for Fam and Friends. Good stuff.
We went to the Green Bazzar and walked around to buy stuff, and even though i DID buy stuff, I felt so sick I just wanted to go home. And in case you didn't catch it, dinner was NOT in my day yesterday and breakfast was not in my day today, so I was STARVING. i was about to eat the little girl who sold me a Tajik scarf. Tengo mucho hambre. haha. Luckily for me, Patrick was also about to eat a small child so we both ran to Southern Fried Chicken and ordered 8 chicken pieces, 3 fries, 2 Sprites, a large bottle of water, and sat and ate. It was such amazing food OMG. It was like heaven on earth. I've never appreciated fried chicken like I appreciated it today.
By the time the rest of the group got to SFC Patrick and I were already done eating and ready to order more food. We ate and chatted and then left. We walked to a Tajik Museum and saw a Reclining Budda. I could have sworn I saw Marty tear up (he's Buddist), but it might have been my imagination ...
So now Patrick and I are at the Relief International office blogging. Silviano is with Malika buying jewelry for his mother and Sitora is back at the AC building. I believe Marty is talking to some of the RI staff and Garth is also talking. I'm sick and I don't feel good. All I want is chocolate and Sprite and I'm hoping that as soon as I finish this blog Garth will drive Patrick and I home. In case you're wondering why Patrick and I are always together, it's because Silviano has a crush on Malika (shhhh don't tell) and ditches us for her. Plus Patrick and I are both sick with the same thing, so it's always fun to have a friend that is equally as miserable as you.
Oh, I did forget to mension in this boring blog that right now there is a small sand storm happening here in Dushambe and whenever you go outside your skin turns a light brown. I look tanner than normal and Silviano definatly looks more pale haha. Let's see what else. Oh yea. I'm getting reeeeeally tired of boys and can't wait to go home and talk to Reinna, Rachel, and Kayla. I've never appreciate them more till this trip. I MISS YOU GUYS! Also, I have a new appreciation for Connelly, which I think I have already mensioned, but I just wanted to say it again just in case Connelly didn't know. Seriously I have the best brother in the world. I never thought I'd say that . . . . (:D)
Well ok, so just in case I don't get to blog later tonight. I am planning on going to a Disco (which is basically a Tajik club) later tonight (don't worry parental units. it's supervised) and also going to a movie in the Cinema. If i dont it will be because i just really don't feel good and instead I will watch MTV or blog about how bored I am.
Hopefully I'll TTYL!
Sorry you had to read such a boring blog. I appoligize.
-- austi <3
Let us start with Yesterday, seeing as how I failed to blog yesterday. Upon waking up, I ate a chocolate bar, brushed my teeth, and walked out the door. I found myself in the American Councils building once again because Malika and Sitora (nice ladies that work at the AC building) were going to take up shopping around Dushambe for souvenirs. Apparently Garth does not do a good enough job walking us around to buy stuff, so he had to seek professional help. Two 20 year old girls. Doesn't get more professional than that when it comes to shopping.
So from 9am to about 3pm we walked around and bought stuff. I spent $100 (about 342 somoni) all together and had quite a successful day. I got something for each family member as well as friends. Yay me!
At 3:30pm we went back to the AC building for a pizza party with the Alumni. The Alumni are the Tajik students who got to spend a year in the US through the FLEX program. Most of them were our age, and there were also some that were in College. They were all super nice and i enjoyed talking to them. We bought pizza and watched a movie.
So let me tell you about the pizza. Each pizza is about the size of ... a small plate. Not a dinner plate, but a small plate. They do not have tomato sauce (which if you dont mind me saying, is CRUCIAL to pizza) so there is a little tiny bit of tomato paste on the pizza. There is A TON of cheese and always a lot of onions. The pizza that we had was called Mediteranian Pizza. It had tomato paste, cheese, onion, a tomato slice on each slice, and a lot of garlic. A very plain pizza. It was good, but it wasn't Dominoes. Anywho, the movie we watched was CLOVERFIELD which is the Bomb.com. That is an awesome movie and if you havent seen it, find it and watch it. I don't know how i lived before seeing it. Dang that was an awesome movie.
