Maksat Korooluev

Адилету 7 месяцев!

2009-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Сегодня моему сыну Адилету исполнилось 7 месяцев! :) Мы уже совсем большие:)

Первый раз...

2009-03-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

Сегодня утром у меня первый раз отобрали водительские права в Бишкеке. С одной стороны, нарушение очевидное: повернул в запрещенном месте. С другой стороны, по городу понавешали свежих знаков (невсегда видных), не позаботившись о том, чтобы донести эту инфу для водителей.

В общем, с утра подпортили настроение. Придется ехать в ГАИ и забирать права там...

58th NBA All-Star game

2009-02-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

На прошлых выходных в Финиксе, штат Аризона, состоялся 58ой матч всех звезд НБА. Победил Запад, а Шакил О'Нил и Кобе Брайант признаны самыми ценными игроками. У меня появилась еще одна мечта: посетить как-нибудь NBA All Star game, если я еще когда-либо буду проживать в США:)

Стоимость билетов в этом году составила от 350 до 3163 доллара США!:) Дорого, но реально.

First anniversary

2009-02-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

16 февраля 2008 года состоялась наша с Аселей свадебная церемония:-) Нам официально 1 год! хотя свадьба по кыргызским обычаям состоялась 8 декабря 2007 года. В любом случае, обе даты для нас важны.

Из прошлого...

2009-02-10T01:41:00.000-08:00

Сегодня в Бишкеке пасмурная погода. Мне почему-то вспомнились времена, проведенные в Портланде, штат Мэйн. Особенно в 2005-2006 году, когда пришлось не так сладко. Работая в Portland Regency Hotel, я услышал песню Bily Joel "Piano Man", которая как раз подходила к моей работе...которую я ненавидел, но приходилось работать, чтобы зарабатывать на жизнь. Очень жизненная песня и слова:

Its nine oclock on a saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
Theres an old man sitting next to me
Makin love to his tonic and gin
He says, son, can you play me a memory?
Im not really sure how it goesB
ut its sad and its sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger mans clothes

La la la, de de daLa la, de de da da daC

horus:Sing us a song, youre the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, were all in the mood for a melody
And youve got us feelin alright

Now john at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And hes quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
But theres someplace that hed rather be
He says, bill, I believe this is killing me.
As the smile ran away from his face
Well Im sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place

Oh, la la la, de de daLa la, de de da da da

Now paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And hes talkin with davy whos still in the navy
And probably will be for life
And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, theyre sharing a drink they call loneliness
But its better than drinkin alone

Its a pretty good crowd for a saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
cause he knows that its me theyve been comin to see
To forget about life for a while

And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, man, what are you doin here?

Кризис...

2009-02-06T02:37:00.000-08:00

Тема прошедшей недели - кризис!!!
Казахский тенге обесценился на 25%, вследствие чего мои друзья в Казахстане испытали настоящий шок и теперь туманно представляют себе развитие дальнейшей карьеры в РК.
Тут же на обменках МосСовета начало лихорадить и наш сом по отношению к доллару и евро. Короче говоря, валютный риск остается одним из главных, если Вы имеете большую сумму:))

Посмотрим, что будет на следующей неделе.

Busy week

2009-02-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

1) Правительство собирается закрыть Авиабазу "Ганси".
2) Курс тенге упал до 144 тенге за 1 доллар!!!

Вот такие утренние новости. Не каждый день такое происходит.

NBA rules!

2009-02-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

Несмотря на то, что в Бишкеке у меня нет доступа к просмотру матчей НБА по ТВ, я всегда слежу за новостями, играми, статистикой на официальном сайте www.nba.com, который восполняет мою страсть к просмотру этой суперзрелищной игры. Не особо люблю и не умею играть в баскетбол, а вот смотрю как настоящий фанат! В этом сезоне рулят Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers. Думаю, что в финале восточной конференции встретятся Celtics vs Cavs, если не встретятся раньше. А вообще этот сезон вполне может стать звездным часом Леброна Джеймса, которого также именуют King James.

p.s. К слову, абсолютно не слежу за MBL, NHL, NFA. Майкл Джордан сделал свое дело в 90х:)

Понедельник

2009-02-01T23:57:00.000-08:00

И снова понедельник... Выходные пролетели быстро, занятно и незаметно, а усталость вроде не сильно отошла. Пойду сегодня на футбол, выбью всю усталость:))

Новые события

2009-01-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

На этой недели произошли 2 знаменательных для моей семьи события, связанные с давними планами. Я рад, что все получилось хорошо:)

П.С. Сорри, но не могу здесь опубликовать, что было.

