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.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
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.
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!
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!
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