Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
It’s been a strange week here in Bishkek … and also, apparently, around the world. It began with “Blue Monday”. A few years a British tour firm decided on a sales gimmick to help “prime the pump” so that people would start booking holidays, and they decided to declare the Monday of the last full week [...]
I am aware that there has been a somewhat depressing turn to the postcards recently, in that there have been quite few references to deaths and funerals. I have mentioned several times that last year was the year of the “black tie”. It wasn’t just a case of the number of people that died in [...]
I see from National Geographic that winter lasts for 21 years on Uranus. Thank goodness it doesn’t last that long here in Kyrgyzstan. Last Friday, the sun was shining and the weather was warm. It made a pleasant change to the bitter, biting, wind and the frozen snow covered ground. One of my neighbours was [...]
I have a saying that “Every day is a special day … for someone”, even if it is not a special holiday. January 25th, for example, the twenty-fifth here in Kyrgyzstan, at least for those called Tatiana, like my accountants … but I wrote about that last year … http://ianbek.kg/?p=1239 It is a special day [...]
If you a regular visitor to ianbek, then you are probably aware that, as a former Maths teacher, I am fascinated with numbers and that,as a former teacher of statistics, I have a “love-hate” relationship with their “use and abuse”. As a result you will probably understand my feelings towards “Blue Monday”. Knowing how almost [...]
Every now and again, I come across a reference to Kyrgyzstan in the news which takes me aback. It happened again earlier this week in a news report from the Marion County Record – a provincial newspaper from Kansas, USA. The reference was in a short article about the singer John Denver and his local [...]
Some people ask me how I find the time to write these weekly postcards, and others ask where I get my inspiration. The answer to both questions is quite simple and, I suppose, go back to my days and training as a teacher. It is a matter of habit, instilled in me over seventeen years in [...]
When I first came here I often ran into problems over names. Back in the UK, for example, as a school teacher, I would have “hit the roof” if one of my pupils had dared to call me Ian. The correct form of address is “Sir” or “Mr. Claytor”. The use of the given name [...]
For the the second time in less than a week, my feet felt frozen and I thought my toes were about to drop off as a result of the cold.
Tuesday lunchtime and we closed the office to go to a special Birthday lunch. I have said before that Birthdays are a big deal here in Kyrgyzstan. This one was especially important as it was a 30th Birthday – a landmark, a round figure.
