Fermented Mare's Milk

There are now a handful of pictures up over on our Flickr page (link on the left) from last Saturday's trip to Chong Tash with the Anthropology club and a few faculty members. For a week leading up to the trip, all we heard when we ran into any of the organizers (Yelena, Janika, others...) was "You will come with us when we go to the mountains? It will be very fun. We will build the fire and eat the food and play the games. You will come to the mountains. Okay." (For the record, there are no definitive articles in either Russian or Kyrgyz, so when speaking English, people tend to toss them around like sprinkles on soft serve.) We did go. And the fire was built. And the games were played.

Highlight: during the Kyrgyz version of Red Rover, one of the students pointed at Erin and the male student she was holding hands with in their Rover line and said, "I will go there. He is drunk and she is weak." Needless to say, he wound up on his ass. Very funny.

And E & I went on a good long hike to the top of a lesser peak, which was also fun and made the view you see above possible. Plus we Superman-ed our way down the top few hundred yards on the way back. Face-first body surfing-esque sledding a couple miles above sea level. Brilliant way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Especially when you build the fire and eat the food and play the games...