Starting the New Year with a Bang!

New Years was pretty cool. It is the main holiday during this season, so it is a big to do! New Years Eve day, everyone spends with their family- eating lots!!! There was something going on at our house (as usual) so I was helping with the preparations. Yylkon came over to help the guys with the dough for Monty- traditional Kyrgyz dish. When she was about to leave I realized that no other girls had yet shown up so I went on over to her house. She lives just a few houses up the road. I know her family and most of them speak English very good! They are a Kyrgyz family so they had the floor set with mats around the table area, which of course was covered with all kinds of delicious food! So we ate and they had some other guests there as well, and then watched a special on tv- it had many famous singers and talented people on it. It was interesting. Then I figured I would call to see if everything was ok at the house, they said the monty was done and I was requested to rejoin the group at the house for monty- after eating at Yylkon’s house I wasn’t sure if I had room for monty. But I ate some. When it was midnight, we all ran to the street, I was in awe as I looked around in every direction there were fireworks in the sky!! Booms, pows, whistlers, all kinds of noises that make fireworks so great could be heard at every level!! It was like we were under attack! Chika handed everyone a three foot stick and lit one end, I was not sure what was supposed to happen with these things, nor was I feeling oh so safe holding it in my hand not knowing what to expect! But everyone else seemed to be ok with it. Eventually it started shooting out flares into the sky!! It was great as all of our flares were shooting into the sky, fireworks all around, and all our neighbors in the street watching and shooting different kinds of fireworks! It was GREAT! Definitely NOT like New Years in NY where fireworks are illegal. It was an amazing experience!