The Spring Equinox is here! It certainly feels like spring with the warm afternoon temperatures and blue skies! It was so nice to practice yoga in our garden yesterday afternoon. I even spotted the return of swallows hunting insects in the skies of Tashkent around sunset. The simple things in life have more meaning for me as I get older, and the bright blue sky and shifting cumulus clouds brought me contentment and peace.
I worked on Thursday, March 19, the first day of our Spring Break. I set some meetings for after the break and tied up tasks that needed to be completed before the end of Spring Break. I also needed to sign paperwork for visa applications and make sure the campus was in good condition before the four-day Navruz Weekend.
Navruz is the Central Asian New Year (“new day” in Persian) Celebration marking the Spring Equinox. It is one of the oldest holidays in the world, with roots going back to the ancient Zoroastrian traditions. Uzbeks have large public celebrations in parks and other public areas, spring cleaning of their homes, and the consumption of sumalak, which I will go out and find today and make a video of it for my blog. I was not allowed to ride my bicycle through Yangi Uzbekistan Park yesterday morning because police and government officials were preparing the park for some gathering. The city is full of Navroz Displays and I notice a lot of family gatherings in my neighborhood. Below is one of the displays in Yangi Uzbekistan area. We had the first tulip bloom of the year in our yard, a sure sign of spring. The middle photograph is of the commercial area near our house. The Soviet era apartment blocks are endearing in their ugly way.
One of the highlights of break so far was going on a double date with Nadia and my daughter. She invited her boyfriend, Roman, to dinner. We had a decent meal at the Syrovana (Cheese Factory) restaurant. It is awesome to still have Ocean with us. She is such a fun dinner companion and such a beautiful soul. Nadia and I also went out last night with our friends Aaron and Lisa. I sense we are rediscovering our social selves as we become empty nesters!
One of the things I don’t like about the expatriate life is packing and shipping household items when we move around the world. We’ve been fortunate to have relatively longer stays in all of our schools. It has been seven years since the last time we had a big move. I’ll blog more about this process this summer. Ocean is shown below on the bed in our spare room as the packers and Nadia were sorting out what stays and what goes.
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