Nice Gold Grill

I went to a store to survey; the owners of the grocery stores were all Indian. The guard at one of the stores invited me into the back room for coffee and that was interesting. He didn’t speak a word of English, but still we managed to have a mild conversation through drawing pictures and making gestures. He showed me a picture of his baby boy, and after a few tries he understood I was American.

A few minutes later, a guy who spoke decent English came up to me. He had the “nicest” golden grill I’ve ever seen, haha…. I would soon realize that there are many golden grills throughout this part of the world, between here and Turkmenistan. Many, many. He asked me if I needed anything or wanted an invitation to hang out because he had an English teacher from Texas, or something like that. I told him no I was all set, but thank you kindly.

When I went for a jog in the morning there were bats everywhere around the maiden tower. Where was my camera! Bats, bats all over the place. It was a beautiful sight, though that sounds strange saying it.

Togrul (the terribly annoying kid from the hotel) went with me to the airport and got me a small musicbox piano to “remember him by”. Very sweet. He asked me if the United States hates muslims. No, I told him. It’s just that’s it’s a touchy subject because of Osama Bin Ladin. Then he told me about how Israel was bad. I said the news portrays things one way to you, and another way to me. It’s hard to know who is really right in this situation.

We get to the airport and he wants me to wait before going through the security. Lauren, I will miss you. You have become my friend he says. And over the 15 minutes we sat there making awkward conversation, he kept on getting closer and closer to me. I didn’t know what to do, so I got up and said ok, well it’s probably time for me to go now. Then, he finally left me alone.

Going through security, they asked me if I had over 1,000 USD in foreign currency on me. I was confused, Turkmenistan was a cash only economy so I had to bring over 1,000 with me. I kept my mouth shut though and it worked out fine. I walked into the lounge and had lots of eyes on me. What is this girl doing here, and where is she going alone? Furthermore, WHY is she sitting in the lounge for Turkmenistan? I can just imagine what was going through the minds of those people, mostly men, who were staring at me. I loved it.