Break in Istanbul

We just returned from a great week-long break in Istanbul. Below is a link to photos for those interested.

Istanbul is a fabulous city with a great deal to do. We spent most days wandering the streets checking out the many mosques. It seems that there is a minaret for each person in the city. We visited some cisterns and used the public ferries to catch the view from the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. We also spent time hopping between Asia and Europe.

When not getting our daily 10,000 steps, we lounged at too many local tea and Turkish coffee shops to count. We really enjoyed the Turkish coffee, at least once we learned not to drink the fine grounds at the bottom of the cup. Our gastronomic adventure also included eating some of the best food we've had since our trip to Peru. While kebabs are VERY popular (we even ate some, gasp!), being a vegetarian was extremely easy. Some of the best eggplant dishes we've ever had. And last but not least, Turkish red wines are yummy! We were introduced to some new types of grapes, our favorite being Okozguzu which means large bull eye (or bullseye) in Turkish. While not giving away exactly how much we drank, let's just say that our red wine fix was met.

Now it's 8 more weeks of work. Then we are off to Prague, Austria and Munich for winter break to do some cross-country skiing and more red wine drinking, of course!

https://picasaweb.google.com/coffren19/Istanbul2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Upgrading to Business Class--Uzbek Air Style

You're on your way to the airport, dreading the flight back home in economy class. No leg room, no food, and someone in front of you who MUST recline for the entire trip. "None of that for me this trip," you say to yourself. So, you decide to ask about upgrading to business class. You approach the ticket counter and ask for an amount. After consulting with the computer and his fellow ticket takers, he replies. Alas, the cost ($800) is well outside your alloted budget and you resign yourself to the fact that it's going to be another long trip home.

But wait! This is Uzbekistan Airlines and anything is possible. You decide to speak to the flight attendents as you board. "Is there a way to upgrade to business class?" you inqure. "Follow me sir!" she replies. And off you go to see the Business Class attendent who informs you that it is indeed possible, even at this very late stage, to upgrade to the land of luxury. "Take a seat!" she says with a smile, so you find a comfortable place in the empty cabin.

As you get comfortable and buckle your seat belt, the attendent arrives with the emergency landing "folder". She leans in close and whispers "100 dollars. Put it in here!". You extract the bribe, nay upgrade surcharge, from your pocket and do as you are told. The next time she returns, you wave the folder and offer your best thank you in Russian (Spasibo) and off she goes. Pillow, blanket, drinks and a hot meal of salmon, potatoes and green beans follow. Well worth the $100, you think, and enjoy the flight home.

But as you wait to depart, a little surprise awaits. As your fellow passengers depart on the right hand side, you are whisked out the other side with a special escort. You have no idea where you are in the airport but follow anyway. Your colleague, and fellow business class "upgrader", begins to worry, but you assure him that this must be part of the upgrade package. Then your escort takes your through security, the wrong way, and the metal detector dings and beeps. Now even you begin to consider that something not so benign may be happening. But the optimist in you wins out and you assure your friend that all is well.

"Down this hall," your escort informs you and you follow. "Now down those stairs," and again you go. "Now open those doors!" she says. You pull, but the door is locked. So you try the other, again locked. It seems that your friend is right and the next stop is the room with two chairs, a table and a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling. But then, like magic, someone opens the doors from the other side. "Come!" he says and you go. As you go through the door, you breathe a sigh of relief as you are now first in line at the Tashkent passport control and customs line well before the other passengers on your flight arrive. And this alone, as anyone who has been through the Tashkent airport knows, is worth every cent of your 100 dollars

Car buying - GM customer service

A friend and I (Jeanette) decided to go to the local Chevrolet dealership this past weekend to buy cars.  You know what it's like when you walk on to the lot.  The sales guys are fighting each other to see who can nab the next customer.  Well, not exactly.

Urshka and I had done our homework.  We knew what models we wanted and a pretty good ball-park what the new prices should be.  As we stepped on to the lot, we wondered where the cars were. Oh, the showroom!  We entered and saw exactly what we wanted: a cute little blue Spark for me and a snazzy black Matiz for Urshka.  No sales people had yet approached us, but we noticed several men standing around.  Eventually I asked one of the men - does anyone here speak English?  Guy at the 2nd desk.  OK -  we went to the second desk.  He didn't speak much English, but we both know enough Russian to get by, so we mixed it up.  Already I am wondering why the sales people weren't swarming - we are foreigners, and everyone knows we are filthy rich!

