Thanks

In addition to the helpfulness of friends and family, we had several vendors who really helped to make our wedding special. The Lowell Inn in Stillwater provided beautiful accommodations, excellent service and top-notch food. The University Club in Saint Paul was a beautiful setting with great food. Gregg Babb of Seedling Eventful Flowers did a wonderful job with the flowers – and is one of the most polite and accommodating entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. I’d like to thank them all in this public space.

A very special thanks goes to Bill Hermann of Blue Chip Productions, who we hired as our DJ. While he was more expensive than the other options we looked it, it was the best-spent money of the wedding. He went out of his way to help with every aspect of the party, even opening the door during the ceremony. He is incredibly talented at keeping people happy and entertained, even when there are several generations in the group. Even the bartender, who sees weddings all the time, commented on what a great DJ we had.

Bill was kind enough to take photos throughout the reception and he sent us copies on a CD. This in itself was worth much of his fee. We didn’t have a photographer during the reception and none of the guests took the quality and the variety of photos he did. Through these pictures, we were able to relive the entire reception, even parts we’d forgotten. And we were reminded at what a fantastic job he really did. If anyone reading this happens to be planning a party in the Twin Cities area, we’d highly recommend him.

what's been going on lately

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much lately. It's been a busy time during the past couple of weeks, but I hope to get back to posting soon. For those wondering what's been going on lately, I'll fill you in on the highlights. I finished my training and started working in earnest. During the last half of November I took over for someone on vacation and managed a regional program with 90 staff. It was challenging and a lot of fun. I'll be getting my own region to manage in February and until then will be traveling quite a bit, learning some more and filling in for staff on vacation. Right now I'm on my way to Karakol. I don't know too much about it other than that it is supposed to be a very beautiful and popular destination for tourists in the summer. I'll fill you in about this town in the winter after I arrive tomorrow.

In other news, I had my first visitor. My boyfriend came to visit for a week and I had fun showing him Kyrgyzstan and seeing many things again through fresh eyes. We took a two-day trip to the southern mountains and also attended a wedding in Bishkek, the first Kyrgyz wedding either of us had experienced.

Also, I decided to move from my nicely furnished foreigner-style apartment. When I return from my travels, I'll be living with an Uzbek family. I think that will make for much more interesting evenings and weekends and I'm looking forward to learning from them - though I'm not so excited about having to go outside to use the toilet or shower in winter.

That's it for now, but I promise I'll be in touch soon.