Only 2 1/2 weeks and I feel like I am losing time

02/19

So I have been really busy lately with school and peer tutors and homework so I haven’t had time to post another entry. This weekend is a long weekend because Monday we are off because of President’s day.  So in the past week I have gone to a few museums, I haven’t really gone out to the bazaar because it likes to rain on weekends and that definitely not the time to go to an outdoor bazaar.  Last night was Nona’s, another student, birthday so we all got together and went out to eat at a nice Chinese restaurant and afterwards we went bowling which was really fun. I don’t have any pictures from last night because I wasn’t the photographer for the night. On our day off on Monday me and a few other students plan to see an old fort outside of the city hopefully the weather is nice. I looked into taking some dancing classes here, not sure if I will go through with it yet. For the price and time commitment I think I could do a lot of other cool things. But I’m going to ask around with some of the other students to see what activities are worth doing. I met with my peer tutors this past week, Nargis and Saeed both are really nice but it’s always hard coordinating time between them because of the difference in our schedules. I originally had Fatemeh as my Persian tutor but she cancelled on me and I realized she doesn’t really have time and she lived far away from me so it was hard to get to her place. A couple nights ago my family prepared Tajikistan’s national dish of aash or osh in their pronunciation. It was an experience very greasy and we ate it with our hands. It is basically rice carrots and meat with a crap load of grease. My host mother let me watch her prepare it. I also have won over the little girl… after she watched me try on Tajiki style dresses with Bashira she had fun and warmed up to me. I have pics of that too. I visited the Botanical Garden here; it was huge and pretty and had a nice view of the mountains. I will most definitely be going back when everything starts blooming. The most surprising thing about this country is that the most interesting things are hidden. Like the music museum we went to. It didn’t look like anything more than a rundown house but inside were the coolest instruments and so really cool musicians and the same went for the art museum. I want to go back to the art museum and buy a picture but I am worried about taking it on the plane with me. After this weekend every weekend for the next month and excursion is planned so I am really excited for it.  I also helped my host mom and Bashira make home made bread. They always make their own bread unless the weather is bad then they buy home made bread off someone else. But their bread is best. It was hard making it but fun. They said told me there is no one I'm finding a husband without knowing how to make good bread. But it doesn't matter since I never really finish my portions during meals my husband will go bald according to them. I told them in america we just buy hair. It snowed again here. it was so beautiful so Bashira and Ma'sud went on a walk through the street and took photos. The snow started as rain b/c it wasn't cold enough then the temp dropped and these huge fluffy snowflakes started coming down all afternoon and into the night. I love the way the snow coats the trees. But I am ready to see some of the pretty greens that this part of the world is known for.  I have more pictures to post with this entry but I'm tired of waiting for them to upload. I also have a video of music and dancing from the museum but unless i can find a faster way to upload it then its not going up. Right now it says it will take 243 minutes.

Stay Tuned.....

Shaharazad  

One of the many buildings in the Botanical Gardens,mostly used for weddings 

view of mts/hills from the garden 

entrance to the botanical garden, from the inside

Samo Group- I liked their music I bought a CD

From left to right- Nona, Mark and Kramer- in the music museum 

cool instruments 

gabby learning how to play a drum thingy from one of the players

Tajiki dress with Zahrina...the dress is bashira's I barely fit

The start of the snow this past friday,courtyard out side of our house 

Tree outside at night, the flakes were huge the i love the way they coat things my camera couldn't pick up the detail

Street outside my house

Where did that come from?

Hey Stalkers,

Yesterday when I was walking home after a long day of classes I looked up and saw this huge white mass and I kept looking and I saw more. They were mountains. So yeah duh if you look at the map you see that the city is surrounded by mountains but for the entire 6 days that I have been here it has been overcast,cloudy or raining/snowing so they where hidden. I was walking with my classmate Anne and we both stop dead when we saw them. They were so beautiful and we never knew they existed. She went on to explore and I went home garbed Ma'sud and we went on a walk and we took pictures of the mountains and he took me to a river. Yesterday was the first warm day it was in the 50's and it was clear and sunny. I hope you enjoy the pictures but my camera can no do the sight justice.

The alley I use to get to school, this small section of alley is really nice homes and offices

American Councils has two buildings where they hold classes on the same alley, i don't have classes here but I love the garden patio area when they plant stuff I will take more pictures

This is my host family's host from outside the room infront is the kitchen

This door to the right leads to the outside world from my host family's house

I found the Kitty! 3 years old and apparently according to my host sister she has 2 husbands that fight over her

so cute! She loves me now.

The mountain I saw when I was walking home. I swear it wasn't there before.