After the movie, a bunch of the Alumni, Malika, Sitora, and PS&A (Patrick Silviano and Austi) went to go see another movie at the cinema, but we were too late so they wouldn't let us in. So instead we went to a local park by a Bazzar and played frisbee. Pretty fun, except for the fact that I am still "sick" and had to occationally remove myself from the game so that I could regain my ... compossure. Afterwards we drove home and after eating another bar of chocolate I went to sleep.
-TODAY-
Woke up late. My bad. Real shocker for my parental units I'm sure haha. Basically I woke up and brushed my teeth and was quickly rushed out the door. Again we went to the AC building and shopped. I only spent about $40 (about 12- somani) and bought a bunch of stuff for Fam and Friends. Good stuff.
We went to the Green Bazzar and walked around to buy stuff, and even though i DID buy stuff, I felt so sick I just wanted to go home. And in case you didn't catch it, dinner was NOT in my day yesterday and breakfast was not in my day today, so I was STARVING. i was about to eat the little girl who sold me a Tajik scarf. Tengo mucho hambre. haha. Luckily for me, Patrick was also about to eat a small child so we both ran to Southern Fried Chicken and ordered 8 chicken pieces, 3 fries, 2 Sprites, a large bottle of water, and sat and ate. It was such amazing food OMG. It was like heaven on earth. I've never appreciated fried chicken like I appreciated it today.
By the time the rest of the group got to SFC Patrick and I were already done eating and ready to order more food. We ate and chatted and then left. We walked to a Tajik Museum and saw a Reclining Budda. I could have sworn I saw Marty tear up (he's Buddist), but it might have been my imagination ...
So now Patrick and I are at the Relief International office blogging. Silviano is with Malika buying jewelry for his mother and Sitora is back at the AC building. I believe Marty is talking to some of the RI staff and Garth is also talking. I'm sick and I don't feel good. All I want is chocolate and Sprite and I'm hoping that as soon as I finish this blog Garth will drive Patrick and I home. In case you're wondering why Patrick and I are always together, it's because Silviano has a crush on Malika (shhhh don't tell) and ditches us for her. Plus Patrick and I are both sick with the same thing, so it's always fun to have a friend that is equally as miserable as you.
Oh, I did forget to mension in this boring blog that right now there is a small sand storm happening here in Dushambe and whenever you go outside your skin turns a light brown. I look tanner than normal and Silviano definatly looks more pale haha. Let's see what else. Oh yea. I'm getting reeeeeally tired of boys and can't wait to go home and talk to Reinna, Rachel, and Kayla. I've never appreciate them more till this trip. I MISS YOU GUYS! Also, I have a new appreciation for Connelly, which I think I have already mensioned, but I just wanted to say it again just in case Connelly didn't know. Seriously I have the best brother in the world. I never thought I'd say that . . . . (:D)
Well ok, so just in case I don't get to blog later tonight. I am planning on going to a Disco (which is basically a Tajik club) later tonight (don't worry parental units. it's supervised) and also going to a movie in the Cinema. If i dont it will be because i just really don't feel good and instead I will watch MTV or blog about how bored I am.
Hopefully I'll TTYL!
Sorry you had to read such a boring blog. I appoligize.
-- austi <3
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A traveler's nightmare!
Alright, i'm going to paint a picture in your mind for ya. Try to visualize what I'm about to tell you. I would say "close your eyes ..." but we know that won't work haha. Ok.
You have been flying around the world for about 22 hours. You arrive in a third world country that has next to none of the luxeries that you enjoy at home. You spend the next few days exploring the country, familiarizing yourself with the traditions and cultures, and trying to get used to the hole in the ground called the "bathroom". You eat the equivelant of about 3 loaves of bread a day, and spend a good 5 hours walking around every day also.
On your fifth day you are feeling pretty well adapted. You know what you can and can't do, what you like to eat and what you don't like to eat, and you are actually starting to speak both Russian and Tajik. You are staying in a traditional Tajik home for one night and you have been spending a lot of time eating bread, drinking tea, and chatting with the locals. You are exhausted and you have a MASSIVE stomach ache. You figure 'Oh, i'll just sleep it off.' and go to bed.
