Tag Archives: Kyrgyz family
horses outside bishkek

Taxi Cab Convos in Bishkek

By on November 18, 2011 in Kyrgyzstan, Language Learning, Soviet Travel

A taxi ride in Kyrgyzstan always ends up making me feel a little self-conscious and worried about my reproductive future. Ha, I know, right?! If only there were a ring on my finger and a bun in the oven, I could finally earn the respect of my taxi drivers.

November 18, 2011 · Read full story · Comments { 11 }
kyrgyz family dinner

Day 256: Tempted By Things I Hate But Also Love

By on September 14, 2011 in Kyrgyzstan, Soviet Travel

Pat called to let me know he had started the rather long journey home from work, and to chat. I took it upon myself to blurt out a thing or two clawing away at my otherwise calm mind. “The language school wrote back and said that all their school dorm rooms were booked up.” I could hear the disappointment come out in Pat’s voice when he responded.

September 14, 2011 · Read full story · Comments { 3 }

Day 122: Getting in Touch with Locals (How I Roll, Part 3)

By on May 3, 2011 in Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Soviet Travel, Thrifty Travel

Living in someone else’s house is never easy (at least for me) — something I am yet again discovering at this very moment. I find myself peeking around corners and double checking that I’m not doing something that might be out of the ordinary for the household, and it adds a bit of stress.

May 3, 2011 · Read full story · Comments { 4 }
Learning Like a Child: Host Family Flashback Part 2

Learning Like a Child: Host Family Flashback Part 2

By on April 24, 2010 in Kyrgyzstan, Language Learning, Soviet Travel

For seven long weeks I lasted as a regular in the Kyrgyz family… Read more. Somehow, now when I think back, I don’t know how I did it.
Some days were more trying than others. As a complete newbie to Russian, I quickly realized just how much brain power I expended at my lessons constantly thinking, translating and deciphering all day

April 24, 2010 · Read full story · Comments { 12 }
Learning Like a Child: Host Family Flashback Part 1

Learning Like a Child: Host Family Flashback Part 1

By on April 19, 2010 in Kyrgyzstan, Language Learning, Soviet Travel

When a language is just so different from your native tongue, the best thing you can do is to forget about any preconceived notions you have about language structure and just attempt to learn it like a child.
I learned my lesson the hard way… Read more – by spending countless portions of class time hounding my poor teachers as to why

April 19, 2010 · Read full story · Comments { 8 }
Avoidable Mistakes

Avoidable Mistakes

By on January 17, 2010 in Female Travel, Language Learning

I have to apologize again for the late post. I was tagged a while ago now by Michael of The Mobile Lawyer blog to make a post on all the avoidable mistakes I’ve made in order to help others out in their travels.
… Read moreWell, the reason it took me so long is because I just couldn’t think of much! For

January 17, 2010 · Read full story · Comments { 9 }

What has been the best year of your life?

By on January 15, 2009 in Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Soviet Travel, Ukraine

In one of my conversation clubs in school here in Ukraine, I asked my students what the best year of their life has been. Questions like these, followed with a simple, “Why?”, are a great way to get them all to talk (my main goal for my classes), while also killing a ton of class time. However, a lot of… Read more

January 15, 2009 · Read full story · Comments { 5 }
Central Asian TidBits Buffet

Central Asian TidBits Buffet

By on August 20, 2008 in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Soviet Travel

In an attempt to be caught-up and on-the-ball upon my return abroad in September, I’ve decided to combine all these little ideas for individual blog posts into one smorgasbord of interesting bits. So, here you have it! What I’ve learned, loved, lacked and l-acquired (?) while in Central Asia.

August 20, 2008 · Read full story · Comments { 1 }
Meet the family.

Meet the family.

By on May 1, 2008 in Kyrgyzstan, Soviet Travel

I bet you have been wondering what life with my Kyrgyz family is like, right? I have purposely put off talking a lot about this because for the first week and a half, my host dad was away for work. Well, he finally arrived back home this past weekend and home life has changed drastically – not necessarily for the… Read more

May 1, 2008 · Read full story · Comments { 13 }

Food, Vodka, and More Vodka

By on April 27, 2008 in Kyrgyzstan, Language Learning, Soviet Travel

One of the perks of being involved with a language school is meeting all the interesting people that come and go. We have a nice little community of people to hang out with, which also opens the door for meeting other Kyrgyz families. This week, Ryan and I were invited over to Jamie’s host family’s “mansion” for a typical dinner… Read more

April 27, 2008 · Read full story · Comments { 2 }