This weekend I am picking up our new staff from the airport and delivering them to the hotel. The annual orientation of new employees marks the start of my work year. It is a big responsibility to bring people to a new country and set them and their families up to be comfortable and happy. I am looking forward to school year! We arrived yesterday afternoon after a 90-minute flight from Marquette to Chicago, a 10 and 1/2 hour flight from Chicago to Istanbul, and a 4 and 1/2 hour flight from Istanbul to Tashkent. We made all of our connections and only had a 90-minute delay at O’Hare.
Tashkent International Airport is isolated in the middle of the Eurasian continent. Many flights arrive and depart in the middle of the night. Jetlag is helpful because I am not struggling with nocturnal pick-ups. Last night I was at the airport from 2:30 AM and returned home at 4:00 AM. The spectacular opening ceremony of the Olympic Games from Paris was on last night as well. We love watching the Olympic Games and Peacock, NBC’s streaming service has all of the coverage.
I drove Nadia to BeFit Pro pool for a swim workout. Tashkent is experiencing a heat wave with a high temperature of 104F (40C) at 4:00 PM today. We also did a late night shopping to refill the fridge and kitchen for meals this week.
I missed my dog Obi and took him for a walk last night while Nadia was swimming. I noticed for the first time office lights on inside of the SQB Bank building in the Tashkent City Development (above). SQB is mostly owned by the Uzbek Government’s Ministry of Finance and its name in English is “Industrial and Construction Bank” and it was started in 1922 by the Russians. The bank rebranded to the Uzbek name (Sanoat Qurilish Bank) as part of the country’s move to using more Uzbek language and less Russian language.
Central Asia culture has a tendency to put fairy lights and neon lights all over buildings and trees. As you can see above, Nadia’s gym, BeFit Pro does this with the trees in the parking lot. My theory is because most of Central Asia is a vast darkness of steppe and desert, people wanted the comfort of lights in the evening to light up their lives. I also noticed for the first time public bikes have been added to the fleets of electric scooters. When I first arrived here five years ago, bicycles were not allowed. An amazing pace of modernization in Tashkent! I wonder what the statistics are on accidents and injuries. I had a scooter whiz by me last night while walking Obi. The kid was going very fast, weaving through pedestrians. There must be pedestrian-scooter collisions or car-scooter collisions occurring in the city.
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