December 9 through 17, 2007

This week hasn’t been good.

Sunday
I guess I should have had some apprehensions about the week after my landlady kicked me out of my room that I rent from her at 10 pm last Sunday with five minutes notice. If you want the whole story about this traumatic event, I will send it to you, but I am not going to post that story on my blog. I went to Joey’s after being kicked out. Thank goodness he is here. And I am thankful for his presence not just because he gave me a place to stay on Sunday night.

Monday through Thursday
Monday was the second to last day of school, so I had a lot of presentations, grading, etc. to get done. I also had a tutoring session in the morning with Salta. We are working on college applications. The biggest success was transferring money from a bank account in Kazakhstan to my bank account in the US. Joey received a package from him family on Monday. So we had a good time unpacking the big box of goodies they sent over.

Tuesday was the last day of classes and more of the same activities as Monday. Submitting grades for students at KIMEP is a bit tedious; however, they do submit the grades online, thank goodness. I submitted grades for one class on Tuesday. I also went down to the post office and picked up a package from my mom! It was wonderful to have new socks and a homemade scarf to wear, and chocolate chips and real liquid vanilla extract to bake with. I can’t wait to bake chocolate chip cookies.

(photos copywritten G. Phunk Photos)

On Wednesday, I had a lesson with Salta and got grades completed for two classes and submitted those. Thursday was meetings with students and teachers, tutoring sessions, and more grading. My grandmother fell and broke her hip one of these days, so I got bad news that day. I am not exactly sure what day that was. She can now walk a few steps, but it has been hard on Mom and Dad because Mom has had to be up in Eureka a lot.

Friday
Friday was rough. My brother informed me that Mom, Dad and him had to put down Patches, our dog. She was 14 years old, so very old for dogs, but it was painful that she was gone. I also felt bad that only John could be there with Mom and Dad. Patches had liver failure. They buried her in the backyard overlooking the creek. That same day my Aunt Tedi’s father had a serious heart attack. While most people wouldn’t necessarily consider this family, to me he is. My family is very close and doesn’t stop at blood relatives. Tedi’s parents have been a part of my life since I was young and have always been kind and supportive. It was painful to learn about his most recent heart attack. He has recently gotten out of critical care, but the situation still isn’t looking good.

The one good thing about the day is that I gave my last exam and was able to submit the class’s grades. In the morning I had to sit on the Entrance Exam Appeal Committee for the school. The school gives an entrance exam to potential students entering KIMEP to test their English grammar and reading comprehension. Students can then appeal their score if they feel that their paper was graded incorrectly by the computer. I had one applicant who was justified in his appeal; the computer didn’t count some of his right answers because he marked out one answer already bubbled in on the answer sheet. The other applicants did not have anything wrong with their scores. They just wanted to see if I could give them extra points.

I am not sure how good of an indicator the test is on English language ability. In school, you need to have good listening and speaking skills, as well as reading and grammar. To me, the TOEFL or other such standardized test would be a better entrance exam. That test measures reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and is harder to cheat on. We had an illegal set of answers running around Almaty for one of the test versions. You could buy the test answers for $500.

Saturday
In the morning I helped Joey with his English Club. We discussed Christmas. I think it went well. My English Club had a similarly themed session last Wednesday. The students really enjoy hearing about what we do in America.

KIMEP has the policy that students can appeal their course grades 48 hours after the grades have been posted. The grades are usually posted online 48 hours after teachers submit the grades to the registrar. So I had to be at school for part of this day. I also was at school for English Club. They watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” (in color!), while I researched activities and places for Joey and my Thailand trip. Joey came by later in the afternoon to help with the research.

After the movie and research was over, Joey and I tried an Italian restaurant about 40 minutes away walking from KIMEP. It was decent, but not spectacular. After dinner, we headed back home and were in the apartment by 11ish. We were happy to get back. The weather is frigid here. We had snow all day on Monday and that snow is still around. The weather hasn’t been warm enough to melt it away.

Sunday
I packed for Thailand and rearranged a few things. After packing, Joey and I headed off to see what his students said was the biggest Christmas tree in Almaty. It was in Ackent, a suburb of Almaty. We walked to the area, which was a pleasant enough walk. But the place and tree was disappointing. We saw a bigger Christmas tree with a more impressive set up on our walk to the Italian restaurant the night before. Also, the wait for the bus and remaining walk back home was incredibly cold.

Upon reaching home, we quickly made dinner. Since then, I have been doing small things that need to get done and writing this summary.

Next Week
I hope the next few weeks are better than this week. Joey and I go on our trip to Thailand. I am incredibly excited about seeing this country and being in warm weather. J We go to northern Thailand for about 7 days, and then southern Thailand for about 5. We will be in the northern part for Christmas and the southern part for New Year’s Eve.

I don’t know where I will live when I get back. I will have to figure that out this week.

If you don’t hear from before the 25th, MERRY CHRISTMAS! And have a wonderful New Year!

End of November and Beginning of December, 2007

I have been horrible the past two weeks with updating my blog. I apologize.

Monday, December 2, 2007
It has been foggy, snowy and cold here for the past few days. However, this hasn’t stopped Joey and me from getting out and seeing different stores and parks within the city. As quirky as it sounds, one of our favorite types of stores to visit is grocery stores. Because some grocery items are rare, browsing through a grocery store is similar to going on a treasure or Easter egg hunt. The finder of the rarest and most coveted item wins great respect from the other. J So we continued our game and tried a new store on Sunday. We didn’t find anything too exciting, except boxed macaroni with a white cheese sauce. Sunday, we also explored a craft fair in the state museum close to Joey’s place. There were tons of traditional Kazak, Uzbek, and other Central Asian goods. I thought about buying things there, but most were pretty expensive and I think Thailand will have better deals.

Saturday, December 1, 2007
On Saturday, Joey’s school had their English Club which he develops, organizes, puts together and leads. He has no help, except what I can do. So, he is a one man show. I helped him get things together and bake a cake on Friday night. And then on Saturday, I helped him set up, clean up and lead the tasks during the meeting. After English Club there, we headed back home with the EC materials and had lunch – cheeseburgers. After lunch, we went down to KIMEP. The KIMEP theatrical society is putting on a play, Searching for Daniel’s Heart, so Joey and I watched it on Saturday night. Before and after the play, we figured out our Thailand schedule and booked our domestic flights. We have about 6 days in the Chaing Mai area, 5 days on the beaches and a National Park (Khao Sok), and any remaining days in Bangkok. Domestic flights are relatively cheap, but the initial price online isn’t what you should expect to pay. You need to double that price, because flight taxes are astronomical.

Salta had her SAT I today. I hope she did well on it.

It was foggy and snowy today.

Friday, November 30, 2007
I was supposed to have a lesson with Salta and Lazzat today, but it was canceled at the last minute – aka one hour after I was supposed to be there. They had a guest and they didn’t want lessons because of it. So my day didn’t get off to a great start. But I read some of my wizard book and did prep work for dinner with my free time in the morning.

In the afternoon, I worked at KIMEP. I reviewed some English entrance exams for the school. They want me on a council, but I don’t want the extra work. I am going to try and get out of it. (I just found out I am on the council – I can’t get out it. Bummer.) After reviewing English sentences, I started to work on final grades for my students. The semester ends next week, so I am trying to get prepared. I got started on all of my classes. I now have to decide how much extra work I want to do to help my students get a better grade because they didn’t do their work when they were supposed to. I think my spirit of giving might be limited, even though their grades aren’t the best. It isn’t my fault they didn’t do the work when they were supposed to.

Snowed today.

Thursday, November 29, 2007
I am trying to work out a little bit on Thursdays, Tuesdays, and Sundays. Sundays, I get Joey to direct me and on the other days I figure out things to do myself. Even though it is only a few days a week, it is better than nothing, which is what I was doing before.

I headed to school in the afternoon to attend a few meetings, Russian lessons, prepare for classes, and teach classes. Joey came by in the late afternoon to use the internet. Neither his school, nor his apartment, have internet, so he comes to use KIMEP’s.

I tried to talk to someone about my spring semester, but got yelled at instead of the information I needed. Great personnel relations, right?

