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.