If you couldn't see my face, you'd think I was Uzbek. That's how good I am at making plov.

What a wonderful day. If the pictures above are in order (since I'm
updating from my e-mail, I really have no idea), they are as follows:
1. One of my favorite little orphans, Saule, from улан orphanage.
She's SUCH a sweet little girl and I love the time I get to spend with
her.
2. This is my 3pm, MWF class. ALL girls, and all SO precious. It was
a good day...Natasha was back for the first time since losing her
husband, and it was wonderful to have her sweet smile back in class.
I love love love these girls! (L-R: Karlegash, Asem, Aidana, Natalya,
Galiya (the drama queen in front with the glasses), Natasha, Miss
DeVries, Assiya, Zhanna, Nursulu)
3. Look at the awesome plov we made! I can't wait to make it for my family!

Friday started with a morning at улан orphanage with my sweet little
ones. How can I not have a good day when my day starts out with those
precious little faces?! I love them ALL. OH how I long for loving
homes to take these children in.

Saturday started out sunny, so we headed to the bazaar. The bazaar is
crazy, like the chaotic melting pot of cultures and languages and
treasures and junk. Carolina and I met our friend Katya there, and we
just walked around for a long time…3 hours! I bought my favorite
cheese from my favorite cheese lady, Carolina bought something that we
thing may be sticky rice, but then again, it may not be rice at
all…who really knows. Katya bought a shirt, and then she grabbed a
bus home. We bought some fresh Kazakh donuts and walked home,
enjoying the 80 degree day.

Saturday night, I taught. Interlingua is a pretty small school, and
there aren't windows in every classroom. And, as has been happening
rather recently lately, the power was completely out. So, I taught
from 6-7:30pm without power. I told my students it reminded me of
camping, turned on a fake fireplace on my laptop, and taught them camp
songs… Got to make the best of every situation! And, what day isn't
a good day to learn Kumbaya?

Saturday night, after teaching, we grabbed a Taxi to Assel's house to
have a cooking lesson with her mom! One of our favorite national
dishes here is Plov, the Uzbek national dish. Assel's mom grew up in
Uzbekistan, and she makes awesome plov, so we figured we should ask
her to teach us! She was thrilled to have us! We thoroughly
thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed our time there, and we made AWESOME
plov! I think my family will love plov, and I'd be up for making it
many times, if there are more people interested in giving it a try!
After enjoying our Plov, I showed Assel's mom pictures of my beautiful
family. She told me that my parents are young and beautiful, and also
told me over and over that I look like my dad! I don't really think I
look like either of my parents, but whatever. They're attractive
people and I like them. (Hi Mom and Dad.) Then, we watched Freaky
Friday and headed home. We got a Taxi in front of Assel's apartment
building, and the taxi driver had driven us around before. Without
direction, he drove us straight to our front door. It wasn't,
however, comforting at all that driver knew exactly where we lived.
Anyway. INCREDIBLE TWO DAYS.