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I gave Salta an SAT I exam to prepare her for her upcoming exam. She didn’t do so well. Not sure what else I can do for her to make her learn things. She is trying to learn new words, which are a big part of the SAT, but it is a slow process and she seems to always forget what they mean. I had lunch with her and proceeded to invite her to Joey’s place for dinner since her family was away. She agreed to come at 6:30 pm to help me prepare food, and then eat it.

After lunch, I headed to KIMEP for a few meetings and prepared for class and a tutoring session. This tutoring session has become pretty regular, so that is nice. The girl I tutor is about 12 and named Assel. She is pleasant to talk to and I think, I hope, she enjoys the lessons.

The meeting I attended was for KIMEP’s English Club. We are planning a Christmas themed celebration with a gift exchange, singing, group discussions about Christmas in the US, and other Christmas themed activities. Hopefully, it will be well received. It occurs Wednesday, December 5.

After lessons I rushed home to get things ready for Salta’s arrival and then went grocery shopping with her. Kung Po chicken was on the menu and I think most everyone enjoyed it. Salta then dropped me off at my mountain home – the room I am renting in an older lady’s house.

I guess I haven’t told everyone that I moved. Rent was too high at the apartment James and I rented together, so we started looking for somewhere to live. James’ housing idea was the apartment market, which wasn’t successful. I came up with about three suggestions. Two didn’t work out, but the other is where we are now. It isn’t ideal by any means, but it is less expensive than our apartment. Instead of $600 for rent, I now pay $250. This is because I rent a room in a house. I no longer have my own apartment, or even set of keys. The landlady, a recent widow of about 65, stays at home all day, so she says we don’t need a set of keys. This is fine if we come home before 10 pm, but after 10 pm I begin to feel bad for the landlady. So there is a tacit curfew to the place.

She also hopes, expects, us to be around to talk with her. For me that is impractical. For James, it is also hard.

Yesterday, Sunday, my landlady asked me why I never come home. She evidently was unconscious for about 5 minutes on Saturday and James didn’t hear her fall. She wanted to know why I wasn’t there to help her I guess. I proceeded to tell her that I am sorry, but I work most of the day and teach until late most evenings. On the late nights, I go to Joey’s because it is closer and feels like a safer walk. I don’t know if she fully understood my reasoning. It is odd having a motherly figure in your life after 8 years of not having a mother check in on you everyday. And even when I did live at home, I was free to come and go as I pleased. My parents trusted I would be back eventually, or find a good place to spend the night if it got too late.

Sunday, November 25
Woke up a little late and did some late minute shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner preparations. After the grocery store, Joey and I did some exercises to get ourselves nice and hungry. Once clean, we started on Thanksgiving dinner. We had a roasted chicken instead of turkey, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and a chocolate pie. Needless to say it wasn’t as good as home’s, but I was very full after the meal anyway. After cleaning up dinner, I headed back to my mountain room to visit my landlady and complete some late night grading.

Saturday, November 24
Today Joey and I relaxed in the morning and went grocery shopping to get most of the items we would need for our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. In the afternoon, I went by to see my landlady and unpack a little bit. We just moved into the place on Thursday and I have very busy Fridays and Thursdays. So I had not had time to do that yet.

After a few hours at my mountain room, I headed back to Joey’s and we made a late lunch. We then rushed out of the apartment to try and find a basketball game on the other side of town. After some walking around and few inquiries, we found the game. It was the Kazakhstan national championship tournament. The game we saw was Almaty versus another city’s team. It wasn’t the most exciting game, but I was impressed with their shooting ability. Lots of 3-pointers were made in the game. The “box” is an odd shape. It isn’t a box; it is more like a triangle with the point cut off. It was unusual to say the least.

During half-time Joey and I took a walk outside to see if we could find the circus. We found the circus, but we couldn’t find out the performance times because it was closed. I was bummed out. After the game Joey and I headed to the largest shopping mall on that side of town and explored. We didn’t find anything too exciting, but it was nice to get warm before our walk/bus ride home.

Friday, November 23
I moved in the morning to my mountain room. The driver was an hour late. James had to leave as soon as he dropped his stuff off at the house, so I felt like I should hang around a bit and talk to the new landlady. I didn’t want us both to be completely rude. This caused me to be late for my tutoring lesson that afternoon.

Thursday, November 22
Not at all like in the States, but Joey and I tried to make the best of it. I called Grammy in Eureka to say hi.

James and I tried to move into our new place in the morning. We had a car arriving at 8 am. The car arrived around 8:20 am, but James didn’t get out of bed in time so we didn’t leave our place until around 8:45 am. Because of this, we arrived too late at our new house. The landlady had already left for her doctor’s appointment. The driver and I weren’t too pleased.

Wednesday, November 21
We had English Club on Thanksgiving. I wasn’t feeling too good, so I wasn’t the best person to be there. But I didn’t have to do much, so that was good.

Monday, November 19
We had Salta over for dinner. Her family was again away. She then wanted to get dessert at a nearby restaurant so we went with her. The desserts here are deceiving. They look spectacular, but once you taste them you want to spit them out. Most cakes taste like cardboard. By far, I prefer to cook at home. The meals here aren’t my cup of tea and the desserts are bad. People here must have very high cholesterol because they eat a lot of eggs for breakfast.

Alright, that is it. Phew… I bet you are tired of reading.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

November 9 through 18, 2007

Shymbulak skiing area

The past two weeks have kinda been a blur, but here is my attempted summary.

Friday, November 9
Happy New Year! The first snow of the year! For some reason, people say Happy New Year with the first big snow of the year. Not sure why. We got about 6 inches of snow on Friday, so it was more snow than I had seen in a while. The city was gorgeous afterwards, but it sure was cold. That night Joey and I went to a club for a drink and some dancing. Again, it was cold. J

Saturday, November 10
This was the day after the very large snow. Things were still covered in white fluff, but it was melting and turning grey. The water channels had some snow melt running in them. Joey and I decided to go for a walk around Almaty. However, because it was so cold I decided to break out my wonderful, brown, long sleep bag coat, aka my parka. With my brown boots, brown toboggan (hat for people not from the South), and brown fur-lined hood on my coat, I think I successfully looked like a brown Eskimo. Joey got a kick out of my outfit when he first saw me.

On the walk, we went to one possible housing location, a neat grocery store and the central park. The central park was crawling with bridal parties. I think we saw about 7 bridal parties there. If I was to ever get married in Almaty, I would go to that park first to see what kind of gown I want. There are some interesting styles. Almost all of the dresses are ornate with lace, ribbons, hoops, etc. The dresses in winter also have a fur coat that goes with the dress. Joey correctly assumed that the people must be wasted by the end of day, because they drink copious amounts of alcohol at each stop, such as a national monument or the mountains. The bridal parties make numerous stops.

Sunday, November 11
Joey and I went to the home of his Babushka, the lady he had a homestay with at the beginning of his time here in Almaty. She is a very nice lady and was glad to have us visit her. I am afraid that my Russian still isn’t wonderful, so the conversation was limited. But it was a nice time nonetheless. Before going to Joey’s Babushka, we went to the large market nearby her place. It is the “Second” Green Bazaar, so there were lots of goods being sold like clothes, office supplies, etc. as well as many types of fruits, vegetables, meats, and dry goods. Those markets are always fun to walk around in and see what you can find.

Monday, November 12 through Friday, November 16
My tutoring family returned from vacation so I had my regular schedule of tutoring in the morning MWF, and then KIMEP in the afternoon and/or evening. The women are very nice, and bought me a nice bottle of perfume in Dubai.

The younger of the two women, Salta who wants to go to college in the US, has SATs, TOEFL and SAT IIs coming up within the next two months. So we are busily preparing for those tests. In addition, she has all of her college applications due at the end of December. Keep your fingers crossed for her! To show her dedication to studying, Salta is skipping a trip to London this coming week. So, I have Salta for a good chunk of time this coming week. Hopefully we will get a lot done. Also, because she is home alone, I have invited her for dinner this coming Monday, the 19th.

I made a quiche with cauliflower one night this week. It was decent. Unfortunately cauliflower isn’t as flavorful as other veggies, like spinach and broccoli. So it wasn’t the tastiest quiche, but it was decent.

On Friday KIMEP hosted a nice tea for teachers at the Language Center. These teas are always entertaining because simultaneously to eating lunch there is a program that teachers create with singing, interesting facts, etc.

