Travels in Central Asia

Hello from Bishkek

Greetings from the capital or Kyrgyzstan, a cozy republic in Central Asia and the site of the First International Symposium of Culture and Communication, hosted by Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University, one of many universities in this city. It is 7am as I type this from what is believed to be the only 24 hour Internet cafe in the city. A balky and unfamiliar keyboard (the left shift key does not work, the backspace key is in a different spot from mine at home and the left mouse button doesn't always work) makes this blogging slow going. I arrived here some 26 hours ago after a journey which began at 5am Thursday June 2 when I began traveling from Ocala Florida to Bishkek. The sectors included a 90 mile trip in my truck from Ocala to Orlando, a two hour flight to New York's LaGuardia airport, a visit with my sister (she picked me up), another short car ride to Kennedy Airport for a two hour wait before our flight from JFK to Moscow, an eight hour layover in the Transfer Terminal there, a gulag of Duty Free shops and expensive anything (a cup of coffee was $6), then another four and a half hour flight from Moscow to Bishkek, one hour in immigration and customs and a 30 minute travel to the flat where I am staying for the week. From start to finish 40 hours elapsed before I could rest my head on a pull out couch in my new home.

posted by Student Success @ 6:08 PM