Monday, September 17, 2007

Good morning everyone!

Due to an extremely busy week, I have been unable to keep up with daily blog entries. Sorry about this! I hope to catch you up a little bit now.

English Club
I am part of the planning group for the English Club (EC). This is new this year and is a group of students, faculty and community members who get together to play games and meet new people while practicing the English. Last week was the first meeting and we had about +70 people attend. So we had a great turn out. We plan on doing karaoke this week with a few other games. The following week, we plan on taking the group up to the mountains for the day to play games, do short hikes, etc.

Saturday – An Unexpectedly Long Hike
This weekend was our scouting trip for the mountain EC event. We originally planned to explore the immediate areas that one other group member knew. If we had done just that, we would have been back to the city by 2 or 3 pm. We left around 9:30 am (a group member slept late).

But, we ended up meeting two Kazak guys at the last stopping spot, a great meadow that we will use for the EC gathering. Those guys were heading up to the top of the mountain. It was about 1 pm and we decided to go along with them, or to at least explore a little bit more of the area. We also wanted to reach the top of the hill, if possible. It looked like a gorgeous view from up there. And yes, it was. But man, what a climb up the mountain. We trail blazed our way up the mountain. No set trail for this part of the hike. The mountain side was so steep that we had to pull ourselves up the mountain by the long grass and little birch trees growing on the mountain side. One of group members kept on slipping and falling back down the mountain. She had the hardest time scaling the mountain side. In my trailblazing path, I ended up in some briars. I made it out of those without too many splinters or prickers in my hands, legs and arms, but it was not pleasant.

The mountain side was deceiving. We thought time and time again that we were almost at the top, but nope. It was just a part of the mountain that jutted out more than that rest of it, making us think we were at the top. Really, we were still quite a ways from the top. Up we climbed, through briars, birch trees, spiny grasses, and rocks. We stopped periodically to let slower members catch up. The guys were very nice and being typical Kazaks wanted to carry all the girls’ things. Women aren’t meant to do such heavy lifting. I refused as much as possible, but eventually I let in. They were persistent.

Finally, we reached the spine of the mountain. What a relief! I then found out that there is actually a nice path we could have taken, instead of the trailblazing. I wondered why those guys didn’t take that path. Evidently the trailblazing is quicker, but I am dubious. Later that evening, we took this nice established path back home, but it too is a hard hike up to the mountain spine.

Upon reaching the spine of the mountain, we had some amazing views. On one side was Almaty, far below us, and on the other were the towering mountains capped in snow. Those were gorgeous. One of the group members knew about a waterfall further down the path, as well as another grassy meadow area. So we decided since we had made it up there, we might as well explore. On we hiked along the mountain spine for about another hour or two. Finally, we reached a point where two parts of the mountain range met. We saw part of the Tain Shen mountains that you can’t see from Almaty. They were spectacular. This meeting spot of the mountain range parts/branches was a nice meadow and open area. We rested here for a bit. We heard a waterfall, so we walked a bit farther to find the waterfall. It was a short hike there and a pretty little fall. Not too much water, but the area was cool and the water made a pleasant sound. It was a nice place to visit and end our journey.

After exploring that area a little bit, we headed back to the warm meadow and had dinner. It was about 5 pm. I was getting a bit concerned about the light and hiking back, but I decided to go with the flow of the group. It was very nice of the guys to hike with us and help us along the path, so I didn’t want to push our luck. The guys brought all kinds of interesting things to eat – a whole roasted chicken, vodka, whiskey, orange juice, yogurt, and rolls. No water. We brought out the leftovers of our picnic lunch from earlier in the day – cookies, M and Ms, ham, bread, pears, apples, other local fruit, peanut butter (it was a hit on the fruit), cheese, water, etc. We had a feast. After eating, some people took naps. I explored a bit more. I went to the top of a ridge and looked down at Almaty on the other side. It was a speck - a tiny little speck in the whole, open country side. Turning around to look at the mountains, I felt dwarfed. The rock peaks are jagged and bare with white patches of snow and ice.

We also talked to a few other hikers in the area. Evidently, if you go past the mountain range opposite of Almaty for about one day you reach a large lake. To get up to the mountain range to see the other side, it is a two hour hike. We didn’t do this hike. We stayed put. There were also a good number of 4 wheel drive vehicles coming from the opposite direction that we came from. Honestly, I wanted to see if we could get a ride back with them, but I didn’t mention it. We would have had to split up; we had a total of 6 people in our group with the two Kazak guys.