Saturday, November 17
Today was busy with English Clubs – Joey’s and mine. Joey had his EC at noon, so I helped him set up a bit and gave a short presentation on my family. It was the same presentation that I gave to my EC a few weeks ago. I left his EC around 12:45 pm so I could meet my EC at 1 pm. We went to Medeu. Most of the people went ice skating, but Dinara and I took a cab farther up in the mountains to Shymbulak to hike. Shymbulak is the skiing area that Joey and I will eventually visit, but the ski slopes aren’t open yet because there isn’t enough snow. They expect to open in December. I believe that it will cost about $60 a person to go skiing there. That would include ski lift tickets (you buy the individually), transportation up there, and skis. But I am not entirely certain.

Dinara and I went up to the area to hike. We followed the chair lifts for a while, and then took a side trip to the top of a mountain ridge to look at the other side of the mountain. Even though my sneakers and jeans got soaked when blazing a trail in 2 feet snow, the hike up the mountain was worth it. We had a great view. The mountains were covered in snow, but the highest peaks are just rock. No snow was on those peaks, and they contrasted nicely with the white slopes. Evergreens are located on the slopes as well, so they added a nice bit of color. I will post pictures when I get them from Dinara.

To keep ourselves entertained during the hike, Dinara and I sung songs. She taught me one about a Christmas tree in Russian. I sang a few for her in English and others we sang together in English. So it was an entertaining hike. We then took a taxi back down to the skating rink to meet up with the rest of the group. The hike back on the road would have taken too long.

Once getting back to Almaty by a bus, I met up with Joey and we made a chicken pot pie for dinner. A few improvements are needed, but overall it was a good first attempt. I usually make the pie with corn and lima beans. But they don’t have lima beans here, so we used short pieces of green beans.

Sunday, November 18
The housing search continues and D-day is fast approaching – this Thursday. No home yet. We have a few options, but none that are fully acceptable. There is one apartment that might have rooms to rent, which is what I would like to do. But I am waiting for details. A teacher needs to get back to me.

Since nothing is assured here, James, one of his friends, and I went searching for the “house/apartment/room renting market.” Yep, just like food, there is a market to find apartments, homes and rooms to rent. We walked around for about an hour and half and couldn’t find the place. But after asking several people and finding people who rent apartments by the hour, we located the “apartment market.” It is a sidewalk crowded with tables, chairs, and people. Some people are looking for places to rent; others are trying to rent their place.

The people who are trying to rent their place have a sheet of paper attached to their chest with the price, number of rooms, and location (usually the nearest street corner). Other people renting places have a table with lists and lists of available places. You just have to look hard enough and you will find almost everything. But you can’t take anything for face value here. You have to haggle and check on everything. We felt like we were scalping for apartments. As you might guess, you need Russian for this market, so it was a good thing that James’ friend knew how to speak Russian. We would have been helpless otherwise. We did get a few numbers for possibilities, but who knows what we actually found. We will have to visit the places this week. Things go quickly here, so who knows if we will find something acceptable.

One fun thing is that Joey has become my personal weight trainer. So, maybe I will have arm muscles when I get back. :)

November 3 through 8, 2007

Saturday
This past weekend we traveled up to Medeo, which is a 30 to 45 minute bus ride up into the mountains. Medeo is one of the highest Olympic-sized skating rinks in the world. I was surprised at how big it actually was. I have even more respect for the Olympic skaters now. I felt like it was at least half a football field long, and perhaps as wide a football field.

The rink is surrounded by mountains, but on the southern side there is a towering dam. Joey and I climbed up the 850 steps to the top of the dam to see what was on the other side. To my surprise, there was only a trickle of water. A small amount of glacial melt was running into the dam. However, there were a few tall cement towers to the right side of the dam on the water holding side, so I assume that the water level gets relatively large in the spring. I would like to see the water level in the spring. I am interested in how much water is created by the mountain snow melting.

Once up at the top, Joey hung out and took a few photos while I climbed up a bit more. In the distance we could see Shymbulak, a well known ski resort here in KZ, and I wanted to get a better look if possible. From where Joey was, the view was a bit shielded by a mountain side. So I walked some more and got a better look of the ski village and the slopes. The slopes look very snowy, cold, and steppe. I don’t know if my Appalachian mountain skills are going to be enough for these monsters. We will find out soon enough.

When I was exploring, I received a phone call from Joey suggesting I come back down because the forest/brush fire was coming our way. At the top of the mountain we could see smoke billowing and some large flames. So I scrambled down the mountain back to the road, dam, and Joey. The steps down from the top of the dam were much easier than going up.

For lunch, we headed to the place where I took the English Club when Joey first arrived. However, we got sidetracked and took another trail. This trail led us up to another mountain ridge. We walked through an apple orchard, a camping area with a fire place, and a nice conifer forest. We had lunch in the conifer forest. The sun was going behind the mountains, so it was getting colder. We had a quick lunch and decided to head back. It was about 3:30 pm.

Joey had the idea to go down the steep gorge so we could climb up some more steps to get to another mountain ridge. I wasn’t too excited about climbing the steps, I liked the idea of going back down the trail we had just climbed up, and I really didn’t like the idea of sliding down the mountain side. The mountain side was too steep to walk down, so I let Joey lead the way. Wasn’t that kind of me? J I slid down the mountain on my butt. I was hoping I wouldn’t tear a hole in my jeans. I honestly don’t know how Joey got down. I was concerned about not tumbling head over heels down to the valley.

We reached the valley and climbed the steps up the mountain. However, we found ourselves in a resort type complex protected by a security force. We found a road and walked past, and got stopped by, two security guards. They wondered how we got into the complex. They only spoke Russian, so our explanation wasn’t extensive. But they let us go. Afterwards, we reached the gated exit and had to walk past the security guards, and dog, there. Luckily a truck was coming in, so we scurried through the gate.

So that was a fun day trip. :)

Sunday
James and I are looking for a new place. We have to move out of this place by November 22nd. So I went to a lady’s home to check out the possibility of renting a room. The walk is a little too much and there are not enough lights for my evening walks home. The place was nice, and the price was right. But I don’t think I can deal with the lack of security when walking home at night.

In KZ, it is very common for an older woman or couple to rent out the rooms in their home to people. This woman was going to sleep on the couch in the common room if James and I moved in. The common room is open to the kitchen. I tried to explain that we get home late and cook late as well. I don’t think that would work out well with her sleeping habits. I don’t know how much she grasped of what I was saying. We would have had our own bedrooms with locks on the doors. But she would have slept on a pull out couch. It is interesting what people will do here for money.

I finished grading my students’ midterm papers in the early afternoon. Twelve out of 34 students plagiarized. I was horrified. I also went to a museum with David and his cousin Aziz. Joey was doing blog stuff while I did this I think. After the museum, Joey and I played some basketball with the neighborhood kids. I then took him up to the home that I saw earlier in the morning. I wanted to make sure he felt similarly about the walk. After the dark walk, we headed back to his place to make dinner. It was a nice day overall.

Monday
The big event for Monday was that I found frozen spinach. I can’t for the life of me find fresh spinach, so I am ecstatic that I found frozen spinach. Other than that, it was a normal day. My tutoring family is still on vacation, so I didn’t have anything work-wise to do in the morning. They return this weekend, so I will be busy again next week.

Tuesday
The big event – I bought tickets to Thailand in December! Yep, Joey and I are going to Thailand for two weeks. I am super excited! We just have to plan the rest of the trip now…

Oh and Joey made some delicious chicken cheese steaks for dinner and chocolate covered pretzels for dessert. It was a good meal.

Wednesday
I gave a presentation for English Club about my family. I copied a bunch of pictures of family holidays so the students could see my immediate family, and some of my extended family. I didn’t have any all-inclusive extended family shots, but I managed. I showed a few pics of family vacations and us goofin’ off. It was fun to put it together, but a little sad. I miss family.

The other big thing I did was go down to the airline office and pay for our tickets, in cash. Here, they give the option to pay for your tickets within 24 hours. We are flying the KZ national airline – Air Astana. This required talking to an agent, going to the cashier, and returning to the agent. I don’t know if I would do the pay within 24 hours thing again, but who knows.