You wake up in the morning and you practically sprint to the bathroom. You know that if you don't make it, you are going to have to BURN your pants. For the next 8 hours you spend every 15 minutes in the bathroom "flushing away" your insides and you have no control over when it happens or how bad it will be.
Yes people, I'm talking about Traveler's Diarrhea. Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you in a Third World Country that only offers you a dirt whole and cut up newspaper for toilet paper. That is what's happening with me. I'm becoming very familiar with the number of swirls painted on the bathroom ceiling and how long I have to hold down the "flush" button. Be Jealous :-)
Another thing that isn't exactly heaven on earth:
Being the only girl in a house FULL of guys is sorta like being a fruit amongst vegitables. You don't look or smell to bad and are generally quite pleasant, while they are really gross, smell bad, and get really old really fast. I hope that was a good analogy, or I'm going to get a really hard time from my family haha. It was all i could think of to describe my situation.
So let's get us you up to date. Yesterday we drove to the city of Sachrinar and recieved our first Bread Ceremony. It was so cool! We pulled up and there was an entire group of students and teachers waiting for us. We walked up and a girl holding a circle of bread on a plate started reciting some kind of ritual saying. Once she finished we broke off a piece of the bread (which turned out to be a really hard bread known as a "cookie" haha) and dipped it in some sort of honey substance i believe. Then a few girls gave each of us a flower. We then went into their internet center and they gave a few presentations about Tajikistan and different events that happen in their village. The presentations were on PowerPoint, and though they weren't award winning, it was amazing how much they have learned about computers in such a sort amount of time. I was impressed. After that they asked us about every question under the sun about our lives and towns and hobbies. It lasted for an hour, and i'm not gunna lie, i was getting tired of get to know you questions lol. But that's not the point.
Anyway, so then we had the biggest feast of my life. The main dish was palove which is a bunch of rice, oil, and carrots all fried up and cooked over a fire. Very yummy and extremely filling. They also had a ton of fruit, veggies, and a very large variety of beverages lol. I had water w/ gas (which is just carbonated water) and some Cola, which is pretty popular. After we ate we got a tour of their school which was the best part for me, because i got a lot of good pictures and it really openned my eyes to how lucky we are in the US to have such nice schools with such nice equipment. The students, by the way, were so excited to meet Patrick, Silviano, and I and wanted to know everything about us and the USA. One of the girls there will be at the Summer Camp that i'll go to on Sunday and she was super nice. Anyway, when we left we were all so full that the bumps on the roads were making us cry.
We got to our host family's house and layed around on the ... I can't remember what it's called ... but it's like a patio covered with rugs and a low-to-the-ground table so that you can sit cross legged, lean back, and eat at a comfortable height if you get what I'm trying to say. It's hard to explain haha. Anywho, we layed around and ate waaaaay to much. We also visited a mosque and took a butt-load of pictures. Proceeding that we sat on our butts some more ... till about 11pm haha and then i went to sleep. When i woke up, well, just read the first few paragraphs of this blog.
We came back to Dushambe at about 11am and Garth went to work to do some, well, work haha. These men came to the house while he was gone and installed AIR CONDITIONING!!!! I've never been so happy in all my life. I'm pretty sure haha. Silviano, Patrick and I crashed in the living room with all the fans on us and the AC. We then watched Alien vs. Predator, but i fell asleep at the beginning, so i still have no idea whether the Aliens win, or the Humans, but I don't want to take the time to watch the movie again.
RIGHT NOW I'm blogging, while Marty, Patrick, and Silviano play B.S. which I think is getting out of control, but I'm laughing to hard to interfere. The dudes in this house are extremely competative, but it's ammusing so I don't step in when things get out of control ... like right now lol. I've never appreciated my brother so much. I hope he's reading this. I bet his jaw just dropped *giggle*.
I almost forgot. I ate a whole chocolate bar once I woke up (big surprize *rolls eyes*) and all the boys got mad at me. I could care less if they are mad. It was good chocolate :D
Well I'm gunna go and possibly join in on this ridiculously LOUD game of B.S. wish me luck!
