-this is a crazy improbably place. i can't believe it actually exists. but i'm sure plenty of people have said that before.
-it's really nice not having to hide my ass on blogger.
-no one thinks i'm spanish in the suuqs here. then again, none of the shopkeepers in the suuqs are arabs.
-this is a terrible place to go if i want to practice my arabic. well, it's better for practicing than in, say, taraz. but as i alluded to above, most of the people i interact with are not arabs. most are indians or pakistanis. i could speak arabic to them, a lot of them seem to know at least a little bit. but they all also know english. it seems silly for both of us to struggle with arabic when we can effortlessly communicate in my native language.
-while i'm not convinced by the thesis that if you treat workers badly enough they will inevitably rise up and rebel, if i did think it was inevitable then i would get the hell out of this town pretty fast.
and on a different note, i won my fight with the kaz consulate. i now have a brand new 3 month/3 entry kaz visa in the hand. so i'm getting the hell out of this town pretty fast (i.e. tomorrow night)
