The CAT SHOW! Kyrgyzstan 1-USA 0

The idea of going to a cat show, anywhere in the world, is, to me, both exhilarating and hilarious.  Exhilarating because I love cats and hilarious because, well, come on, it's a pageant...for cats.  There are several cat shows held each year in Bishkek and we attended the September 14th one at the Russian Theater.  This is what the exterior of the Theater looks like, it is in the same park as that swank restaurant we like to go to - in fact, that restaurant was right behind me as I took this photo.

Entrance fee was 150 soms per person, or $3.  My son was free, so we dropped $6 to get these awesome tickets.

The show itself was in the lobby of the theater.  The lobby was dimly lit and I left the flash off in deference to the felines

The lobby, in addition to containing cats, had a lot of impressive portraits of impressive people and paintings of various impressive scenes and battles.  Did I mention that it was impressive?  I found none of these impressive paintings easy to identify, although, if I had to guess, most of the battle scenes were from Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia

At the show, some cats were just kittens

Some cats were grumpy and had curtains

Some cats won serious medals

Some cats were super playful Bengal kittens

Some cats were royalty

Some cats were chillaxing

But seriously, the cat show was a wonderful diversion for a Saturday morning and my son got to pet an animal for the first time since leaving the US.  Or at least, the first time in my presence, I have no idea if he's been taking illicit pony rides in the park or hanging with street dogs.  We also got to see our two favorite breeds - the realization that I have favorite breeds of cats is interesting...

Himalayan Persian (a paradox?)

And of course, Maine Coons

We also some some cat judging before we left.  This seemed to involve waving a cat toy in front of the cat to gauge their reaction...it's unclear what the winning reaction was though...

To be all serious for a moment - sociologicalyl, the cat show was very interesting.  As you are all aware, Bishkek was, until Kyrgyz independence in 1991, a city that had a majority European population.  Or rather, most of its population was ethnically Ukranian or Russian, rather than Kyrgyz.  There were a lot of reasons for this, which only interest historians like myself.  But after independence, most Ukranians and many Russians left, making Bishkek a majority Kyrgyz city.  I would say it is probably 70% Kyrgyz right now, but that's just my subjective opinion...wikipedia says it's 90% Kyrgyz. Usually, in Bishkek, you see a mix of people in the downtown area and there is no visible segregation between them, at least in public.  I have seen dating couples of Russian and Kyrgyz and many groups of friends that are mixed as well, so there seems to be little or no tension in society between the groups...but I could just be missing it.  Anecdotally, I have been told that Kyrgyz chauvinism is on the rise, meaning, that in order to have any political aspirations here, you must be Kyrgyz, but this is only what I've heard, not what I've seen.

The cat show was almost entirely run and attended by ethnic Russians, not Kyrgyz.  I asked my students about that and they dismissed it, saying that only European people keep animals as pets.  I don't think its that simple, but I do think it is important for Kyrgyz society to consider why something like a cat show was such a de facto segregated space.  As a historian, I am aware that the process of nation formation frequently involves a nation losing its minorities and becoming more homogeneous, a process that is clearly underway or nearly complete here.  As the Russian population dwindles here, will cat shows vanish?  My guess is that they will.

To return to my usual tone of good times and absurdities, no cat show would be complete without someone dressed like a cat, or at least in a cat-like outfit

Take this as an inspiration...go out into the world and when the world waves toys in front of you, make sure you win some awards

Also, if you want to read more about Bishkekistani cat shows, Ivory Pomegranate has a post about them too.  Her pictures are better than mine.  Click here to read it...

You Wish You Had One of These 2

Soooooo...I was picking up a few essentials in our neighborhood 24/7 store and I came across this pencil case

It actually says somewhere on it "Artist Collection" which is what really drew me to it in the first place.  It came wrapped in plastic and, since I found it in the candy aisle, I knew there would be fun surprises inside.  We opened it and it was better than I could have imagined.

