I had a nice weekend, doing typical father stuff. On Saturday morning I coached the girls varsity basketball game. My daughter Ocean is on the team and it has been rewarding seeing her and the other players’ improvement over the past month. We are preparing for two tournaments in February. I’ll be posting more about basketball in this space. I’ve been coaching basketball for many years and I feel every year I am getting better. This is a young team with no grade 12 girls but they are rapidly getting better.
My wife Nadia and I hosted friends at Steam Bar for her birthday. It is my favorite nightclub establishment in Tashkent. It is an American-style bar with food and drinks. The decor is “steampunk”, kind of a Mad Max theme. They have a fun floor show that signifies the transition from eating to drinking. They also have live bands mostly playing pop tunes modified to sound like heavy metal and rock. It is nice to see people doing elaborate shots of the bartenders, dancing, and enjoying themselves, especially in a Muslim country. At my age, I really watch how much I drink because I enjoy each day more and my body cannot handle too much alcohol. The best part of the night was watching how much fun Nadia had with our friends. She loves dancing and socializing. I also had her pick out a big bouquet of tulips and Ocean made her a cake. She had a great weekend.
Most of the weekend was dad stuff. I helped Oliver research for his history essay on the bombing raids over Germany at the end of World War II. Nadia and I bought a vacuum cleaner, grocery shopping, cooked, tidied up the house, walked the dog, etc. The weather has been mild but with high levels of air pollution. The city is using more coal for electrical generation and heating which raised AQI levels to between 150 and 200 almost daily. This is interspersed with rain and or snow which clears the air temporarily. When I am doing power yoga, if I go out for a run in these conditions, I sense a chemical odor in my sinuses as I sweat through a hard workout. I stopped running when AQI levels get above 150. Tashkent officials need to reduce coal burning and switch to more electric cars and solar.
I end this post with some photos from the Amirsoy Resort. Last Monday I chaperoned the Grade 4 Ski Trip. It was challenging and rewarding to introduce three students to skiing. I was “super dad” with lots of clicking in ski boots and picking kids off the snow and back on their skis. One of the students from Brazil, it was her first time on snow. That is a day they will never forget. Experiential learning expands us and introducing students to camping, skiing, hiking, kayaking and other outdoor skills lets them explore boundaries within them.
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