We had two bouts of snow this week that took everyone’s mind off the pandemic for a short time. Snow brings out the child in me and I was excited to get out in the fresh winter air. Today I took my dog Obi for a long walk along the main canal in the city. He loves playing in the snow as much as I do! It probably snowed about 6 inches on Tuesday and again a couple more inches this morning. It has been below zero all this past week but this week will see the snow melting as we will experience highs of 8 C on Thanksgiving and to the weekend. Kids in the neighborhood have been pushing each other with sleds and the snow reminds me of my childhood in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I love the change of seasons.
I had a great day on Saturday playing disc golf with my son Owen. He loves the sport and coincidentally, our international school has a 9-basket course on campus. It was really cold, but as I always say, any day that I spend more time outdoors than indoors is a good day.
I finished Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile” last night while I was battling a migraine. I read his past two books, “In the Garden of Beasts” about the US Ambassador to Germany and his family during the rise of Hitler and the Nazis as a political party and “Dead Wake” covering the sinking of Lusitania, a large passenger ship similar to the Titanic, that was sunk by German U-boats. He mixes journals and historical research into telling a good story.
I loved reading his latest. It struck me that while all these people were living through historical events, they also had regular human problems. Larson discusses the financial difficulty of Winston Churchill and his unusual habits. He also follows Churchill’s children and grandchildren and all of the romantic difficulties young people experience.
It is unbelievable and such a tragedy what the German air force did to London and other cities in England. For nine months, the Nazis firebombed indiscriminately England periodically from September 7, 1940 to May 11, 1941. The English called it the “Blitz” and nearly 29,000 Londoners died, over 28,000 were seriously injured. In the entire country, over 44,000 people died, including sadly, 5,626 children. The scale of these war crimes is incredible to believe looking back. I hope America would not let something like this happen again. What a madman Hitler was and I am shocked that German pilots would listen to him and bomb civilians.
It is well known that Hitler made errors a couple of times with not finishing off England before marching on Russia. He should have kept the troops advancing on Dunkirk (an excellent movie!), but delayed to rest his troops while they escaped. He thought that the German army would quickly dispose of the Russian army, but the size of Russia and winter, aided the Russians in bogging down the Germans. Hitler was content in aerial bombing England for almost a year, trying to get Churchill either out of office or surrendering. It would have been difficult to launch an amphibious assault, but after easily going through Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, France, etc. it seemed to me that England would have been a bit more challenging being an island, but certainly easier than Russia.
I was also surprised on how much Churchill wanted the Americans to join the war effort. He knew England couldn’t defeat Germany on its own.
I took several leadership lessons from this book. Churchill was quite the character and was right in standing up to Germany. There was a lot of opposition, but when faced with a bully like Hitler, it was better than the alternative of surrender and let the Germans run England. Stick to your convictions! He was an inspirational leader for all the English and helped them find courage within themselves. He also heavily relied on advisors and people around him. Finally, he was a symbolic, theatrical leader at a time of crisis. The next time I am in Washington, I would like to visit the Churchill library at George Washington University. Below is some new vocabulary and a great quote.
astrakhan collar – wool from a Central Asian sheep; it is black or grey and curly
scurrilous speech – using or given to coarse language
cloisters in St. Stephen’s Chapel – covered walkway, usually with arches, connected usually with convents or church
sangfroid – self-possession or imperturbability especially under strain (Churchill had a lot of it)
After his wife once criticized his drinking, Churchill told her, “Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
Sunday I attempted to ride around Lake Charvak. It was part of a race and I rode 56 of 83 kilometers before being picked up by the trail vehicle. I have not been riding in a long time and did not want to hold up the rest of the group. I really enjoyed the ride. It was decent weather, cool, partly overcast and as always, inspiring views of the Tian Shan Mountains.
The lake is a triangle and I rode the backside of the triangle, a new section for me. I have now rode all sections and have a pretty good idea of each section. It is my goal before leaving Uzbekistan to complete the circumnavigation of the lake. The lake is formed by 168 meter high stone dam and captures three rivers.
