Giggling about the possibility of getting Tik Tok famous

 

That time when the ladies at the restaurant were looking over my shoulder checking out the pictures on my phone and giggling, then asked me to take a picture of them and when I did they giggled more I heard Tik Tok amidst their Turkmen words. If only I could make them Tik Tok famous.

Daily Life is Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

 

The irony of Defying Gravity coming up on my phone as I look at a group young Turkmen college aged women and ponder their totally controlled unfree lives.

Feeling New York love in Turkmenistan

When I travel I definitely like being from New York City! I love when people ask where I’m from I can just say that and don’t event need to say America/United States, especially when saying my country’s name is almost an ugly word these days. Then one night in Ashgabat when I said New York the waiter’s face lit up and he mumbled something that made me think that maybe bar had some NYC connection. Later I noticed Broadway musical wall paper and other little details like this mural. Yes, the greatest city in the world…

NYC fans in Turkmenistan

Spotted this t-shirt on a woman waiting for the bus in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, asked to take a picture, which led to a lovely conversation. She had just gotten back from 6 months visiting her daughter in NYC. Her daughter left Turkmenistan after college to teach in China. Next stop she headed to the States and now is a NYC public school principal in a primarily Chinese district and loves it there. Also the two pictures she showed me from her trip to NY were of her trip to the Statue of Liberty and when she went skydiving! Yay America! Yay immigrants!

Visiting the American Center in Turkmenistan

I went to this American Center in Ashgabat, that the Embassy must run. It’s a library and a place with full internet. I guess it builds good American feelings. Anyhow when I walked in they were doing a program for a room of mostly high school kids with the finance guy from the US Embassy. They invited me to join and sitting their listing to America the Beautiful and reading the inspiring words on the walls made me suddenly burst into tears. The Turkmen people there look to America as an alternative to their authoritarian country, and I just felt so sad that I’m not sure we really stand for that stuff right now.

A guy closer to my age wanted to talk with me after. He was so down on his fellow countryman for not caring and just wanted to talk news with people. It was pretty interesting and moving. I felt bad having nothing good to say about the US these days.