To the Kosmos!

It's been a little while, but things are going all right.  It's almost time to head back to the U.S.  It's a bittersweet point for me.  As of tomorrow I have a week left in Almaty.  As per usual, Kazakhstan is an amazingly well kept secret.  The best times I've had here, like always are with the friends I've made and how they've taken me into their homes and hearts.  I'm not really at liberty to go into it, but there's been some personality conflicts and things that have put me under a lot of stress and really made the time here a lot less pleasant than it usually was.

I'm not saying I've had a bad time here--far from it, but sadly this trip has probably been the least enjoyable one.  But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about the good and to thank some of the people who have made this trip not just bearable, but enjoyable.

First person I want to thank is my good friend Marah.  I first met Marah waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in my old Semey days--back in '11.  She was a student at SSPI and she wasn't one of our teaching assistants, but she often came along to our campouts and helped us out.  Earlier in July she got in touch with me--surprising me with the news that she's now living in Almaty, with her own English language school.  She gave me the opportunity to help out with a few of her classes--which is always neat.  People here who are studying English are usually very dedicated to their study, motivated, and extremely friendly.

Marah's opportunity helped me to reconnect with people in Kazakhstan, which in a country of abundant natural resources are truly the best resource they have, in my opinion.  At the lowest points in my trip here, Marah reconnected me with people and made sure that I was having a good time in Kazakhstan.

The silver-haired gentleman is Bob (or Vladimir Satylaganov), a great guy and one of Marah's students.  Bob's a musician--teaches at a private school in Almaty, but when he's not teaching he's out and about or performing with his band at places like Hard Rock Cafe Almaty.

Marah's also been kind enough to bring me out to events or up to the mountains.  This past Thursday, Marah brought me along as her guest to the opening of an exhibition at Dostyk Plaza called "Kosmos," about planet earth.  I'm kidding, obviously it was about space, exploration, and the stars.  The opening was pretty well catered with Cosmos themed desserts--the parfay in particular was good, but too rich and since they only had mineral water (with gas) I couldn't finish it, since gassy water can never quench my thirst.  

It was a great night.  Really hammered home the vastness of space.  A little bit intimidating really, but it was fun.

Certainly not least of all, a good friend of mine came to visit from Saint Petersburg.  Dennis Krutko, one of my former students from EKSU, and I have been in contact through facebook since I left Ust-Kamenogorsk.  He's a great guy and we share a lot of common interests--sci fi, history, political discussions.  Seeing him again is great.  He's only here until Thursday, so we've made some plans to hang out again--last night we met at Yard House and had a few beers.  Dad--wait until you see the gifts he brought for you and me.  You are going to love them I think!

Anyway, just a short update, but thanks to these guys (and many others in Almaty) I'm having a great time here.

Rolling down to Almaty

So this blog is finally getting an update--which can only mean one possible thing: I'm travelling for some reason!  This time, I'm heading back to Kazakhstan to spend two months in Almaty--the largest city in the country.  While there, I'll be at KIMEP the country's oldest (being a relative term) "Western Style" university.  While I'm there, I'll be doing an intensive Russian language course, along with four other students from the University of Kansas.

It's been so long since I've published anything here, so I'll need to explain a few things.  Since I came back from Kazakhstan in October of 2013 (due mainly to the office I was part of shrinking down to just me and the university finally deciding it wasn't worth it keeping me around, so they let me go), I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out what to do back home.  I spent the spring of 2014 working as an (unpaid) intern at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, which was a great deal of fun.  I got to do a little bit of snooping to try and find ties between businesses today and World War I and that led to some pretty interesting discoveries--for example I learned that Boeing's first contract was sea planes for the US Navy.  When I wasn't doing that, I spent my mornings or afternoons taking school groups on tours of the museum.  The job was fantastic--I only wish it had paid something.

I also spent my free time on the weekends working at the Homestead Nursery on 10th Street in Leavenworth.  It was a pretty good paying job for what it was (~$10 an hour), but it was a lot of hard work with plants and it played hell with my allergies.    But after that spring, I was admitted into the Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies at KU.  So that summer I did an intensive Russian course to catch up, and in the fall I started classes there.

I've had a bit rough time with it--motivation has kind of been sapped--I feel like I've got a horrible case of senioritis and I've been really having to force myself to get things done.   Part of the problem is that it's just difficult to figure out what I'm doing and where I'm going with this MA, so it's all very intimidating.  Plus, I don't feel that I've really gotten much direction from the school and I'm not comfortable with what I'm going to do with my thesis and MA program overall.

But that's a worry for a later date.  Now I'm heading to KIMEP with Mike, Asa, Garrett, and Josh.  I'll be there for two months, and I'm both excited and nervous.  Excited about going back--nervous because I'm bringing more of myself (gained weight with my senioritis) and I'm afraid how people will react--they're not always the most tactful.  Additionally, it looks like I'll have a lot of work this summer for my directed readings course, along with the intensive Russian course.

