The First 24Hours

My first 24 hours in a new country usually consists of a stuffy nose, attempting to satisfy an empty stomach with leftover airline snacks, and of course fighting that good old fashion jet lag. None of this exactly mattered after landing in Bishkek at four in the morning. I was too excited to finally see a new city. All of my studying from university came to life right before my eyes. It especially became real after struggling to answer a few basic questions in Russian at the customs booth. Hey I was nervous. It was still dark upon my arrival to Manas International airport. The exit was packed with people holding signs with the names of their loved ones shouting to get their attention. To my surprise I saw a Kyrgyz man holding up a sign with my name. He was a representative from The London School and was here to take me to my dormitory. I was also greeted with a bag of cookies and toilet paper to get me started. It’s probably my favorite starter pack to this date. With the sun slowly coming up I couldn’t wait to get out and explore the streets. Ohhh and take pictures of everything! Yess I took over 100gb of pictures in the first two days. I think thats a new milestone for me.

I arrived at the London School campus feeling extremely tired but knew I needed to continue fighting off the urge to sleep. I decided to call my parents and a few friends from Russian class back at school to update them on my arrival. I gave them a small tour of my room and the top floor of my dormitory. I was welcomed with a gust of wind and light rain. My first impression of the top floor space was that the building was in its final stages of construction. This would be confirmed the next morning as I was awoken by the sounds of screaming drills and the sudden bangs of hammers.

After getting settled into my room I met up with another student I had met at the airport in Istanbul. Kuru and I found a restaurant called Navat. It’s full of Kyrgyz national food. Our first actual meal in the country consisted of sweet chai and samsa. Samsa is baked bread stuffed with beef or chicken. This restaurant became a popular destination to eat amongst my program friends. Yes I ate here almost four or five times a week but I never took a single picture of the food.

The VEFA Center is a mall located on the same block as the London School. It’s a product of Turkish development in the country and is a very popular place for younger people to shop and hang out. Behind the facade of advertisements is a small grocery store, clothing shops, and tech kiosks. A cafeteria sits at the top where you can find Turkish style restaurants and ramen cuisine. It’s also home to Imperial Pizza, an absolute staple among me and my program friends. I ate here almost every day for lunch. The menu consists of a variety of western style breakfast and lunch options while also serving other types of Central Asian cuisine.

A few weeks into our program, my friends and I had just ordered lunch at Imperial Pizza until the smell of smoke started to fill the air. We honestly assumed somebody had burned a pizza until security guards started shouting and rushing everyone to evacuate the building. Sure enough we could see smoke billowing out of the building. Luckily no one was hurt and it was contained pretty quickly. Here is the news article below.

Vefa Fire