Russian Cultural Center

It's been a while since my last post.  Things have been super busy here lately.  Our annual big Go Skateboarding Day event was this past Tues, the 21st.  There was media coverage from AP,  BBC, MSNBC, Lomo and many others for those who are curious.  The Friday before Go Skate Day, however, we went out and did some exploring in the city.  We went to check out an potential skate spot which was an old Russian Cultural Center.  This place was f'ing gnarly!  The whole place was riddled with bullet holes and a bunch of spots were blown out from rpg's and whatnot.  Walking around, the first piece of advice I was given was to watch my feet.  There were used syringes and condoms everywhere from the junkies who hideout there - kinda reminded me of walking around FDR in Philly ha.  Anyways - these are a few pics from the day.

Sights from the Streets

Personally, I find the simple things I see to be the most interesting. It's the things that don't surprise those living in Kabul, or those who have been here for a while, that seem to jump out to me the most -  things like a dude riding in a back of a watermelon truck or 12 people crammed into a small Toyota Corolla. I still think it's pretty crazy to see people walking across the 50 mph traffic within inches of their own lives. Another thing that sticks out to me here is all of the construction.  There is so much being built here, and many of the building methods are pretty wild. As someone who has worked in construction before, this just really catches my eye. I also think it's interesting because these are the scenes of Kabul and Afghanistan that I never saw through the Western media.  We see a lot of the negative, especially war and violence, but we don't see much about everyday life here.