Refreshing

I just got back from an amazing few weeks in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Not only is it quite cold there this time of year, almost every step of the visit was very new to me.  I’ve never set foot in Central Asia and didn’t even have a picture of it in my mind to provide a bit of context. It has been a while since I traveled to something so unknown: from the Cyrillic lettering on the street signs to the soviet-era architecture, freezing weather to horse meat-inspired traditional cuisine, I was a newbie. I loved learning a new city, discovering the burgeoning street art scene, finding new restaurants and ordering whatever I could point to. On the work side, it was also really interesting conflict mitigation work with an inspirational team of people working hard to build confidence after the 2010 violence. As a bonus, Laurie and I overlapped for about 10 days on the same project!