But I'll get through it, I guess.

Still alive...

If I'm brutally honest, and sometimes I am, I'll have to admit that I am an extremely lazy person.  I'm not sure if I'm actually any lazier than other people, but I think I am.  I enjoy doing nothing productive.  I should be studying Russian, I should be preparing more lessons in advance;I should be reviewing English concepts so I can remember specifically the proper names for things, instead of just going "Dammit, it's the conditional where it's not realistically going to happen, or impossible, i.e. hypothetical" (2nd Conditional for all you wondering).  I should be keeping this blog updated, I should be preparing for FSOT...blah, blah blah.

Probably most damningly, I should be exercising...but dammit I hate running.  If I'm lucky, I force myself to do something or at least a good number of pushups/sit ups, but it's nothing like I used to do.  I can't really even complain about being too busy right now...I also hate waking up and cooking and etc.  It's not really a good sign for me that my last two blog posts are basically on the them of laziness, and I'm sure anyone reading this is probably bored to death by my self loathing ("Get up and do something about it, you whiner!"--I hear you...but...Meh?)

So, how about something actually Kazakhstan related? Let's talk about how I stay functioning on those days where (for some reason that I don't really understand) I can't sleep the night before and I have several classes or I need to stay awake until the next sleep period so I don't screw myself up even more?

Easy right?  Coffee?  Except I have yet to find any decent, non-freeze dried coffee here that isn't prepackaged from Nescafe with tons of sugar and creamer or doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.  Tea isn't strong enough--or is it?

Allow me to introduce the marvelous(...) Russian invention: Chifir.  A popular drink among convicts and gulag inmates--all you need is a crap ton of black tea and time.  As far as Victor and I can figure out, since there's many different recipes online--you want about eight teaspoons of loose-leaf tea per serving.  Boil that sucker for about 15 minutes, till the leaves (or in my case because you don't got actual leaves, just these little pellet deals) drop to the bottom.

Then you drink it.

Chifir is bitter and hard to drink, but if you do it right (or at least somewhat right) you'll get some serious caffeine.
 You'll also get a stomach ache and the need to use the toilet in ASAP.  But the caffeine rush you get lasts a lot longer then what you get with coffee and I sometimes need it...

And of course I'm going to put this video here.

If you want to find the Colonel...

I’m a very bad blogger…I know I promised an update about Stalinism…but I’ve been really lazy lately.  I can kind of blame it on my new schedule—I’m teaching classes every night (except Sundays) from about 6:30 to 8:00, or 7:00 to 8:30…so when I get home all I want to do is make dinner and relax.  Victor lets me come in a little bit later—maybe 10 or 11 instead of 9…so I should really be getting up earlier in the day and accomplishing more, but honestly, I really dislike getting up in the morning…so I don’t.  This means, besides hanging out at work (and hopefully making lesson plans or preparing for class…you know, something constructive) and cooking meals, I’m not doing too much. 

The reason I’m having to teach evening classes is because some of my students in my old 4:00-5:30 slot can’t make it anymore because of scheduling conflict…and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7:00-8:30 in the evening is the only time that all of us can make it.  This is especially irritating since, I’m kind of behind in the intermediate class—I should be in chapter 5, according to Victor, but instead I’m just in the middle of chapter 2…so I had better cram it on through, but still make sure they understand the material—and of course, as it is becoming more complex, it is getting a little bit more difficult to explain the reasoning behind English and grammatical rules…this is what I get for majoring in History…ask me about the causes of the French Revolution or the dynastic claims of the Stuarts to the throne of the United Kingdom…just don’t ask me why we use present perfect continuous or say “he said that” not “he talk that” or “She said me”; it just sounds wrong!  So as you can guess, I do spend a bit of my working day relearning basic tenets of the English language.  Stupid languages.  Also, I should be studying Russian, but I’ve been a bit lazy with that-however, I’ve come to an agreement with the cafeteria ladies (to whom, I am now “Iskander” and I get free tea and sometimes even a bit of candy when I come by!) that I will teach them a sentence in English and they’ll teach me something in Kazakh (or Russian).  Baby steps, man, baby steps.

I finally got to visit the Pushkin Library where there is an American Corner. Zarina from our office now works there, so she’s the one who helped me find my way there. The American Corner is some sort of program through the State Department where they give a library a bunch of English language books (and I mean books in English as well as books on English—They’ve got Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders—but not Hunt for Red October for some reason…), some American DVDs (good ones like the Indiana Jones trilogy, Lord of the Rings, Patton, and Casablanca; as well as bad ones like Dances with Wolves, Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever, and Gone with the Wind), and even some board games (but no Risk or Zombies!!!, oh well, I’ve got time to rectify the situation I guess).  I’ve had a chance to meet James, the American who is running the program here.  He’s a Fulbright Scholar and he’s been here since August I think.  He also teaches at School #16 (Kazakhstani School systems are really original with their names), the lad keeps busy.  However, he hangs out mainly with the Russians here, so he’s never tried Kumys.  The lucky boy.