Yes those are stickers and yes, SOMEONE has already used one that said "MEOW" on it.  But the big mystery and the awesome part is the bags of bones.  Yes, bones.  They're candy, sure, but do cats eat bones?  They do here in Krazystan!
And how amazing is the upholstery on that chair?  It makes me feel like I'm in my parent's basement in 1983.

Kyrgyz Problems 2

MAKING SENSE OF THIS!!!

some of our white clothes may have already turned grey.  and others turned gray.

To get to the other side...an essay on crossing the street

I grew up on Long (STRONG) Island, on a residential, one block long street that connected two residential streets that actually intersected.  There was no need for any car to go down our little lane, unless of course, that block itself was the destination.  Therefore, crossing the street was simple - if there was a car in the street, wait.  If not, cross.  And you could play in the street, as long as you were in the middle of the 20 house long block.
Maybe I'm observant, maybe I'm just bored, but I've given a lot of thought to the cultural mores of street crossing these days. The first place I lived that I felt had a very distinct street crossing culture was my natal city of New York, New York (the city so nice, they named it TWICE!).  You can always tell tourists from Manhattanistanis by this simple rule - do they, while waiting to cross, stand on the side walk or in the street?  At some point in history, New Yorkers decided that the first 3-5 feet of the street actually belongs to the sidewalk and can be occupied to indicate a desire to cross.  Hence, the famous joke "Why did the New Yorker cross the street?"  Answer "To prove to the taxis that he/she owned those 3-5 feet."  Umm, I'm sure that joke will catch on, maybe on a rebooted version of Night Court.  Note - it is also acceptable, in NYC, to thump, with one's hand, any car that dared to stop in the crosswalk.
When I lived for three months in India, I took one look at the street crossing culture and the scales dropped from my eyes.  I had SEEN this before.  From some of my earliest childhood memories and obsessions, it all came flooding back.  This was FROGGER.  If you don't know the arcade video game FROGGER - 1.  Don't try to cross a street in India and 2.  You must be either <20 or >90.  3.  Find it, it will teach you important lessons.
As I recall, in FROGGER you are a frog trying to get to your lily pad.  First, you have to avoid several lanes of traffic.  Then you have to not fall into the water (it's unclear why this would hamper a frog) by hopping onto floating logs...be very careful to avoid the alligators!  The alligators are the best part, as a quick scan of the screen sometimes confuses them with the logs adding a degree of difficulty. Now, this is how you cross the street in India, just like in the game.  You have to jump forward between rows of cars.  Once you commit to the street, you are in and of the street.  There will be cars to the left of you, cars to the right....there you are stuck in the middle..plus cars ahead and behind.  While cars in India supposedly drive on the left hand side of the road, in actuality, it can be said that they drive on either side of the road.  You must swivel your head and scan the entire screen like the legendary frog.
As in FROGGER, cars are not the only hazard on your way to lily padded nirvana.  There are also alligators.  Except these alligators are stray dogs and cows.  The stray dogs will be along the edges and are usually no big deal, the real problem is the cows.  Cows are in the street and are treated as honorary black holes - touch one and you evaporate.  You must avoid these cows at all costs and realize that a car will hit YOU before it hits a cow.  Seriously.  Cows laying down in the road, and yes, they do this, are the closest things to lane markers in the subcontinent.
Again, my advice to you is...if you are terrible at FROGGER, don't try to cross a street in India.  My father, who was born in British India, later Pakistan (the same rules apply in Pakistan, but no cows), is an exceptional FROGGER player.
And now, my new home, Kyrgyzstan.  There are two street crossing eccentricities here in Bishkek, the first one was quite obvious, the second one took me a bit to figure out.  The first is based around the fact that there are not three phases to the stop lights here, but four.  They are, with their American equivilants - 1.  green = green...GO!  2.  blinking green = yellow...SLOW DOWN!  3.  yellow = red...STOP!  4.  red=red/green.  GO!  Let me explain what a red light is...for the traffic that has been moving, it is a red light, but for the traffic that has been stopped, it is a green...as in, as soon as you see opposing traffic flinch and slow down, you go, even though your light is red and their's might be yellow still.  With this knowledge, you can safely cross only when parallel traffic has a green or blinking green...if it hits yellow, haul ass!
The second quirk is a function of massively broad streets.  Some streets in downtown, like Chui Prospect, are wide enough for about 4-6 lanes in BOTH directions.  There are only two lanes each way, so most of the street is sort of a street-like walking place/parking lot.  That in itself doesn't cause any major difficulties, but, in the vein of keeping these spaces majestic, there are few, if any traffic lights on them.  You could walk about .5-1km to find one, but that's not very sporting.  There are crosswalks labelled and cars are SUPPOSED to stop for pedestrians in them...
They do stop, but I still can't figure out how to tell which car will stop and/or why.  What I've decided on is, in order to cross safely in Bishkek city...find a native and follow them.  I call it my Fullback Attack or the Jerome Bettis Strategy.  So, I sidle up to the car part of the street and wait inconspicuously for a Kyrgyz national.  Sometimes they don't even break stride and I fall in next to them.  Sometimes they stop and wait for a minute or two - I can't discern any difference in the traffic conditions, but apparently, they can.  And then we cross the street, blithely in tandem.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I will follow 10 year old girls, using their wisdom to keep me safe...in my quest ...to get to the other side.

