Let The Feastival Commence!

A few good stories to tell this week. Of course, they include our Thanksgiving Celebrations, but there's a lot to say, so like a Thanksgiving meal, this will be easier digested in parts.

And Take the Dishes With You!

On Monday night, we went out with some friends from the British Embassy to a restaurant down the street from us to see if the neighborhood place was any good. It turned out to be excellent. The Lagman (a noodle stew) was outstanding and the mutton plate that I had was the most tender I've eaten so far.

The other interesting thing was that when we asked for the check, our friends wanted to take their leftovers home, the waitress brought the leftovers in a bag but still on the plate from dinner. We also noticed that on the bill, there was a 3 somoni charge (about 75 cents) for the plate. Who knew you could by dishes with your dinner?

Flag Day Mayhem

Tuesday had it's own adventure. I left work a little early to go down to the motor pool to check on things and fill up on gas before heading home. But I noticed that there was a huge traffic jam on the road just before the downtown area. I decided to skip the hassle and turned off to go down along the riverside road, thinking I would just drive around. Boy was I wrong.

When I got back to the main drag, I found the road was also blocked, with buses parked in the way and there was a huge mass of cars pretty much at a standstill. So I crept my way to the intersection and somehow managed to sneak through to a street that runs between my road and the main road. Of course, this was chock-a-block with cars too, but it was moving slowly.

As I neared my road, I noticed that things were particularly backed up, so I tried to take a shortcut through a side road. only to find that all of the side roads were blocked off due to the ongoing road repairs (a.k.a. the nightmare that I can't wake up from). So I backed up onto the road and headed toward the worst of the traffic jam (in Russian, traffic jams are called 'probka' which means 'cork' - rather fitting).

I soon learned that the reason for the particularly bad jam was because there was a blockade for the road work with a gap just barely wide enough for 1 car, and people were trying to squeeze through from both sides. At one point, I found myself sitting directly in the gap facing another car head-on. I don't know how it happened, but I got through and only arrived home about 1 hour late. Some people were apparently stuck for 4 hours. The reason for the mess...it was Flag Day and the geniuses in charge decided to close the one main road in the city smack dab in the middle of rush hour so that kids could run around with flags. Given my experience with road closures on my street, I don't know how I manage to still be surprised at such decisions.

Speaking of road closures, on Wednesday, after getting our flu shots, (seasonal, not swine), Stephanie and I had to drive over a ditch that the locals filled with rocks to get home because they finally closed our escape route out of the neighborhood. I took the marshrutka to work on Friday.

Let the Feast Begin

Thanksgiving was a great day. The weather was clear and crisp - really perfect. I went out to get my hair cut in the morning and then walked around enjoying the views:

City streets...

Mountain views from the park...

Fall foliage...

Mosaics...

Then Stephanie and I spent a good chunk of the day making mashed potatoes, corn bread, sweet potato biscuits, and pumpkin pie. We went to Thanksgiving dinner at the Deputy Chief of Mission's house and had a really good time with all the classic foods - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans with crispy onions, pumpkin pie, and more. Needless to say, we left suitably stuffed.

Up on the Roof

Needless to say, it was tough to get up for work on Friday after such a satisfying Thanksgiving. But it was nice that I got to start the day with a Skype Video call to my family's Thanksgiving get-together in Washington. The internet was being temperamental, but it held up long enough for us to do a round of hokey-pokey (a family tradition from my childhood). And it was great seeing aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen since I left, or longer.

Work on Friday was blessedly slow. As part of a tour with the rest of the Management Team, I even got to climb up onto the roof for a bit and take in the views - which were spectacular. No pictures due to security restrictions.

Friday night, we had a couple of friends over for a second Thanksgiving complete with our own turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato biscuits, roasted cauliflower, and corn. I must say, this was the first time I made pumpkin pie from scratch and it was AMAZING! Great Thanksgiving.

Feasting for a Local Holiday

Today (Saturday) was the Muslim holiday Eid-Ul-Adha and one of my staff members invited us over to celebrate with his family. This is the same guy whose mother tailored Stephanie's dress for the Marine Ball - Daler.

I'll let the pictures of the spread speak for themselves...

We were particularly impressed with the colored eggs and have been promised a tutorial when Easter rolls around. Stephanie also got to learn how to make Sambusas - Tajik meat pies, and

practiced with Daler's family.