Finally, the group mentioned leaving, so we packed up the food and blankets and hiked back the path we walked on to get there. No trailblazing this time. We got to the bus stop about 7:30 pm. It was dark and we hoped that the buses were still running. It was cold and I was getting a bit worried. Luckily, we saw one bus crawl up the mountain, so we knew it had to come back down. About 16 minutes later, we got on the bus and headed home. I got back to the apartment around 8:30 pm and took a nice long, hot shower. I assessed my scrapped arms and legs and found that I was overall just fine. I concluded the scraps and bruises were well worth the effort. It was a great, although unexpectedly long, hike.

You will have to wait for photos until tomorrow or the following day.

Sunday – Grocery Shopping and Grading
The following day, Sunday, I took a co-worker to the Green Bazaar. I got fruits and veggies for the week. Afterwards, I had a lesson and met with a student at school. I then finished shopping for the week at a grocery. In the evening, I caught up on grading papers and went to bed early.

The Week

A Side Job
During the week, I was busy planning the English Club and editing a 50 page thesis for a girl in Uzbekistan. Her brother randomly came into the office and asked if I would edit the thesis. I was a bit suspicious and asked to be put in direct contact with the author of the paper. He gave me her email address and after emailing her a few times, I decided to take the job. I told them I would charge $25 an hour. She needed it two days later, so I should have charged more. Based on Internet prices, I should have charged about double what I did. But lesson learned. I also should have made it clear that I would not deal with various versions. I should have said that I would only deal with one version. This would have saved me a late night meeting with a friend of hers where we exchanged edited drafts. But, like I said, lessons learned.

Visas
I also have been trying to get Joey’s visa stuff straightened out. That has and will continue to take a few trips to the school he is working for. Kazaks seem to procrastinate with this stuff, which stresses out the person on the other end – aka Joey and myself.

I went down there on Friday and reminded them that he was coming in about 10 days. I found out that the main person that Joey and I have been dealing with, Zazhira, has been out of the country and is supposed to return this afternoon, Monday, to the office. I plan on making a trip down there to see her this afternoon. Because of my talk with the school staff on Friday, I decided to find out the information they will require from Joey to get his visa and letter of invitation to the country. During our conversation, they tried to convince me that he could get a tourist visa at the airport. But I know from other conversations that this is not possible. He needs to be here for 9 months and be able to work. A tourist visa will not let him do that. He needs a work visa which requires going to the Kazak Embassy in the US. After mentioning this, they agreed and decided they would call Zazhira and the office they work with to get visas and letters of invitations that day. I left soon after and drafted an email for Joey to send to them with all the information they requested for the letter of invitation. It is quite a process.

Language Lessons
On top of those things, I had my private student lessons and regular courses to teach. I also found out about Russian lessons and begin taking those on Tuesday. Kazak lessons will come after I know a bit of Russian.

Other Comments
People at school continue to ask about my health, which is very nice of them. They say that the food they eat here is more natural. I disagree. I had very good eating and exercise habits in the States, much better than here. But they seem to think that all Americans eat is McDonalds and other such food everyday. I can’t imagine! They obviously haven’t seen Super Size Me. I thought about mentioning this and explaining that more than likely it is the meat storage habits (very little refrigeration) and water they drink (I treat all of mine before I drink it) that made me sick. But I refrained and kept my mouth shut. They have good intentions and I appreciate their concern.

I gave a few exams/tests/quizzes this past week. ALL the students cheat - eyes peaking on other people’s exams or students speaking to one another about questions when I am right in front of them. I just don’t get it. After each of the exams, I tell them they can’t and shouldn’t cheat on these quizzes. It isn’t allowed. One of the students replied, “Oh Professor it is fine. It isn’t a big deal.” I wanted to ring his neck. And still, I don’t think they did well. Oh well. I will see what the results say this week.

I also had papers due last week. The introduction paragraph – that is a hard concept for students. I even lectured on how to write the intro paragraph and we went over examples of a good intro paragraph. And still I get crap. Learn students, learn! Absorb the info I tell you and you read in your books. You can do it!

As you can tell, this continues to be a learning process. I am slowly figuring out the details of this place and education system.

Anyways, I should finish learning the Russian alphabet and grading papers. This week promises to be just as busy as last week, but I hope to be better about writing. Hope things are going well, wherever you might be.