The really big river with no water...haha when it warms up it will get higher there are more mountains if you look hard enough

Love these :)

There will be more coming if it doesn't rain tomorrow my host family is going to take me to the botanical gardens, Alot of weddings happen there and I heard its a beautiful place. Also now that its starting to get warm Bashira wants me to have traditional Tajiki clothes which are really colorful patterns and designs and really cute. But that will be much later. She is already excited about it though. I have also met my peer tutors with the Tajiki one Nagris she will be taking me out to cultural places and help me interact with locals while my Iranian one Fatemeh will help me more with academics. Meetings with them start next week.

Shaharazad

Picture Post

This is mostly going to be a picture post of my family here in Tajikistan. Since my last post nothing exciting has happened, except school and homework.I have today and two hours of class tomorrow and two hours for film Friday tomorrow which will be a nice way to end the week.

Host dad and a friend of their eldest son. their eldest son is studying moscow

enjoying each others company

Ma'sud trying on my glasses, he looks so smart

These are the neighbor's kids, they come over almost everyday, they won't talk to me they stare at me alot  they look kinda mean here but they are cute...the boy is four years old and the girl is five.

Ma'sud breaks things alot he goalie for his soccer team

Host Mom

Courtyard outside of the House

Bashira

Courtyard Again

Ma'sud -Host Brother

I wanted to see the city while it was snowing

Rudaki Avenue-The main street in the city

Ma'sud

Ma'sud and Bashira

Host Dad-This is where we eat all of our meals

Host Mom

Bashira

It Snowing Again!

02/08/11

So I have been here in Tajikistan for less than a week and even though I am not always the person starting or leading the conversation I definitely feel that my Persian, speaking wise has improved. Today is only day 2 of classes. It is really tiring having four hours of class back to back during the week and then having homework and going back to the host family is enjoyable but my brain hardly gets a break from thinking in another language. I have a meeting today with my Resident Director, Jake, to decide if I want a tutor and if so in which language, Farsi or Tajik. So that would add at least another 3 hours to my week. Nothing too exciting has happened since school started. I really enjoy my host family’s company. Oh ….one thing did happen obviously I do not look like a native Tajik so when Bashira took me to the bazaar to buy boots  she told me that she would do all the talking because if they realized I was a foreigner they would raise the price. I told her; clearly I don’t look like I am from here. Anyway we go in and it was fun trying to figure out my shoe size here when that was figured out then we had to find a boot that wasn’t a patent leather high heel, because that’s what all the women wear here for the most part. We decided on a boot and the guy gives us a price for about 10 US dollars then he realizes it’s for me and raises it to 30. Bashira starts arguing saying what are you talking about this is my sister she is my father’s daughter and the guy agrees to lower it back down. After we bought the boots, she starts looking at the shoes and my hair is pictured in the other post  with her in it and the guy asks her where I am from because my hair and my sister pops off with some random country/place that wasn’t America. It was pretty funny he thought my hair was pretty. Another woman came up and asked me if I used chemicals to make it curly and I get a lot of confused stares from mostly women and curious stares from men when I wear my hair out. I haven’t been able to explain to my family my hair they think it’s curly because I don’t wash it every day. I also had a teen guy walk up and play with my curls and walk away. It was awkward.  They also don’t like the cold. No ice is served with any drink water has to be at lukewarm temps and you shouldn’t sit or touch cold things because they think it will make you infertile. Which I don’t mind but it is funny to see the things they do. I found the kitty!!!! It is soo cute, but it lives outside. It likes me now that I gave it attention so when I come home it follows me into the house and then my family tries to put it back outside. My teachers are awesome; they are all nice and very helpful. There is only me and another girl, Anne, in my classes. This is nice to have almost one on one instruction. Today we will get to meet our peer tutors. I opted for 2 hrs a week with an Iranian tutor and 2 hrs with a Tajiki tutor for now. If I get busier I will have to drop some hours.I might get one person who can speak in both dialects well so that will be awesome too. The tutor program isn't structured so we could go to the baazar, the park or where ever to practice or learn about cultural sites or I can use them to help with homework.

See the pictures below. If you have any comments to my posts or pictures feel free to comment.  I’m also working on getting pictures of my family and the other students/teachers.BTW sorry for poor grammar or typos, my English has somewhat declined and I’m tired. J

Until Next Time….

This is my classroom, all of out classes are held in here. 

Map of Iran in Persian, on my classroom wall

The view outside of our classroom window, on my way to class a black dog followed me for 5 mins all the way into the courtyard.

Calendar from host sister, there are ads all over the place for this jewelry store, their stuff is soo pretty

Classroom from my desk, 2hours of Tajiki

more pics outside of my classroom window