As I warned back at the end of August, I had a lot of excitement coming up this fall in my life… so since I’ve done special posts on the big things that were a part of it, I’m going to combine these two months into a single summary to talk about everything that I didn’t get to talk about in those other posts.

Where we left off back in August, my parents had just arrived in Osh, and we were on our way to Bishkek to continue our adventure exploring as much of this country as we could with their limited time while also avoiding marshrutkas.  Our three days in Bishkek coincided with preparations for Kyrgyzstan’s 25th Independence Day, and unfortunately also with a car bombing at the Chinese Embassy.  Despite the restrictions on our movement from my office, we still got to see some cool parts of the city, including the portrait gallery.  There’s a great collection of art, and my personal favorite is the quietly hidden “Daughter of Soviet Kirghizia” by Semyon Chuikov.

After a whirl around Bishkek, we climbed into a car and drove to Kochkor, then up to Song Kul for my second trip to the stunning pasture and lake on the roof of Kyrgyzstan.  This time, we stayed on the north shore (with much better weather than last time), got to do some exploring, and had the most wonderful host family I’ve ever had at a yurt-stay.

Since the World Nomad Games were approaching, I really needed to practice (well, really, to learn) Toguz Korgool, the game I would be playing in the Games.  So, I asked our guide for help, and together we set out to seek guidance.  We went from yurt to yurt, asking if any of them knew how to play or knew someone who did.  Over the course of several hours, we managed to get to every single yurt in that part of the lake, but not a single person knew how to play!  Everyone got a good laugh out of this, particularly since Song-Kul is one of the most Kyrgyz places in all of Kyrgyzstan.

The weather this trip was much better, so I got to enjoy this unreal sunset with my parents.

The next day, we took a slow start, enjoying the sunrise and the birds around the lake before getting back in the car to drive off to Cholpon-Ata in Issyk-Kul, about 4 hours away from Song-Kul.  My parents dropped us off in front of the Hippodrome so I could check in, and so began my World Nomad Games adventure.

The World Nomad Games were, suffice it to say, one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me in my life, and were a fulfillment in a way of my Team USA dream that I had let go of five years ago when I retired from competitive figure skating.

I won’t go into depth in this post, but my post about the Games is an absolute must-read to learn more about this amazing event.

I snuck away from the Games the night before the Closing Ceremony (where Queen made a surprise appearance – yes, that Queen) in order to make it to Bishkek, and the next day we boarded a flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan for another two weeks of adventuring along the Silk Road.

Uzbekistan, in case you don’t follow me on Instagram, was UNREAL. So many spectacular places with so much rich history across several empires, major religions, and cities.  And, of course, more of my beloved plov than I could have dreamed of.

In case you haven’t had a chance, you absolutely should read my post all about Uzbekistan.  And I’ll be doing more in-depth posts on some of the best stops in Uzbekistan in the near future.

At the end of our time in Uzbekistan, I bid my parents farewell to make it back to Osh… where I was immediately met with a torrent of work.  In addition to some very early graduate school deadlines that consumed my life for three weeks, I also was proofreading an English translation of a brand new amazing Ministry of Education curriculum book.  Thanks to the translation, volunteers will be able to help train schools to implement the curriculum in their schools and communities.  My counterpart at the polyclinic and I managed to carry (thanks to the help of 5 different people) 60 copies from Bishkek to Osh, and by the time I leave Kyrgyzstan, there will be a trained teacher in every school in Osh with one of these books.

After that book, I had to get a SECOND supplementary resource book pulled together for a grant I was working on (UPDATE! I got it approved!).  It’s about $2000 dollars, about half of which is being supplied in-kind by the polyclinics, which is fantastic.  I’ll be making copies of this book once it gets approved, and then traveling to remote regions of the oblast to lead trainings on how to use the book’s lesson plans in villages.  At the end of the project, 162 villages will have a new resource with which to improve their awareness of health issues.

By the time I was finished with two books, the grant, and the first wave of applications, it was time to get everything together for the Blog It Home Tour, for which I spent two weeks back in the US sharing my experiences here and getting training from cool people at the White House, among other places.

In case you missed my blog about that bout of unbelievable amazingness, take a look at it here.  I also got interviewed about it by the radio station in my hometown, KRBD, and you can read about that here.  And if you want to read about the other bloggers that I shared that experience with, you can read my post about them here.

September and October were INSANE.  November is also looking like it will be crazy.  But that’s all good.  It’s a good thing to have lots of work, meaningful projects that will have a lasting impact, and things that will hopefully line me up for my next steps in the future.

In the meantime, I have a few more applications to write…