vienna

we departed hainburg this morning for vienna. we really liked the little we saw of bratislavia while we were there. the old town is really nice and although the parts of the suburbs we saw looked a bit sovietesque... it still seems like a good place to be. i think we would jump at a chance to teach there next year if qsi offers to transfer us there.

it was nice getting to know roland and victoria (seen early morning as we departed in photo one below). they are an interesting couple. very eastern block. i don't know how to describe what that means really other than to say (most) american couples handle themselves much differently than our neighbors over here. i have a hard time telling if it is cultural or social differences. for instance - a couple of times during dinner both nights roland would pick up the tea pot or the bottle of wine and place it in front of victoria for her to pour him a glass of tea/wine. he would also be pretty directive - "i want you to do this... and then do this...". we see that a lot with some of our russian friends in bishkek. the woman has a defined role. the relationship is less of a partnership than what i like to think is the norm for american relationships. of course as i evaluate how jen bosses me around maybe we are more like them than i care to admit. i am not saying that he was a bad person (quite the opposite). the roles are just very different than what i am comfortable with.

the train ride to vienna was short and easy (which would be one of the joys to living in bratislavia... it is close to everything in central europe). once we arrived we bought a local sim card for our phone and squatted in a starbucks (ugh... america!) to get our bearings. we called our coach surfing hosts and made plans to get to their house. it took a bit of doing on our part to find the right bus (had to take the underground a couple of stops to get to it) but it was fair easy as the public transportation here is so convenient.

we had only talked to rainer and and not to kahlia so i think she was a bit taken back when we showed up unannounced (roland hadn't been able to get a hold of her). kahlia's mom and sister are here visiting from australia and it was a bit uncomfortable at first. i don't think the mom was too excited to be sharing her daughter and grand daughter (whom she doesn't get to see very often) for christmas with a couple of strangers.

after chatting for a while we dropped of our stuff and loaded up for a day exploring vienna. we took the bus back into town and just wandered around for most of the afternoon. found a great christmas market where we had some famous austrian cider. ate lunch at a sushi buffet (more on this in a later post). and discovered a great farmers market with fish, meats, fruit and veggies, lots of cheese and wine. reminded me of pike's market in seattle.

vienna is everything we thought it would be. historic old buildings and churches. narrow cobble stone streets. so different than cities back in the states.

we finished the night back at with the couch surfers where we ate a nice dinner and chatted for a couple of hours.

looking forward to tomorrow.

bratislava

we woke this morning after a long, long night of sleep. almost 12 hours of sleep for all three of us. i am not sure if we were that tired or it was just because the room was iceberg cold. but whatever the reason we awoke feeling a bit more alive. the day started with a breakfast with roland and victoria (tea, jam yogurt, sliced meat, cheese, and cookies... got to love the europeans!). after eating they went into vienna for the day trying to get victoria a visa for an upcoming trip to morocco that they are taking so we were on our own to explore bratislava. we got all bundled up around 930am and headed out for the short five minute walk to the bus stop.

dear god it was shockingly cold.

shockingly cold.

we bundled up as much as we could before heading outside but it didn't help. although jen and i were freezing, i don't think the cold even phased olive. she got a little fussy at the bus stop for about five minutes until she feel asleep. jen and i were left standing in the cold for over twenty minutes freezing and asking ourselves why we didn't go someplace tropical like thailand instead.

it was all worth it once we arrive in slovakia. old town bratislava was lovely. historic old buildings and churches. cobblestone streets. a great christmas market. shockingly cold yes... but we made it work. we would walk around for a while until our lips were frozen and we couldn't talk. one of us would nod in the general direction of a cafe and attempt to mouth something. we would go inside, order something hot to drink/eat and then thaw out. then we would head back outside to explore. we spent a good part of the day just wandering around side streets getting lost (in a good way). it was a great day.

back that night with the couch surfers i made a soup and some pork ribs (we wanted to thank them for hosting us.

tomorrow we are off to vienna.

