New Pad

Well, we are on the move, but this time just across town. While our first place was adequate, we decided that we would look around for more comfortable digs. After looking at approximately 12 places with a slew of real estate agents (more below), we found what we hope will be our home for as long as we live in Tashkent.

After living in what Jeanette called "a bachelor pad" (not that there's anything wrong with that!), we thought we would seek out more modern furniture, a bigger kitchen with more storage, a better location and toilets that worked at least half the time (TMI?). Jeanette's wonderful teaching assistant (full-time, for any teachers in the crowd) hooked us up with a real estate agent, gave him our budget and needs. After a few days, we set out on our search.

The most interesting thing you notice right away is that every place you see comes attached with at least 3 real estate agents, the landlord, the landlord's representative, a middle-man and some unidentified guy who stands around talking on his phone and smoking a cheap cigarette. If you think we kid, there were 9 people present when we signed the contract for our new place.

After looking at some of the good, the bad and the ugly that Tashkent has to offer, we settled on a Soviet-style high-rise apartment. Two big bedrooms, "modern" kitchen with dinette area, family room, and a huge formal living room area that we will only use for get-togethers. Pictures are posted below.

While we love the space, one of the best features is the location. We are less than 100 yards from Bon! Cafe, our local coffee/bakery hangout. And right above Bon! is Semo de Roma, one of the Italian joints we frequent far too often. A mini-market, pharmacy and the Mirabod bazar are all right outside our door, so we are never far from a bottle of Sarbast beer, bananas or laundry detergent.

Our hip new kitchen and dining area

We actually love the colors

Family room

Formal living and dining room

Master bedroom

Bathroom--exciting, eh?

Family room and entry way

"Do you live in a 3rd world country?" or 50 pounds of cheese

We are back from winter break. Surprisingly enough it only took us 20 minutes to get through passport control and customs at the Tashkent Airport, not the normal 2-3 hours. This seems to be some sort of record among our colleagues. We’ll see what happens next time.

One thing that people do while they are away from Tashkent is to stock up on things that are unavailable here or are expensive, like good red wine, cheese or certain products from the drug store. Like others, Jeanette and I bought a few items while we were in Maryland over break, enough to fill an extra suitcase for the return trip. On one of our purchasing trips to CVS (local drug store), we placed so many bottles of contact lens solution, packets of Emergency, multi-vitamins and ibuprofen on the counter that the clerk asked Jeanette, “What, do you live in a 3^rd world country or something?” We both chuckled, realizing that we do live in a pretty unusual place, even if we would not call it 3^rd world.

We arrived in Tashkent early Saturday morning, and had a get-together with colleagues to share stories. Like us, the elementary principal and her family did some shopping. One day they went to Wal-Mart to purchase some cheese, cheddar cheese specifically. As they stood in line, the clerk proceeded to scan their items. And after scanning 50 pounds of cheese, turned to them and said, “Ya’ll sure do like cheese, don’t ya’!” Indeed they do, and with 6 people in their family, they ended up with more than 50 pounds in their 11 bags. Needless to say, they did not get through the airport in 20 minutes.