For my first several months in Kyrgyzstan it's too cold and snowy to do field work. It's been mid 30's F in Bishkek, which isn't bad, but Kochkor (my main field work site) is about 2500 feet higher. There is also about 6 inches of snow on the ground, which generally makes camping a little difficult.
The front yard of the Kyrgyz Seismic Institute this morning. Often decent bird watching!
After a couple days working in the office though, trust me, I'll be eagerly awaiting the thaw! With my bags finally here I have all the material I theoretically need to do fossil preparation work. The first order of business is to make consolidant and glue for stabilizing the fossils and than reattaching broken pieces. I specifically am using a polymer called Butvar b-90 because it was recommended to me by a Smithsonian preparator who works in Kazakhstan. She told me I can use over the counter drinking alcohol to dissolve the glue in. Well... I blithely bought the cheapest vodka I could find at the 24 hour mart (about $1.50 for a half liter bottle) and than set about trying to guestimate a volume of consolidant powder. Not having a scale, or any sort of volumetric measuring devise I just sort of scooped out an amount visually similar to 25 grams I typically use, popped open the vodka, dumped it all in a 500mL bottle. Meanwhile I went back to using the pin vice to remove matrix from a baby rhino calcaneum. For those not paleontologists, a calcaneum is an ankle bone, with the end of it forming your heel (or the hock in hoofed animals).
The calcaneum with a bit of matrix (rock) still stuck to the middle of it. The little scratch marks of where I've removed some matrix with the pin vice.
Me using a pin vice involves much frustration, some bleeding, and far too many scratches on the actual fossil (so, so, so sorry for any actual preparators who read this post...) Welllllllll it turns out when I read a little more, vodka is only about 40% alcohol and I need a much higher percentage to get the b-90 to dissolve. So instead of consolidant I had what looked like the world's ugliest snow globe. The glue sort of bunched together into “flakes” swirling around in a jar of vodka. Next try: Kyrgyz Everclear!
Meanwhile, outside the office, I'm enjoying my slice of life in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz people are wonderfully friendly, and one of the main objectives seems to be feed guests. Feed guests all you possibly can. The food is mostly great, so I don't mind this too much, but I really do need to learn to say, “please no more food” in Russian soon... Yesterday it was snowing heavily when I woke up and the prospect of walking to the Kyrgyz Seismic Institute was less than appealing. Gulnara invited me to go shopping with her, which sounded like the perfect adventure to me. Undaunted by the 6+ inches of new snow, we hopped in her car and off she went!
The car next to us in my appartment's lot. Glad I'm not driving...
While driving around spun out vehicles she explained to me in her broken, yet for the situation perfect, English that Kyrgyzstan is extreme. The weather is extreme, the revolution was extreme, so the people are extreme. They drive extreme. And let me tell you, that is the truth. Lane markers are really a rough guideline here and do not actually reflect how many cars can fit abreast. Our first stop was an electronics store and Gulnara blew my pitiful warm-climate brain by parallel parking in a very tiny space in the snow and ice. We quickly go one item and back to the car to go to the “China Market”. This tuned out to be a huge building with individual vendors selling mostly furniture, but also cooking items and many strange random things like bumper cars, fondu fountains, and ballroom chandeliers. We went from booth to booth comparing prices, haggling (well Gulnara did, I followed and carried bags), and making some purchases. We of course had to visit the associated Chinese restaurant which was so damn good.
The soup was "Pepper Soup" Gulnara order because I managed to tell her I like spicy food. It was very spicy and very tasty with garlic, ginger, peppers, mushrooms, meat, noodles, and an unknown spongy green leaf.
The shopping was far from done though. Next was a “Kyrgyz Market”, which was small booths in a large building selling clothes, toiletries, and smaller goods. Gulnara showed me a shop selling traditional Kyrgyz dresses. They were so beautiful and I hope to be able to find my way back or to a similar shop at some point. Our last shopping adventure was the “Turkish Market”, which was more of a superstore/grocer type place. Here we got Turkish delights and other sweets, as well as some more common staples. At home I learned that Gulnara's oldest daughter, daughters husband, and child would all be visiting for dinner. It was a loud happy affair with mutton back, seasoned potatoes, pickled carrots and cabbage, tomatoes, and the ever present dessert and tea. I understand very little of the conversation, so at the end of the meal I admit I may have been looking at my thoracic and cervical vertebrae from a sheep on my plate trying to recall the names of all the skeletal features. I apparently wasn't subtle enough because Gulnara noticed and burst out laughing. She quickly explained to everyone I was a paleontologist and studied bones. At least she was amused and not horrified, which I feel is the more typical response in the US. Guess it does show “you can't take a paleontologist anywhere” may be a truly universal phenomenon.
The view out my room's window tonight just after sunset. The Kyrgyz Range is so beautiful, I can't wait to get out and explore it.