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Mar. 6th, 2005 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merchimerchSometime Tashkent is just absurd. There is a posting of the monthly schedule of the Alisher Navoi Theater at the conservatory (it's where operas and ballets are staged). I walked by it on Thursday and saw that they were doing the Elixer of Love on Saturday night, so R and I and A made plans to go. However, when we got to the theater they had cancelled all the Elixer of Love shows until the 24th. Very strange - they hadn't really let anyone know, since there were a fair amount of folks getting their tickets exchanged, and the only announcement seemed to be that they had put a piece of blank paper over the schedule posted at the theater for the 3 dates they cancelled. So odd. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss much, since I've only heard dismal reviews of opera in Tashkent, but I wanted to see/hear/cringe for myself. Maybe we'll go back on the 24th.
So A and R and I were faced with an evening and nothing to do, so we walked down to the widowed mothers of WWII memorial (my favorite memorial in Tashkent), which is only a 10 minute walk from the theater. I hadn't shown it to R yet, so I was glad for the chance. Then we realized we were right next to the only brewpub in Tashkent and tried to have a beer. No dice - there was some event for dignitaries at the concert hall across from the pub, and noone was allowed in to the area until 7 PM (the opera was supposed to start at 5 - everything here starts early so people can get home and hae dinner with their families). We ended up back at our apartment and I made hamburgers and then we went to the pub at about 730. We had a few beers and it was festive and nice and just as we were asking for our bill, the table next to us realized that we were American and bought us a round and wanted to talk and talk and talk. Turns out the guy who did most of the talking was a Special Forces vet from the Afghan war (the Soviet one) he had a lot of interesting things to say and was obviously really affected by his experience. He got a chance to meet American Vietnam Vets at some point and even though he talked a lot about his identity as a soldier and that it is the only profession for him, he had a lot of negative things to say about war. Very interesting night. As we were walking to our cab, A mentioned that 1/3 of all the troops in the Afghan War were Uzbek and that the Soviet government always sent more central asians than anyone else, since they wanted to protect the Russian people and also because Central Asian birthrates were so high. I found all of this really interesting, since the US isn't sending specific ethnic groups to war (though the army has always been one of the few places for minorities to have successful careers). Instead they're sending droves and droves of poor and lower class folks. The GI bill only makes this worse, since a lot of people can't get through college without joining the military or national guard. I'm not sure how I feel about it or how to fix it, because I don't think a military is a bad thing, I just think the way our government is using our military and their recruiting practices and the practice of reactivating inactive reservists is just shameful. Maybe Michael Moore had a point when he was trying to get congressmen to convince their kids to enlist. It does bring home the point about the cost of war.
And on a completely unrelated note - buckwheat kasha is the best breakfast food ever! It is so low maintenance to cook because there's no gluten to stick it to the bottom of the pan and make it burn. I'm really happy when I can put food on to boil and not worry about until it smells like food.
Tonight R and I and a bunch of other Americans are finally getting around to cooking the turkey that we bought but didn't eat for thanksgiving - hope it doesn't turn into a culinary disaster.
So A and R and I were faced with an evening and nothing to do, so we walked down to the widowed mothers of WWII memorial (my favorite memorial in Tashkent), which is only a 10 minute walk from the theater. I hadn't shown it to R yet, so I was glad for the chance. Then we realized we were right next to the only brewpub in Tashkent and tried to have a beer. No dice - there was some event for dignitaries at the concert hall across from the pub, and noone was allowed in to the area until 7 PM (the opera was supposed to start at 5 - everything here starts early so people can get home and hae dinner with their families). We ended up back at our apartment and I made hamburgers and then we went to the pub at about 730. We had a few beers and it was festive and nice and just as we were asking for our bill, the table next to us realized that we were American and bought us a round and wanted to talk and talk and talk. Turns out the guy who did most of the talking was a Special Forces vet from the Afghan war (the Soviet one) he had a lot of interesting things to say and was obviously really affected by his experience. He got a chance to meet American Vietnam Vets at some point and even though he talked a lot about his identity as a soldier and that it is the only profession for him, he had a lot of negative things to say about war. Very interesting night. As we were walking to our cab, A mentioned that 1/3 of all the troops in the Afghan War were Uzbek and that the Soviet government always sent more central asians than anyone else, since they wanted to protect the Russian people and also because Central Asian birthrates were so high. I found all of this really interesting, since the US isn't sending specific ethnic groups to war (though the army has always been one of the few places for minorities to have successful careers). Instead they're sending droves and droves of poor and lower class folks. The GI bill only makes this worse, since a lot of people can't get through college without joining the military or national guard. I'm not sure how I feel about it or how to fix it, because I don't think a military is a bad thing, I just think the way our government is using our military and their recruiting practices and the practice of reactivating inactive reservists is just shameful. Maybe Michael Moore had a point when he was trying to get congressmen to convince their kids to enlist. It does bring home the point about the cost of war.
And on a completely unrelated note - buckwheat kasha is the best breakfast food ever! It is so low maintenance to cook because there's no gluten to stick it to the bottom of the pan and make it burn. I'm really happy when I can put food on to boil and not worry about until it smells like food.
Tonight R and I and a bunch of other Americans are finally getting around to cooking the turkey that we bought but didn't eat for thanksgiving - hope it doesn't turn into a culinary disaster.
