Aush and shopping

Thursday June 24
On Monday in Tajik class Diana asked our teacher, Zarrina, if she could teach us how to make aush. She agreed and told us that we could all come over to her house and we would cook. So, today was the big day! We finished Farsi class at 12:45 and then walked with Zarrina to her house, about 15 minutes away. We cooked aush on a fire outside and had salad and the most amazing bread and vodka and tea and campote (which is this amazing drink of water boiled with fruits) and cookies...ahh, kheli ba mazast bood (it tasted really good).
The weather today was perfect for such a wonderful afternoon outdoors. It rained earlier this morning and cooled everything off so that it was actually comfortable to be outside instead of just bearable. And later tonight after dinner there was another thunderstorm with lots of lightening- my favorite!
Oh, back to the campote for another second- I was asking my host mom how to make it and she offered to teach me so I think we are going to make some soon. I am excited to learn how to cook all these different foods- hopefully I will be able to reproduce them when I get home.

Friday June 25
Best class ever. So far at least. We had Tajik class at 8:30 then a break, then Farsi class. Our teacher showed up to class with a watermelon which I cut up and we all ate while giving our speeches. How awesome would it be if professors in the US showed up with watermelons! We have been eating a lot of watermelon lately, I think it is the most popular fruit for the summertime.

Saturday June 26
Today was the start of a long weekend- Monday is a national holiday so there are no classes. A small group of students, 9 people, had decided to take a trip on their own to Panjakent and Khujand. I decided to stay here in Dushanbe and had the opportunity to go to Hisor Fort, about half and hours drive out of the city.
The fort itself was small but interesting- the gate was built in the 16th century but the original walls were much older and have been around for thousands of years. We climbed up the hill/small mountain next to it and had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. We were able to see down the valley and overlook the fields and small villages nearby. After climbing around on the fort and taking adorable pictures in large quantities, we walked across the street to visit a museum. The museum is inside an old Islamic school and contains clothes and pottery and tools and other such things from the people who used to live and work at the fort.
When it was time for dinner I came out and found that we had a guest- my host father’s brother had come to visit. We all sat down to eat and then someone else knocked on the gate- his other brother! So I met some more of the family. Of course, any kind of gathering in Tajikistan must be accompanied with vodka and toasts so the men had several shots and I had a few small glasses of mulberry wine. After dinner I was talking with my host mom and she asked if I was planning on going to the exhibition and bazaar from Afghanistan that was in town for the weekend. I told her that I had planned to go with Kyle and Gaby on Monday but she said that the last day for it was actually tomorrow, Sunday, so we changed our plans and decided to go then.

Sunday June 27
This morning at 10am my host mom, sister, little brother, Kyle, Gaby and I set off to go to the Afghan bazaar. It was the last day so some of the stalls were not open anymore but there was still plenty of merchandise available and things to look at. I ended up getting a wallet/clutch and some jewelry and Kyle got a few presents for friends. My host mom was able to get a couple of things as well to save for birthday presents and other such random gifts.
After we got home I was pretty exhausted so I helped make lunch and then went to rest. I read for a little bit and then ended up falling asleep until dinner time! I am also wondering if I have some kind of sickness because my upper legs are strangely sore even though climbing around on Fort Hisor and the hill was not all that strenuous. I think I will just wait to see how it goes tho and then maybe take something for it if I don’t get better.

Are we on vaca?

Saturday June 19
Today we had an excursion to Varzob for a day of mountain climbing and swimming. The view was amazing, the drive there, the scenery from the top of the mountain, looking down across the valley, it was gorgeous. We were going to this recreational area/private park where you can rent out little places, like cabanas, along side of the river to relax and eat lunch in. We brought food with us and the staff there cooked it for us so we had salad and aush. The entire day was nice and relaxing. We arrived around 9:30am and immediately a group of us set out to climb the mountain. Of course the boys leading it chose the most difficult path and so we were climbing up a mountain of sand and rock at about a 65 degree angle. Gaby and I went up to the first peak of the mountain and then decided that it wasn’t worth it to go all the way to the top so we leisurely made our way back down while the rest of the group continued upward. When we got back down we were hot and tired so of course we decided to jump into the pool! The water was freezing! We estimated it around 45 degrees. They had filled the pool just a few days before we arrived with water from the river. The river had one of the fastest currents I have seen and was almost overflowing because of the melting snow from the mountain tops. So, sustained swimming was just too painful but we jumped in a few times and then sat out to warm up and then would go jump in again when we got hot. After lunch I went swimming again for a little while and then laid down to read and nap. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day away from Dushanbe, as if we were on vacation instead of being halfway around the world going to school.
Saturday night I went to SegaFredo’s to meet up with friends and upload more pictures. I stayed almost until they closed at 11pm with Brett and then we took the bus home together.

