Summer is officially over in Bishkek. It’s still hot, I’ll still make liberal use of my swimming pool, but September 1st is the first day of autumn here (as opposed to September 21st/22nd in the States).
This summer was… strange. I had many grand ambitions that were tempered by the reality of my first trimester (turns out it’s really exhausting), a never-ending project for work (delays and starts and delays and starts… currently delayed), and what seemed like weekly going-away parties. And now it’s a new season, and I’m experiencing this weird frenetic desire to organize and reevaluate and analyze my life because the seasons are changing and maybe I’m nesting or there’s some sort of hormonal malfunction that makes me stress out that my inbox is a mess and there’s a box in my storage room that hasn’t been cleaned out since I moved into this house.
None of that is very exciting to blog about though, so let me tell you a bit about what I did do this summer other than sleeping and propping my feet up. There was Issyk-Kul, for business and pleasure, and then there were picnics.
Usually spontaneous, picnics this summer meant gathering some food and friends and driving to a variety of random spots that someone had heard from someone else were pretty darn swell for sitting around and doing nothing at.
On Sunday we stopped at a river that was located somewhere between Bishkek and Kochkor, spread out our blankets and ate mostly dates, listened to podcasts, and ran away from giant river rats. The purpose of the trip was “fishing,” although for 75% of the group that meant “watching Dillon wade in the river while holding a fishing pole.”
(He saw one fish)
It’s a nice way to get out of town for a few hours. It felt more uninhibited to pull off the road and park at a picturesque (if not slightly overgrown) spot than embarking on a planned excursion to a specific charming village.
Now that summer is over, I’m becoming more aware of the countdown until I have to fly back to the states for, you know, giving birth and all. Maybe it’ll encourage me to organize more day trips so that I can savor these dwindling pre-baby days. Or maybe I’ll just be lazy and convince everybody to enjoy the chilly nights in my garden.