-- <3 austi
You have been flying around the world for about 22 hours. You arrive in a third world country that has next to none of the luxeries that you enjoy at home. You spend the next few days exploring the country, familiarizing yourself with the traditions and cultures, and trying to get used to the hole in the ground called the "bathroom". You eat the equivelant of about 3 loaves of bread a day, and spend a good 5 hours walking around every day also.
On your fifth day you are feeling pretty well adapted. You know what you can and can't do, what you like to eat and what you don't like to eat, and you are actually starting to speak both Russian and Tajik. You are staying in a traditional Tajik home for one night and you have been spending a lot of time eating bread, drinking tea, and chatting with the locals. You are exhausted and you have a MASSIVE stomach ache. You figure 'Oh, i'll just sleep it off.' and go to bed.
You wake up in the morning and you practically sprint to the bathroom. You know that if you don't make it, you are going to have to BURN your pants. For the next 8 hours you spend every 15 minutes in the bathroom "flushing away" your insides and you have no control over when it happens or how bad it will be.
Yes people, I'm talking about Traveler's Diarrhea. Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you in a Third World Country that only offers you a dirt whole and cut up newspaper for toilet paper. That is what's happening with me. I'm becoming very familiar with the number of swirls painted on the bathroom ceiling and how long I have to hold down the "flush" button. Be Jealous :-)
Another thing that isn't exactly heaven on earth:
Being the only girl in a house FULL of guys is sorta like being a fruit amongst vegitables. You don't look or smell to bad and are generally quite pleasant, while they are really gross, smell bad, and get really old really fast. I hope that was a good analogy, or I'm going to get a really hard time from my family haha. It was all i could think of to describe my situation.
So let's get us you up to date. Yesterday we drove to the city of Sachrinar and recieved our first Bread Ceremony. It was so cool! We pulled up and there was an entire group of students and teachers waiting for us. We walked up and a girl holding a circle of bread on a plate started reciting some kind of ritual saying. Once she finished we broke off a piece of the bread (which turned out to be a really hard bread known as a "cookie" haha) and dipped it in some sort of honey substance i believe. Then a few girls gave each of us a flower. We then went into their internet center and they gave a few presentations about Tajikistan and different events that happen in their village. The presentations were on PowerPoint, and though they weren't award winning, it was amazing how much they have learned about computers in such a sort amount of time. I was impressed. After that they asked us about every question under the sun about our lives and towns and hobbies. It lasted for an hour, and i'm not gunna lie, i was getting tired of get to know you questions lol. But that's not the point.
Anyway, so then we had the biggest feast of my life. The main dish was palove which is a bunch of rice, oil, and carrots all fried up and cooked over a fire. Very yummy and extremely filling. They also had a ton of fruit, veggies, and a very large variety of beverages lol. I had water w/ gas (which is just carbonated water) and some Cola, which is pretty popular. After we ate we got a tour of their school which was the best part for me, because i got a lot of good pictures and it really openned my eyes to how lucky we are in the US to have such nice schools with such nice equipment. The students, by the way, were so excited to meet Patrick, Silviano, and I and wanted to know everything about us and the USA. One of the girls there will be at the Summer Camp that i'll go to on Sunday and she was super nice. Anyway, when we left we were all so full that the bumps on the roads were making us cry.
We got to our host family's house and layed around on the ... I can't remember what it's called ... but it's like a patio covered with rugs and a low-to-the-ground table so that you can sit cross legged, lean back, and eat at a comfortable height if you get what I'm trying to say. It's hard to explain haha. Anywho, we layed around and ate waaaaay to much. We also visited a mosque and took a butt-load of pictures. Proceeding that we sat on our butts some more ... till about 11pm haha and then i went to sleep. When i woke up, well, just read the first few paragraphs of this blog.
We came back to Dushambe at about 11am and Garth went to work to do some, well, work haha. These men came to the house while he was gone and installed AIR CONDITIONING!!!! I've never been so happy in all my life. I'm pretty sure haha. Silviano, Patrick and I crashed in the living room with all the fans on us and the AC. We then watched Alien vs. Predator, but i fell asleep at the beginning, so i still have no idea whether the Aliens win, or the Humans, but I don't want to take the time to watch the movie again.
