First Day Fun

Today we visited Ala Archa National Park. We hiked up through the mountains and saw a river of water. The water is very cold because it came down from melting glaciers in the mountains. It was crystal clear blue and it was so very beautiful. While I was by the river my friend Emily and I had fun hopping on rocks and we crafted our own fishing pole out of a stick, string, an old sock and a little piece of weed. We tried but didn't catch anything. We had a picnic and played hide and seek with the other kids. Emily and I found a good hiding spot behind a large bush and trees. We were the last ones to be caught. The mountains were very big and beautiful and were peaceful and quiet with no pollution or trash anywhere. We had a lot of fun climbing big rocks too. The mountains are at such a high altitude that my ears stared to pop and I have a harder time breathing. We saw some horses on the path and some mountain goats too. We had dinner in a yurt. It was fascinating. A yurt is a type of tent that Kyrgyz people sometimes live in. It is a big wooden frame covered with large pieces of felt. They can take them down and move them and put them back up. We had traditional Kyrgyz food. My favorite was fried bread called boortsag, it was so good dipped in honey. We had lagman which is a type of noodle in broth with meat, dumplings and some salad. We drank tea and had delicious watermelon and fruit. While we were eating, we had a concert with traditional Kyrgyz instruments. There were two men and three women and they all played different instruments. My favorite was the komuz. It is sort of like a guitar made out of apricot wood. It almost sounds like a harp. After dinner I was able to play with my friend Emily for a little while before I had to go to bed because I was so tired.