It worked this time!

(written on Sunday night, Jan 20)
I am here, safe and sound at my host family’s apartment in Bishkek. I’m really tired but I’d like to try and recount the experience getting over here before I go to bed. I left Portland Friday morning, first stop Minneapolis. Before I even boarded, I looked at my luggage return tag and noticed that it said that my checked back was only going to be checked through to Moscow and not Bishkek, despite my having made it very clear to the woman at the counter that it needed to be checked all the way through. The reason this is so important is because I didn’t have a transit visa for Russia, which is fine if you’re only changing international flights and not leaving the terminal, but if I would have had to get my bag it would have meant leaving the terminal, which I wouldn’t have been able to do and who knows what would happen to my bag. So, that stressed me out a little, but I knew I couldn’t do anything about it until I checked in with Aeroflot in New York. Anyways, the first flight was alright. I was seated in the window seat of the very last row, and the woman who had the aisle seat had her 18-month-old daughter with her, which visibly seemed to annoy the guy seated between us. Luckily he was able to move up to a different seat, and I was left with the Mother and her kid. At least we had more room in the aisle, even if the baby was sitting in the middle seat most of the time. The mother seemed pretty old for having such a young child (I think she said she was 44), and seemed REALLY into being a mom, with lots of books, toys, juices, and diapers crammed in a big baby bag. She even had a portable DVD player and a brand new Elmo DVD to keep the baby (whose name was Glenn-eden, by the way) entertained. I just looked out the window most of the time and dozed off a bit, though the baby was really cute and I did enjoy playing that game where you smile at a baby and they smile back. I had about an hour wait in Minneapolis, during which time I called my mom to tell her about the baggage thing, and bout a bottle of Coke at the Fox News store, though I really hated giving them my business. I don’t even get why Fox News has a store in the airport selling magazines and drinks. For the flight to New York I was seated next to a young couple who I assume were from Minnesota and who were headed to New York for the weekend just to party or whatever. Again I just looked out the window, listened to music, and napped a little bit. It was fun flying into New York and looking down on Manhattan and everything. I had about 4 hours to kill in the airport this time, and I was starting to feel pretty tired and travel-weary. I didn’t have my boarding passes for my next two flights with Aeroflot, so I didn’t even know which gate or terminal I needed to be at. I wondered around for a while lugging my heavy bags and reading the monitors and trying to figure out where to go. The flight wasn’t showing up on the monitors and as it got closer to the flight I started freaking out a little bit cause I really didn’t know where to go or what to do. I had asked one airport employee if they knew where to go and they said that the flight would definitely be in that terminal somewhere, but with less than 2 hours before the flight it still wasn’t showing up on the monitors. I asked someone else for help and after talking to three more people, I was informed that Aeroflot operated out of an entirely different terminal. I rode the train thing to the new terminal and got to the check-in both with plenty of time to spare. I checked in at the Aeroflot counter and told them about the whole bag situation. The woman at the counter got this other guy to help (neither of them were Russian), and he seemed really pissed at whoever had made the mistake, and seemed intent on fixing the problem. He took down some information about the bag, and said he would contact Moscow about it and they would sort it out there. I was very pleased that they were able to take such decisive action, and in fact this would be the first of many things about Aeroflot that would come as a pleasant surprise. So, I got my boarding passes and headed to the gate with some relief about the bag. The flight was delayed for about 1 1/2 hours, which was fine for me because it just meant that much less time waiting in the airport in Moscow later. As we boarded the plane, an Aeroflot employee checked everyone’s passports for visas I think. I was prepared to explain to him that I was only transferring and didn’t need a visa, but he saw my Russian visa from two years ago and immediately handed back the passport, which saved me the hassle of explaining the situation. I was seated on the aisle of the middle row of the plane, second from the front of economy class, and there was nobody sitting in the middle so the older gentlemen on the other aisle and I were able to put our bags in the middle seat. It was interesting to see all the jet-setting “New Russians” on the flight with their fancy phones and bags of duty-free goods. The woman in front of me was one of those, and in true Russian form, made no apologies about spreading out all of her things, and herself. Even though she was in the bulk head seat and had her legs up on the wall in front of her, she still had to put her seat all the way back, and put her boots under her seat taking up more of my leg room. It was kind of annoying is all. There was this other guy sitting near us who I mistakenly took for some typical crazy Russian alcoholic dude, cause he seemed lost and helpless, would just sit still and make weird facial expressions the whole flight, and would make huge messes of his in-flight meals. I later figured out that he was actually blind, which accounted for his strange behavior. He was also Bulgarian I discovered after seeing his passport, and I just couldn’t help but wonder what a blind, disheveled Bulgarian man was doing on a flight between New York and Moscow, or what he was doing in New York in the first place. Now, about Aeroflot: I had heard all kinds of horror stories about taking the Russian airline, about how they had a terrible flight record, how the planes were old and crumbling, how the flight attendants are rude, and how the flights are generally a bad experience. I found all of this to be completely untrue, and if fact just the opposite in most cases. Both of my Aeroflot flights seemed on par with or better than any flight I’ve ever taken with any other airline, domestic or international. The ride was smooth, the planes were clean and well-maintained, the flight attendants were as friendly as any Russian woman typically is (which isn’t saying too much, but I’ve never really