Peggy's

Last night I went to Peggy's. Peggy's is a tex-mex restaurant and, actually quite a good one. The location is totally bizarre though. It's located way out in the, I'm gonna say western (although I'm not actually which direction we went) part of Tashkent. The road has no street lights and the only way the taxi driver will know where to go is if you tell him to stop at the champagne factory which is, apparently, close by.
Anyway, like most 'up-scale' places in the former Soviet Union, they are all about the face-contol. It's like a dress-code but based on your complete appearance, not just what you're wearing. We passed and were allowed in. It's huge and actually quite well done up inside. Kind of looks like a Montana's. Anyway, not that interesting but was just kind of surreal to be in a place like that in Uzbekistan. Even had a band that played really good CCR, Eric Clapton and Dire Straights cover tunes. Almost felt like I was back in the west.

The Tashkent Metro, Uzbek University and the Police

I've been trying to take the metro as much as I can. It's extremely cheap, maybe 20 cents Canadian to ride and covers most the city. Unfortunately my apartment is conveniently located next to a future station. Same as Russian metros (and maybe other places in the world, I don't know) stations and even lines to be built at some point in the future are already on the system map- can make it a bit confusing. Anyway there're about 2-and-a-half lines that work and it looks a lot like the Moscow Metro- grandiose, deep stations. I guess really the big differences are; train frequency, it's definitely not like Moscow where as soon as one train pulls out of the station you can already see the lights for the next one; and leaky stations, there is seriously water pouring into some of them- I guess that's the drainage system?

A few days ago I enrolled as a student at the Uzbek State World Languages University- which apparently is the third largest university in Uzbekistan and, as the name implies, is entirely dedicated to languages. On Monday I'm starting a 5-month intensive Russian course. If I'm not fluent in this damn language by September I'm switching to Spanish! Definitely never thought I'd be able to say I was a student at an Uzbek university.

Ah I knew some run-ins with the police were inevitable (maybe it's karma coming back to get me for always surrepitituously taking their picture). Two things happened this week- the first was just annoying the second a little more ominous.
I have to walk right by the Israeli Embassy to get to work. Israel, as I understand it has a good or at least close relationship with Uzbekistan because of the 2 large Jewish communities here (Bukharan Jews who have been here, well, forever and Russian Jews). Anyway, like all embassies here there are Uzbek police standing out front. However, Israel also employs their own guards, I assume army guys who roam the street outside the embassy. Anyway, last Tuesdsay I'm walking to work and I see one of the guards talking to an Uzbek cop about 50 metres in front of me. That cop then starts to walk to towards, me comes up and starts questioning me as to who I am and what I'm doing there. So I tell him I work at the UN, there are two UN offices on the street and he backs right off- propbably thinking I have the diplomatic accreditation that paid UN staff get, which I don't. Anyway, obviously the guard had pointed me out, and I had to walk right by him. Using restraint, I only glared- pretty sure that wasn't a big wallet on his hip. The rest of the week he wouldn't look me in the eye as I walked by- made me feel tough.

Then this morning, just before noon my doorbell rings. There is a door with a keypad at the entrance to the building but it's often left open. I hesitated for second as I've been warned to never open my door here. But it's kind of knee-jerk reaction, so I opened it and there were two Uzbek cops- and I thought, 'ah crap'. One of them said something to me in Uzbek, which I of course didn't understand and then asked to see my passport, which I showed him. I asked if there was problem and they said no everything was fine. The second cop then said he needed to take a picture of the first cop checking my passport. I said ok, obviously? So the first cop goes into his passport scrutiny mode, the second cop sets up with the camera he had with him and I of course gave my biggest, 'wtf?' smile for the camera. The second cop then told me not to smile and to look like I was paying attention to what the first one was doing- which I did. They took the picture and left.
I think they could have ended up their for a number of reasons: such as suspicious neighbours, there's at least one cop living in the building, but it seemed more like they were going through the motions- like they were told they had to be there and document that they did it. I did have to register with the police that I'm living in this place. Anyway, I take solace in the fact that I have the 'UN holy sh*t' number in my phone. Basically if I get in real trouble I can call the number and a white with blue letters UN SUV shows up pretty quick and deals with the problem (even for volunteer staff) - I know someone who had to call it last week. Interesting experience though.

Currency Exchange?

Can you tell my home internet is working?

I think I'm made reference to it before but Uzbekistan operates a dual exchange rate system (not sure about the proper terminology). There's an offical rate and a black-market rate which is much lower (or higher- you get more money back when you exchange at the black market rate). So of course everyone exchanges at the black market rate unless forced to change at the official rate. For example when I paid for my residency permit I had to show a receipt saying I'd exchanged at official rate.
There's a bazaar about a 5 minute walk from my apartment and I've been changing there. The changers stand out front and just say 'dollar/euro' as you walk by. You ask them what the rate is and if you agree you make the exchange, count it if you think you need to and carry-on.
Anyway, the blackmarket rate has been going up/down (you're getting more and more back lately). So everytime I've been exchanging I've been getting more and more money. Today I went to a guy I hadn't been to be before. He seemed a little unsure of himself (most of them are very confident). He quoted me a rate that was quite a bit better than last week, which was the last time I did it. I said yes, we made the change and I left.
I got about a hundred metres and I heard him yelling and running after me. I turned around and he comes panting up sheepishingly. 'What's the problem?' I asked.....'uh I gave you the wrong rate (he gave me too much).' Seriously, world's most imcompetent black-market money changer, I can tell you where to find him.