austria... slovakia... i knew we were spending the night in one of them

we have officially arrived at our home for the next two nights.  we are staying with couch surfing hosts roland and victoria.  roland is 36 and from slovakia.  victoria is 24 and from the ukraine.  they meet a couple of years when roland was working in kiev.  they have been married for the past seven months and are very interesting and kind hosts.  they actually live in austria - just across the border from bratislava, slovakia.  for some reason we thought they lived in slovakia.  either way we made it safely after taking the train from the airport to hainburg, austria.  olive enjoyed the train as you can see.

roland and victoria live in a small two story house that they are fixing up.  'fixing up' is a polite way of saying the house was very, very cold.  although the living room was toasty... rest of the place including our bedroom was freezing.  we were so brain dead from the long day of travel that it didn't matter (we were so tired in fact we forgot to break out the camera even).  victoria cooked a nice dinner.  we chatted and looked at some photos of their trips to india and bali.  we decided to skip out on going to the christmas market and went to bed instead around 800pm.

looking forward to a big day of exploring tomorrow.

planes, trains and automobiles

we've arrived in vienna. it took a taxi, two planes, and a train to get us here.  i won't claim it was pretty.  we went to bed last night after midnight.  up at 330am.  at the airport at 530am.  olive objected vigorously to having to fly that early in the morning and shared her objections loudly for at least an hour.  don't think anyone within 10 rows of us slept.  we were pretty popular (note sarcasm).  quick turn around in moscow (for a change) and on to vienna.  olive cried again for the first 30 minutes or so before finally giving up.  we arrived a bit early in vienna but a long, slow customs line kept us from making our train to bratislava.  we are waiting it out at a mcdonalds as the next train isn't for another hour and a half.  sorry... but we had to have american fast food just once.  i won't lie it was lovely although i can feel a big load coming on.

more updates and photos later tonight once we arrive in slovakia.

last night in bishkek

we leave tomorrow for our seventeen day trip to central europe.  we have been planning the trip for over a month.  we laid out clothes weeks ago.  yet still here we are at the 11th hour trying to get packed an organized.  today we went to osh bazaar and bought some kyrgyz souvenirs to give to the couch surfers we are staying with. a little bit later tonight i am heading over to marykay and sasha's to drop off our car which we are keeping in their garage while we are gone.

our flight is at 600am tomorrow morning and we are going to have to get up around 300am to get dressed and get a taxi.  we are hoping olive sleeps through the trip to the airport.  after connecting through moscow we fly to vienna where we arrive at 1000am.  we almost immediately board a train (the station is at the airport) and head to bratislava where we will be met by our first couch surfing hosts.

if we aren't dragging too much by then (there is a four hour time difference from europe to central asia) the plan is for roland and victoria to show us the old town christmas markets in bratislava.    we spend two nights with them before returning to vienna (only 40 minutes away by train) where we will be hosted by rainer and kahlia.  we stay with them (and kahlia's visiting family from australia) through christmas morning.

from there it is off to prague for six days and five nights.  we have rented an apartment so to have some conover time.  this might be the part of the trip we are most excited about as we have heard so many wonderful things about prague.

after prague we take off to germany where we will meet up with our friend kerstin and her daughter (who is a couple of months older than olive).  we will spend new years with kerstin and her family.

from there we have no idea what we are doing.  we will have a little less than a week left.  we have a couch surfing invitation to stay with a couple in munich.  we might go to salzburg.  or we might head back to vienna early before flying out.

nina will be staying at out house and watching boone while we are gone.  we are all (except perhaps for boone and nina) pretty excited about the trip!

farewell to the undelands

we spend a couple of hours today hanging out with the undelands. they are leaving bishkek over christmas break and moving to dhaka, bangladesh to join charlie who has been there since september. they have been amazingly kind and wonderful friends during our year plus here.  we are going to miss them.

embassy new years party

last night we went with shane/jen and nelson/lauren to an embassy new years party at a restaurant near our house. when i say "we" i really mean me as jennifer has come down with the runs (there are no secrets on this blog). also when i say "new years" please note that it is no where near new years and the kyrgyz don't celebrate some secret early new years... so i am not sure what is up with that. oh... and everyone was suppose to come dressed at their favorite fairy.

