This is the first day this week I have gotten home at a decent time – a little after 9 pm. I love Wednesdays. I had English Club today from 6 to 8. We planned karaoke for the event – it was very successful. People liked it a lot. Before karaoke we did announcement and an ice breaker. After karaoke we did colloquial English phrases. Even though there was a good amount of miscommunication, it all worked out and people enjoyed their time together at the club. Next weekend, we head to the mountains for a day of poetry, short stories, short hikes, a picnic, snacks, and games (volleyball, cards, and the likes). I hope that one goes well. The place we chose is nice, as I mentioned in my last blog posting. So, at least the place won’t be the reason for it to be unsuccessful. J
Before the English Club, I had my regular Wednesday of two private lessons (one is just talking and in the other we talk and read an abbreviated version of The Swiss Family Robinson), and a section of my film class. For the film class, I had to prepare a lecture today on The Dead Poet’s Society. We watched that as an example of a drama (genre type). After watching a movie, I like to at least point out a few noteworthy things, at least in my mind. For this movie, I pointed out that a director specifically chooses each item in the movie, from the costumes to the lines given. For the DPS, I pointed out the use of The 1812 Overture, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,” from Leaves of Grass.
Did you know is Russian, the right way to do quotation is like – “this”. not “this.” I had this mistake repeatedly in my students’ papers and didn’t understand why everyone did it wrong. But I understand now.
I have been trying to go for a walk in the morning because once I am at school, I am at school. There is no free time or chance to escape. My walks have been enjoyable so far, although eye opening. I live in a nice area – safe, relatively clean as far as Almaty goes, and the people look clean and well taken care of - but if I walk 10 minutes up the hill and to the west (so SW), I hit some very poor looking streets. I guess it is technically a neighborhood, but I find it hard to call the place that because of how it looks. You can see the pics on the web site. I guess it just proves that even though some of the city has a decent standard of living, there are still plenty of people who don’t. And if you walk 10 minutes away from a nice area, you can find yourself in a rough, poor looking area. I have running water, both hot and cold. I don’t think these folks can count on that luxury. I definitely saw a recently used public water pump. And sometimes I hear water running in homes, but I also see small pipes that are insulated. So I suspect the pipes freeze in the winter and the residents have to use the pump. I guess I will find out later this year.
The homes themselves are constructed in different manners. Some are regular brick or concrete blocks and seem sturdy and hardy. Others are brick on the sides only; inside the bricks is a hay-like material. I guess it is their insulation substitute. Other types of construction include a wattle-like configuration, with the hay covered with mud on one side – I think the inside – and then bricks on the outside. I don’t know if this is all correct, but these are my observations and deductions from walking around.
Biggest success on Sunday – made Mexican food. :) Yeah! I took a risk and bought these large flat, tortilla-looking things. I didn’t know if they would be their sweet pancakes or tortilla-like. Either way, I’m sure I would have eaten it. But, it was actually the Kazak version of tortillas. So it was great to cook up some black beans (no refried beans here), corn, lettuce, and tomatoes, and then wrap them up in a tortilla. I still need to find the spices - cumin and tarragon - but that will happen eventually. I haven’t gathered the courage for meat yet. I’m sure it will happen soon, but I am not pushing myself on that one.
As for Monday and Tuesday, nothing sticks out as completely unusual. I did take my first Russian lesson on Tuesday. It is a difficult language; the stress of a word changes depending on its use (plural, singular, if you feel like the word is having a good day J (kidding)), the pronunciation of vowels also changes depending on where it is in word and what other letters are in the word, some letters seem multi-syllabic, and there are hard and soft signs for letters. Those signs tell you how you should pronounce a letter – hard and soft. How this translates into word pronunciation, I still don’t know.
Our teacher is a co-worker of ours. She is a very nice lady and wants us to learn the language. There are only two people in my class – myself and the director of my program. So as you can probably deduce, it is an intimate session and if you make a mistake there is no hiding. With that in mind, I should do my homework at some point.
Monday, I taught some new students. It is the evening program at KIMEP for community members – aka the World Languages Program (WLP). I get paid; it isn’t in the PIA job description, but I get the feeling that it is expected. As with most things, I wasn’t told what I need to talk about or cover or even the purpose of the class. So, I winged it. I told them to close their books, get into small groups and discuss a few questions. They also had questions for me about the US and wanted my opinion on issues, so I replied to those requests.
I have had a few difficult days with Joey’s school and figuring out if he will actually be able to catch his flight next Wednesday. He can’t enter the country with a visa. And he can’t get his visa in the States without a letter and number from the KZ government here in Asia. The school that is inviting him has to start/complete that process. I have a large hunch that they didn’t start the process until I went by the school a week ago inquiring about the state of his visa. It was only then that they gave me a list of the info they need from Joey for the letter of invitation. They didn’t even tell Joey themselves. They let me do it. Not very professional if you ask me. So I tried to follow up with them this week, but the person I needed to talk with was either out of the office, didn’t have her cell phone turned on, was out of the country, or didn’t respond to personal notes or emails. As you might expect, I was frustrated by the whole experience. Finally I talked with the lady today, and she said to me that Joey has an 80 percent chance of getting his letter on Friday. He technically needs the letter Thursday. Typical Kazakhstan situation. However, he might be able to get his visa if he gets that number by Monday. So let’s hope he gets the number/letter by Friday.
