Kazakh plov

Pronounced pluff, plov is another meal that we eat once or twice a month. It's prepared in bulk with these 'portable' cookers. A wood fire beneath the pot slow cooks rice, beef, veggies, oil, and an assortment of closely-kept-secret spices, according to each families' recipe. This was cooked at our school a few weekends ago.

Wikipedia asserts that is is a staple in at least 52 countries ranging from Tajikistan, below, to Sweden, where it is called pilaff.

In Afghanistan it is called pilau, below. Out of more than 50 languages, it always begins with the p' sound.

In most Western diets, it is simply called rice pilaf, but it's origins are Mesoptamian and Persian (1,000 years ago) thence Central Asian and Turkik.

Kazakh/Uyghur Food

This is laghman. It's a delicious pasta dish that is very common in this part of the world. The noodles are made from 'scratch' and it is very time consuming.

Our friend Nadira has been making this dish since she was a kid. It takes most of the afternoon.

It's Cody's favourite dish: meat, vegetables, noodles, and spices, served in soup bowls.

Top secret technique, below.

East meets West

We had a great visit with George and Tina. This is the Bosphorus Strait, Istanbul; March, 2010

The Korean Contingent

This is Hyun-jin, Hyun-suk (twins), and Hyun-cody. Classmates and neighbourhood kids; and we just found out another Hyun-jin moved into the neighbourhood. Our neighbourhood.

Co-la (Co-dy & Ky-la)

Bosphorus Strait

This is called the First Bosphorus Bridge. Completed in 1973, it connected Asia and Europe for the first time. But Herodotus, the father of written history, reported that Emperor Darius built a 4,954 foot floating pontoon bridge in 510BC. Big boats...

Little boats...

...and every morning, these little fishing boats go out and catch their limit.

Hidden Meaning

This is Greek and it is probably legible to some people even though it is close to 2,000 years old. Any interpreter/translators out there?

Davinci Code?

Crusader icons? Knights Templar? They were all here in Ephesus at one time.

Secret handshake kind of stuff.

Caption Contest

Submit a one sentence caption for this image of Edna and the headless statue. Prizes for originality and outrageousness. Enter often. Click to enlarge.

Almaty: Spring 2010

We finally took down our Christmas Tree last weekend. We haven't actually had one in the house for the past two years so our neighbours think we are a bit odd; kind of like the time they watched us carve pumpkins (instead of eat them).
10 days ago, we had 3 inches of snow. Today it was over 15 degrees celsius and things are starting to green up.

Turkish Turtles

Ephesus, Turkey

Statues near the entry to the site. Cody. Moments later, a teenager tried the same stunt and got into a little trouble.

The Library of Celsus. 1,900 years old, it once contained 15,000 scrolls. Celsus is actually buried here in a lead container inside a marble tomb. Rumour has it, he didn't pay his overdue fines.

The Little Odeon Theatre. Seating for 1,450 people. George, Tina, Edna, Kyla, and Cody are in the upper right hand corner.

Basilica Cistern: Istanbul

Built sometime before 530AD, this water reservoir served the city for a thousand years. Our hotel was directly above these pillars; this is below street level. It has survived countless earthquakes and civil unrest.

It's been open to the public since 1987. A highly recommended visit when in Istanbul.

We're Moving!

Exciting news! We've accepted jobs at an International School in Rodarap (pronounced ro-dare-up), Parador, for the 2010-2011 school year. Edna: business office; Dave: teaching. We still plan to be in BC for 5-6 weeks this summer, but then we're moving directly to Parador. We get a six bedroom house, so you are all welcome to come and visit. Pictures coming soon.