August 26, 2021

While the weather is still hot, I haven’t really been seeing too much new in the city yet. I have plans in the works to go visit the smaller of the two main city markets this weekend, though. Given the sunshine, however, I figured I could take some pictures of my daily surroundings while it’s still nice out. I have noticed that Bishkek is incredibly green compared to what I would have expected for this geographic region — it really helps to offset the Soviet architecture and makes everything seem more welcoming in general. Past my building, Fatyanova Street basically starts to look like any Portland neighborhood, what with all the trees and the somewhat narrow road. My building itself is pretty nice, all things considered; it’s definitely had work put into it since the Soviet era and I like the apartment my host family lives in very much. The most interesting relic of Soviet history that still lives today in Bishkek are the street names, though: my school is on Sovietskaya Street (which has an official name that nobody uses even 30 years later), the main road out of the city to the west is called Deng Xiaoping Avenue, and Gagarin and Friendship of Nations Streets are both nearby. It’s definitely a present reminder along with the architecture of what was here not too long ago.