Yesterday was the last bell ceremony, the official end of school/graduation for the 11th form. For the schools that had several months off this winter, it wasn’t really the real end of the year. They all had the ceremony yesterday, but they have up to a month of school left. As for my school., they have exams through the first week of June, but I’m done, since I have nothing to do with the national exams. The ceremony itself was really fun. I had a seat with the honored guests at the front, so that I could take pictures and see everything that was going on. The whole thing happened in a lot right next to my school, with the students standing in their classes all around the edge and the teachers/adults at the front.

In Kyrgyz schools, each class (11th form has 11 A, 11 B, 11 V, and 11 G at my school – they’ve been in the same class since 5th form and have every class every year together) has a “class jetekji” – a homeroom teacher/advisor. They clean their class jetekji’s room every day, and the teacher advises them, yells at them, talks to parents, and serves as their parent/teacher/friend. After years together, the students and the teacher are very close. My counterpart was the class jetekji for 11 B this year. Since they spent so much time in our classroom, I’d gotten to know the girls pretty well.

The girls in 11 A all wore the same dress. The girl looking at me was my host sister when I got to the city.

This is what kids usually wear to school. The uniform throughout Kyrgyzstan is black pants/skirt and white shirt. Different classes have different colors of neckerchief. They don’t usually wear those. I haven’t quite figured out what they mean.

This is the first grade. They recently started wearing that plaid uniform. I don’t know if this is an elementary thing or a new thing. It’s pretty cute, though.

Some of my 9th form students marching with the Kyrgyz flag. The girls marching behind the flag are two of my favorites.

Each 1st grade and 11th grade class put on a little performance. These 1st graders sang a little song. It was adorable and Russian.

These two did a really Kyrgyz dance. They were actually impressively good.

11 G did a Kyrgyz dance too. The dresses were impressive.

At one point, all of the 11th form came into the center and played with bubbles, balloons, balls, and jump ropes. Rediscovering their childhood?

All of the class jetekjis for the 11th form gave speeches about their class. This is my counterpart telling her class that they’re great, and wishing them health, wealth, and happiness.

The students hugged their teachers and gave ridiculous amounts of flowers. I was given three bouquets.

As in the first bell ceremony, the official beginning of school on September 1, an older boy carries a first form girl around the circle as she rings a bell. It’s pretty cute.

So, now that that’s over, it’s officially officially summer for me now! I’m still going to work with my counterpart on a grant we’re trying to write and I’m helping her with planning for a teacher training summer camp that she and Ginger have been working on. Otherwise, I don’t have much of a chance to get bored anytime soon, since Mom’s going to be in Bishkek two weeks from today (!) and then I’m busy between Mom, Dad, and Spain (!!) until mid-July. I’m excited, to say the least.
Also, last week, the new volunteers came to visit. We’re getting two in the city and eight others in the oblast. We got a really awesome group of people, so I’m very excited about the next year we all get to spend together. With so many new volunteers and the overlap of the new ones and the K15s who won’t leave until August/September, it’s going to be a really full house here all summer. Also, my kitten keeps proving herself as the best $2.50 ever.

Big news, everyone! Yesterday I bought a kitten! She is the best 100 som ($2.50) I've ever spent! She's three weeks old and beyond adorable. I'm still working on names, but right now I'm thinking "Peri", which means fairy in Kyrgyz (it comes from Persian folktales -- "Peris are descended from fallen angels who have been denied paradise until they have done penance. In earlier sources they are described as agents of evil; later, they are benevolent. They are exquisite, winged, fairy-like creatures ranking between angels and evil spirits. They sometimes visit the realm of mortals" -- thanks wikipedia).

In other, non-cat-related news, we have the new set of volunteers coming for a visit this week! They get here tomorrow. We're all very excited to meet our new best friends. Also, it's the last week of school here, so summer is upon us! I'm excited for school to be out and my summer adventures to begin.

So, the year is definitely winding down, as the temperatures go up... I'm not quite sure how many more weeks of school I have left (my counterpart also doesn't know...), but it could be between two and four. I'm betting on two, but don't hold me to that. As the days have become increasingly gorgeous, I've been finally motivating myself to spend more and more time outside. My school is pretty much in the opposite corner of the city from my apartment, so I always assumed it would take hours to walk to school. Then, one day a few weeks ago, I decided to experiment. It turns out it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from the center, and about 45 from my apartment. I have started walking to and from school as much as possible, which I'm really enjoying. I walk down some railroad tracks most of the way, so I don't have to worry about traffic or even many people, except for the occasional train, which is more exciting than anything else. It's a great way to take up some of that free time I talk about so much, save some money (12 som a day for marshrutkas! That's... 30 cents...), and get to actually move a little. I've also been going for more walks in the hills behind my apartment, which is really relaxing. I love how quickly I can get out of the city and into what feels like the middle of nowhere. Once I turn off onto the dirt road that leads up the hills, the only people I ever see are the shepards and plenty of sheep. When I went up this week, however, I came across a freshly dug coffin-sized hole in the middle of the field, which is a little disconcerting...
This week was full of Kyrgyz holidays, so I haven't had much school recently. On Tuesday, Ginger's counterpart, who I've met a few times before, invited me and Fritz and Ginger to her apartment (in a "microrayon" (a city within a city) called Spudnik) to go "guesting". It was such a pleasant experience! We met her young kids and her husband, who was really nice. She made a full spread of Kyrgyz food and salads which was really delicious. I also had my first (and probably last) sip of komus (fermented mare's milk). Gulbara's husband poured us each a large bowl full of the carbonated milky liquid with brown chunks floating in it out of a dirctly recycled soda bottle. The three of us looked at eachother, and decided that there was no time like the present, so we all took a sip at the same time. The taste was ... unusual. It's much smokier than I anicipated. It tasted a lot like hickory, as Fritz pointed out. As we all sat there, we metally checked on our throats, hoping we wouldn't have a horrible allergic reaction (some people are deathly allergic to horse products, which you don't quite figure out until you comet to Krygyzstan...), but luckily none came. Fritz drank a few more sips to be polite, but I couldn't force more than that first one down without gagging, so I left it. Besides the komus, we had a great time and even walked away from the day with presents and food in hand!
And in exciting news, last night a bunch of us went to Sarah's apartment to celebrate her birthday (by eating tacos!). While we were sitting around before dinner, Ginger suddenly screamed something. We looked down and saw that she had just been stung by a scorpion! Her foot got really swollen and red and obviously hurt a lot, but the doctors said she should be fine in a few days. She and Fritz are heading to Bishkek today, and then they're flying home to America (this trip was already planned) for their son's graduation.
Good luck with the end of the semester, to those of whom are affected by it. I'm off to walk to work!