Cars and Dogs

Cars
You can find almost any type of car here: Audi, Hyundia, Honda, Lexus, Ferrari, Toyota, Renault, Chevrolet, BMW, Land Cruisers, Lada (Soviet car), and lots of other old Soviet cars that I don't know the names of. The models vary from ancient to brand new. The driver’s side can be either the left or right and no seat belts are required.

Driving laws are vague at best. I was told by one driver that in driving lessons the cops told him that a whole line in the middle of the road means you can’t cross into the lanes on the other side. It is very easy to take for granted ideas like that which we view as common sense. However, drivers do understand the importance of slowing down when cameras are near that can take your car’s picture. It is amazing how quickly those cars can slow down. You better hold on if you catch a ride.

Dogs
There are lots of stray animals here. I have seen several different packs of dogs and lots of individual cats. They roam the city like they own it; however, they are careful to stay out of your way. When I walk down the sidewalk, dogs skitter out of my way. They give me these looks of worry like I will kick them. I guess others have kicked and abused these dogs.

Most of the dogs live in the sewer I think. I see them running down into pipes like it is their den. They eat anything they can find. Often I see bones lying on the ground that they have chewed. The dogs are thin, primarily black and brown, small to medium sized, and their coats don’t look the healthiest.

However, with the grown dogs come puppies. And they are the most adorable things. There is one black puppy right near Joey’s school that is the cutest thing. I really want to take it home with me. It sits in the sun to stay warm, and is all black with a little pink tongue. Fortunately I would want to have the dog spayed and I have no idea how to have that done here in KZ, so I am resisting the temptation to swoop the puppy up and take it home. Also Joey tells me no, repeatedly. So no dog for me yet...

Week of October 29, 2007

Monday
Tutoring in the morning with my family. I made a spreadsheet for Salta so she could start doing applications. We also registered her for the SAT IIs. However, later in the day she decided that she wanted to unregister for the SAT IIs and instead take the SAT I again in January. She could only take one or the other. If some of you remember from applying to schools, or helping others apply, the top schools require SAT IIs. Those top schools are where her parents and sister want her to go. So, she is in a pickle now and thinks she might want to switch back. She is going to drive me crazy before the end of this.

After tutoring, I headed to school to prepare for my class and input some mid-term grades. That took a while. I taught class and then tutored another girl in the afternoon. After tutoring I reorganized and headed off to teach another course. Unfortunately though, it was cancelled and no one told me. I was a little pissed. I gave up talking to my parents on Skype to run around school to try and find a class that didn’t exist. Sometimes I really miss America.

Tuesday
Nothing too exciting. I graded papers, went to Russian lessons, did my lessons and taught. I really didn’t feel like teaching my last class that day, so it wasn’t the best class ever.

Wednesday
Happy Halloween! Today was the English Club’s Halloween Party. For my costume I originally was going to wear a traditional Kazak outfit, but at the last minute that didn’t work out. So I had to think of something else. I did that about 45 minutes before I had to be there; I was a tree. I didn’t have too much time to figure out another costume when she called at 11 am saying I couldn’t wear the Kazak dress.

Classes and papers went relatively well. I had lunch with Joey. He has been feeling sick for the past three days, so he went to bed for a little while after lunch. I headed to school to finish up a Jeopardy powerpoint for the Halloween party. I then taught class and gathered things for my costume.

The actual Halloween party went over relatively well. We went over some Halloween terms and the kids practiced those for a bit. Then we divided the group into 4 teams and they played my Halloween Jeopardy game. I think they like that. The questions were a bit simple for them, expect for the ones about Halloween’s origin – a pagan holiday. But I think they had fun. After that, we had stations and games set up that they went to. We had apple bobbing, a mummy wrap relay, guess the food which is disguised as a body part, and pumpkin carving. They carved the pumpkins you eat, not the typically American Halloween pumpkins. They don’t have those here. The skins are much thicker on the pumpkins here.

After about 25 minutes, we had a pumpkin carving and costume contest. The costume contest awards were for the scariest, the most creative, the kindest, and something else. And yes, the kindest was a category. Don’t ask. I was the judge somehow.

After the contests, we had musical chairs with a cake as the prize for the winner. I had three separate groups of 8 going individually. When there were two people left in each group, we had them come together in one circle and go one more time. The kids liked seeing them fight for the chairs. Finally, one person was left. But we had two pieces of cake so the first and second place winners got a prize.

Joey had his own Halloween party for his students, which I think went well. After cleanup at my school, I made dinner for Joey and myself and shortly after I went to bed.

Thursday
I am just getting started with the day. But I suspect I will finish typing this up, do some things on email, grade some papers, continue to figure out mid-term grades, prepare for my classes and try to find an adapter. Dinner at Joey’s tonight, so I don’t have to worry about that one.

Week of October 22, 2007

These top four are from Joey's scavenger hunt. The ones below are from Big Almaty Lake.

This past week I had off from KIMEP. It was busy! Even though KIMEP had a break, I continued to tutor my family. The main reason why I told them I could still tutor this week, instead of going away, is because Joey’s birthday was this past Tuesday. So, I stayed around Almaty to hang out with him. J I also wanted to continue to tutor my family. Additionally, I didn’t have time to plan anything on my own and I wasn’t too keen on the idea of traveling alone.

Monday
I tutored my family in the morning from 8 am to 12 pm. I sure hope the women are improving. I think they are, but I see them so often that it is hard for me to tell. As with most students, their writing needs the most improvement. Unfortunately though, the only way to get better at that is to do it, and they really don’t like doing their homework.

One of the interesting things about teaching English is that you find some things very hard to explain. Some phrases just sound better one way over another; for example, the use of “the” and “a.” Sometimes the use of these articles is exchangeable. Other times, it isn’t and I am unable to tell them the reason. (However, my mom told me today that she found a way to explain this, so I will see if the explanation makes sense to me when I get that information.)

In the afternoon I bought Joey’s birthday presents - a basketball and a few other smaller items - wrote his scavenger hunt for him to find his presents, helped plan the games and layout for the Halloween party for English Club, and tutored one student. In the evening, I gave a final to two classes. I will no longer be teaching these students come November. I gave the director of that program my two weeks notice last week. This is a different program than the one I am contracted to work with at KIMEP. It was just too many late evenings at school. I was there until at least 8:30 pm Monday through Friday.

Tuesday
Today was Joey’s birthday so I made him breakfast and later in the day I made his birthday dinner – a chicken dish with black beans and tomatoes, homemade mac and cheese, another pasta dish with peas, garlic and a white wine, some roasted veggies, fruit, and a pound cake with chocolate pudding in the middle. If you can’t tell by the amount of food I made, I invited a few people over for dinner. We really don’t know that many people, but I invited Dinara (a friend of mine from KIMEP who is the logistics coordinator for the EC) and David, a person we met through the internet.

So, I cooked a good amount during the day and went to Russian lessons. At 5 pm I met Joey at his place and guided him through the scavenger hunt to find his presents. Of course, we had to play basketball a little before we left the court, which is where I told him to go get his basketball. Guests arrived around 7:30 pm and most everything was ready. So, we were able to sit down to eat pretty soon after they all had arrived.

Dinara lived in the US for a year (I think) and she said the dinner style was very American; I put the food on the table in dishes. It was an interesting comment. She also said she liked the party because it was small, intimate, included lots of talking and had a few games. So, I think she had a good time.

David had a good time as well, I hope. He drew a very good fish for Joey’s aquarium.

Wednesday
I tutored my family in the morning from 9 am to 1 pm and then went home to grade a few papers. Around 3:30 pm Salta (one of the women I tutor) picked me up and we headed to an orphanage in Almaty. Salta’s brother in-law is one of the main benefactors to the orphanage so I thought it would be good if she took advantage of that connection. I told her she had to do this volunteer work for her college applications. I have never been to an orphanage before, so I found the experience to be eye opening. If nothing else, I am more grateful for my own up bringing. I hope Salta feels similarly.

As a good gesture, Salta wanted to buy the kids some candy. So we stopped at Ramstore (the Wal-Mart of KZ), where she bought about $50 worth of candy. I was thinking small candies, but she wanted something larger – Twix bars, Kindercare eggs, and lots of other things. I hope the kids don’t have too many cavities because of all that sugar! With our candy in toe, we headed to the orphanage. It is about 5 minutes away from my house by car, and it looks like a regular apartment building with a few more play sets in front of it than usual. In total, this orphanage has about 115 children and some of the kids have physical or mental disabilities. To me, the orphanage seemed large with lots of rooms, but I don’t know how much room is required. It could have been cramped.