He’s got quite a group of friends now—the Pushkin Library gets lots of people involved in their English program—they have boardgame clubs, film clubs, discussion clubs, a Model UN club, and soon they’ll have a history club (very likely anyway).   When I first went to the Pushkin Library two weeks ago, they invited me to dinner and I got a chance to meet a couple of them and exchange phone numbers.   Last Friday I received a text messages from one of them, asking me if I was interested in coming out to a club with them on Saturday.  With nothing but a class that evening planned, I agreed; only hoping that whatever cover charge their club asked for wasn’t too dear—I don’t really have experience with club type places, but I understand it is a common practice.

When Saturday night rolled around, I was actually in a bit of luck—we went with a group of people, including one young German, who happened to be underage, so we got turned away from the perspective clubs (Kazakhstan has recently bumped up the drinking age to 21).  Instead, we decided to go to a restaurant called “Registan,” which is an Eastern style restaurant—meaning they serve Central Asian cuisine as well as food from the Muslim minorities in the nearby Chinese regions.  The food was good—I had some Lagman and a samsa; and best of all, the food was comparatively cheap—I had a good size plate of lagman, a samsa, and some tea for about 700 Tenge; all of good quality.  I’ve found lagman tends to be a fairly cheap meal choice and I enjoy it, so I recommend it to anyone a little bit apprehensive about what to try at Kazakh restaurants.  In general, if you are a tourist here, prices will actually be fairly cheap to you, but I’m living on local wages (or will be if my bank account ever gets completely set up!) and so that’s fairly pricy I guess.  To be honest, I have no idea, since I haven’t been paid by the University yet; all I know is I’m hemorrhaging money and all I’m spending it on are food, warm clothes, a heater, pots and pans…and I might be exaggerating, but I have had to spend over a hundred dollars on local documentation required by the bureaucrats…

                Argh, enough ranting, time to get to the point of tonight’s update—while we were hanging out at Registan, there was a group of military guys at a table in the room adjacent to us.  We weren’t really paying any attention to them, those I guess they noticed us, because as they got up to leave, one of them—a large man with a large face and a very cool hat—the kind you see Wrengal wearing in the winter photos from the Civil War…(I think it may be known as the Astrakhan hat, Kubanka, or Papakhi—according to Wiki, the Papakhi was reserved for Colonel and above so that might fit, as he claimed the hat was for Colonels only).  He introduced himself as a Colonel (what a surprise with the last note I gave you…) and spoke a little bit of English.  His presence seemed to make James uncomfortable, but the other students with us seemed to find it more amusing than threatening.  However, it was quite obvious that he was already fairly drunk and he wasn’t leaving.

                I told him that my dad had also been in the army and he seemed to like that and he kept talking—switching between broken English and Russian so that I couldn’t keep up with the conversation at all.  Eventually they translated for my benefit that since we were guests in Kazakhstan, he wanted to buy us something and we should just let him so he would leave.  I didn’t really know what was acceptable to ask for, so I just said that if he wanted, I’d be willing to share a drink with him—thinking that we’d have our shot and he’d leave.  James agreed and we waited for the waitress to bring us back our shots.  Instead, a bottle came to the table and when the waitress actually brought the shot glasses, he sent them back for regular glasses.

                Turns out, Americans have a bad reputation here for being unable to drink at all…so it was up to us to prove him wrong.  He filled our glass cubs about half full, gave us a toast, and waited for us to drink.  Realizing that it was up to James and I to defend out national honor, I exhaled and drank down the vodka as quickly as possible, so I didn’t have to taste it.  The exhale worked and with a quick chaser or bread dipped in lagman sauce, I was good to go.  James gave a little sputter, but downed it manfully and we were golden.  The colonel laughed and finally departed, leaving the bottle behind.  He had said that the vodka was a good quality brand, so we were slightly apprehensive when the bill came that he had forgotten to cover it and left us with the check for a drink we wouldn’t have had otherwise.  Luckily he didn’t and we were lucky enough to meet a bonafide colonel who treated us to a bottle of vodka.

On stranger tides

It has been an extremely productive first week. We all loved our first group of students very much. We've just gotten started with our second group. Last weeks group was a mix of younger students from about 15-21, had about 5 guys and 8 girls. Right now we've got about 14 girls and one guy in our class. Most of these girls are about our age I think, and some are quite cute. However, I believe we may have a spy amongst us, as Nailia has put two of her nieces in the class. They aren't saying much at the moment, so I am watching them closely. I think they are younger; I'm sure one of them is only 14.

Last week was a lot of fun. We had quite a few amazing experiences, such as having manti at one of our student's home and being given traditional Kazakh hats, as well as a robe, which I am told is a wrestler's robe.

Class is about to start, so I will have to finish this later.