Bishkek at its finest 2

There are some interesting flourishes of beauty around town here.  In several places, we have fancy sidewalk tiles like here

And our street lights are rare and beautiful

Bishkek is, in many ways, a very beautiful city.  Here is a snapshot from one of our many park/open spaces clustered around the downtown area.  Those little robot things are trashcans - probably the biggest culture shock when moving in between Ithaca and NYC over the last year years, was the lack of public waste bins in Ithaca.

Dordoi Bazaar

Dordoi Bazaar is one of the, if not the largest, markets in Central Asia.  You can find almost anything you want there, except what we went to find, which was one of those baby carriers that you wear.  They call them Kangaroos here, which makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Dordoi is unusual, if not unique, in that it is largely composed of shipping containers.  Yes, those big metal boxes you see on the docks in Jersey or during the second season of The Wire.
In this first picture, it's not that obvious

BUT if you look here, you'll see how the entire market is constructed

Those doors will swing open and turn into shops.
It seemed like the market was divided into long alleys selling themed goods - e.g. one entire alley had stuff for kids - toys, clothes, strollers.  Another alley, which we did not get a good pic of, was all track suits.  We even saw a track suit with built in hijab.
Here are a couple more pics from around the bazaar

ALA-TV 2

I don't want to alarm anyone but the Yankees were on my TV today.  Seriously.  The NY Yankees.  There were even a few despondent Red Sox fans peering out of the TV at me.  Mariano Rivera was pitching, so I assumed this could be a game, oh, let's see, anytime between yesterday and 1995.  Turns out it was yesterday's game, or maybe even live?  Wow.
New addition to the TV sports line up, besides the Track and Field World Championship - Men and Women's Field Hockey on station "EURO SPORT."  Euro Sport, a compassionate station, they literally (!) ran an ad saying "Women's Sport - All emotion, all the time."

Kyrgyz Problems 1

Walking thru Dubovny Park and your son get hit with a stray ping pong ball!

Kyrgyzstan 1 - USA 0...New Dimensions discovered!

In my efforts to alleviate my own and others fears about my son's safety and possible boredom here in Bishkek, I present to you our malls.  Specifically, the top floors of our nicer malls, which all seem to contain some sort of play space for kids.  At least this is true of Beta Stores and Detsky Mir.  On the top floor of Detsky Mir is a carousel and an arcade.  The arcade contains some awesome games like this one...

Presumably, you pay about 30 soums (60 cents) to pretend to be a Mom that cooks?  Interesting.
In this same place, called Detsky Mir, we also discovered the 5th dimension.  Well, we found where they were keeping it, harnessing it, or whatever.  Now, my Russian is not good, so I can't completely describe what the 5th dimension is, but it looks like this...