We were assigned to a group of about 20 4-year olds. Two nannies took care of the children; they have a tough job. We joined the group as they headed to music lessons. The kids sang and danced for us, and afterwards we gave them some candy. The music lesson lasted about 30 minutes and then we headed down to their playroom. We danced with the kids to Russian music videos on TV, tried to assemble the toy in their Kindercare Egg, and goofed around.

We also went for a walk with the kids around the orphanage. This is quite a task. It requires getting each of the kids a hat and coat, and putting it on them; this is not easy with them bouncing off each other like boiling water molecules. No one coat or hat belonged to one child. It was a free for all to get these items. Whoever was the strongest or quickest got the hat or coat they wanted. It reminded me a little too much of Darwin’s theory that only the strong survive. Once outside, they all wanted to hold Salta or I’s hand. Unfortunately, 4 hands are not enough for 20 kids, so some were a bit disappointed. While on our walk, one staff member gave them a Kazak treat – a salty, milk-based ball. I really dislike this Kazak food, but the kids ate them like they were a lollipop.

One interesting thing about the children is that they only spoke Kazak. Later, Salta told me they will learn Russian. So, my Russian lessons didn’t go too far with these kids. But I find you really don’t need to be able to understand what kids say too much at that age. Usually if you pay attention to them and play with them that is enough.

Overall thoughts - They all seemed to crave attention and nothing was specifically theirs. I think those were the two hardest things to get accustomed to. It didn’t seem the most nurturing environment even though I am sure the nannies try their best to make it that way. I just think it is difficult with so many children, limited funds, and limited personnel.

After the orphanage I headed home. I graded a few more papers and then went to Joey’s place to heat up leftovers for dinner. He arrived around 8:30 pm from school and we ate when he got home.

Thursday
I tutored my family again in the morning, had lunch at Joey’s and played basketball with him afterwards. The basketball court is in the middle of an apartment complex, so we had 4 kids come out and play with us. One was a girl, Delaura is an somewhat accurate English transliteration of her name, so I tried to make sure that she got the ball a lot. I guess I am biased. Joey’s team won all the games, I think. But we had a good time nonetheless.

After basketball, I cleaned up myself and the apartment a little bit. I headed over to Joey’s after a short while and we had leftovers, again, for an early dinner. The dinner was early because we headed to the opera in the early evening. Not the best opera, but it was nice to go to one. The acting was not the best and one of the characters’ voices didn’t carry far enough. It got lost in the music. The casting was also a bit odd. For a girl who was supposed to be 15, the actress looked very close to 40. The music was pretty though. Hopefully I will choose a better one next time, but it was a good first attempt.

After the opera, we headed off to watch the tail end of the fireworks that celebrated the birth of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We threw around the idea of going to bar after the fireworks, but decided to head back home instead.

Friday
Joey had off today so we decided to make the trek to Big Almaty Lake. It is a gorgeous lake surrounded by snow covered mountains and about 8,000 feet in elevation. The area is frigid and windy. Nonetheless, we headed up to the lake. To get there, you have to take a taxi from the outskirts of town to a water pipe 20 km up in the mountains. We paid too much for the taxi there (about $18 each), but made up for it by getting cheap taxis and a bus on the way back down. Once at the pipe, I was directed by a colleague to follow the pipe up to the lake. It was that simple – follow the pipe. The pipe however, didn’t take the easiest route. It was steep, icy, snowy, rocky, cold, and did I mention, steep? J Luckily, if we kept moving we didn’t get too cold.

We followed the pipe for about 90 minutes and finally reached the top of the mountain pass and found the lake. The lake is about 1.5 km long and is gorgeous (at least in the winter!). Both Joey and I were glad we made the trip in the winter because the snow on the mountains made the lake that more striking. The color of the lake water was a nice turquoise blue; the mountains were snow covered white with a few grey rock outcroppings appearing. The tops of the mountains were intermittently shrouded in clouds and a few paths could be seen going up further into the mountain range. We didn’t take those paths. We decided to leave those for spring or summer when it is warmer. I don’t think Joey would have followed me if I decided to go higher into the mountains. I don’t know if I would have followed him. We were both pretty beat, and cold. A few cottages for rent are up by the lake, but I wouldn’t trust staying in them. They looked a little too ramshackle for me, despite the new bright colored coats of paint.

Check out the photos on Joey’s and my blog site for some visuals.

We hung around the lake’s edge and walked the perimeter. You can’t walk around the whole lake because the mountains hit the south side of the lake too sharply. We did find a quaint river that ran into the lake, so we had lunch there. It was a relatively quick lunch because if we stayed still too long, we became frozen. But it was a good meal despite the chilly air. I don’t know exactly how cold it is up in the mountains, but here in Almaty the high was 54 F. We were doing this in the morning (we woke up at 7 am), so I suspect it was about 45 F. Up by the lake it was probably about 0 C, or 32 F.

There is my math so you believe me (Mona/Jen/Hita/Chris, feel free to check it for me if you want J):
~ 2,700 m – Big Almaty Lake (elevation)
~ 800 m – Almaty (elevation)
About 2000 m difference in elevation and for every 100 m gained in elevation the temperature drops one degree C. So, Lake Almaty is about 20 degrees C lower than Almaty. The temperature high in Almaty was 26 C that day. So let’s say it was about 18 C at that time in Almaty. That means at the lake it was about 0 C at the lake.

After packing up lunch, we walked around the lake a bit more and through the cottage village. We then headed down the mountain. That took about half the time as the trip there. There were also lots of people heading up the lake in cars and by foot. So I am glad we went early. Hardly anyone was out when we were there.

We headed back down the pipe and started walking the 20 km back to Almaty. We knew we had to catch a ride back to town, or at least to a bus stop. Neither of us was up for the 20 km walk back to Almaty. So we started walking and tried to flag a car to take us down the mountain. It wasn’t too successful, but after about 6 km and the 15th try we caught a car. They took us down to a village where we could take a bus the rest of the way to Almaty. We were grateful for the car and bus rides after walking so much.
We got off the bus around 4 pm at the same area that we caught our first taxi 8 hours earlier in the day. This area is across town from our places and near the closest thing KZ have to an American mall – Mega Center. So I thought we should stop in since we were so close. We walked about half a mile to the shopping center. It has two large floors, a small ice skating rink on the bottom, and a decent sized climbing wall on the side. Lots of name of name brand stores and food court restaurants were in the center. Most importantly, it was warm and we enjoyed people watching and item browsing.

After Mega, we were exhausted and ready to head home. We decided on something easy for dinner – Mexican. We hung out around home for the rest of the evening; I watched the most recent Harry Potter and Joey intermittently slept.

SaturdayWe slept late, or at least sorta late. I picked up my book from Mona and finished that the other day. I read about 350 pages I think. It was wonderful! In between reading, I shopped for groceries and went for a walk around a few parks in the city. It was surprisingly warm yesterday, about 50 F, so it was a pleasant walk. Joey made a Polish dish for dinner, which was delicious, and then we went off to Kok-Tube in the evening with Dinara and a friend of hers. I have described this place in previous blog entries. But I went in the day. This visit was in the evening. It was nice to see the city lights and I enjoyed trying to figure out where things were based on light patterns. Unfortunately, the mountains were not visible.

That is pretty much it for Saturday. Not too much going on.

Sunday
I tutored in the morning. Really I researched colleges and downloaded applications for Salta. But you know whatever they want me to do. The lessons ended early because one of the small children fell off the bed and bumped her head. So they wanted to take her to the hospital. So since 11 am I have been typing up this summary. Luckily, I am almost done. J

Alright that is it for now. Tonight I am making pizza for Joey and myself. Hopefully I can also grade a few papers today since I finished my book the other day. I think a good book is one of the worst/best (depends on how you look at it) ways to distract yourself.

Week of October 13 and 20, 2007

I finally have a few moments to write about life here in Almaty. As you might be able to guess, things have moved more rapidly since Joey’s arrival. I have “something” to fill all my free time now. J

Below is my account as best as I can remember. You should also check out Joey’s blogsite for more details and stories.

