searching for poppy fields

Convinced that it would most certainly be my last chance to photograph a giant field of blooming poppies, a friend and I made plans that we absolutely had to find them last weekend. The weather had been volatile all week, cold and rainy one day, blazing sunshine the next. Every weather website or app we …

my “ticket list”

I’m a fan of making lists. Whether or not I actually succeed at doing everything that’s on that list, I still find it a useful process for sorting through my thoughts, hopes and dreams for what I’d like to accomplish before I leave Kyrgyzstan. When will I leave Kyrgyzstan for good? Oh geez. Who knows. …

Cat Show in Bishkek

I first heard about a cat show hosted in Bishkek over a year ago (maybe even two), but news about the event had only ever reached me after it had already happened. Until now. I went to a cat show in Bishkek, and it may have been the best day ever. I had a few …

Galactic Marshrutka

Can dreams come true? Yes. Yes they can. I finally photographed the Galactic Marshrutka this weekend. I wasn’t prepared, except that I had my camera out at the moment it drove past me. The pictures aren’t amazing (they’re a bit blurry, in fact), but good enough to prove its elusive existence. As you can see, …

day trips and musing about summer

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 …

Two Years in Kyrgyzstan

“And look at where we are,” I said to Farrell yesterday as I reminded him of our moving-to-Bishkek anniversary, referring to how much has changed since August 15, 2010, when we first landed here (or even just one year ago). “Yeah,” he said, not looking up from his computer. “Writing the same damn proposals.” Things …

Life in the new house

I’ve spent a month in my new house now, adjusting to all of the new space and sharing it all with my office, roommates, and their office. To be honest, one of the hardest aspects of college for me was having roommates (I switched housing every semester), but this living situation is just swell so …