My Kyrgyz Mom

Last weekend was hang-out-with-your-host family weekend, which is not really new for me because I’m a homebody at heart and I was already hanging out with my host family (that is, my host mom, because right now it’s only the two of us).  I’ve heard misgivings about home stays: that you have to sacrifice your autonomy as a student, that some host families can be too controlling or overly protective.  But I decided to risk it for two reasons:  

 1) I like structure and a family environment and I felt it would be a good fit for me.  I don’t mind conforming to household rules, within reason. 

  

2) I thought it would be the best option for gaining fluency in Russian.  Now I’m convinced it is my only chance, partially because of reason 1.  I’m tired when I get done a lot of days and I want to go home.  At home, guess what…if I want to talk to anybody, it has to be in Russian.  

 It’s pretty phenomenal that even though I’m a beginner when it comes to Russian, I have not spoken more than a few sentences of English at home in the past nearly-two weeks I’ve been at Mira Eje’s house.  That’s a pretty big deal because that is my primary comfort zone for the next three months.  So  Russian must inevitably become my relaxing language.  At least that’s my theory.  I do speak English with my classmates all afternoon at school but hey…I have to preserve my sanity, right?  I think it’s a good balance. 

But on to my host mom, Mira Eje.  So far I have been very impressed by her abilities as a host mom.  She is very caring without being overbearing.  She’s a great cook and she has a fun sense of humor.  I think you can get that idea from the picture below...

Mira Eje made lunch after the Independence Day Parade on Friday...macaroni and beef, with fresh veggies.

We joke about her water dispenser sounding like a cappuccino machine and about my tendency to ask for an autobus instead of watermelon. What a difference a couple of letters make.   

Mira Eje is also proactive about helping me learn Russian.  On Saturday we went to a market and she bought a little collection of kids books for me –old school Russian books with abridged stories from Pushkin!  For real!  I’m reading Pushkin in Russian!  Bucket list alert… 

Ok, "reading Pushkin" is stretching it.  I translated two pages of abridged Pushkin with the help of Mira Eje’s charades, to be truthful.  But I was impressed with myself anyway.  

We went to Bishkek's botanical garden on Sunday and walked around, breathing in the fresh air and getting glimpses of the mountains in the distance.  I'm really excited about getting out of the city smog and breathing again.  But the garden was a nice reprieve.  There were families there, young couples arm in arm, runners and dog walkers.  Mira Eje made sure I took pictures (and posed like a Russian diva!)  And she did too.  This woman is young at heart...

And here's my diva debut...

We are getting along splendidly.  We might have a langauge barrier but at heart, a mom is a mom, no matter where she is, no matter where she's from.