Last Week
Don’t remember much about what happened during the week. Sorry guys! The important weekend events are described below.

Dance music
I had the worst dance experience ever at KIMEP two Friday’s ago. I mean, this was the worst experience ever. It was a party organized by the International Campus Club. For music, they played really bad techno as loud as possible. For decorations, they had strobe lights flashing the whole time. Imagine a big flash going off in a dark room every 2 seconds and that is what they had. The only good thing about the lights was that they covered up any bad dancing; you just had to change positions from the last strobe light. Dad, you would look great if you could survive the music. J Because of the strobe lights, I didn’t exactly know where I was in relation to other people, so I couldn’t get near others. I had to have at least 3 or 4 feet in between myself and the next person. Otherwise, I would get a tooth knocked out or be very badly bruised. I know this from experience. I was knocked into more than a few times.

Joey and I had to take a break after the “washing machine” song. I felt like I needed to go back in because a few of my friends were there and wanted me to “enjoy” the music and dance. There isn’t a greater oxymoron then their use of enjoy at this moment.

I don’t know how people can stand going to clubs if they are anything like my experience at KIMEP.

See Joey’s blog for his thoughts on this dance experience.

Ramadan
The Muslim holiday of fasting, Ramadan, ended last weekend. To celebrate, families have a large spread of food and invite all their friends and family over. I was invited to my tutoring family’s house on Friday. So I went for the afternoon; I couldn’t stay for the main celebration in the evening because I had to teach. Since I was there early, I met a set of grandparents, played with the kids, recruited Salta (one of the women I tutor) to help me finish up an exam I was giving that evening, and helped Lazzat (the other woman I tutor) rearrange food and the party room. I liked the rearranging part the best, well besides the eating.

There was a variety of food served. A typical dish at these celebrations is rice with yellow peppers and lamb and/or horse. Lazzat had this catered, as well as all the other food. The rest of the table was covered with tomatoes, cucumbers, various salads, Korean dishes, Uzbek dumplings with beef and onions, fruit, and some other things I have forgotten. Another table was covered with catered desserts – a mango mousse cake type creation, chocolate mouse cake, a carrot cake-type things, cheesecakes, and lots of other things. Liz, what are the pyramid-shaped desserts called? They had those too.

The other post-Ramadan party I went to was organized by a mutual friend, David, of Joey and me. Joey and I both went to David’s apartment. He had the rice and lamb/horse dish, several Kazak salads, dessert cookies, nuts, fruit, tomatoes and cucumbers. We had a very good time eating and talking with him. He just returned to KZ from the US. His wife is still in the US and will come to KZ in December. So, it was nice to see him.

Uighur Traditions
Earlier in the day, we went with him to a book signing for his mother. They are Uighur, which is a tribe in China. They have lived in Almaty for a long time, but he and his mom both know the language. The book his mom wrote was in this tribal language. Joey and I saw several traditional tribal dances and musical performances while at this book signing.

Ballet
Last Sunday Joey experienced his first ballet ever. This was my second so I was a seasoned veteran. J We were invited by one of the teachers at KIMEP. Her name is Yelena and she has been a great mentor and friend since my arrival. The ballet’s story was incredibly hard to follow. The main character dies of a broken heart in the first act and the second act is about her ghost interacting with the guy that she fell in love with when alive. Overall, a really weird ballet, but the dancing was impressive. I have a great amount of respect for the ballerinas and their ability to wear, let alone dance in, those painful shoes. I also like seeing the jumps and turns. I remember the ballet classes I took when I was younger and I think I got dizzy when I did the turns (I have forgotten the name of the turns, so feel free to post the name if you know it).

Tickets are cheap ($20-5 depending on where you sit) and the theater is small. We had very nice seats and I loved hearing the pit orchestra. I had a good time picking out instruments as the ballet progressed. It made me miss playing the oboe.

Joey’s blog has a few pics of the ballet and theater.

Mid-Terms
Last week at school, I gave mid-terms. I took up about 40 essays on The Shining, gave speaking exams to 23 students, gave a mid-term for 15 students on academic reading and writing and took up about 15 papers on the use of statistics in academia.

The coming week is a break for the students, but I will be grading the items I picked up, giving tutoring lessons, organizing and throwing Joey’s birthday event and several other things. See my brief overview of the coming week below.

To help one teacher celebrate the end of mid-terms, Joey, James and I went to dinner with that teacher to Chinese food. It was decent food, but not the best I have had. I like Thai much better.

Alfiya - Art Museum and Cookies
Because of my family tutoring gig, I had to give up a few other private students. One of these students was an 8 year old girl name Alfiya. She cried when she found out I couldn’t tutor her anymore. So to help ease her trouble, I said we will get together sometime soon. I decided to invite her over to make cookies and her dad and I set a time for them to come over, this past Saturday.

In return, Alfiya invited me to the opening of her art exhibit at the Art Museum this past Friday. She has art classes after school and the kids had their art displaying in the museum on Friday. At her art opening, I heard a very good boys’ choir. They are going to the States to compete next week. They are very well known here and probably well known if you are knowledgeable about boys’ choir, but I am afraid I can’t even remember their name. However, that didn’t stop me from enjoying their performance. They sang a variety of songs, some traditional, another from Mexico and several others.

After the performance we saw the kid’s artwork. Never fail, I am always impressed with the talent some young people have. Some pieces were amazing. There was also a piece by a 55 year old woman. It reminded me of Grammy and her art classes. I liked the older person’s work a lot; it was a winter scene of the Kazak countryside.

On Saturday though, she and her dad came over to Joey’s to make cookies. I had two cookies to make and Joey had paper and markers to make sea creatures. For cookies, I made a type of sugar cookie that was chocolate in the middle and regular sugar on the outside. We put two of these little cookies beside one another to make owl eyes and put M and M’s in the middle. We also turned up the edges to make the ears. After making the owls, we did a little artwork and baked the cookies.

After some artwork, we made the other cookie. A chocolate cookie that you had to roll in sugar before you baked them. Alfiya had never baked or made cookies before, so she had a good time. Again, we made more sea creatures and told jokes while those baked. Overall, I think everyone had a very good time. And Joey was very good about helping out and letting me have it at his place.

This week:
Monday – Tutoring and teach my last class (Finals)
Tuesday – Joey’s Birthday – enough said
Wednesday – Tutoring, Korean food at my tutoring family and an orphanage visit with Salta
Thursday – Tutoring and opera with Dinara, her friends and family, and Joey – he is becoming so cultured J
Friday – Tutoring and perhaps a trip to Megacenter, Almaty’s super mall. I am not sure what this mall includes but I am told it is very big.

Next week:
My tutoring family goes on vacation (to Dubai – I wish I could go with them but I have to teach at KIMEP) so I get some free mornings! I won’t know what to do with myself.

October 1 through 7, 2007, Monday through Sunday

The pictures are from the week before.

This week…

Sick again! I’ll tell you what, my stomach just doesn’t like the microbes here! I will go visit the doctor again on Monday. Maybe they will help me think of a permanent solution to my stomach situation.

Monday
A usual Monday on the whole – tutoring the TOEFL family and then KIMEP until 9 pm. I met up with Joey that evening to see how his day went. That was his first real day at school, so it was a bit trying. But, he got home eventually and had a home cooked meal by his babushka. I think he enjoyed those meals.

OH – this is important! On Monday it snowed. Yep, it snowed on October 2nd and I was there. I am amazed I survived. That is definitely the earliest I have experienced snow and I hope to never have it that early in the season again. It was surprising, and I wasn’t prepared for it. Who thought I would go anywhere where it could snow in October?

Tuesday
I stayed around home until about 12 pm. I graded papers and tests, and visited multiple stores for food. Nothing extremely exciting I’m afraid.

Wednesday
I started to feel bad again and I continue to feel bad, hence the trip to the doctor tomorrow. I made it through class somehow, but I had to cancel my lesson and was unable to attend English Club. I don’t think EC went as well as other times. I am afraid that Dinara and I are the ones that make most of the decisions during the meeting. And since I wasn’t there, she didn’t really have anyone to bounce ideas off or have encouragement to change or shorten games. I think some games went too long and people got bored and restless.