The Azeri Embassy

Nobody knows where anything is in Tashkent. It's not anyone's fault, I'm as directionally challenged as anyone here, but it's rather a result of state-sponsored efforts to promote all things Uzbek since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, as I'm writing this I'm sort of watching a sports-talk TV show- just as bad in Russian as they are in English. Anyway, so the promotion of Uzbekism has, among many other things, involved the renaming of city streets, metro-stations and squares to names deemed more appropriate. Apparently some places have beeen renamed more than once with people using multiple names for the same place. For example, my office is on Abdulla Kahor Street however everyone still knows it as Zavodskaya, the old name. The naming combined with an almost total lack of street signs makes getting around a bit difficult.
For example, I need a visa for Azerbaijan. In a couple of weeks a friend and I are going to drive down to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, head over to the Caspian Sea coast and take a ferry across to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. We can get the Turkmen visa at the border but have to get the Azeri visa before we arrive in the country.
So this morning, I found the embassy on a map (with new street names). I then went and talked to my boss who I knew had been there and she told me how to direct the cab based on landmarks. Of course though when I actually got in the taxi the driver just wanted to know generally what part of the city it was in and said he'd ask along the way. Only took two stops actually.
Got there and it was closed. Damnit. They've taken this week off for Navruz (a holiday in this part of the world marking the start of Spring). I did end up speaking to some guy behind the gate who said they'd be open next Monday and that I'd for sure be able to get the visa in one day. Hmmmmm.....

The KHL, Hot Water and Restaurant Variety Shows

TV programming in the former Soviet Union in still mostly in Russian, which actually works out really well for me as it forces me to sit and really listen for an hour or so every evening....maybe a little more. There are a few Uzbek channels too. Although I don't undertand a word of them, I don't know if I would call them hard hitting exactly. Anyway, among the Russian channels I get a couple of news stations, a bunch of stations with predominantly shows dubbed from English (man, sync it up better or at least turn down the volunme on the English, the way they do it it's impossible to understand either language), a I think three sport channel. After, of course, soccer and a lotta biathalon which seems to be be very popular in Russia one of stations also shows KHL games pretty regularly. It's actaully pretty good hockey. The other night I watched Dinamo Riga play the St. Petersburg team (I can't remember their name but it seems like every second team is called Dinamo). It was in Riga, the arena was full, there was lots of hitting and it was a fast, skilled, good game. Alexei Yashin was playing for St. Petersburg and Sandis Ozolinch was playing for Riga. Although he did look a little tipsy (ok, I take that back, I am trying to be politically correct in this blog!)
From reading abou the KHL in the Candadian and even the Russian press I was under the impression that the league wasn't doing that well. But from the games I've seen, the rinks have been full and the hockey's been good. I think it's here to stay (unless there's a house of the oligarchs of course).
Interestingly, Russian sports news will mention the NBA and given daily scores, I have not seen the NHL mentioned once so far.

Ok, the hot water. former Soviet cities have centralized hot water systems- I guess it made sense when the systems were first designed- communal living and all. Anyway, once a year, in spring, the system gets turned off in one section of the city at a time for 3-10 days so the pipes can be cleaned. Another expat, living about two blocks over told myself and the 2-3 of us living on my block earlier this week that her water is now off. Mine still isn't, but something to look forward to soon I think.

Lastly, this past wednesday I had dinner with a few people at an Uzbek restaurant. It was good, but what was really interesting was in the middle of the restaurant a small space was cleared out and a whole troupe of performers but on a full variety show for the whole time we were there. Everything from acrobats to line dancing. It was....unusual.

That's it for now...don't think the trip out of town is going to happen...the weather is terrible. Hopefully soon though.

GAISHNIKI

So the GAI (Gosudarstvennya Avtomobilnaya Inspektsyya) was the former name of the traffic police in, I think, all of the former Soviet States. In some states (Ukraine? Georgia?) they've been abolished and in others their name has been changed to something in the national language. However, where they do exist the officers are still universally referred to as GAIshniki and, at least in Taskent, they stand at pretty much every intersection. They carry orange batons and wave over passing motorists to, well, shall we say, inspect their documents.
I bring this up because today I had lunch with two Uzbek guys. At the end we were figuring out the cheque (I forgot my wallet- smooth) and one of them said to the other, 'hey, you drove, take out for gas and the GAIshniki.'
Pretty sure I'm gonna remember my wallet next time- yeesh.

Crossing the Streeet

Well, like in many places, sometimes including Vancouver, is terrifying here. At least people are nice enough to honk and flash their lights if they're going to smush you. Keeps you alert.
Anyway, it's been a good week. Unfortunately my internet connection has still not been switched on- from what I got out of the super-fast talking tech guy this morning was that the Internet Provider has to wait for Uzbek Telecom to do something to the phone line before it'll work. And like most big bureacracies, like many in Canada too, they'll do it when they feel like it. Hopefully, hopefully this week.
The work is good. Lots to learn, so it's keeping me busy. I think like learning languages, you never really start to learn about a part of the world until you get there- although I guess drinking lattes in the mall isn't how most Uzbeks are spending their Saturday afternoon.
Have finally got a trip out of the city planned. Myself and a few of the other local ex-pats are going to head to Samarkand next weekend for the long weekend (yup, another one). we'll stay they for a night and then head to the birthplace of Amir Timur (Tamerlane) who, among other things, is Uzbekistan's National Hero.
Hmmm...I think that's about it for now....kind of boring....will try to do some more interesting things before I post again, or at least make some stuff up!