Back to blogspot.com

2009-01-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

В 3-й раз за последние 3 года решил снова попробовать постоянно вести свой блог. Вдохновляют некоторые друзья. Посмотрим хватит ли надолго.

In the memory of Alisher Saipov

2007-12-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

24 октября убийство. 24 ноября месяц. 4 декабря 40 дней. 40 дней как нет Алишера Саипова.

4 декабря в 13:00 возле Белого дома (Бишкек) будет стоять саженец, выдранный с корнями. Ему не дали расти, давать плоды также как Алишеру. Каждый может прийти и завязать на нем черную ленточку в знак траура по Алишеру.

--- Перешлите это сообщение по СМС своим знакомым, поучаствуйте в знак солидарности близким Алишера Саипова, перепечатайте у себя в блогах и сайтах. Никто не собирается этим сделать себе имя, организаторов флэш-моба практически нет.

Pavlodar

2007-09-24T03:05:00.001-07:00

Sep 20-24 I visited Pavlodar. It is mainly populated by Russian ethnic group (nearly 50%), which is noticable when you walk around the city. It was wicked cold there! Pavlodar is famous for its wharf at Irtysh River. Together with Ustkamenogorsk it is an industrial center of north-east of Kazakhstan.

Sexy Uzbekistan!

2007-09-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

Insight. The idea of traveling to Uzbekistan was born in May, 2007, three months prior to the trip, during our travel to Issyk-Kul. Asel and I were excited about going somewhere “abroad” together, away from routine life in Bishkek and Almaty. Why we picked Uzbekistan? Magnificent architectural complexes of Samarqand and Bukhara, enormous (comparatively to Central Asia) city of Tashkent, cheap prices, excellent local food, no visa requirement and geographic proximity. The last, but definitely not least, was helpful recommendations from Alisher. This friend of ours, originally from Tashkent, always invites everyone to visit his country (thus makes a good promotion) and spend tourist money there. He argues everything in his country is SEXY!!! We got to admit this was true. So here goes the story – Sexy Uzbekistan!

Almaty-Bishkek-Tashkent – Sept 7-9. We got out of work Almaty on Friday and moved to Bishkek where Meder (friend of ours) was getting married on Saturday. This was an excellent wedding party we all enjoyed and loved. On Sunday night we took 11-hour ride with a bus from Bishkek to Tashkent. We watched couple movies and fell asleep in not too comfortable seats. By 7am, Monday morning, we arrived in Kazakh-Uzbek border. Big crowd, hardly recognizable (at least for us) Uzbek/Tajik language and messy-trashy street on Kazakh side of the border. It took us 2.5 hours to get through when we were squeezed from all around by the crowd, had to pay 200 tenge each (!) as a fee for ridiculous quarantine rule (we got no receipts, whatsoever) and had to fill out a strict customs declaration, indicating all cash we were bringing in.

Tashkent. Sep 10. The taxi driver (guess which car brand was that? DAEWOO, of course) took us to very nice and affordable hotel within close proximity to downtown area. We had few hours of rest and browsed through local attractions, accompanied by Alisher, who is currently enjoying a sexy living in Tashkent. We had a nice dinner in a local chaikhana (Bukharian food) with friends of ours. It was good to see them.

Samarqand. Sep 11. This year Samarqand turned 2750! We took a morning train (very comfortable and incredibly cheap!) and in three hours we arrived to former capital of Amir Temur’s (Tamerlan) empire and checked in very nice Uzbek-style Kamilla hotel with very friendly and guest-oriented personnel. It was quite hot (35C). Registan, main tourist place in Samarqand, was the first spot Asel and I visited. Cute medrese, a lot of tourists and souvenir shops, picturesque views. Oh, by the way, every time we were asked to pay admission fee for this or another tourist site we were confidently introducing ourselves as students from Nukus (Karakalpakistan) in order to pay local resident’s price. It worked!!!:)
It was an obvious decision to eat plov and drink green tea for lunch. Next destination was Amir Temur’s mausoleum, which impressed with inside decorations and history. This guy, greatest warrior, is a present-day symbol of national idea and propaganda in Uzbekistan. We also visited huge Bibi Khanym tower and Shohi-Zinda complex. Dinner at Marco Polo, touristy restaurant, served us with nice shish-kebab (shashlyk) and local drafted beer.

