Bishkek

Today is my second day in Bishkek, the captiatal city of KGZ.

My flight was long and largely uneventful. While checking-in in Seattle, the lady at the desk was concinced I needed a Russian visa for my connection in Moscow. I checked on that briefly when I was booking my flight and was fairly certain I didn't need one, but knowing myself, I overlooked wsomething. My stomach dropped to the floor when she told me this. This trip has been full of pit-falls from the start and this would be the kicker. After some research, she confirmed I was correct and that I would buy my KGZ visa upon my arrival. Next time, I'll be sure not to plan my departure date for April Fool's.

I met Devin and Sara at the airport, where Devin's brother Cameron was picking us up. Cam has been here nearly two years with the PeaceCorps. He has been living in Karakol, in the east of KGZ. I can't imagine trying to navigate this place without him. As far as I can tell, he speaks very good Russian, at least everyone seems to understand him. I picked up a "Russian for Dummies" book the day bef0re I left and have completed 3 lessons of Pimleur's "repeat after me and learn Russian" CD's, so basically I can say yes and no.

I've never traveled in a place where I can't even begin to puzzle apart the language. But between the Cyriallic alphabet and the completely different structure of Russian, I am lost. Who puts 4 consanants together and then tries to pronounce them all? I mean come on. I had a brief fantasy about taking Russian classes when I get home, but then I looked at the grammar section of my Dummies book. Ha, I can't even learn German grammar, and I speak it nearly fluently.

So yesterday we became aquainted with Bishkek and it's transit system. Basically there are a lot of mini-vans driving around with numbers on them, that apparnetly indicate some kind of route, you get on, give the driver money, sit down if there's a seat and wait for the driver to give you change while he is weaving through traffic, changing gears, honking and looking for people on the side of the road to pick up. We saw three totaled cars in the first hour of arriving here. Lane's don't seem to mean much, either and trafficv lights are also optional.

Bishkek feels and looks very Soviet. I didn't really know what that meant until I got here. There is not a great deal of design flair in any of the buildings. Things are very grey and there are lots of potholes and sidewalks are in need of repair. It was raining yesterday, but today it is sunny and we can see the mountains to the south. They look very impressive, even from a distance. I hope to spend a fair amount in and around them, hiking.

We fell asleep at 1 pm yesterday and "slept" through the night. I always underestimate the effects of jetlag!

Today we will take a six hour taxi ride to Karakol. This is apparently only a dollar more than taking the bus but much more comfortable than a bus.

Ok, gotta run for now. More later.

-Dan