Change money
telephone
Milk, bread, eggs
Internet
Blog
Meet Daniel, Jerome and Zhenara later in the day
Call Marisa in Khojand
'How do you say': Narusky pa ___?
Bread: nan, or lepyoshka
Soup: soupe or borscht or lacman or cili
Salad: salaat
How much: eskolka estoy?
All this and the sudden cold of the stairwell at Ulitsa Linaeinaya on a sunny day. Waking up for the first time in Bishkek after a four hour nap following a 4 am arrival at Manas Airport outside of the capital (not only a civilian airport named for the epic hero Manas, but also a key transit site for the US Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Many uniformed soldiers early in the morning coursing through the airport as the rest of us waited with our passports in the visa line.)
Now, the items in my to-do list seem like a quaint picture of how I expected my bachelor's life in Bishkek to proceed - doing the shopping, meeting new friends, connecting with contacts in the area, keeping up with the utilities and setting up my schedule and other details of urban living. However, as I walked into Cafe Express at the corner of Moskovskaya and Sovietskaya Boulevards, Shaarbek ordered me a bowl of soup and a salad ("do you want vodka, also?"), his assistant Sani showed up ("this is Sani - he is tech guy and he can translate for your project") and the whirlwind of life at/with/in relation to B'Art Center and its staff had begun. My cell phone and rent would have to wait.
We jumped in a taxi for 1 Karasaeva Street and when we arrived, several things were happening right away.