Oh.  Forgot to mention that the cars in the showroom were locked.  We asked the guy to look at them and told him we wanted to buy.  He said "Come back in January."  No, no.  We have money and we want to buy now.  "No cars now.  Come back in January."  How about those cuties on the floor?  They even had the prices marked!  "No.  Those are the bosses.  Come back in January."  We asked if we could be put on the waiting list - a few locals had told us that such a thing existed, but they assured us that if we were waiving money that we'd jump the line.  "No list. Come back in January.  Maybe on the 3rd."  We persisted a little bit longer.  Long enough that we had a nice look in the cars and the salesman asked us what color we wanted and told us about the features, what the differences in the models were, and explained gas mileage expectations.   We ultimately left, completely degected. We were so ready to spend!

Back at school, I asked our local contact and he said even with his connections we can't get a new Chevy.  He let me know that even if we returned in January, that would simply be to get our names on next year's list and we should expect to wait 3 to 6 months from then to get a car.

Just for giggles, I wrote to GM customer service and told them my woes.  GM North America was kind enough to point me to GM Middle East.  GM Middle East was kind enough to point be back to GM North America.  I just sent my final 'customer service' letter back to GM N.A.  Yes, I was polite :)

Now, I've decided that I'm going to the car-bazaar with coworkers and the local contact guy in a few weeks.  I wonder what I'll be driving.  Lada, Zhiguli, or Volga anyone?

Beetle Mania

As Paul and I left for work Friday morning, we saw a lovely beetle outside our front door.  He was a nice shiny silver gray and about 1.5 inches wide and close to 3 inches long.  That evening, I found his cousin on my bathroom floor - he was slightly smaller and very black.  Paul came to the rescue and deposited beetle in the toilet.  Just to be safe, I put a kleenex on top of beetle, but he was determined to live and attempted to use kleenex to climb out.  Yikes!

We flushed as he was approaching the rim.  Unfortunately, our water pressure isn't that great so I stood guard for a few minutes waiting to flush again.  Before the tank had filled, I watched in horror as beetle crawled back into the bowl from the drain pipes below!  Two kleenexes this time - totally drenched with water so there was no way for bug to escape - and two flushes later I left the bathroom with some confidence that Mr. Beetle was gone.  On my midnight run, I did put my glasses on see clearly and inspected the whole room carefully.  This time I got off easy.

I wonder what I'll do the first time I see a scorpion in our house.  I've seen little ones at friend's houses and I'm convinced that our water heater space looks just as cozy.  

Tashkent Old City

We have today and tomorrow off; today for Eid, the Muslim holiday, and tomorrow we are off for Uzbek Independence Day. We spent today doing some sight-seeing around Tashkent. We rode the very affordable ($.25 per ride) metro north to the Chorsu market and walked a few kilometers north to the Old City which is the "pre"-Soviet area of Tashkent. Here we visited a madrasa, which, according to my on-line sources is, a building or group of buildings used for the teaching of Islamic theology and religious law, typically including a mosque. You have to love the internet!

Below are a few pictures of our outing.

Chorsu Market, closed because of Eid

Jeanette with local "non" seller. It's really good when hot!

Old City

Old city

Old city

Old city

Old city

Old city

Old city

Tile work

Old city

Old city

Old city

Brrrr... August in the Uzbek Mountains

The weather hasn't dipped below 35 degrees C here since we arrived and Jeanette is in heaven.  The only time she gets cold is in her classroom which is well refrigerated, but there she's moving most of the time.

Until this weekend... She decided to go out on a hike with the local club and a friend from school.  Here is a picture of friend Ursula and Boris the guide near the top of Little Chimgan.

Yes, Ursula looks like she is freezing because she is!  It was snowing!  Jeanette was only able to snap this one picture before she decided to shove her hands in her pockets :)

The rest of the hike was interesting.  Beautiful scenery, but that was drowned out by snow, rain, and fear.  The trail was one of the most harrowing she has been on.  Most of the hikers agreed that they felt like reaching the van at the end was more an accomplishment than the end of a hike.  

Today J is taking Ibuprofen and hobbling just a bit, but she's actually contemplating a future hike with guide Boris.  Insane?

Cheese dip and tortilla chips

Thank you U.S. Embassy!  The U.S. teachers who work at TIS can purchase goods from the commissary by submitting a weekly request - we get a spreadsheet of goods available and tick off what we want.  Prices are comparable to supermarkets at home and we pay only a $3.00 delivery fee.  I never tried delivery from Safeway or QFC, but I imagine it is much like this.

Well...what was in our first order?  Tostitos cheese dip and tortilla chips (lunch today) and popcorn (possibly Jeanette's dinner tonight).  OK, so we also got a few real food items like black beans, but most of this box was goodies.  I wonder how long the box of sweet-n-salty bars will last.  It's funny how comforting these junk food items are.  It's been since we left the States 15 July that we've had most of this stuff.

Well, the jar of cheese dip is gone now.  Guess it's time to move on to popcorn.  Our landlord delivered a brand new microwave last night; what better to try it out on!