Postcard from Bishkek

Some time ago I was invited to an event in one of Bishkek’s many Universities, the one named in honour of Ishenaly Arabaev. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious Universities in the country – based on six sites located in the city center – the main one being adjacent to the main […]

Yesterday was International Students’ Day and I wrote a postcard about people taking a “year out” – a Gap Year. A few weeks ago one of the local newspapers, (Slovo Kyrgyzstan – the Word of Kyrgyzstan), ran an interesting article based on a couple of interviews with foreign students studying at Kyrgyzstan Universities; one from […]

Today happens to be International Students’ Day. The day owes its origins to the occasion in 1939 when Nazi authorities stormed the University of Prague to suppress student demonstrations – and executing some nine of their leaders, sending over a thousand of the others to concentrations … and led to the closure of Czech universities […]

  For most of the children in Kyrgyzstan, today marks the first day of the school year … perviye zvonok – First Bell – for 2013. Actually, in Kyrgyzstan – as elsewhere in the former Soviet Union – the academic year starts on 1st September, but this year there’s been some confusion because that fell on Sunday and yesterday […]

Today marks the anniversary of the first transmission of the cult science fiction series Star Trek on BBC TV, back in 1969. The series had been proposed by Gene Roddenberry as early as 1964 and a pilot programme filmed in 1965.  It finally went on the air in the states in September 1966 and although […]

The kids quite often have to produce reports for school, (called a Doklad or Referat).  I well remember having to do these when I was at school, but they seem to have things a lot easier these days, (or is that just “old age” talking?). When we set the task of writing a report on topics like […]

In Saturday’s postcard I mentioned that I had been invited to a ceremony at a school, Bilimkana, in Luxembourg, a village about 20 kilometers East of Bishkek. It was a two fold celebration, to mark Posledniy zvonok, the last day of the school year and also the an opening ceremony.  When I first heard about […]

The other day Maxim, one of the kids, asked for help with his homework. Now, call me mean, but I am not too keen on helping them with their homework … There’s a number of reasons for my reluctance: I am old-fashioned enough to think that they should do the work and if I end […]

The kids are not in school today … but it’s OK, it’s all official and above board – they are not playing truant.  Today is a public holiday – Norus. Back in the UK, we tend to think of the Spring Equinox, (March 21st), as the first day of Spring – and, apparently, this identification […]

Some time ago, I was talking to the kids about their progress at school.  I am pleased to say that they seem to be doing quite well, regularly receiving grades of 4 and 5. It took a while, however, for me to get used to this system that is used over here. Most of the marks […]