Thursday, November 22, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
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. :)
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. :)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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