To my great shock, our group was invited to the home of the American Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, the Honorable Richard M. Miles. The Ambassador's staff laid out a sensible vegetarian pizza spread with beverages, and I have to say his discussion with us was about the most broad-ranging I've ever heard on the subject of Kyrgyzstan and its cooperative ventures with the US. Our students were delighted with the event. I chatted a bit as well with the Public Affairs Specialist and some of the security folks. These guys are really on the ball.

The Ambassador pro tem is here without his wife, whom circumstances have prevented from traveling. Poor guy. Two of our students speculated that here he is living in a huge house without a spouse so it is no wonder he was desperate for a bunch of English-speakers to listen to him talk. :) BTW, I have never seen a bunch of twenty-year olds behave themselves with such respect and decorum as our group did yesterday. I was quite pleased with them.

The new Ambassador will be here in five or six weeks. Her confirmation was delayed and delayed by the senate, which the Ambassador ascribed to senatorial incompetence, which might have been politic on his part; I ascribed it to partisanship. The new Ambassador speaks Russian and has apparently been working on Kyrgyz a bit, too.

My favorite coffee place in Bishkek is Cafe Misto on the third floor of the Vefa Center, which is just catty-corner to our school here. Why do I like it? Decent beverages, good internet, and I don't have to fight to find a place to recharge my laptop. The tables are spaced reasonably so I don't feel like I'm being crowded by other customers. The prices are high for here, which means not all that many locals can afford it, so I've never seen it crowded. And mostly people aren't smoking here. One bit of minor amusement: I think the only hire weight-lifters. The baristas are sporting some serious biceps.

Hm. Three very well-dressed young Russian women just sat at the table next to me and started smoking. I'm tempted to walk up to them and say, "Don't you realize that smoking makes you look like you're thirty??!!" That would probably break them of the habit. Of course, at my age that would actually be a reason to start smoking... Thank God I grew up with asthma so it is not even a temptation.

Lunch again today with the director of the school. I once again came away really impressed with her. Smart, loves to teach. Only got into business by an odd set of circumstances, which forced her to develop a set of talents she didn't even realize that she had. In the midst of it all, she has retained her humanity, despite the fact that Kyrgyzstan is a tough place to run a business.

Our lunch started off with a type of bread called lavash, I was stunned when I saw it come to the table.

The sauce to the right is a yogurt, garlic and paprika sauces, tangy and tasty, that you dip the bread in. There was an additional, somewhat spicy tomato sauce called ezme as well.

My main dish was a mix of shish kebab meats: chicken, mutton, and a ground-beef kebab known as lyulya-kebab. The sides are rice, marinated onions, shredded carrots and lightly-pickled, shredded cabbage.

Wednesdays here do not have regular classes. Students meet with their language coaches (two hours, either one-on-one or one-on-two, as they do two other days a week), and we have some non-academic events, which today included an additional cooking class (locally called lagman, but you can see details here) and a handicrafts class. Y'know, I'm a total language geek and hate these cooking/handicraft things. But on the whole the students like the cooking events. The handicraft events... not so much. Myself, I'd prefer a class where we started to learn the obscene Russian lexicon, but most likely that wouldn't fly with the local school nor my administration back home. A shame, that. I've studied 13+ languages now, depending on how you count study, and I have to say that Russian is the richest in terms of profanity. Sure, the Poles share the Slavic roots and add in the names of the saints, which is of itself quite amusing, but I still think Russian takes the cake.

Some of our students may have the opportunity for some horse-back riding this weekend. Behold, here's a little video the school made to prepare us for the event.