RIGHT NOW I'm blogging, while Marty, Patrick, and Silviano play B.S. which I think is getting out of control, but I'm laughing to hard to interfere. The dudes in this house are extremely competative, but it's ammusing so I don't step in when things get out of control ... like right now lol. I've never appreciated my brother so much. I hope he's reading this. I bet his jaw just dropped *giggle*.
I almost forgot. I ate a whole chocolate bar once I woke up (big surprize *rolls eyes*) and all the boys got mad at me. I could care less if they are mad. It was good chocolate :D
Well I'm gunna go and possibly join in on this ridiculously LOUD game of B.S. wish me luck!
-- <3 austi
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
For Reinna and Fam
Hm. In answer to your requests Ms. Quick ... (tee hee)
Bathrooms. Well in the house that we are staying in we have a pretty normal bathroom. Stand-up shower, toilet, sink. Pretty basic stuff. The public restrooms here are basically holes in the ground like you guessed, but i havent used them because i'm sorta aftraid of them haha. Oh and another cool thing, the toilet paper is colored. There is no white toilet paper. The colors that i've seen are pink, green, and yellow. It's really weird lol.
Ya, i thought the old man was being really nice and was going to invite us for tea. He was speaking Russian so of course i couldnt understand what he was talking about, but i just ASSUMED that he was inviting us for tea. Garth of course declined the offer if any because he, like i said, had other things in mind haha. CREEPY!
The food is pretty good actually. There is a ton of bread, soup, and tea. A LOT of tea. In the Bazzar (the market by Garth's house) you can buy foods that you would find in America like cereal, yougurt, chocolate, just different candies and stuff. It's all pretty good food though.
Alright, im off to the village. Dasvidanna (goodbye in russian hehe)
--austi <3
Bathrooms. Well in the house that we are staying in we have a pretty normal bathroom. Stand-up shower, toilet, sink. Pretty basic stuff. The public restrooms here are basically holes in the ground like you guessed, but i havent used them because i'm sorta aftraid of them haha. Oh and another cool thing, the toilet paper is colored. There is no white toilet paper. The colors that i've seen are pink, green, and yellow. It's really weird lol.
Ya, i thought the old man was being really nice and was going to invite us for tea. He was speaking Russian so of course i couldnt understand what he was talking about, but i just ASSUMED that he was inviting us for tea. Garth of course declined the offer if any because he, like i said, had other things in mind haha. CREEPY!
The food is pretty good actually. There is a ton of bread, soup, and tea. A LOT of tea. In the Bazzar (the market by Garth's house) you can buy foods that you would find in America like cereal, yougurt, chocolate, just different candies and stuff. It's all pretty good food though.
Alright, im off to the village. Dasvidanna (goodbye in russian hehe)
--austi <3
Just killin' time . . .
So i figure that since i have nothing else to do, i should continue blogging so people know what's up.
Hm, so Tajikistan. It's hot. Today it was a high of 107 degrees which is pretty dang hot. And i had to wear JEANS. The last few days it has been in the low 100s and i've gotten to wear shorts, but today i had to wear jeans because i was going to the US Embassy. The girls in Tajikistan always wear pants with dresses over the top, so for a girl to wear shorts, its not good haha.
Right now i'm on my way to dinner and after which i will go bowling. Its going to be fun, i just hope that it's real bowling, not like canada or something. idk.
Tomorrow and the next day we are going to a small village that is far away from Dushambe so that we can get a bigger picture of Tajikistan. We are staying the night and just exploring i suppose. I am excited to see the third world country part of this third world country.
Yea, so i should go eat now. I'll blog on Friday after i shop.
--austi <3
Hm, so Tajikistan. It's hot. Today it was a high of 107 degrees which is pretty dang hot. And i had to wear JEANS. The last few days it has been in the low 100s and i've gotten to wear shorts, but today i had to wear jeans because i was going to the US Embassy. The girls in Tajikistan always wear pants with dresses over the top, so for a girl to wear shorts, its not good haha.
Right now i'm on my way to dinner and after which i will go bowling. Its going to be fun, i just hope that it's real bowling, not like canada or something. idk.
Tomorrow and the next day we are going to a small village that is far away from Dushambe so that we can get a bigger picture of Tajikistan. We are staying the night and just exploring i suppose. I am excited to see the third world country part of this third world country.
