Our program this summer in Bishkek will include second-, third- and fourth-year Russian. So far here are our stats:

8-week program (Bishkek only)

• 2nd year students: 8 confirmed, 3 unconfirmed
• 3rd year students: 8 confirmed, 3 unconfirmed
• 4th year students: 3 confirmed, 1 unconfirmed

4-week program (Tempe 8-weeks, followed by 4 weeks in Bishkek)

• 1st year students: 7 confirmed, 3 unconfirmed

Those 4th-year students will be in a great situation to have only 3-4 students in a class. Smaller classes mean more individual attention. That's what great about these programs. At ASU it is not uncommon for me to teach a class of 20+ students. That may sound awful, but I actually really like the energy of big classes, even if in a smaller class you can give more individual attention to the students.

Reading up on Kyrgyz food, I am not surprised to learn that they are big into shishkabob, but I am intrigued by the following line: "Each shashlik typically has a fat-to-meat ratio of one-to-one."

I love fat. Can't wait to get to Bishkek! Among the other delicacies I am looking forward to are fermented mare's milk and sheep's eyeball. (Separate dishes, of course.) And lots of horse meat.

Good news: my materials have been delivered to the Kyrgyz embassy. I love trackable mail. Their website says they take five business days to process things, so that means hopefully they shall have the paperwork completed next Monday, which would probably mean that they mail it on Tuesday. I'll by on tenterhooks till then.

The Kumtor gold mine “is responsible for generating up to 12 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP and about 40 percent of export earnings.”

(Mirror)

Very neat pictures