Salut and à Bientôt

Salut, Yes, it’s been a bit of some time, but spring has been slow. In many ways, I’m glad. This time last year was a whole lot busier, being full of Manas practice and spring cleaning. This year is more subdued, quieter, rainier, and more melancholic. This blog post is super delayed due to reasons I'll address later, but I'm sorry! The last week of fasting felt like a fever dream. Returning to eating was jarring for the first day or two. I hid from the school cafeteria that entire month, and I missed my nearly daily potato Samsa run.  During actual Eid and the end of fasting, I predicted my family would not do anything for the holiday; they didn’t last year and they rarely ever do for holidays in general. This is why I scowled when they said they hosted a large Norwuz party when I was gone on break, as it’s something they’d never done before. Sometimes they have their most fun when I’m gone. Anyway, realizing my host mom and dad dipped early in the morning of Eid, I decided ...

 Salut, Before leaving for spring break, I celebrated Baktygul’s birthday. Last year, I celebrated at her house, and this year we did it again, but this time with her husband. Her husband and my host brother share the same name and are quite close in age. We had pizza, Lagman, and candy and broke our Ramadan fast together. Her husband nearly chopped his finger off while cutting wood, injuring it, which was his excuse when I asked why he didn’t cook her dinner for her birthday. Her mother-in-law joined us as did her children. Overall, the vibes were good. At school, we had minimal celebrations for Women’s Day, and we’ve yet to celebrate Nowruz. One of our Kyrgyz language teachers, Turrabek, put on a short competition with the younger students. This year has been sparser regarding big celebrations, and I’ve been told student behavior has something to do with it.  Last year, I went to only one or two student disciplinary meetings, which are usually held during 6th period o...