Yea, so i should go eat now. I'll blog on Friday after i shop.
--austi <3
Monday, July 14, 2008
About time . . .
Wow. After a good two days of trying to figure out this blog thingy i finally figured out how to post stuff haha. We're good now.
Alright, so my name is Austianna and i'm participating in a cultural exchange program in Tajikistan. I am here with two other American students and one teacher. We are here to learn about the country, get to know the Tajik students (and help them with their english), and get to know each other. We are staying in a small house with a guy from Relief International named Garth. He rented the house so that we could stay in a normal home and have a "base camp", which we call the Pink Palace.
So lets see, i've been in Tajikistan for 2 days now. The flights over here were brutal. I caught a plane in Seattle at 7am and flew to Atlanta, GA. I then flew to DC and met up with Patrick, Silviano, Marty and Andreea. Patrick and Silviano are the students and Marty is our "chaprone". We explored DC for a few hours at night and once more in the morning before flying out to Chicago. We flew from Chicago to Moscow, Russia on a 10 hour flight. Yea, 10 hours. It was a very loooong flight, but we had little TVs, which did help. We spent NINE HOURS in Moscow waiting for our plane to go to Dushambe (the capitol of Tajikistan). It was the longest 9 hours of my life and i now have a strong disliking for Russian airports. Anyway, we arrived in Dushambe at 3am on Friday and went to Garth's house.
So yay! Now we're sorta up to date. Our first day here we explored Dushambe and walked around taking pictures. This city is actually quite advanced for a third world country, but Garth told us that the President of Tajikistan has put all the country's money toward making Dushambe a better city FOR HIMSELF. There are huge palaces that the President has build for his own personal use, which makes the city look impressive, but also makes the people more poor. None of the country's money is going toward improving homes, food supply, electricity, running water, or anything like that. It's all going toward the President and his own personal wants. Right now he is building a giant mansion in the used-to-be city park that he took for himself to be his own front yard. A once thriving city park full of families, fun, and games has now been fenced up and turned into a private "home". It makes me angry when i think about it lol.
Anyway . . .
So Dushambe is a very cool city. There are a lot of little shops everywhere. There is a Bizare near Garth's house that sells different kinds of foods and goods and stuff that is really fun to walk through. Last night we ate at a real Chinese restaurant. Not imitation Chinese, but real Chinese food from China. It was so different than what i'm used to, but most of it tasted pretty good haha.
Yesterday we also went hiking in some nearby mountains which was were so beautiful. It would have been an amazing hike, but it was so hot that i was having trouble focussing on the scenery haha. Even though it was cooler in the mountains, i was still baking. When we had hiked about a mile and a half Patrick, Marty, and I decided to head back to the car while Silviano and Garth went on ahead a little farther. Garth is a hard-core mountain man by the way. So on our way back, Patrick and i came to this huge stream. Actually it was a network of streams and we decided to create a new stream. It took us . . . oh i'd say about an hour, but we finally diverted the entire river to this new and improved stream. We named it the Patianna (which you have to say with a Russian/Asian accent or is sounds lame :D) and headed back to camp. We met these guys on the way back that wanted a picture with us. At first we thought they wanted to take a picture of us and sell it to us, so we were like "no no, we're fine" but then they started speaking English and said that they just wanted to take a picture with us. I guess they dont come across to many white people over there haha. The guys turned out to be from Pakistan, which im not gunna lie, made me tense up and get all nervous haha. But they were very nice.
Ok, funniest story ever.
Patrick, Marty, and I made it back to the car before Silviano and Garth so we chilaxed and ate some bread and cheese that we had bought in the market the day before and waited. When they got back a really old man came up to us and started speaking to Garth in Russian. (Most Tajiks speak Russian as well as Tajik because it used to be apart of the Soviet Union) Garth all the sudden said, "Alright, we're leaving." I was actually expecting to be invited for tea, because that's what Tajiks do. They invite guests over for tea even if they dont know them because they believe they will recieve 70 times the kindness and hospitality that they gave when they die. Or something like that. Anyway, so Garth was loading everything in the car and looked at me and was like "Just so you have an idea about how nice that old man was, he said that you were a beautiful woman and wanted you for 5 minutes to . . . ya know . . . " Oh my gosh i was MORTIFIED! This old guy was 97 years old! And wanted . . . me for five minutes! EWWWW! Patrick and Silviano make fun of me all the time and call me 'Big Five' and stuff haha. Pretty embarrassing.