Imagine my surprise, later in the day, when we took our son to the local amusement park at Panfilova Park, to discover that they had uncovered EVEN MORE DIMENSIONS!!!
In order of escalating Physics Absurdity...

Wait...there's more!!!

We can't possibly top that...can we???

Thankfully, the madness stopped at 10 dimensions.  For now at least.
And yes, I realize that there may be
1.  An issue of translation
2.  More dimensions lurking
3.  Some other thing, like amount of speakers, range of movement of the seats etc. that these numbers are describing...BUT
I prefer to see it my way, which is, to embrace my reality, my krazystan.

The Nice Play Spaces

To ease the minds of the parents among you and all of you who love my son, here's a few snaps of a safe/nice playground we bring him to...the only problem is that it's in a swank restaurant called the Four Seasons.  The food is good and we actually get to eat it, since he's playing the whole time, but the price is too high to go more than once a week.  It's also in a park, so on three sides of the restaurant is trees - mostly oak, birch and juniper.  We've been there twice...tonight he brought all the trucks and cars to our table and "repaired" them for us.  Watch out Dingo Dog!

File Under : Jagged, Dirty, Dangerous? Must be for KIDS! 2

There are a few options for kid entertainment here in Bishkek beyond the dirty, jagged playgrounds.  There are the ubiquitous bounce houses known as batoot.  Where they came from is a interesting question, one that I hope to pursue in a series of blog posts.  But there are also a few other things you can do, like this, for instance

Yes, you strap your child in and then pull on the cord AND...

You've got yourself a brand new Yuri Gagarin!  Let me recap - you pay the guy in the white shirt a certain sum of soums (probably 50-100 or $1-$2) and he straps your precious little one into that device.  Then you, in your swank outfit, pull on the chord and send baby to the stars.

You wish you had one of these 2

Rebel Alliance Currency

KYRGYSTAN IS THE NEW ALDERON!

Is this Bishkek...or Brooklyn?

Apparently, one of the AUCA graduates started a gelato truck business.  The truck lives in Erkindink Park, which is a long narrow park in the middle of a swank neighborhood.  We live in the upper middle class park of Bishkek, this is the upper class part of downtown.
We got some gelato - Mint Choco Chip and Peach. They had no chocolate flavors, just those two plus pistachio and banana.

 The gelato was good.  And then of course, there were hipsters too...

Maybe the NYTimes will do a Bishkek travel article making it sound like Brooklyn, the way they did it with Santa Barbara and, uh, everywhere.  NYTIMES!  

AUCA 1

This will be our place of work.  There will be pictures coming of the interior, which has a confusing layout worthy of any of the CUNY schools I've taught at...

As you can see it's on a broad avenue.  There is a park across the street, with Lenin in it, gesturing towards AUCA (note AUCA is not the building in the picture, but is next to it on the right)...

Here's a close up of the school...

And the sign says...3

Your guess is as good as mine...

I especially like that it says "Soon..."

And the sign says...2

Everyone loves a good Hinglish sign from India...I remember a guesthouse I stayed at in Varanassi that had "Snakes" on the menu, instead of snacks.  So, I bring you this swank coffeehouse with bad proofreaders and assure you that paste is not a Kyrgyz specialty...and that does look like Sliper Coffee, but we can give them that one...

Bishkek at its finest

Sunset downtown, with Kyrgyz flag,,,

And the view from the train station...

Kyrgyzstan 1 - USA 0

So downtown Bishkek has a statue every 15 or so feet.  Seriously.  You know the Literary Walk in Central Park?  The whole city's kind of like that.
Today we walked a new way around town and approached this statue

Which of course I assumed was some sort of surrealist chicken, a giant Joan Miro or something.  Unfortunately, when we got to the other side, it turned into this...

Which is actually pretty cool as Kozhomkul is a real/mythical 20th century Kyrgyz wrestler (btw, the best thing I did before coming here was learn to read Cyrillic).

 To me, this is like if NYC decided to erect a giant statue of Andre the Giant overturning a car of French jerks.  So Bishkek, you win this round...