we showed up a little late. a combination of hoping that jennifer was feeling better and because i was having dress anxiety (ended up wearing dad's old leather jacket!).

lots of good food (whole chickens and mystery fish both still sorting the heads) and dancing. there was also a pretty amazing belly dancing who flew around the room gyrating and swinging a sword (the dream of every 13 year old boy and 39 year old man). there were also some really crazy fun cossack dancers with the fur hats and tall leather boots. pretty awesome.

i ended up leaving after an hour. i was worried about jen being sick plus olivia has a lingering cold and i wanted to get home to them. nina was at the house helping out (and making blini) but i still felt like i should be home. the whole "in sickness and in health" thing. the other reason i left was i had to run away from the vodka which was flowing freely. i have swore off the stuff ever since the marine ball incident!

i am glad i came home early and don't feel like i missed anything. i so love my girls.

bishkek all-stars vs the mighty borats

tonight my bishkek all-stars played the team from kazakhstan. for the record, i am not that big a fan of the movie "borat". it has it's funny moments sure but overall it is pretty stupid. but i think the main reason i don't like it is my kids at school quote it all the time. they think it is funny that we live right below kazakhstan (where borat is from in the movie). i have been to almaty (the capital of kazakhstan) four times since we have been here and have never really seen anyone who looks like borat. most of the folks look fairly asian just like they do here in kyrgyzstan.

so you can imagine my surprise when i found my team playing against a team of borat look a likes. so besides the insult being reminded of the movie the entire game - the true injury came in the fact that we got our ass (sorry about my language olive) kicked by 52 points.

other high/low lights of the game.

1. the gym was freezing. they haven't turned on the heat yet. my feet were actually blue by the time i got home after the game.
2. we had to stand at attention for about 40 minutes as the
kyrgyz national band played (which was pretty funny in a third world dictatorship band kind of way) and local government officials made speeches.
3. no one booed when 'american trainer david conover' was introduced. i think someone from my team might have even applauded.
4. after the band played some traditional kyrgyz dancer performed. things are so different here than in the states. instead of scantly clad cheerleaders we have girls dressed in traditional garb (covering their entire body) dancing to folk music.
5. during breaks in the game the public address announcer played gansta rap. not joking. f bombs and oral sex references dropping left and right.
6. in the locker room after the game i was talking to my team and one of my players (who is about 6'5 tall) walked by me naked on the way to the shower and his penis clubbed my elbow. for the record... that is a low light.

the first half is over

the first half of the school year is over. i think you would be hard pressed to find a kid who is more excited than me that we don't have school for the next three weeks. for the record - teaching ended for me not today but on monday as i proceeded to show "it's a wonderful life", "gremlins", "miracle on 34th street", and "doctor horrible's sing-along blog" in class all week to my kids.

love the holidays!

bishkek all-stars

today i was asked to train a group of all-stars from the league that i coach in for a tournament this weekend. teams from uzbekistan and kazakhstan are coming to bishkek to play in a tournament against the kyrgyz national team. the tournament is in honor of the players and coaches from the kyrgyz national team who were killed last year in a plane crash while flying to iran.

as with most things here in central asia... doesn't seem like there was much planning that went into it. i just showed up to my regular practice for my team ak-bars and a whole new group of guys were sitting in the locker room instead. the leagues vice president was there waiting for me and asked if i would coach an "all star" team in the tournament. i say "all star" as all of the good players from the league are on the national team. so with the exception of the three american players from my team (who all are really good and who played college ball back in the states) - the team isn't that talented. anyway - i am pretty honored to be asked (love central asia!) and said yes.

remember how i said that most things aren't planned out to well in central asia. after saying that i would coach... i found out that i only had less than hour to practice with my team before having to play the kyrgyz national team.

i went from feeling honored to feeling like a lamb led to slaughter.

needless to say we got spanked.

on friday we play the kazakh team.