Bec (A)broad: Friday Fun

Finally, I’m posting about last Friday night’s fun! One of the girls from the office, Zhanna, had her last day on Friday, so a group of about 15 of us went to an outdoor pub to celebrate and send her off in style. It was quite an evening; we were there from around 6-11:30 p.m. A few of us had snacks or split some food, but mostly everyone sat and talked and had a couple of beers until it started to get dark. Then the restaurant set up some outdoor music: electronic equipment and speakers with one guy who sang some and deejayed some. He played mostly Kyrgyz and Uzbek dance music. I brought my camera out, and that was a hit! Everyone was hamming it up and taking pics of each other and asking for someone to take a pic of them with Zhanna, with other people, posing funny, etc.

About the time that they set up the music, one of the guys from our group ordered a bottle of vodka. The waitress brought a bottle of vodka and a glass pitcher of local cherry juice. The guys made sure that everyone had a shot glass of vodka and a juice glass about half full of juice, and then someone made a toast. Well, I thought it was “the” toast of the evening: one toast, singular. So I downed the shot, slapped the glass on the table, and took a sip of cherry juice. Everyone said, “Ooooooh,” and nodded and laughed, but John and Sarah (the other 2 interns) said, “Oh, hey, you’re not going to want to do that. We’ll be toasting all night. Just take a little sip from the shot glass and a drink of the juice.” Good advice. So after that, one shot lasted me several hours and many toasts. Our group drank 4 bottles of vodka.

After a while, some people from our group started dancing and called for me to come, too, but (as most of you know) I am no dancer. So I just laughed and said no, no, no. But finally, that didn’t work anymore and someone came over and took me by the hand and walked me out there. There was an Uzbek song playing, and one of the IT guys said for me to watch Ludmilla b/c she’s such a beautiful dancer. (Actually, he said, “Watch Ludmilla: beauty.”) And it was true; she looked so elegant. Later she told me that she had danced with a group that had toured all over the Soviet Union, performing folk dances. So I watched Ludmilla and did what she did: raise my arms above my head and gently move them to the beat, not move any other part of my body, step around to the beat near the other dancers. Apparently, I am quite the dancer! Yay! We only thought I couldn’t dance; it was just that I hadn’t danced Uzbek. :) The guy who had told me to watch Ludmilla was impressed and kept saying I am a great Uzbek dancer. Hooray!

See some fun pics from the evening below:

Our group: Here's a pic of our whole group, except for the interns and a couple who left early.

Fun Group Shot: Here's more of our group. Nargiz (the friend who is a Christian) is posing in front in the red shirt. Zhanna (the girl whose last day we were celebrating) is in the black and white dress. Sarah (one of the interns) is in the orange, behind Nargiz, and the guy between Sarah and me is Sanjar, the one who said I'm a good dancer.

Dancing: Nargiz and Sanjar cut a rug while everyone circles up and claps.

Dancing 2: This is some traditional dance that I didn't get in on so that I could photograph it. Ludmilla, the great dancer, is the blond woman in the bright pink top.

Ludmilla and Aizada: They pose sweetly early in the evening. Aizada left early because she was driving out to a small town in the mountains to visit her parents and siblings the next day.