Hmm, let me think ...
OH YEA. So I think the neatest experience I've had so far was when we were driving to this mountain or whatever and Garth had to stop and ask for directions. He asked this guy on the side of the road who ended up inviting us into his home for tea. I was so surprized when Garth was like "We're going to his house for tea." I was like "Oh, you know him?" and he was like "No. We're just going to his house for tea." That was not normal I didnt think. I was thinking 'We dont know this guy, he could be a serial killer or something. We could be taken hostage' all this stuff. He took us into his home and treated us like honored guests. He (ok, actually his wife and daughter) served us tea, soup, bread, and candy and were just so happy that we came to his house. It was just genuine kindness and hospitality and that really hit me hard. How trusting they were to just let us into his house with all his children and just serve us. Even though we were thanking him the whole time he just kept thanking us for coming over and eating his food. Garth said that any other Tajik would have done the same thing. Every time. That is just so cool to me.
So now for today, we went to the American Embassy this morning early to see a lady there that has been helping Garth plan this exchange. The embassy was so cool and it had the first piano i'd seen in Tajikistan. They let me play it, which I enjoyed of course lol. We ate at the cafe there and it was pretty good food. Also, they had a REAL bathroom that was just like the public bathrooms in America, which is a few steps up from the other public bathrooms here in Tajikistan. I was so happy haha. After we went to the Embassy we went to the American Councils for International Education building and cordinated a movie night with students that have been to the USA on student exchange trips for school. Like they stay with a host family and go to school in America . . . yea. So we're going to have a movie night with them on Thursday and i'm really excited to see how good their English is and ask them how they liked America. I am now in the Relief International's building, sitting in a "comfy" arm chair with a lap top, talking to Silviano who is uploading pictures on another computer. Patrick is very sick today and is taking a nap on the couch in the other room. Marty i think is also blogging, but i'm not sure. So yea, i'm up to date!
More blogs to come . . .
--austi <3
Alright, so my name is Austianna and i'm participating in a cultural exchange program in Tajikistan. I am here with two other American students and one teacher. We are here to learn about the country, get to know the Tajik students (and help them with their english), and get to know each other. We are staying in a small house with a guy from Relief International named Garth. He rented the house so that we could stay in a normal home and have a "base camp", which we call the Pink Palace.
So lets see, i've been in Tajikistan for 2 days now. The flights over here were brutal. I caught a plane in Seattle at 7am and flew to Atlanta, GA. I then flew to DC and met up with Patrick, Silviano, Marty and Andreea. Patrick and Silviano are the students and Marty is our "chaprone". We explored DC for a few hours at night and once more in the morning before flying out to Chicago. We flew from Chicago to Moscow, Russia on a 10 hour flight. Yea, 10 hours. It was a very loooong flight, but we had little TVs, which did help. We spent NINE HOURS in Moscow waiting for our plane to go to Dushambe (the capitol of Tajikistan). It was the longest 9 hours of my life and i now have a strong disliking for Russian airports. Anyway, we arrived in Dushambe at 3am on Friday and went to Garth's house.
So yay! Now we're sorta up to date. Our first day here we explored Dushambe and walked around taking pictures. This city is actually quite advanced for a third world country, but Garth told us that the President of Tajikistan has put all the country's money toward making Dushambe a better city FOR HIMSELF. There are huge palaces that the President has build for his own personal use, which makes the city look impressive, but also makes the people more poor. None of the country's money is going toward improving homes, food supply, electricity, running water, or anything like that. It's all going toward the President and his own personal wants. Right now he is building a giant mansion in the used-to-be city park that he took for himself to be his own front yard. A once thriving city park full of families, fun, and games has now been fenced up and turned into a private "home". It makes me angry when i think about it lol.
Anyway . . .
