loot for this year

R and I just opened our christmas presents and had chocolate and oranges and pumpin bread. R got me the most amazing jewelery ensemble - a pair of silver and mother of pearl earrings with a necklace and another pendant that we are debating what to do with. They were a suprise and something he picked out all by himself. He got them in Samarkand and they are purportedly "antique." Whether or not they actually are, I don't care, they are lovely. For a man who is uncomfortable about christmas and presents and everything, he did amazingly well. I also opened a gauzy purple and blue batik scarf that I picked out, a computer game (Cultures 3), and a very nice hat from my folks.

R got a fur cylinder hat called a "telpak" which makes him look very Russian (especially with the winter coat we bought him last month), a new kitchen knife set with a sharpener and scissors and everything, a computer modelling program (3dsmax 7), and very nice leather gloves that my parents gave him. The gloves the hat and the new coat we got a month or so ago all come together to make a very fashionable (and warm) ensemble.

In liu of stockings I bought a kinder egg for both of us, so we would have silly toys to put together and play with.

It was a pretty mellow christmas, but as it was my first with my husband, I have to say that it was the best christmas ever.

(no subject)

Wow I am exhausted and dehydrated. We had a few folks over for tacos today, but the shells were so stale and gross (thanks commisary), that we all ended up having taco salad. However, the taco seasoning in the meat, the salsa, and the avocado were all fresh and tasty so no one was complaining. We had a round of apples to apples and then our friends left, leaving me to play Cultures 3 and R to play with his new modeling program.

At 7 we went to our first pop concert at the Friends Between Nations Concert Hall. We took Shahri, one of the daughters of the neighboring family, and it was certainly festive. Lola (the star of the concert) is rumored to not speak very good Uzbek, even though she is primarily an Uzbek pop singer - I'd never heard her sing in Russian until tonight. And her performance kind of confirmed the rumors. She had some scripted speeches in Uzbek, but when ever she ad libbed to the audience, it was in Russian. That said, most of her 2 hour concert was made up of Uzbek songs like Muhabbatim (my love) and Tashkent Samarkand. At one point she even sang the jingle for a chewing gum advertisement that she sang years ago. While doing it she brough about a dozen little dancing toddlers out with balloons and some people dressed up as clowns handed out chewing gum to some audience members. The whole things was just odd - she did one set that was obviously her "nationalism" set - she came out in an outfit with a modern cut, but made of national fabric (adras), and sang a poppy song with a boogie woogie bass line and a brass line in it as well as a traditional ensemble of surnai, karnai, and doira which were all dressed up in gold embroidered chappans. As she sang this song there were dancers in michael jackson meets Grease type outfits, include one guy in an orange shirt that said "UCLA Bruins" on it. This was mixed with the traditional Uzbek dancers in duppis and braids that were also dancing for that number. According to Shahri, it was a hybrid she'd never seen before either. There were 2 songs with the Uzbek karnai surnai group accompanying, a third with only the doiras filling out the pop ensemble (accoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, drum set, saxophone, and back up singers). The rest was pretty straight forward pop, though the rest of the set that she performed in the adras outfit had more of an arabic/turkish rhythmic backing than the rest of the set. During some of her costume changes they played excerpts from the film she starred in called "Sevinch" - she is the lead who is in love, but dying of cancer at a tragically young age. During her last costume change another singer came up and sang her most popular number, "Yani Yani Yani", before giving the mic back to Lola. THe only other person to show up was the remarkably short male pop star that she did a popular duet with - I don't think that duet was originally sung by her - I've seen the video and it is a different pair.

Anyway, by far the highlight of the evening was the dancing 12 foot inflatable monkey (and other animals) that paraded through the aisles during certain songs. I have to say it again - Uzbeks are just odd!