I’m taking a little side trip now to introduce you to one of Uzbek custom that I find endearing. Hospitality is an important value within Uzbek culture. They are so welcoming to guests, too much so, at times. I have received more invitations to dinners and even weddings for people I barely even know. But still, it definintely makes you feel special and important. One way this hospitality manifests is in the giving of gifts. Every time I’ve been in Uzbekistan for some type of project, I’ve received some lovely gifts.

One of my favorite gifts is a beautiful platter I received from a school principal in Bukhara after conducting a training there in 2019, which is now hanging on my living room wall. Every time I conduct a training or present at a conference, I receive some type of gift, most often it is some type of traditional Uzbek item such as fabric, silk scarves, jewelry or ceramics.

I treasure these items because each one reminds me of a person I’ve met or event that I’ve attended.

So far on this trip I have received two scarves, two different traditional fabrics, a green and gold chapan (the “bathrobe” like item in my previous blog post), and shorter red and white chapan, a shoulder bag made of traditional fabric, a tote bag, a ceramic plate, a necklace made by my friend’s daughter-in-law, a silver and turquoise necklace and earring set.

This week started off with Tullo and I entering all the pretreatment data into an excel spreadsheet so that I will have less work to do at the end of my data collection phase. We also prepped some activities to use in the classes this week. For the Reading courses we found a Mad Lib based on the Gettysburg Address which we thought would be a fun activities for the students. We printed out copies of the actual Gettysburg Address to use in class along with the Mad Lib. Mad Libs are a fun way to practice grammar and vocabulary with students and I have to admit that doing them brings me back to my childhood. In elementary school I had a long bus ride home after school and somedays a few friends and I would be lucky to have a book of Mad Libs to entertain ourselves. I still love doing them.

We also prepared a lyrics sheet for the song Love Yourself by Justin Bieber to use with the students in the Speaking & Listening classes on Friday.Last week one of the teachers in one of the speaking classes had the students sing along with a song from the moive Titanic, which many of the students knew. After that activity we told all the classes that we would prepare a song-related activity for them. Tullo found the lyrics online and them systematically removed key words or phrases and replaced them with blanks for the students to fill in as they listened.

Thursday morning we were all set to go to class. Before I could send my customary text to the Dean’s assistant asking for the room assignments for the day, she messaged me to say that there would be no classes today. I didn’t fully understand what happened, but she said they had to close campus and cancel classes because they had to “disinfect” the building. I’m hoping that was a translation issue and not that they really had some kind of issue. In any case, I missed an entire day of my treatment phase because of this.

By Friday they were back to business as usual and we were able to do the Reading activity along with the planned midnfulness or study skills treatments in the classes. We saved the song for Saturday, which was good because niether of the Speaking teachers showed up for their classes again, just like last week. We ended up teaching about 45 minutes of each 80 minute session and then just allowed the students to work on other things for the remainder of the period.

This is my 4th project here in Uzbekistan in as many years and I have to say that this has been by far the most challenging. The research itself is A LOT that I am managing between all the data collection and the interventions I am exhausted by the end of each day, as is my research assistant. Having to figure out every day which classroom to go to and then also having unpredictable teachers, it has been a lot to manage, almost too much. Honestly, if I did not have such a reliable and knowledgeable research assistant helping me manage everything, there is really no way I could get this all accomplished. I’m so grateful to him and also the other friends that I have here who are all pitching in to help me be successful. From helping me get copies made at the last minute because schedules changed, to taking me to the bazaar to buy strawberries just to perk up my mood, or inviting me over for dinner so I can have a delicious home cooked meal. I’m grateful for it all.

Of course my family back home has also been amazingly supportive, both by talking with me when I’m struggling and also understanding when I’m so exhuasted that I can’t even manage a video call some days.

Only one more week of the treatment phase and then I will do my post-treatment data collection. I’m so much looking forward to wrapping this up and just being able to analyze my data and see what it shows.

We returned to regular classes on Wednesday, April 26th but the 2nd year students have practicum on Wednesdays and no classes so our first day of week was Thursday. We had a few students who were missing the pretest data because they were absent the previous week so before starting the intervention phase of the study, we collected any missing data that we could.

That took about 30 minutes of class time and then I moved into the treatment phase for each class. In one class I spent 15 minutes introducing mindfulness. In a second class we covered an introduction to study skills. The third class is a control control group so I spent the same amount of time just speaking in English with them about the topic for the day, which was health and fitness.

Friday of this week was a very busy day for me. At 10am in the morning, before going to the univeristy for my research, I went to a private school that a friend of my now teaches at to conduct a fculty training in socio-emotional learning with the teachers. This was actually the highlight of the day for me. The teachers were so engaged and interactive. We had a great discussion about stress and relaxation and how to handle various emotional difficulties in the classroom. It was a wonderful group and reminded me of why I love teaching so much. While I truly do enjoy working directly with students, over the years I’ve realized that I find working with faculty is even more rewarding for me.

Immediately after this workshop I headed over to Westminster University to present a survey that I conducted here last year as part of a project for one of my graduate courses. I collaborated on it with a local English professor from Djizak Pedagogical Institute, Azizbek, my dissertation advisor, Ximena, and my friend and research assistant here in Tahskent, Tullo. Azizbek submitted a proposal to present our research at the 4th International Conference on Education and Linguistics (ICEL) which was accepted. Our presentaiton time was Noon-1pm. I was happy to be in Tashkent and able to present for this conference with him but it did make for a hectic day.

