Fun day today! Regular class in the morning continuing our unit on food and restaurant etiquette, which came in handy this afternoon on our trip to Golden Valley Uzbek Restaurant! For Uzbek Club this week our teachers and administration treated us tonight at an unassuming yet cool-to-visit center of Uzbek culture and cuisine right here in Phoenix. Good times had by all. And an awesome dinner! Feasted on delicious melon (a variety from the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan) grown locally. What a treat, thank you so much!
Here is a video with fun clips and pictures from tonight:
And another one, speaking Uzbek featuring the local melons:
And of course pictures for sharing and viewing:
With the Uzbek teachers
Har kishiga katta rahmat! Thank you everyone! See you tomorrow.
Cool day today! Morning started off a bit rough with an early wakeup on a Saturday but we were out of class before long and got to see an Uzbek movie which was a cool experience. Wrote some letters to friends in the afternoon (on their way!) and then headed down to the 4pm Saturday yoga class that I enjoyed from last week at Yoga Nirvana to meet up with a friend.
Whenever I go somewhere around the US or really anywhere I like to connect online to see who's in the area who I might know from Facebook or just a common interest in health or fresh food. I have had some great experiences thus far just attracting interesting people into my life through putting out good vibes and standing in my truth and interests and today was another great reinforcement of that idea!
Met up with Ana Avila from Healthy Blossom, she's a health coach and raw food enthusiast from here in the Phoenix area and we had met through Nathaniel James on Facebook. Figured it would be fun to head to the market or meet up for a yoga practice and a picnic so that's what we did and it was a really fun time! Glad to meet up and talk to anyone and Ana is a really positive and friendly person.
Here are some videos from today:
And some photos:
Cool colored lights at the Memorial Union from the other night
Got a conjoined peach, lol! Local organic peaches from Tempe Marketplace
Cool flyer for CLI. Really great opportunities here
Back at Yoga Nirvana for the 4pm Saturday class. Really awesome practice today
Fruit feast for dinner with perfect ripeness and prices from Mekong Supermarket
Me and Ana at the market, heading back for a picnic
Woohoo! Heaven on earth
Eerie Phoenix desert dust storm in the distance
Beautiful shot of the library this morning
Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world. So juicy, sweet and just fun to look at
Are those clouds I see? In Arizona? :)
So there we have it! Talk more soon. Thanks for reading the blog.
Today was amazing! No class today so I said to myself: time to go on an adventure to see what good finds I could track down here in AZ. Started with a relaxing morning, got up late, and took a walk around to get the day going etc. Then headed back to the dorm for breakfast and to look up on my phone where to go.
Though I've been eating really well here with the excellent Sunflower Market nearby, I was having major cravings for something like durian or figs, and knowing that the food and cost of living in general here is so cheap and accessible, I figured I'd find something. Google Maps pointed me to a few good international markets so I was off for a walk.
First looked into a Middle Eastern market but when I got there I found it was more a hookah bar and restaurant than a grocery store. :P I thought they might have figs but it was a no go. Fortunately right next to it was Food City which was a Hispanic market with some really nice apricots, papayas, bananas, cactus fruit, and tamarind. Headed on from there to the one, the only, Mekong Asian Market.
Durian was what I was really looking for today since it's truly my favorite food and I haven't had it in a good couple weeks, or maybe months. I actually had seen this Mekong Asian market/plaza on my phone this morning and called to check that they had durian, and the person on the phone said they did, which was promising. I figured they might have a few frozen durians and maybe some other produce pickings, but this place EXCEEDED what I could ever expect!
After a long 1+ hr walk in the heat (I don't mind, it was worth it), I made it there and walked inside to find an oasis and paradise of fruit (and air conditioning, haha). I seriously do not think I have ever been to a better place in terms of having all my favorites, and ripe/cheap too. I could go on forever, but just take a look at the video for a view yourself:
Here is a selection of favorite photos (most are included in the video, but just to document here anyway or if you are unable to view the video now):
Ahhhhh!!! Like the gates of heaven lol
Champagne mango flats
Fresh jackfruit
White dragon fruit, avocados, Korean melons
Insanely cheap boxes of ripe champagne mangos
Hawaiian papayas
Durian! :)
Cherimoya!
Today's catch
After that, came back to the dorm dripping with sweat and pretty wiped but felt really strong and like I had a nice workout, plus the labor of love had paid off and I was ready for a great dinner. Shared some samples with friends and tasted a bit of everything that was ripe today, including some cherimoya, peaches, rambutan, lychees, dragonfruit, and of course the durians. Some of the best I've ever had! Plus, tried fresh jackfruit for the first time. Oddly I had never gotten my hands on any. Not my total favorite, but really good, tastes like juicy fruit gum!
In addition to that, got some homework done for tomorrow. Wanted to share with you my assignment so you could see what kind of work we're doing in class and also to document my progress with the language. Basically our assignment was to recall on what we have learned thus far and put together some writing that uses all the skills and vocab we have learned. I talked about my family, did a few dialogues, and then did some other narrative exercises to stay familiar with new learnings.
Note: Click here to open or enlarge the document if you are having trouble.
All in all, another great day! Loving Arizona ever more! Be back with more soon.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Had a really relaxing and invigorating day today getting stuff done for the week and having a fun time also. Feeling a lot more familiar with the area and able to branch out and head to new locations. Weather is always great and so many interesting things to check out! Put together some videos today in lieu of usual blog info, see below.
First off, some food shopping for the week at the amazing Sunflower Market:
And also, great yoga practice today at Yoga Nirvana:
In addition, got some laundry done, talked to friends, walked around campus, and so on. Here are some more photos from today, and then tomorrow we get back to Uzbek stuff!
Walked over to the library to add $ to my Sun Card for laundry this morning
Took the FREE Orbit bus down to the Sunflower Market this morning
Shopping items: 25 lb white nectarine, 16 lb green grape, 25ish mangos, bunch of peaches, apricots, berries, etc
Champagne mangos, regular mangos, and a Hawaiian papaya
Donut peaches and apricots ripening
Found some delicious persimmons in the Safeway on the way to class
2.99 lb apriums at Safeway. Nice!
Inside the yoga studio. Best practice yet! Great teacher etc