We finished Fall Break today. After coming back from Amirsoy Resort on Thursday, I worked at school in the afternoon and on Friday. We managed to play tennis three times over the weekend. On Friday night, Oliver and I had a session with coach Igor. Ollie is rapidly improving his ground strokes and is almost ready to become a good partner. I hope he continues coming to training sessions. Owen and I played a singles match on Saturday and then Nadia and I played our friends, the Doels on Sunday. I absolutely love the game and it is convenient that tennis is popular in Tashkent. Courts are generally easy to reserve and cost around $5 per hour, more if you have a coach.
Obi frolics in the autumn leaves
Autumn is in full force here in Tashkent. Nadia and I had a delightful walk in the park near the opera house. There are plenty of parks to walk dogs in the city. We were trying to get Obi to play in the leaves. He didn’t really like them, but he does love going on walks.
The view of Tashkent City from the 21st floor of the Hilton
We met friends for a birthday brunch at the Hilton. The city is growing rapidly. In the panorama above, you can see Nest One, a 76-floor skyscraper project. The artificial lake and park is surrounded with new apartment complexes.
21 City Restaurant – October 31, 2020 – Tashkent, Uzbekistan
My wife Nadia and I celebrated 23 years together last night. Halloween is not really a romantic holiday, but for me it is, remembering back to 1997. I was teaching biology at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Nadia was a first grade teacher assistant. For some reason I can’t remember, there were no classes on the Monday after Halloween. We took advantage of the long weekend to book a holiday to fly to neighboring Brazil. I wanted to visit the world’s largest tropical wetland and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Pantanal. We were supposed to go with Nadia’s sister and her boyfriend at the time, but they pulled out at the last minute, so it ended up just being Nadia and me.
The wetlands support a diverse array of life and we saw caimanes, jabiru storks, purple macaws, etc. on our truck tours through the park. We stayed at a nice resort outside of the park. There was a karaoke bar at the hotel and Nadia sang Chris Deburgh’s “Lady in Red”. She has a lovely singing voice and I remember looking across the table at her. From that moment, I knew I was in love with her. 23 years later (and three children) we are still together and I still am in love with her. I was lucky to have met her and that we get along with each other for the long term.
Photos (pre-digital) from our weekend in the Pantanal Resort, Brazil/Bolivia border(October 1997)
We had a pleasant meal at the 21 City Restaurant in the newly built Hilton. The restaurant overlooks Tashkent City, a huge development near the center of Tashkent. In the center is a park with restaurants, a running track, a pool and of course this being Central Asia, lots of colored LED lights. Around the park are apartment buildings that are almost ready for occupancy and in the corner, Nest One, a 76-floor skyscraper has about 25 floors erected. It is a Pan-Asian restaurant and we both had the pad Thai. We love Thai cuisine! There was live music and it was excellent, a mix of jazz, opera, pop music. The only complaint was the music was a little loud.
I had a quiet halloween because of COVID. On Friday night, the school hosted Scary Night. I dressed as a wolf and had a table distributing candy to groups of students who were together in their learning pods. I used hand sanitizer on my hands between groups. There was a full moon and with the trees and decorations on campus, the campus was beautifully “spooky”. Walking out of school after cleaning my station, I saw kids in their cars, happily counting their candy and parents glowing because of the sense of normalcy in this crazy year of the pandemic.
The pandemic is causing the leadership and teachers at school to adapt our programs, so I spent most of the day working with the leadership team on campus. In the late afternoon I took Obi for a walk around our neighborhood. In the morning, Ocean and Oliver had a virtual cross-country run in the park near Pakhator Stadium. The 3km and 6km event was hosted by the Anglo American School of Moscow. The rest of the day was spent shuttling teenagers around to their friends’ homes. We do not use taxis during the pandemic.