Joey was nice enough to meet me at my place that evening and cook me dinner. He took care of me the rest of the night, which was nice.

Thursday
I picked up my first package from the States! Thanks to Mona, a friend from JHU, I am the proud owner of two great books, The Ender’s Game and another by Goodkin. The one by Goodkin is spectacular and I am already on page 235 of approximately 500. The Kazakhstan mail service doesn’t actually deliver the package to your address. It delivers a piece of paper that says you need to pick up your package at the post office. I think this is to prevent your package from being stolen. Evidently though, it is not uncommon for that one piece of paper notifying you about your package to be stolen. If you don’t get that, you would never know you had a package. So if you send me a package, let me know. I think it took about 2 weeks for Mona’s package to get here.

The post office is a good 20 minute walk from the school, but the day was pleasant, I didn’t feeling horrible at the moment and it was nice to get outside. I was five minutes late to Russian lessons though. I felt bad too because my other classmate never showed. So I was late and the other one there. I apologized profusely to the teacher, who is very sweet.

Friday
I had TOEFL tutoring again in the morning and went to the school to prepare for my class and have an EC meeting. Early travelers to North America is our theme, in honor of Columbus Day. I tried to explain that it really isn’t a big holiday, but they like the idea behind it and it stuck. This is the last EC meeting before exams, so we need to make it good. Nothing else exciting on Friday, I don’t think. I went by and got paid for the month of September. That was good.

Saturday
Happy Birthday KIMEP! You are 15 years old! It was a large celebration on campus for KIMEP. Activities lasted throughout the day, including concerts by students, skating, food venues, games, sports, etc. I bought a few local items from a Kazak lady – two nice red, orange, green, and purple pillow slips and a table cloth type piece with greens, purples, blues and reds. Not exactly sure what I am going to do with the later, but I liked it and I haven’t bought anything from the locals yet, so I thought I might as well. KIMEP had a nice dinner for the faculty served in buffet fashion with a variety of salads, finger foods, meats (horse, beef, fish, chicken), rice, breads, etc.

After the dinner there were a few speeches and entertainment. The best part was a Chechen dance preformed by children. They had the traditional dress on. The boys (men) were the focus of the dance. They did turns on their knees; the typical Russian dance I think of with them sort of squatting and kicking out their legs (that sounds horrible, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it); the boys also did jumps and some fancy footwork. I was sorry I didn’t have my camera. I would have loved to have gotten their photo. The female part was very subdued when compared to the male’s role.

My second favorite performance was a trio of male students playing the traditional Kazak instrument, the dombra. It is sounds like a mix of a guitar and a higher pitched string instrument, perhaps a ukulele. I am not sure how many strings are on the instrument (I think about 4), but the traditionally fretted area of a guitar (I don’t think the dombra had frets) was incredibly thin. I am impressed the boys were able to move their fingers so quickly on such a small piece of wood. Also, when the instrument is strummed, it isn’t just strummed in the more traditional area, over the circle of the instrument. Instead, the player strums the instrument in a variety of places; each place produces a unique sound. A few singers and dancers also presented that evening, but the dance and dombras out preformed the others.

A DJed dance for students and faculty members followed 2 hours later, but I was feeling sick and didn’t want to wait around the two hours, so Joey and I headed to his place!

Yep, Joey has a nice apartment now. He no longer stays at his homestay an hour away from work. Now, he is only a 10 minute walk away. This is much more convenient. He has a big whooping 5 minute walk to work and lives in the penthouse of the apartment complex. He has two floors; the second floor contains a greenhouse type room, an outside porch, a small sauna, and a bathroom. The first floor contains two rooms with doors that can be made into bedrooms comfortably, a large open sitting/dining/living room, a nice size kitchen with new appliances, a nice bathroom and a good washing room. The master bedroom is amazing- large room, a jacuzzi, large bathroom, etc. but he can’t use that room. The owners requested he not live in there. He has the “office” instead, which is still very nice. He has an empty aquarium as part of his bedroom wall. It would be cool if fish were in it, but he probably won’t get around to that. He won’t be here long enough. Nevertheless, his place is very nice.

Sunday
I worked most of the day. I took Joey down to the Green Bazaar and I bought some fruit for the coming week. Joey just wanted to look around. We walked around a park or two that you pass through on the way to the market and enjoyed the nice day. We actually ran into one of the KIMEP teachers on the way to the market. After the market, I had a few meetings and some grading to get done. One meeting was with a student, another was a private student of mine, and the rest of the afternoon was grading these horrible assignments that I will never assign again. I will have to think of something different for the second half of the semester.

After my afternoon at work, I headed to Joey’s. While I was working, he was busy cleaning his place, buying necessary items from a shopping store, and unpacking his things. He also managed to get food for dinner. So while I continued grading my student’s assignments, he made dinner – tacos and chicken soup. It was an unusual, but delicious combination.

We headed back to my place after dinner. I had an early morning the next day, tutoring the TOEFL people.

Alright, that is it for now. I will tell you about this week later on. I need to run a few errands and study up on my Russian. I have Russian lessons today!

Saturday, September 29, 2007 and before

Playing catch up again!

Friday
Joey arrived on Friday. :) I met him at the airport early in the morning. This required getting a cab at 5:00 am so I don’t think I was the most awake person at the airport. However, he made it through customs without any problems and walked through the gate around 6 am. I waited with two people from ICC Plus that were there to pick him up. From the airport, the four of us went to Joey’s accommodations for the next few days, a homestay in the suburbs of Almaty. He is staying in a nice place where a grandmother of one of the school staff member’s lives. If the place wasn’t so far away from the city, it would be a nice set up. The woman is very friendly and wants to make sure he eats, which is good. At least he won’t starve. J

I stayed with him there for a few hours. He slept off and on, while I graded papers and “chatted” with the grandma. She actually has a similar breakfast as me, a combination of sautéed or cooked veggies and bread. And she also offered lots of tea. That is the drink of choice here. Water is not appropriate with cookies, breakfast, etc. Tea is.

Around 11 am, a staff member of ICC Plus came to pick us up to take us to ICC Plus. We arrived around 11:30 am and I headed off to get the apartment somewhat clean, grocery shop for our hike the next day, and get ready for my class that evening. The rest of that afternoon I spent preparing for class, taking care of errands at school, and catching up with teachers. I didn’t want to hang out ICC Plus. I feel like I have kinda been a nuisance to them and it is Joey’s school and job. I don’t need to be there to complicate things.

Class ended around 9:15pm. I was ready for that class to end. The kids were not into class and hard to control and keep quite when others were talking, even when I was talking. I lost it towards the end and told them if they talked like they did in that class again, I would give them all zeros and cancel the whole class. I can do this. I have asked. So, they understood my frustration after that remark and kept quite for the rest of class.

After class, I met up with Joey. We went to a dinner for international faculty; there were the traditional Kazak foods – horse meat, multiple salads, breads, a finger sandwich with meat, cheese, cucumber, mayo and tomato – sushi, and various desserts from Kazakhstan. I stuck with the vegetarian sushi. Joey had had dinner earlier and stuck with apple juice.

After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back to my apartment. We both unpacked a bit and then went to bed. He had a long day at school, not to mention the 30 our flight, and my week has been hectic.

Saturday
This was the English Club’s trip to the mountains. It was a very pleasant affair. We met at the selected bus stop at 9 am and traveled up the mountain to our drop off point. David, a guy that Joey and I have both been in contact with through the internet, came along. I think he enjoyed the day with the group, so that is good. He is a very nice, pleasant person. He is a Kazak, but has lived in the US for the past 11 years; he recently returned to Kazakhstan in June.

I took the first group up the mountain and managed to get us off at the right stop. J We waited for the rest of the group; they were on the next bus. When everyone was together, we headed up the mountain to a meadow that James, Dinara, Dinara and I had found earlier in the month. See my blog entries two weeks ago for more details about that trip. Once at the field, I led a few icebreakers that were decided upon the week before. Afterwards, we got into small groups and created limericks (a type of poem, like Hickerory Dickerory Dock). It was fun to hear what the groups came up with. Joey’s group had two very good ones.