I am extremely looking forward to Joey's arrival. It will be wonderful to have such a nice companion. This weekend I am going on another outdoor trip sponsored by the school. We will see what this one brings. I have to be there at 7:30 am. I hope the start time for this one is more timely than the other one. For the other one, I waited an hour and half before we got on the bus. Again, typical Kazakhstan style.
What else… I think those are the highlights. I hope all is well with people. See some of the pictures – hike up the mountain and the poorer part of town.
Before the English Club, I had my regular Wednesday of two private lessons (one is just talking and in the other we talk and read an abbreviated version of The Swiss Family Robinson), and a section of my film class. For the film class, I had to prepare a lecture today on The Dead Poet’s Society. We watched that as an example of a drama (genre type). After watching a movie, I like to at least point out a few noteworthy things, at least in my mind. For this movie, I pointed out that a director specifically chooses each item in the movie, from the costumes to the lines given. For the DPS, I pointed out the use of The 1812 Overture, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,” from Leaves of Grass.
Did you know is Russian, the right way to do quotation is like – “this”. not “this.” I had this mistake repeatedly in my students’ papers and didn’t understand why everyone did it wrong. But I understand now.
I have been trying to go for a walk in the morning because once I am at school, I am at school. There is no free time or chance to escape. My walks have been enjoyable so far, although eye opening. I live in a nice area – safe, relatively clean as far as Almaty goes, and the people look clean and well taken care of - but if I walk 10 minutes up the hill and to the west (so SW), I hit some very poor looking streets. I guess it is technically a neighborhood, but I find it hard to call the place that because of how it looks. You can see the pics on the web site. I guess it just proves that even though some of the city has a decent standard of living, there are still plenty of people who don’t. And if you walk 10 minutes away from a nice area, you can find yourself in a rough, poor looking area. I have running water, both hot and cold. I don’t think these folks can count on that luxury. I definitely saw a recently used public water pump. And sometimes I hear water running in homes, but I also see small pipes that are insulated. So I suspect the pipes freeze in the winter and the residents have to use the pump. I guess I will find out later this year.
The homes themselves are constructed in different manners. Some are regular brick or concrete blocks and seem sturdy and hardy. Others are brick on the sides only; inside the bricks is a hay-like material. I guess it is their insulation substitute. Other types of construction include a wattle-like configuration, with the hay covered with mud on one side – I think the inside – and then bricks on the outside. I don’t know if this is all correct, but these are my observations and deductions from walking around.
Biggest success on Sunday – made Mexican food. :) Yeah! I took a risk and bought these large flat, tortilla-looking things. I didn’t know if they would be their sweet pancakes or tortilla-like. Either way, I’m sure I would have eaten it. But, it was actually the Kazak version of tortillas. So it was great to cook up some black beans (no refried beans here), corn, lettuce, and tomatoes, and then wrap them up in a tortilla. I still need to find the spices - cumin and tarragon - but that will happen eventually. I haven’t gathered the courage for meat yet. I’m sure it will happen soon, but I am not pushing myself on that one.
As for Monday and Tuesday, nothing sticks out as completely unusual. I did take my first Russian lesson on Tuesday. It is a difficult language; the stress of a word changes depending on its use (plural, singular, if you feel like the word is having a good day J (kidding)), the pronunciation of vowels also changes depending on where it is in word and what other letters are in the word, some letters seem multi-syllabic, and there are hard and soft signs for letters. Those signs tell you how you should pronounce a letter – hard and soft. How this translates into word pronunciation, I still don’t know.
Our teacher is a co-worker of ours. She is a very nice lady and wants us to learn the language. There are only two people in my class – myself and the director of my program. So as you can probably deduce, it is an intimate session and if you make a mistake there is no hiding. With that in mind, I should do my homework at some point.
Monday, I taught some new students. It is the evening program at KIMEP for community members – aka the World Languages Program (WLP). I get paid; it isn’t in the PIA job description, but I get the feeling that it is expected. As with most things, I wasn’t told what I need to talk about or cover or even the purpose of the class. So, I winged it. I told them to close their books, get into small groups and discuss a few questions. They also had questions for me about the US and wanted my opinion on issues, so I replied to those requests.
I have had a few difficult days with Joey’s school and figuring out if he will actually be able to catch his flight next Wednesday. He can’t enter the country with a visa. And he can’t get his visa in the States without a letter and number from the KZ government here in Asia. The school that is inviting him has to start/complete that process. I have a large hunch that they didn’t start the process until I went by the school a week ago inquiring about the state of his visa. It was only then that they gave me a list of the info they need from Joey for the letter of invitation. They didn’t even tell Joey themselves. They let me do it. Not very professional if you ask me. So I tried to follow up with them this week, but the person I needed to talk with was either out of the office, didn’t have her cell phone turned on, was out of the country, or didn’t respond to personal notes or emails. As you might expect, I was frustrated by the whole experience. Finally I talked with the lady today, and she said to me that Joey has an 80 percent chance of getting his letter on Friday. He technically needs the letter Thursday. Typical Kazakhstan situation. However, he might be able to get his visa if he gets that number by Monday. So let’s hope he gets the number/letter by Friday.
I am extremely looking forward to Joey's arrival. It will be wonderful to have such a nice companion. This weekend I am going on another outdoor trip sponsored by the school. We will see what this one brings. I have to be there at 7:30 am. I hope the start time for this one is more timely than the other one. For the other one, I waited an hour and half before we got on the bus. Again, typical Kazakhstan style.
What else… I think those are the highlights. I hope all is well with people. See some of the pictures – hike up the mountain and the poorer part of town.
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