found flight attendants in general to be all that friendly and personable, so these ones seemed as friendly as any do. Actually, some were very polite and patient. The picked up after that blind guy without any complaints, and one of them was even patient enough to fill out the migration card for him), and even the food was good. For dinner I had curry rice with chicken, and for breakfast, and honest-to-god breakfast burrito! Considering it was being served by a Russian airline, it was pretty darn good and fairly authentic. I was quite pleased with the whole experience. Of course all the typical annoyances of any flight were there (cramped seats, difficulty sleeping, etc.), but these aren’t things that Aeroflot could control. I guess my only real complaint was with the movie selection. First they showed Ocean’s Thirteen dubbed into Russian, and even though there were multiple channels when you plug in the headphones, there was no English channel for the movie (there were two in Russian, though), I watched it in Russia anyways, and was actually a little disappointed in myself because I couldn’t really understand a lot of what they were saying. My Russian has gotten a bit rusty, but I know it will come back while I’m here. I had seen Ocean’s Thirteen before, so, I already knew the story and could follow along fine. The second movie was a terrible Russian movie called “Shadow Boxer 2” or something. It’s about a Russian boxer (apparently you’re already supposed to know about him from the first movie,) who comes to the US and blows everybody away with his amazing boxing. This one Mexican guy at his gym provokes him so he basically beats the guy to death, only to find out that the guy’s dad was a bigwig in the Hispanic mafia who’s now got a big vendetta against him and his girlfriend through his connections with the Russian mafia. It wass really stupid, and I couldn’t even watch the whole thing. It was interesting, though, because a lot of the dialogue was in English with Russian over-dubbing and English subtitles. But, anyways, I guess that’s enough about that flight. We got to Moscow and I went through the “transfer without visa” desk before entering the terminal. Amazingly, the woman at the counter had a note about my bag, and called the baggage people to have to put in the Bishkek flight, which was pretty reassuring again. I had about 9 hours to spend in the terminal, and after shelling out $10 for 2 20 oz. Bottles of soda, I didn’t want to spend any more money there. I wasn’t even hungry, and the only thing to buy really was a bunch of cheap “Russian” souvenirs and duty-free perfume. I was able to find a power outlet and had high hopes of getting a wifi signal on my laptop. There were several, actually, but all of them required a password or registration with different cell phone companies. So, no internet for Austin. Most of my time in the terminal was spent reading magazines or trying to sleep on the floor. I think I actually got a fair amount of sleep there, though it wasn’t very satisfying as I would often wake suddenly with paranoid thoughts of people robbing me while I was asleep. The time flew by relatively fast, and before long I was on my plane to Bishkek. This plane was even nicer than the last one, with high-tech reading lights and fancy seat backs with adjustable pillow tops. I was seated next to two Kyrgyz guys, but there were plenty of open seats and after we were served our meal (meat and pasta), they both sat somewhere else and I got three seats to myself. It still wasn’t that comfortable, but three is better than one. The flight attendants were relatively polite again, and even though it was a flight between two Russian-speaking countries, they still made announcements in Russian and English. I slept a little bit, and before you knew it we were finally in Bishkek! Passport control was no problem, then it was off the baggage claim. Even though Aeroflot had been so good about taking care of my baggage situation, I was still prepared for my bag to be lost, but wouldn’t you know it, there it was on the conveyor belt! I was quite thrilled with the idea of not having to go through the hassle of having a missing bag, which I had already kind of resigned myself to. I was met at the airport by a woman from the London School named Nargiza, who lead me to our van and we were driven off to my host family. It was still dark when I arrived so I couldn’t really see much out the window, though we did pass the philharmonic. I asked Nargiza a lot of questions and she was very helpful. I was taken to my apartment, where I was met by my host mother (her name Bubuzainap Baidlde, though the polite way to address her is Zainap Eje) and host brother (Adilet, or Adik for short). We briefly got acquainted, but I had to crash for a while cause I was so beat from 33 hours of traveling. I woke up a few hours later and chatted with them some more, gave them their presents, and walked down the street to a supermarket so they could buy noodles and I could buy some beverages. Here’s what I know about my host family so far: Bubuzainap works as a freelance Dutch translator/interpreter, even though she only started learning the language about 5 years ago. She has a very strong talent for learning languages, as she apparently just started learning some English but already speaks it pretty well. In fact, she speaks to me mostly in English already. Her and Adilet speak Kyrgyz in the home, because she was born in a town in rural Kyrgyzstan called Naryn so Kyrgyz was her first language. Adilet is 16 and really likes American rap music. I’m actually staying it what is obviously his room while he sleeps in the living room, and there are pictures of 50 Cent and Eminem on the wall. Both Bubuzainap and Adilet are very kind and friendly, and I don’t foresee any real problems living with them. Bubuzainap told me that while I am here, I am like family (you know, like at the Olive Garden), so that was nice to hear. She told me that they are Muslim, but not very strong. They do observe the rules of no pork and no alcohol, but she said that she doesn’t mind if I drink in the bars, just not in the apartment. They also have a picture of Mecca above the kitchen door. All in all, a very pleasant and fun experience so far. I’ve only seen a tiny bit of the neighborhood so far but it seems easy to get the hang of. There are plenty of little details about the host family I’m leaving out but by now I am getting really tired and need a good night’s sleep before going to the school tomorrow for my first orientation meeting, so all the other details will have to be revealed in later posts. Look for some pictures on flickr and facebook soon. Bye for now!