Beauty Product of the Day: Hair Jumping Creme.
everyday life
Science Project
These two agreed to model for my utterly unscientific summer research project: mystery beverage consumption. There are plenty of candidates; store shelves are lined with drinks that leave me baffled. I was drawn to these for the ghastly green color (Mountain Dew meets anti-freeze) and labels that include a bird, pine cones and flowers. Last night’s taste test with compadre Lillian found the brown one to be passable (cola-esque in flavor). The green one haunts my fridge.
It is a 12-year-old flag with symbols that span ages. The crimson background symbolizes bravery and valor. The sun is said to represent peace and prosperity. The red ring with crisscrossed lines in the center of the sun represents the tunduk and by extension the family home. The tunduk is the crown of the yurta. Though the ribs of the yurta are usually made of willow, heartier juniper or birch are used for the tunduk.
June 10
Destined for the carnival in Panfilov Park.
The Bishkek McDonald’s.
Street art on Oganbaeva Ulica.
Fender bender on Chui.
Take a chance on me. Oak Park.
At the edge of Ala-Too Square.
Empty Benches: Issyk-Kul in April
The Flower Seller
The weather forecast says abundant sunshine. Snow melt has made puddle jumping the urban sport. People walk with open coats.
And I spied my first sidewalk flower seller. She was near the intersection of Manas and Kievskaya, which is where I live. As I approached her, our eyes met, and I crossed sidewalk traffic to look at her offerings. Her flowers were bundled with torn strips of T-shirt, and she had named each of them. The purple and yellow flower bunch beside her head is the Ramon. It is Spanish, she said. The one below her chin is the Carmen. But they are not just flowers, she said, they are soul. All of this in Russian, and all of it I understood (or believe I’ve understood, which may be the same proposition). I asked her about each flower bunch just to keep standing there and being in that moment, and she said lots of things I didn’t get. I kept smiling at her and looking at her and listening to a tumble of words in the late afternoon light with long shadows and promises of spring and all that comes after that. I fell in love with her and went wiggly with gratitude for this chance to be here and for this maybe of being understood and for all that comes after that.
I bought the Ramon. It is in a simple vase on a pile of journalism books beside my TV.
Life in Pie: 24 Hours
Dateline: Bishkek.
Dinner: bozo and samsa. Bozo is a fermented millet drink that tastes like yogurt mixed with beer. Samsa are phyllo dough triangles with meat, cheese or veggies inside.
The tab: 50 soms.
The life: good.
The Electric Bill
Emil, my landlord, came over yesterday and told me I need to help with the electricity bill. My job is to read the black meter that looks like an antique diving mask implanted eye level into a wall in the foyer. I write the numbers on a piece of scrap paper and tape the paper to the front door by mid-month. Electricity people will come by, he says, read the numbers, write a bill and slide it under the door. Yes, I say. Gladly. Eagerly. Participating in the most minute tasks that are the machinery of daily life are what brings me closer to feeling as if I live here.
When he left, he pointed to the front door of the flat next door and said, “Here is example.” Taped onto the brown vinyl beneath a cluster of three peepholes was a piece of lined paper, the kind I used in three-ring binders when I went to grammar school. The numbers I could read; the words looked like smashed bugs or maybe Klingon?
untidy exuberances 