Bukhara. Sep 12-13. Next day we took the same train to Bukhara. It was incredibly hot (40-45C)! We stayed in the hotel, located in the heart of Old Town, where at every step you take you bump into sightseeing spots. We stopped reading the names of the constructions as there were too many! However, we have to draw special attention to Kalyan Tower (47 meters) and Arc fortification (which Great Wall and 4 museums inside), which, in our mind, are the best of local attractions. Bukhara used to be a capital of Bukharian Emirate, which united present day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There is also large Farsi speaking Tajik population. We were a bit disappointed by small sizes of Ismail Somani Khan memorial, which is, as far as I know, a symbol and national idea of present-day version of Tajik historyJ Ironically, main hero of Tajikistan, Ismail Somani, is buried in Uzbek (or Tajik?) city of Bukhara. There is an abundance of tourists in Bukhara this time of year, most of them are Europeans (French, German, Dutch). Unfortunately, we have not met any tourist-looking counterparts from other Central Asian countries and noticed very few, seemingly, Russians. Unforgettable memory is huge (like 600-700 gram) lovely and splendid shish-kebabs we had for dinner in the company of tourists from Switzerland. Both of them bear the same name of DanielJ. It was a nice lively talk where we shared our travel experience. Of course, we invited them to visit no less Sexy Kyrgyzstan. (I figured that “sexy” would be a good marketing word, sex sells indeedJ)

Back to Tashkent. Sept 14-15. On Friday we had 7-hour train ride back to Tashkent where we visited People’s friendship park. I was impressed by extensive areas inside the city! Beautiful, notable and sexy!:) In all addition to our awe, we found out that all these nice places were built after 1991.Another wow! The government spends big sums (like big bucks, no sarcasm, sum is a national currency in Uzbekistan, the ratio is 1270 sum for 1USD) for infrastructure projects. This deserves a respect but thinking of poverty in countryside Uzbekistan and comparatively low USD salaries I am wondering whether this is worth of it. On the other hand, comparing urban infrastructure facilities in Tashkent (with only subway system in Central Asia and effective turnpikes) and Bishkek (and even Almaty) we have to honestly admit that Tashkent is well better off. On the next day we visited almost every place it is ever possible to make it in one day! First one was local Disney Land (Entertainment Park) with absolutely no crowd or lines on Saturday morning! We had fun rides. For lunch with Alisher and Elvira we moved to… are you ready?.. Central Asian Center of Plov!!! They say every day almost 2000 people have lunch there. Elvira reminded of an interesting tradition which says that Uzbek men regularly eat plov with horse meat and quail eggs on Thursdays and then make love to their wives. Well, at least 4000 people (2000*2) are having fun on Thursdays thanks to this lunch place in this sexy country!:)
There is a Japanese style park in the heart of downtown. Its beautiful inside and is a very good location to take pictures. The next event in the program was the attendance of 9th highest in the world (!!!) (375 meters) Tashkent Television tower. We were lifted up to observatories at 110 and 220 altitudes; this was a bit scary, but opened a terrific view on Tashkent! Finally, in conclusion of our 1- week sightseeing experience in Uzbekistan we were able to get tickets for Oblomov play (Mr. Griboedov) at Ilhom theater. All four us loved the play and Asel was even crying a bit at the end. Good job for actors.

Tashkent-Bishkek. Sep16. After our heroic efforts (very routine for many others though) at crossing Kazakh-Uzbek border on the way in Asel and I got ready to the worst case scenario on the way out. Fortunately, we had absolutely no problems getting out because we have Kazakh resident stamps in our passports. We were given a green light at the customs, leaving the crowds of people behind us. On the way back home it was again 11-hour ride but this time it did not seem to be too bad. Our first backpacking trip turned out to be a great success, very much affordable (thank god!), full of excitement, memories and some adventures.

Post # 2 - New Year in Almaty

2007-05-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to devote more to my blog since it looks like a lot of fun and getting increasingly popular around my friends:) Here goes another post. On the pic above check new year celebration in the city of Almaty. This is a rapidly growing city located in Southern Kazakhstan (3.5 hours away from Bishkek) with the population of over two million people. How can I describe Almaty? Its the city of contrasts: rich and poor residents, modern skyscrapers and dangerous neighborhoods, traffic jams and polluted air. Nevertheless, Almaty attracts many people from Bishkek, mainly by higher salaries and better job opportunities. As one of my friend's says Almaty is her office (she is from Bishkek originally). Now, lets stop here; more than enough for one post. Stay with us:))

My first-ever post here:-)

2007-05-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

Since November, 2006 I have been residing and working in Almaty, Kazakhstan. On the pic above you can enjoy beatiful nature (Medeu), 20 min away from Downtown Almaty.

2007-05-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Back to blogspot again! under different ID, however.

Anyways, lets check that out, falling out of modern fashion:)