Monday, January 26, 2009

Madrid

I arrived in Madrid almost gitty to see John, Mollie, and Alex. I took a bus to their arrival terminal expecting them to be waiting on their bags outside of customs. Turned out I had to wait a few hours more, during which time it was clear to me that my Spanish comprehension was fine, but speaking back was quite the opposite.

With the assistance of a pedestrian’s GPS phone, we found our apartment and crashed for a much needed nap. Took me about 70 hours or so to get from Karakol to Madrid.

Nightlife, tapas, jamon, good cheese, Europeans, relative warmth and the company of my good friends—vacation is a wonderful thing. I had been to Madrid once before with an older host sister when I was 16, but we mainly went to Warner Bros. Madrid and the movies. This time I was able to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the city with more freedom to explore.

Some highlights of Madrid:

-Rembrandt and the Prado
-The Bank of Spain
-Dancing at a “mixed” night club/bar
-Churros and chocolate, mostly the chocolate
-Dunkin’ Donuts
-El Corte Ingles

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Karakol, Kyrgyzstan—Almaty, Kazakhstan

I left my house shortly after Christmas celebrations with a few other volunteers in the Issyk-Kul area. I left a note for myself with the heading: “Back,” it has a list of the months remaining in Kyrgyzstan. Jan-2wks, Feb/March-projects, April: Devin’s visit, May: Mom’s visit, close of service conference, June/July/August-summer. Beside the months, I listed: GMAT, Russian, website projects, camp resources/development, and Talas/Naryn trips. I left the list on the living room table for my return, hoping it would ease coming back and remind me what I can do here and things to look forward to.

I walked the few blocks to the bus station and took one to Bishkek; 6 hours later I transferred to another mini-bus bound for Almaty. After a blizzardy walk across the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, and a 3-hour drive I was freezing in the financial center of Kazakhstan and its previous capital city. I clearly packed more for Morocco than the trip to the airport…

I spent some time at a marketing firm waiting for a friend to finish work. He then gave me a tour of Almaty by car. Beautiful parks, wide streets, tall buildings, a dozen western hotels, clear foreign investment, and plowed, well-paved roads—I was shocked I had only traveled several hours across the border, and that all this exists in Central Asia. We went to a glitzy American style mall complete with Baskin Robins, Espirit, Sbarro, and tons of other international brands. There was a huge supermarket with everything. Oil wealth goes a long, long way…

In the middle of the night, I was driven to the airport. From the outside it was hilariously characteristic of style in Central Asia: bedazzled and sparkling. The building had thousands of flashing white lights and a special space for “VIP” travelers. I was convinced I was being taken to a Vegas casino. My 4 AM Lufthansa flight (Frankfurt bound) awaited—final destination: Madrid.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Back

I have arrived safely back in Karakol from a fabulous vacation to Europe and Northern Africa. The return is a bit harder than expected. I’m quite sure one cannot experience a greater disparity of wealth between rural Kyrgyzstan and the extravagance of Monaco. Over the last three weeks I traveled via Almaty in Kazakhstan to Spain, through Morocco and finally to the south of France and Monaco. The following series of blog posts will discuss these travels and the inevitable comparisons I have made throughout.

Although the drive from Bishkek back to my frigid apartment in Karakol—where I was met with no electricity—was one of the hardest yet, I am grateful for the privilege of mobility. I value the opportunity to further understand the global disparity of wealth and its role in peoples’ outlooks, and in political affairs.