Our lives have changed much since the simpler times of being young teachers without children. We still are enjoying life together
On Tuesday we hired guides to take us for a hike in the mountains overlooking the Amirsoy Resort. The trek started with us taking the gondola from the ski resort up to the top. From there, we walked across the peaks along the ridge heading south east. The views of the valley on the other side of the ridge are spectacular and awe-inspiring. The boys enjoyed climbing on the rocky outcrops. We were at a slower pace with Nadia and Obi and probably walked a couple of kilometers on the heights. The plan was to complete a loop back to the bottom of the resort.
Nadia & Ocean walk along the top ridge of Amirsoy Resort
The guide probably chose the wrong ridge to go down back towards the resort. It was quite rocky and steep and Nadia had difficulty making it through. She is afraid of heights and concerned about her back being injured and she struggled through this section of the hike. Owen was a champion, carrying our dog Obi through the tight parts. Obi fought through the many thistles and thorny bushes of this dry climate. We did eventually make it to a dry creek bed after a couple hours of scrambling and sliding down loose rocks and tight passages between bigger rocks.
Obi’s first hike in the mountains
The creek emptied into a flat open area. Looking back what we came down from gave all of us immense satisfaction that we made it down, safe and sound. It gave us a new appreciation for the beauty and danger of the Tian Shan mountains. The walk back in the setting sun was uneventful, but gorgeous. The colors of the red granite, white marble, green junipers and pines and yellow autumn colors, painted a soothing mountain landscape. I feel re-charged after a day of walking in the mountains.
Oliver leads the family through tight passages on the rocks.
We were tired and famished from a full day of walking. The Olive Garden restaurant in the resort was the perfect remedy. I had a fresh Greek Salad and a pasta with Arabiata sauce that hit the spot. Thanks to Viola and Andrey for the photos featured in this post.
When I moved to Japan, I did not realize how close northern Japan was to Russia. The Far East of Russia and Siberia are a source of interest for me. It makes sense now, that Russia and Japan did get into a war before WWII and even today, a small chain of northern islands off the big island of Hokkaido are disputed between the two countries. When I heard on NPR that Julia Phillips wrote a novel set in the far northern Russian peninsula of Kamchatka, I wanted to read this book. I also had a friend in Japan that was from there and so my interest was piqued.
It is obvious Phillips spent a lot of time there and the isolated, cold and wild setting has a profound impact on this novel and the people living there. While reading, I kept thinking about how the Russian side compares to Alaska. It would be a really good travel book to compare and contrast the two from a point of view from a naturalist and tourist. I’ve never been to Alaska or Russia’s far east and both places are on my bucket list. It must be beautiful and wild, but I would guess that the Russians do a worse job than Americans at protecting wilderness and the environment.
The book is unusual in that it starts as a kidnapping/murder mystery of sorts, with the abduction of two children. However, she then introduces new characters all the way through the book and how the disappearance of the girls influences their lives, often in a subtle way. The book does not follow the investigation step-by-step, but instead dives into different characters and their families on different parts of peninsula. Many of the stories are of native peoples which I never really thought of when you think of Russia. I won’t give away the ending, but I was engaged until the end of the book. Kamchatka would be a very tough place to live. It is a long way from other population centers with access only by air or sea. The weather would be depressing as well as a poor economy. Many of the people’s lives in the book reminded me of rural America. The struggle to make ends meet and to find meaningful work in a depopulating area, far from the financial centers of cities. The Russian mentality is also very different from American culture. I would like to read some more about the history of Kamchatka during the Soviet times. It was referenced in the book that the peninsula was off-limits to outsiders and some of the older people there have nostalgia for that time.
I highly recommend Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips and thank her for the vivid stories of people and the land from such an exotic place. As always with me, the stories helped me drift back to sleep while fighting insomnia.
It is a tradition in my family, as with many families, to take a photo on the first day of school. This year the “start” has been the latest ever. Our school started in August online and this week was the first time students were attending classes since March. They went 88 school days of Virtual Learning from the end of spring break in mid-March of last school year to October 5 this year. It was special as well because this is the last “first-day-of-school” for Owen who is a senior this year. The grade 12 students are going every day.