After poems, we had a picnic in the traditional Kazak style with everyone sharing their food. A group of students, David, Joey, and I then went up the mountain on a short hike, about an hour. We had a very good view from one spot. See the following pictures. After the hike, we hung out in the clearing and cleaned up a bit. We ate one more time, J, and then played the human knot game. That was entertaining and I think the kids enjoyed it. With that game, and announcements, we concluded the meeting and headed back home. We took buses back and Joey and I got home around 4 pm. Not a bad day at all. Met a lot of nice people and had beautiful weather, for the most part.

Not sure what the evening will bring, but I’m sure we will do something.

Tuesday through Thursday
This was full of teaching – two sessions of the 8 am - 12 pm tutoring, one other private lesson, and KIMEP. Keeping up with KIMEP is fine so far. I have a good amount of grading to do this weekend, but that is normal. I had quite a few deadlines this week – essays, article reviews, tests, etc.

The school had a nice lunch function for the Language Center teachers on Thursday. I arrived late, but the tail end was nice. I also had Russian lessons during those days. I am learning the language, but it is slow. However, the locals appreciate the effort. They are willing to help you with pronunciation – this is so important! – and increase your vocabulary. Their patience is appreciated.

The days were long though. I stayed at KIMEP each night until usually 9:30 pm teaching. Oh man, what I would do for morning classes…

There really isn’t much else for those days. I helped Joey out with last minute details. The school wasn’t planning on picking him up or providing housing for him as of Tuesday. I made a few phone calls, and went by the school a few times to try and correct these problems. You can see how they might be tired of me.

Next weekend is KIMEP’s celebration of 15 years. It is a whole weekend of events. I look forward to seeing my co-workers’ families, playing games, talking in a non-work environment, etc.

Fall is here. It is official. It is cold in the mornings and evenings leaving to and from the apartment. And the days don’t get incredibly warm. A long sleeve shirt and pants are required for the day and a sweatshirt or fleece is needed for the evenings and mornings. The mountains are white with snow. We had a little rain a few days ago. It turned to snow up there - COLD! It is overcast now, which is unusual here. I guess this might be typical for fall, but I obviously don’t know for certain.

My mom wanted to know the veggies I eat now, so I will tell you all as well – green and red peppers, eggplant, apples, sometimes nectarines, plums or bananas, tomatoes (very good ones), broccoli sometimes, and onions. Overall, it is a satisfactory mix. I go through a lot of veggies during the week.
So yeah, that is it for now. I hope everyone is doing well.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Monday
Met with the TOEFL tutoring group today. They seem like a nice family. I teach two daughters and one of the daughter’s husband. Two of them, the wife and husband want to study at Harvard. They have two children. The other is younger, about 18, and wants to go to school in the States. I don’t know how much I can do, but I will go through the TOEFL study book with them and speak, listen (and correct), and read and correct their writing for them. However, the days I teach them are long. I get picked up about 7:30 am, arrive and teach for 4 hours and then go directly to school to prepare for classes there and teach. Ah well.

I go to the family’s house to tutor them. They just come in one after another for four hours. I do get a break with coffee/tea and cookies at the two hour mark. So that is good. The wife is a doctor; the husband does something else. Not sure what he does. The house is nice; three stories I think. The family has nine security guards/helpers, one cook, one permanent maid/cook helper, a nanny for the kids, and probably other staff I didn’t see. The paid staff well out numbers the family members. The house has a pool, a landscaped yard, an elaborate play area with artificial turf, a driveway with about eight BMWs, and who knows what else. The property has two security houses, a pool house, and extra cars for the security drivers to use for carting around people like me (I ride in one of the several black Land Cruisers they have). So, I don’t know what they do, but I can see how they might be “politically important.”
We finished watching The Third Man in my film class today and I watched Ghostbusters for fun at home. The first was made around 1950 and was entertaining, but the second is more my generation. I enjoyed both.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sunday
Success – I made a more than palatable red sauce! The Italian world of food is now open to Amanda’s kitchen in KZ. Yippee – pizza, pasta, etc. Yum, yum. I bought lots of veggies and fruits yesterday and today – tomatoes, red and green peppers (I love the red peppers here!), eggplants, and apples (if you get them fresh they are most delicious fruit you will ever taste!). I think I mentioned some of these items the other day. Hopefully, these fruits and veggies will last through the rest of the week. I tend to eat a lot of them though as the week progresses.

Cleaned the kitchen and my bedroom this morning. There isn’t AC here and the summers are hot, so I usually left the windows open during the day and night. The apartment stayed cooler because of the air moving around, but unfortunately the apartment also became dirty. The outside, somewhat dirty air comes inside and forms a film on most surfaces. My room was the worst. I have a shelf right under the window and there was a noticeably large layer of dirt on it. It doesn’t rain much here, so dirt is easily transported by the wind. However, I did buy an umbrella today; the fall and spring have more rain than other times of the year and I have been caught at school twice already when it was raining. And walks uphill in the rain back home from work without an umbrella when I am craving dinner are more than unpleasant. The umbrella cost about $18 and pops out so it is easily transportable.

After grocery shopping and cleaning, I headed down to the school to meet with a student and have lessons. The student and one lesson showed up. The student is always prompt and a pleasure to work with. The lesson was an introductory meet and greet so it wasn’t a paid lesson. My student will be a small girl, about 7, who is just starting English. She is cute and her parents want her to have two lessons a week. I don’t know if I will be able to keep her with the TOEFL lessons beginning tomorrow, but I will see.

The other lesson didn’t show up – this is twice in a row he has not shown up or called me to say he won’t be able to make it. I won’t schedule another lesson with him. Another person cancelled her lessons with me completely today. She and I originally had agreed upon 3 one hour lessons a week. Her health, and her daughter’s health, is bad, so she wants to take a break. I understand her reasoning and asked her to call me when she wants to resume lessons. But, it is good that I have this TOEFL gig.

The TOEFL lessons begin tomorrow. They are sending a driver for me in the morning. Evidently, my students are “politically important.” Not sure what that means, but I hope they are nice and want to learn.

Not too much else today. David and I had planned on getting together today, but that didn’t work out. I encouraged him to come to the mountains next week though. Maybe he will be able to make that trip and meet Joey.

An international film festival started today. I went to part of the opening ceremony where the famous directors and actors in attendance were introduced and walked down the runway from the street to the building with the films. They had women in traditional Kazak dress (a white dress with red cloth trim and white fur edges) greeting the people. The locals seemed to know the directors and actors; I didn’t so I left pretty quickly.

I am very excited about my friendship with a co-worker of mine – Russell Ragsdale. He worked in the States in the culinary industry for about 37 years and then came over to Kazakhstan in 1992. In the States, he was very successful in this field. He served as a consultant and Su Chef for several restaurants in large cities, such as Phoenix, and led the restaurants to success – from being completely unknown to one of the top 20 restaurants in the city. In Kazakhstan, he is a judge for cooking competitions on TV and sometimes is the cook himself. I was impressed and asked if I could come over and watch him cook one day. Lucky for me, he agreed and I think he is looking forward to our visit. I mentioned Joey, so he has an invitation to come along as well. Russell asked if we wanted to help prepare the meal and I said, “Of course! That would be lovely.” So, we are going to help too. What fun! I’m not sure when all this will happen, but we will work out a menu and a good day sometime soon I am sure.

Russell is also a poet and is compiling a book of his poems to be published. I have helped him edit and shape them over the past few days. It is a fun process. He uses a minimalist style, little or no punctuation and several different poem forms. The result is a free flowing poem without fluff, which is what I like. I now have a collection of some of my favorites by him. I have also begun collecting a few by Walt Whitman thanks to my showing of The Dead Poet’s Society in film class. WW was an amazing poet.

Russell is married to a Kazak woman in Almaty and his daughter (technically step-daughter) recently got married. His daughter is moving to Germany to be with her spouse soon. His wife works at the CDC here in Almaty as an epidemiologist. She sounds like an interesting woman. His biological son lives in Wilmington, NC with his family. He didn’t know many details about his son’s life, but I thought that was kinda cool. It is a small world.

Joey’s visa saga continues to be a headache. I hope he is able to figure it out on Monday, but I won’t count on it. I don’t count on much as far as the KZ government/embassy is concerned.

Judy, I have lots of M&Ms here. No worries. Thanks for the offer though!

Alright, I have an early morning and long day tomorrow - lessons early in the am, and classes in the pm and evening.

Sleep well!