It’s the end of the month, and as a part of a new blogging and photography goal I’ve set for myself with BloggingAbroad, I’ve been taking photos based on prompts (and just from life in general), and I wanted to share a few with you! Take a look, read about it, and click to enlarge if you want to see more closely.
#1 Bishkek Monument
Alongside the road from the airport into Bishkek is this Sovietski monument which was recently renovated and repainted to coincide with the World Nomad Games.
#2 Kuz-Demi Half Marathon
A friend of mine invited me to Bishkek to run the Kuz-Demi Half Marathon with him. He got ill, but I ran into my friend from the Issyk-Kul Marathon, Dr. Olesya, and we had a great run of the race together. This was a photo of us as we finished together.
#3 Arslanbob From The Panorama Point
For my friend Nicole’s birthday, we all took a trip up to the beautiful Uzbek village of Arslanbob, which is considered one of the most awesome and beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan to visit. This is a view from a prominent panorama point where you can see how the village is spread out in the middle of the forest on the mountainside.
#4 House And Stream
Another photo of children headed home from school, but the setting is so spectacular. Easily a personal favorite of my photos.
#5 Grey Frankfurt
Frankfurt was grey and rainy during my layover there, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t able to enjoy a lunch of delicious German currywurst. It’s funny how the sight of a even just an airline can bring some great emotions. Or if its United… some other emotions.
#6 Central Asian Cultural Exchange
Being back in DC was a fun chance to reconnect with friends new and old. My friend here is Mongolian and took great pleasure in trying on my kalpak during happy hour. Mongolians also have a variety of traditional hats, including at least one that has some superficial similarities.
#7 The Nerve Center
When I arrived in DC for the Blog It Home tour, HQ had prepared this conference room with our flags, our name cards, our photos, and of course a bowl of hundreds of York Peppermint Patties to fuel us through the week’s exciting series of events and trainings.
#8 All Dolled Up
Not only did we get to share our culture with visiting students, but we also got to learn about our countries from each other! One of the coolest moments was this, one of the first times we all put on national (or inspired-by national) clothing from our countries. You can read bios of everyone in my post “Meet The Bloggers!”
#9 Table Of Goodies
For the Blog It Home tour, we had to prepare a table of artifacts and items from our country that might be of interest to people. So, given that Osh has both Kyrgyz and Uzbek culture, I brought articles from both to share with visitors to talk about the diversity that makes Osh my favorite place in Kyrgyzstan.
#10 Keynote
OK, so I was one of 8 speakers actually, but this is a great shot that shows me in action talking about my love for Kyrgyzstan at Peace Corps Headquarters during the Blog It Home tour. In case you’re wondering, my jacket is of my own design, made from traditional hand-dyed silk from Uzbekistan.
#11 White House Tour
I couldn’t pick just one; getting to tour the White House officially as part of my job is definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done – and I’ve been to the White House before!
#12 Strong White House Women
#13 “Everybody say ‘Kennedy!'”
Here we are, all the bloggers, HQ staff, and representatives of the Director’s office (unfortunately, she was out of town the week we were there, but I did get to meet her back in May!).
#14 Supermodels
We did a little impromptu photoshoot at the National Geographic Museum in Washington.
#15 The City
The Bronx is up and the battery’s down. I got to visit my old life in New York for a few days at the end of my trip, and it was everything.
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