Owen’s first day of kindergarten with his mother as his teacher in Venezuela in 2006.
Owen, Dad, Ocean and Obi in Uzbekistan in 2020.
Ocean is in grade 7 and they attended classes Monday through Wednesday. Oliver is in grade 9 and he started classes on Thursday. What a strange year!
Oliver’s first day on Thursday in front of school.
Oliver really got into online learning.
It has been very busy at school for me with the reopening and dealing with the pandemic so I have not been posting much. I am trying to stop and make time for family this year as much as possible. We had a special moment a couple of weeks ago when we went to school to pick up the “Ramstein” order. The US embassy gives access for Americans working at the school to the commissary. The embassy makes a big order from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. We made Oliver pack the boxes into our SUV and with the sun setting and Obi running around, it was such a nice moment. I hope to blog more this week.
I finished reading the Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry last night. I was up and down regarding my enjoyment of the book. In part it was the my busy time at work on not finding chunks of time to read and the other is the format of the book. Barry writes in an unusual style and the story jumps between the present and past. The main characters are two former Irish drug traffickers in the 50s. In the present, they are at a ferry terminal in Spain, waiting for the arrival of the estranged daughter of Maurice who is the real center of the novel. The story goes back through the men’s past. They earned a living through trafficking heroin and marijuana between Morocco, Spain and Ireland. I liked the past scenes best and it gave me insight into this type of lifestyle. I would not want to be a drug trafficker! It is a pretty miserable and risky life that creates a lot of pain for many people. Not only are they selling drugs, but they are also using them quite a bit and it causes so many problems in their lives. Living a lifestyle like this, they have many regrets, but also they reminisce on the thrills of a life of crime where they never got caught. The book is sad in many parts, joyous in others and is a real rollercoaster of vignettes. I didn’t like the present parts, not much happens and too much time spent describing the station and the men drinking in the bar. However, the flashbacks are gripping and it caused me to read through to the end.
It was a relaxing day yesterday, spending time with my family and running errands. The highlight for Nadia was finding a new store with imported delicacies such as olive paste from Spain, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, etc. The Maison de Gout is located near the Minor Mosque and the Little Ring Road in Tashkent. There is moderately sized shopping mall and outdoor market attached to it. She felt like “she was out of Tashkent for a little while” and the kids appreciated the snacks. There were lots of people, many without masks as many people seemed unconcerned about the spread of Covid. I think after 7 months, people are getting worn down with the isolation procedures. I love watching people and the hustle and bustle of life downtown and in the neighborhoods is always interesting to watch. I think people do not like spending time in their homes because they are usually small and so the idea of the “third space” (not work or home) has more people than in Michigan where I grew up.
Street Scenes Outside the Maison De Gout
Our dog Obi is becoming a bigger part of the family. I love taking him out for walks and he follows me around the house faithfully. I really see the appeal of dogs and that point was hit home with the movie Marley and Me, that Ocean, Nadia and I watched Marley and Me Friday night. The girls were crying when Marley dies at the end of the movie (spoiler alert). Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in the movie and their family mirrors our family with 2 boys and a girls and watching Owen’s career develop over time. If you love dogs, you will love the film.
Nadia still dresses our “children” alike!
We installed Sonos speakers last night in our home. Wow! They are almost wireless, portable and sound fantastic. It sounded like a live band was in our living room with the bar speaker under the television and 2 other speakers simultaneously playing music. I had one of those thrilling moments in awe of technology, thinking back to hooking up a speaker system in university and all the hassles to get the wiring right and then worry about blowing them out. We were up and running with Sonos in just a few minutes and they could be controlled by the Sonos App on my phone. 1987 is a long time ago!
Finally, I had a classic Central Asian moment this week. The smoke alarms were triggered at school by contractors cooking plov for their lunch. Construction workers build makeshift fire pits to heat the national dish of Uzbekistan, plov. The smoke from the fire meandered into the technical room of the gymnasium, triggering a full school fire alar.
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