So Dushambe is a very cool city. There are a lot of little shops everywhere. There is a Bizare near Garth's house that sells different kinds of foods and goods and stuff that is really fun to walk through. Last night we ate at a real Chinese restaurant. Not imitation Chinese, but real Chinese food from China. It was so different than what i'm used to, but most of it tasted pretty good haha.
Yesterday we also went hiking in some nearby mountains which was were so beautiful. It would have been an amazing hike, but it was so hot that i was having trouble focussing on the scenery haha. Even though it was cooler in the mountains, i was still baking. When we had hiked about a mile and a half Patrick, Marty, and I decided to head back to the car while Silviano and Garth went on ahead a little farther. Garth is a hard-core mountain man by the way. So on our way back, Patrick and i came to this huge stream. Actually it was a network of streams and we decided to create a new stream. It took us . . . oh i'd say about an hour, but we finally diverted the entire river to this new and improved stream. We named it the Patianna (which you have to say with a Russian/Asian accent or is sounds lame :D) and headed back to camp. We met these guys on the way back that wanted a picture with us. At first we thought they wanted to take a picture of us and sell it to us, so we were like "no no, we're fine" but then they started speaking English and said that they just wanted to take a picture with us. I guess they dont come across to many white people over there haha. The guys turned out to be from Pakistan, which im not gunna lie, made me tense up and get all nervous haha. But they were very nice.
Ok, funniest story ever.
Patrick, Marty, and I made it back to the car before Silviano and Garth so we chilaxed and ate some bread and cheese that we had bought in the market the day before and waited. When they got back a really old man came up to us and started speaking to Garth in Russian. (Most Tajiks speak Russian as well as Tajik because it used to be apart of the Soviet Union) Garth all the sudden said, "Alright, we're leaving." I was actually expecting to be invited for tea, because that's what Tajiks do. They invite guests over for tea even if they dont know them because they believe they will recieve 70 times the kindness and hospitality that they gave when they die. Or something like that. Anyway, so Garth was loading everything in the car and looked at me and was like "Just so you have an idea about how nice that old man was, he said that you were a beautiful woman and wanted you for 5 minutes to . . . ya know . . . " Oh my gosh i was MORTIFIED! This old guy was 97 years old! And wanted . . . me for five minutes! EWWWW! Patrick and Silviano make fun of me all the time and call me 'Big Five' and stuff haha. Pretty embarrassing.
Hmm, let me think ...
OH YEA. So I think the neatest experience I've had so far was when we were driving to this mountain or whatever and Garth had to stop and ask for directions. He asked this guy on the side of the road who ended up inviting us into his home for tea. I was so surprized when Garth was like "We're going to his house for tea." I was like "Oh, you know him?" and he was like "No. We're just going to his house for tea." That was not normal I didnt think. I was thinking 'We dont know this guy, he could be a serial killer or something. We could be taken hostage' all this stuff. He took us into his home and treated us like honored guests. He (ok, actually his wife and daughter) served us tea, soup, bread, and candy and were just so happy that we came to his house. It was just genuine kindness and hospitality and that really hit me hard. How trusting they were to just let us into his house with all his children and just serve us. Even though we were thanking him the whole time he just kept thanking us for coming over and eating his food. Garth said that any other Tajik would have done the same thing. Every time. That is just so cool to me.
So now for today, we went to the American Embassy this morning early to see a lady there that has been helping Garth plan this exchange. The embassy was so cool and it had the first piano i'd seen in Tajikistan. They let me play it, which I enjoyed of course lol. We ate at the cafe there and it was pretty good food. Also, they had a REAL bathroom that was just like the public bathrooms in America, which is a few steps up from the other public bathrooms here in Tajikistan. I was so happy haha. After we went to the Embassy we went to the American Councils for International Education building and cordinated a movie night with students that have been to the USA on student exchange trips for school. Like they stay with a host family and go to school in America . . . yea. So we're going to have a movie night with them on Thursday and i'm really excited to see how good their English is and ask them how they liked America. I am now in the Relief International's building, sitting in a "comfy" arm chair with a lap top, talking to Silviano who is uploading pictures on another computer. Patrick is very sick today and is taking a nap on the couch in the other room. Marty i think is also blogging, but i'm not sure. So yea, i'm up to date!
More blogs to come . . .
--austi <3
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