Sunday June 20
Sunday morning I slept in a little bit. When I got up, everyone else in the house had gone except for Nodira. Nasiba and Dilshod and children always go to visit Nasiba’s mother on Sundays and my mom and dad had gone to the bazaar. So, Nodira and I had breakfast and then I asker her to show me how to use the washing machine to do my laundry from the past two weeks. After being told that we wouldn’t be able to do laundry, being able to was quite a pleasant surprise and I did not mind the difficulty of using a third world washing machine. The washing machine is divided in half. All the first half of the washing machine does is jostle the clothes around in the soapy water. Then the rinsing must be done by hand in the bathtub. Then you put the rinsed clothes back into the other side of the washing machine and it spins them to get some of the water out. Then the rinsed partially dry clothes go out on the clothes line to finish drying in the sun. After almost two hours, I now have clean clothes!
The rest of my Sunday afternoon I spent around the house, helping make lunch, doing some homework, took a shower, read a little bit, watched a movie, and then went to bed, ready for school on Monday.

Monday June 21
I realized today that it is June 21. Firstly this is significant because it is the summer solstice and normally we have a party at my house which, obviously, I will be missing out on. The second reason this is significant is because I was shocked by how close it is to the end of June. This is much more pertinent to me as it means that I have exactly just eight weeks left before I will be home! And only seven weeks of class/being in Tajikistan left, the week in Paris and Barcelona doesn’t really count. This was quite relieving to me. After thinking about that length of time with the mindset of how quickly my time here has been going by, I think I’m going to make it.
I stayed late at the office to try and catch up on email and picture uploading. The internet connection is much faster at that time of night because there are less people around trying to use it. At other times of the day the connection is just too weak to accomplish things that need a lot of bandwidth.
For lunch we only had a short break and Rob and I had an even shorter one as we had planned to meet with Jake about our externships before our afternoon classes started. We headed over to the Morning Star Cafe for a quick bite. Rob and I had to rush back to talk to Jake and the woman we would be working with. We are going to help out for a day or two at a summer camp for 14 and 15 year old Tajik kids. The woman organizing it wants us to talk to them for a short while about our community service experiences in America and ways that we are involved in our own communities. We also are responsible for organizing some activities to lead the kids in such as touch football and a ropes/obstacle course of some kind. The purpose of the camp is to further the kids’ knowledge of how to work in teams, how to be leaders, that sort of thing. So they want the activities to promote those concepts in some way or another. I think its going to be fun- the camp will be one of the last two weeks in July and be in the mountains so hopefully it will be a little bit cooler up there. I’m excited for it and also a little bit nervous. I will have to prepare my speech ahead of time so that I know all the words I’ll need to explain myself properly and also make up some vocab lists to familiarize myself with so that we can teach them how to play the games we are organizing.

Tuesday June 22
Today for lunch we went to the Turkish restaurant on Rudaki street, Merve (Mer-vay). We had gotten ice cream from there before but never real food and so we decided to give it a try. It was pretty good- Kyle and I got cheese pizza and marinated chicken and shared both. Then we got ice cream! I’m glad that we found a spot to get ice cream that doesn’t make us sick because I think we are going to be getting it a lot this summer. AND! Bonus! Its only 50 cents (US) per cone! Its the small things like this that are gonna make living here more fun.
When I got home after school I had another surprise waiting for me. Remember my little sister’s bad haircut? I thought it couldn’t get any worse but nope! It did! She is now completely bald. They shaved her head. She really does look like she is in a concentration camp now. Or a convict. Its so strange, I am very glad that that is not a custom in America.

Wednesday June 23
We went with another guy who is here studying Uzbek to a Russian cafeteria that is right across the street from us. The food was good (I was expecting it to be terrible since it is a cafeteria after all) and very inexpensive so we will probably go back sometime. Walking into the building tho I was not entirely sure if we were allowed to be there because the outside of the building looks very official. The inside is a long hallway with a carpet running down the middle and plaques on the walls above locked white doors on either side. I am pretty sure it is some kind of government office and the cafeteria is there so that they don’t have to leave the building for lunch. Twas a little intimidating but no one said anything about us being there and the RD said that it was a favorite spot for previous students because of its proximity to school.