And....I'm....Outta there....an ode to the "stan"

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Argo 2 has been achieved lol, ok ok I'm being dramatic, but before the escape from Uzbekistan we had read many many blogs infact all that was out there or "allowed" to be out there and it all seemed like it would be a REALLY crazy adventure, but gladly it didn't turn out to be all that difficult or complex.



Reflecting on Uzbekistan....The things I liked...

The bread!!

The regular people were nice

The students are good students some are asses but for the most part they are good students in the big picture of things they are trying to get out and make something of their lives and realize it's just not possible under the current regime.

Things are relatively cheap, except for luxury items such as special cheeses etc etc.

The fruit selling babushkas with the gold teeth at the bazaars

The women are surprisingly very beautiful.....



Dislikes of Uzbekistan....

The secretive regime

Everyone including locals knowing that their futures are limited

All things including our apartment feeling like it was bugged

The monotonous nature of life there

"Hard currency" is officially outlawed so getting money traded back into dollars is a nightmare and you lose a lot of value

Using the Uzbek Som when going to buy anything.. ( it comes in stacks of bills rubberbanded and in denominations usually of 500 or 1,000 notes, so imagine you buy some things for let's say 170,000 Soms... and usually we got paid in stacks of 500 notes...you have to carry a backpack... pain in the fucking ass!)

Internet is monitored and some sites blocked...(Eurasian news, google maps etc etc) pretty ridiculous, but of course I know many countries do this, but in an effort to not let any outside info get into their country about their country c'mon man lol.

The internet is crazy expensive and terrible service

The constant mellow drama between the presidents daughter and their family is made for t.v. seriously

The corruption is on a scale that you would not imagine blatantly



There are really too many negatives to list here, which I didn't realize before I made this entry....so in essence my negativity is validated by the experience of living and working there ..and the Argo like escape never to return!



ok gotta catch my flight outta here...Vietnam here I come!

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