Thank you, Switzerland

Living abroad unfortunately means that you often end up representing your country. If you come from a small, insignificant country, this tends to result in you explaining again and again where your country is situated and why it is not this other country with a similar-sounding name (Sweden, anyone?). If you come from a big and (formerly) powerful country, chances are your government has angered the host country at some point in history with its colonialism, imperialism, trade politics or whatnot, and you will feel bad about it.

Being Swiss, my task was not too difficult so far, as the rest of the world tends to associate us with positive things like watches, chocolate, cheese (well…), mountains and neutrality (again: well…). Okay, the banks cause regular embarrassment (did you know that former Kyrgyz President Akiev allegedly transfered several million US Dollars through a Swiss Bank account before leaving the country? Way to go.), but apart from that I was doing fine, thank you.

Until yesterday, when 57.5% of the Swiss voters showing up at the ballot box decided to ban the building of minarets in Switzerland – and it was reported all over the world. And of course this thing will go through all the European and International Human Rights courts (and hopefully be rejected), so the future possibilities to prove that we’re once  again Europe’s garden gnomes on acid are endless. I’m already looking forward to explaining random Muslims who have skimmed the news or read something on the internet that not all Swiss are islamophobic, that of course Muslims are allowed to pray, practice their religion and even build mosques in Switzerland and so on. Thank you, Switzerland.

Should I feel ashamed for my country?

Why? I’ve never understood this granfalloon thing about being proud of one’s country in the first place. I’ve done as little to become Swiss as I have done to have blue eyes or brown hair. So what’s there to be proud or ashamed of? However, I am seriously considering aquiring Italian citizenship. At least then I would only have to explain the silly antics of my Prime Minister.

That was fun. Anybody up for publishing some cartoons now?

Let the Revolutions Begin

Things to do, places to be

Settling down in a foreign country always entails an endless “to-do” list: Finding a place to stay, getting a residence permit or extended visa, finding out where to buy vital things, etc… A long-term favourite on this list is also the item “survive fist contact with local fauna of the smallish sort”.

Revolutionen und Revolutiönchen

I am glad to report that I survived my first revolution in Kyrgyzstan. It was restricted to my stomach and its content (reliable sources point to the Chinese lunch I had yesterday), but nevertheless…

So my apologies for all those who were expecting some major inside scoop about recent political events in Kyrgyzstan – but don’t despair. Presidential elections are up, and I am confident that my secret powers as the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse will kick in soon – after all I’ve managed to run into some major event in any developing country where I’ve lived for more than three months until now (SARS in China, the Israeli-Lebanese war in Syria and the biggest demonstration since the overthrow of Askar Akayev in Kyrgyzstan).

So all is not lost.

And on other disease-related news…

While I was away on Issyk-Kul, Stan has apparently received a visit by the vet. The vet decided that vaccination against the bubonic plague (!) was more urgent and gave him that instead. But he will be back in a week to vaccinate Stan against rabies as well.

Oh the places they go, the diseases they could get…

Lake Issyk-Kul

“Posh Hotels”

Ah, Soviet nostalgia. And note the bench...

Kyrgyzstan has plenty of alpine lakes, but the largest is Lake Issyk-Kul. Lake Issyk-Kul is something of an institution in this country – with a tourism tradition dating from the Soviet times, it is the national holiday resort. You don’t need to ask any Kyrgyz when they announce that they go on holidays – it will almost certainly be Lake Issyk-Kul. Some posh hotels on Issyk-Kul are also the places where almost all seminars by international organizations are being held.

So my particular seminar on refugee protection in Central Asia was also conducted there. And not in any hotel, but in the Hotel Aurora, where allegedly even the Kyrgyz President occasionally holds his meeting with other high officials.

The Shining

Coming from the UAE, one would probably be a bit surprised about this assessment of the hotel, as you can probably tell from the pictures (as always, you can click on them for a better view). Apart from the distinct Soviet touch, my main association were slightly “Stephen King“esque – if it weren’t for the wonderful sunshine outside, I would have constantly expected Jack Nicholson to come running around the corner with an axe in his hands…

The food was also bit scary. I’d expect a sanatorium to serve healthy food – containing a bit more vitamins, for instance…

Pier

But the hotel has a very spacious and beautiful park, an algae-infested but otherwise pleasant pond where you could presumably rent rowing boats and a wonderful beach with a pier.

Inexplicably, it also had two dinosaur statues as you can see in the pictures below. What you don’t see in the picture is the cardboard Indian trying to shoot the dinosaur.

Don’t ask.

Although the weather was great, the wind was blowing quite strongly, and I was therefore grateful for the indoor pool – although in wonderful Soviet tradition it was only open during work hours or when food was being served at the restaurant.

Dinosaur 1

Dinosaur 2 (the Indian would be to the right)

While the slightly salty taste of the water in the pool made it rather clear that it came directly from Lake Issyk-Kul, I enjoyed the fact that there was no taste of chlorine at all – although I really hope they change the water frequently…

A view of Lake Issyk-Kul

And now for some unrelated insights I gained during the last week:

1. If a couple of men are standing, their heads bowed, next to the highway facing one direction, and you’re in the UAE, then they’re probably praying. If you’re in Kyrgyzstan, they’re probably peeing.

The pond

2. Do not expect travel agents to have actual geographical knowledge: My husband wrote the supporting travel agency, Kyrgyz Concept, to tell that he wanted to pick up his visa at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Beijing. This was their reply:

Good day,

Unfortunately, there is no Kyrgyzstan embasssy in Beinjing, thats why could you pick up you visa in Urumchi or in Pekin.

 

awaiting your reply,

with best regards,

(name not disclosed in order to avoid extreme embarrassment)

Goodbye, Switzerland – goodbye, laptop screen

So here I arrived at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport again. I had prepared myself mentally and physically for another couple of hours waiting for the connecting flight: My laptop was ready – or so I had thought. But when I opened it, I discovered that the annoying colored lines which hadn’t bothered me so far had multiplied and were now covering a third of the screen, while the rest of it is slowly fading into white. Great. And why does that always happen at the most inconvenient moment?

At least we know one of my first moves upon arrival in Bishkek: Find a new computer screen >:-(