::: Hello from Biskek!

Hi!!! :) I've finally arrived!!
Wow this place is AMAZING!!! It's different, but I really like it. It's really gray and cold... no snow yet, but it's definitely like 35 degrees F, and the city looks like a city from the movie "The Pianist." Everything is gray... made out of cement... no skyscrapers but there are some pretty tall buildings. The flights really flew by.... (no pun intended...ha) and I slept pretty much most of the time. I watched 5 movies on the flight from L.A. to London... and that really made the time pass which I was grateful for. I met this nice man on the plane who lived in London but sometimes works in Bishkek and he told me a little bit about the town. He said we would probably see a lot of Americans because there's an Air Force Base that's RIGHT next to the airport and a lot of Americans use Bishkek as a passing point. We arrived on Friday, Dec. 5th at 3 a.m. and had Jerry come pick us up at the airport with his friend, a 20-something year old named Janish who helps with the ministry and another taxi and they drove us into the city and straight to the girls apartment on the 6th floor of this building... which is a really cute little place!!! It has a lot of cheap tile and lacy curtains and everything is kinda run down... honestly looks like an apartment from an old, scary movie or something, but as far as a living facility for outreach goes, I'm really really grateful!!! There are two bedrooms, one living room area, one bathtub that has no cold water, only STEAMING HOT water, which also makes showering difficult, and one teeny tiny kitchen. :) It's cute. I share a bed with Kelsey, the cute blonde girl from Texas. It's great fun!
The guys apartment is about a 5 minute walk away, which I haven't been to yet but I hear its pretty similar to ours. Gabriela, Jerry's wife, met us this morning at around 10 a.m. when they came and took our passports and gave us copies of them and our visas. Then we went to walk around the town... it was cold!!! I haven't worn a scarf or my black pea-coat in a long time... I kinda liked it actually:) She took our whole team and showed us around a little bit.... SO much gray. IT's crazy. Nobody looks at you or if they do and you smile at them, they just stare at you. There are a lot of cute little "babushka's" walking around.... which translates to "Grandma's." :) They're all bundled up in their scarves and big coats and its cute. People here are a lot more fashionable then I expected... I think all of us were surprised. All the girls walking around in cute coats and black boots and skinny jeans... its really weird and seems really out of place because they all look classy but then you look at the sidewalk they're walking on or the buildings around them and its so run-down and old and ugly.


Jerry and Gabriela are AMAZING!!! They have two kids... Elijah who's 7 and Helena who is 4. Elijah was in school today so we haven't met him yet, but Helena was walking around with us all morning and she is the CUTEST blonde, blue-eyed little girl!!! Gabriela is swiss, and she's been learning Russian since she's been here, so the crazy thing is at age 4... Helena is tri-lingual!! She speaks and understands English, Swiss, and Russian! It's crazy. Martin and Korina, (the swiss couple on my time) have really enjoyed being able to talk to her cuz she's so cute. Brandon, my team leader, is obsessed with her and plays around with her and makes her laugh and its hilarious to watch. Gabriela is one of the NICEST ladies I've ever met!! She's SO sweet, so real, is really down to earth, really fun, and SO excited to have us here. She's SO easy to get to know and talk to, I feel like I've known her forever, she is so sweet and I love her already.

We walked around downtown for about an hour then went to the mall to eat. The food is SOOOO good... a lot of breads and noodles and stuff but its really tasty and the meal we had was an extremely awesome introduction to Kyrgyz food. The drivers here are CRAZYWe walked around a little bit more, braving the cold, and then some of us came here to the Internet Cafe and some people went back to the girls apartment where we will meet later. There are two ministries... one called the Greenhouse Coffee Ministry which is just a coffee house that Jerry and Gabriela run, and the other is called One Thing and they do more things for kids and community. So tonight they're getting everybody together and we're watching Elf... ha I'm excited!!! Jerry and Gabriela are giving us some time to recover from our jet-lag, but everybody is trying to stay awake all day so we can get our systems a little more normal.

They are expecting snow in about two weeks... ahhh.... not really looking forward to it but I AM grateful so still have a white Christmas:) The girls are gonna try to get a Christmas tree and decorate our apartment and the boys apartment a little bit, ha I'm excited for that.

Anyways... ya. This place is awesome. I am 13 hours ahead of Colorado Springs... so right now it's 2:23 pm on December 5th. That time-change is crazy. The exchange rate is 39.5 SOM (which is their currency... SOM) to 1 US dollar. Not bad.
I miss you guys!!! I wish you all could be here with me, this place is beautiful and different and sad and cold, but I'm excited to work here and be with these Russian speaking Asian people (which is weird btw... Asians speaking Russian... throws you off.)
I hope you guys are all doing well!! I'll try to call as soon as I can. I love and miss you all:)