While I was presenting, Tullo was talking with the teachers of the Speaking & Listening classes that we were working with that afternoon. Apparently one of the teacher’s mother was ill and in the hospital so she couldn’t come teach her classes today and the other teacher was busy planning her son’s wedding and wasn’t sure she could cover both of the classes. The teachers asked if I could teach the three 80-minute speaking courses by myself that afternoon. Oh, and they also said that the first class was starting today at 12:50 instead of 2:20 as is the regular schedule for Fridays.

Now, I may be an experienced faculty member, but I do NOT teach English. Just before I had to go into my presentation, Tullo called to tell me what was going on and ask how I wanted to handle it. If we couldn’t teach the full classes, the only other option was to cancel classes and I would lose a day of data collection. Lucky for me, Tullo is an experienced English teacher, so he came up with a plan while I went ahead with my presentaion. Immediately after I finished presenting, he picked me up in a taxi and we headed to the university. It turns out that they were not starting early so we actually arrived about an hour early instead of 15 minutes late so that helped take some of the pressure off. We got through the day but we were both understandably exhausted by the time we fininshed. Still, I was able to meet with all three of my groups and didn’t have to miss a day of the intervention so it was worth it.

Saturday was basically the same as neither teacher was able to be there to teach. This time Tullo and I had more time to prepare for it so we had a lesson planned. Attendance was lower than normal but those who were there for class seemed more engaged. We did decide to end each class early. We only kept them for about 60 of the scheduled 80 minute block but we made sure to cover the same content in each class (with the exception of my research portion that is different for each group) and end after the same amount of time. We also made the decision to let the teachers know that we would not be able to cover classes for them again. Hopefully this won’t happen any more.

Last weekend was Eid and the univeristy was closed for 4 days so that students could travel home to celebrate with their families. I decided to take advantage of the break and take an impromtu trip to Baku, Azerbajian with my friend. It was an easy 3 hour direct flight from Tashkent to Baku and I was able to get an evisa online in just a few hours.

We arrived in the morning and decided to start with breakfast at a little cafe in the old city called Çay Bağı 145 (Tea Garden) which has a great view of the city from their rooftop terrace. Unfortunately the terrace was full when we arrived and without a reservation we could only get a table on the outdoor patio, which was still lovely. The food was a set breakfast and was far too much for us but we ate so much that we didn’t need any lunch.

After lunch we took a walk along the boardwalk with the Caspian Sea. Even though it was a hot day, the water was still far too cold to swim, not to mention the fact that the water was nasty looking and had a smelly geen slime on the top of it along the shore line.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the old city and seeing the sites. It was so much different than I expected. The old city has a beautiful old workd Eurpoean charm with classic brick buildings with wrought iron balconies and window boxes. We wandered aournd the old city taking photos of streets, balconies, and interesting doors. We found our way to the wall of the old city and wound our way up to visit the UNESCO world heritage site of Shirvanshah’s Palace.

On our second day we rode the funicular up to the Flame towers and explored a nearby park with a scenic view of the city. The park had a very post-Soviet feel to it that I haven’t noticed much in Tashkent.

Finally, since we had an afternoon flight back to Tahskent, we spent the morning of our third day exploring a local bazaar. We even treated ourselves to some saffron to bring home. We bought 5 grams in this cute tin for about $15.

Our final stop was the iconic Heydar Aliyev Center designed by Zaha Hadid, which is in the background of the cover photo for this post.

I wanted to give you all a quick update on the situation with the older male Reading and Writing teacher who insisted that I attend his 3rd year course on Friday. Each morning I contact the Dean’s assistant to ask for the classroom assignments for the courses I will be visiting that day. The classrooms are not fixed and seem to each each day. So on Friday morning I sent my message asking which classroom I needed to go to for the 2nd year Speaking and Listening class that afternoon. She responded that Mr. so-and-so would meet me on the 9th floor. I recognized this as the male teachers from the previous day and reiterated to the assistant that I was NOT going to this man’s 3rd year course but needed to be with the 2nd year Speaking class as we had scheduled. I asked again which room that class would be in. She responded with room 905.

When I arrived at the university, I found that the elevator was out of service. Two female students had gotten stuck in the elevator between floors and workers were called to get them out. Thankfully that didn’t happen with me in it as I would have struggled to stay calm in such as situation. Oh, and did I mention it was about 87*F this day and the univeristy is NOT air conditioned?

So I climbed up the 9 flights of stairs, in high heals no less, only to find that in room 905 was none other than… that’s right, the 3rd year Reading class. I was livid. The teacher saw us (me and my RA, Tullo) peek in the room and immediately came out to great us. As he came toward me, his arm outstretched to place around me back and lead me into the room, I took a giant step back, to make space between us and just said, “No.” I immediately turned on my heels and walked away from him, leaving poor Tullo sending there to explain to the teacher what had just happened. Meanwhile, I call the Dean’s assistant again asking her for the correct room for the 2nd year speaking class. She must have heard the irritation in my voice because not 2 minutes later the Speaking teacher came up the stairs to get me and bring me down to the 2nd floor to join her class.

The rest of the day went smoothly but it will be interesting on Thursday when I go back into that guy’s 2nd year Reading class. I know that this was a strong response, but I felt it was essential to set a clear boundary right now in the beginning that my schedule cannot be changed like this without my consent. My project requires a precise schedule which was established between myself, the Dean, and the participating teachers, prior to starting the research. It is not flexible. I have been clear with everyone on this but also have offered to attend other classes or conduct workshops at times that do not conflict with the three research groups.