Alive and (mostly) well

FSo I wrote a blogpost yesterday, but for the blogger app for my ipad shorted out and I  lost all of what I had written (save and everything!) and blogger kicked me out for good measure.  I'd write it on my (dad's) laptop, but for some reason I cannot login to the wifi at all, so for now I'm kind of stuck with the ipad--let's hope there's no more funny business with the apps and the dorm wifi itself holds out (as I write this it isn't working, but I'm hoping by the end of it I can post it tonight.  I am also have some weird issues with my keyboard    where keys stick randomly--so if you see odd spelling errors, this time it's actually not my fault!  I bet Paddy from "A Long Way to Tipperary" had this keyboard to blame rather than his pen!)

So, the flight here wasn't bad.  I can't really say the journey here was good, however, because for some reason the travel agent put one of us on a different flight from KC and he missed our flight to Amsterdam.  He's had a really rough time--he finally came in, a day later and pretty ticked off.  Thinngs haven't gone his way here either,  his internship place apparently expected him to be more fluent in Russian and to be more familiar with finances and business stuff.  So yesterday he worked it out with our trip superviser that he wasn't going to go back to that internship and they're looking for a new one for him, but he had a mini breakdown over this whole awful experience.  He's not in a happy place right now.

Everyone else is doing OK I think.  They're having a rough time adjusting to some of the idiosyncracies of Kazakhstan though--the beauracracy and some of the "mehy" aspects of our living conditions are getting to them I think.

Work is ironically, probably the best part of our program here for me.  The classes are really tough because they are all in Russian and we're not allowed to speak English at all.  I feel lost about 85% of the time and I think the class will either cure or kill me.  Work is a little tough just because I don't really know what they expect or want exactly since I'm not a journalism major, but the people we've worked with--Juliana and Kakim are very friendly and very helpful.  It does appear that at least one of the other guys working intership has also really gotten a good group of people to work with in his time, so I think that will at least help him enjoy his time here.

I was planning on seeing Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but my feet are pretty blistered from all the walking we do--1.7 miles or so each way to work--wearing  my dress shoes on day one was a big mistake.  I realized why I don't wear them often--they cut badly into my heels and make me bleed.

I am about to start my reading for Dr. Chrenestky's class, but honestly it's so intimidating right now thinking about all the language issues and how I'll get a research paper done here.  I feel so helpless with my Russian and I think most of the guys in the group don't really care for my company, so it kind of feels like this is going to be a long summer.  I'm  really starting to regret starting my MA more and more.

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.

Riddles and Enigmas

I once read that Winston Churchill said Russia was a mystery inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.  Or something to that effect.  Unfortunately, as I sit here writing that, the wifi in this café isn’t working so I can’t fact check it at the moment.  But, I would have to agree with the esteemed statesman.  Things are not always straight forward over here.  I say that having finished working with Dennis, a Russian guy from Ust-Kamenogorsk who studies medicine in Saint Petersburg (Or Petrograd if you want to avoid those damnable Germans—that other name is dead to me).

Dennis came to me earlier this month because he was looking for an English conversation partner, but the teacher he had felt he couldn’t really learn from her so she sent him to me.  He was a very thin guy, who never seemed to shave, but was one of those guys who have not been blessed with as much natural manliness that requires them to shave twice a day to keep a smooth face.  He probably hadn’t shaved since he left Saint Petersburg.

But I digress.  Working with Dennis was a lot of fun because I didn’t really have to prepare quite so much for his classes since they were essentially discussion and conversation.  That also meant we could talk about more interesting topics than just plain, boring English grammar.  I found Dennis a lot of fun because I discovered we shared many interests—science fiction in particular stood out.  Both of us had a healthy interest in Sci-fi and more interestingly, he also really liked the book Starship Troopers.

So it is pretty easy to see that we were able to get along.  But we also dealt with some heavier matters—ethical concerns related to technological developments, current events, biases in the news, more classical literature, and sundry other topics.

But what does this all have to do with Mr. Churchill’s famous quote?  Not particularly much, but in just a general sense, I have learned a lot more about modern Russia.  I learned a new word: Xeno-nationalists, who are people who think Russia stinks and should attempt to be more like other countries (or possibly people who are not loyal to Russia at all  and want to be citizens of other countries).  I also have learned that Russia, like any country has people with extremely divergent opinions—while that in and of itself is not new, what I have learned is to the extent they can vary.

If you look at this Dennis guy and my old boss Victor, you have two guys who have very similar backgrounds—ethnic Russians who are Kazakhstani citizens.  Victor wants to study outside of Kazakhstan to finish his education and Dennis is doing his education in another country.  But these details are pretty superficial and common among many people over here.  It is their view of history and interpretations that mark such a great difference between them.

I may or may not have talked about some of my debates with Victor regarding Stalin and the Soviet Union.  I’ll summarize—Victor doesn't think Stalin was a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but that he was “great” in the sense of his purpose and force of will and his contributions to the Soviet Union were necessary for its development and survival.  I completely disagree and to put out my own bias, I consider the Bolshevik putsch in 1917 one of the great tragedies of the twentieth century, not just for the Russian people but the world.

On the other hand, Dennis appears to agree with me that Stalin was a devil who set up some of the worst atrocities in history as well as setting up the seeds for the near defeat of the Soviet Union in the dark days of 1941 and 1942 (to clarify, Dennis is not an Americaphile, he doesn't really buy the evidence of chemical attacks in Syria for example).  What is more interesting is that Victor completely views the White movement as a reactionary force that wanted to put people in chains, justifying the purges and repression, while Dennis told me that the term “White Guard” is used to remember heroes who were fighting a lost cause to preserve stability and order against a coming chaos and terror.  Dennis even said that some people used the term “Saints” to describe them.

Both views are present in modern CIS countries, both are polar opposites, and when I talked to both of these guys, they seemed to feel that most Russians agreed with their point of view.  So to me, this is one of those peculiarities that makes Russia such an enigma..

Slow am I...

I'm beginning to think there is some sort of natural law that whenever I'm sick or feel bad and I need to take a shower, there won't be any hot water.

Today was a rough, rough day.  I'm not quite sure why, but ever since I came back from the summer camp at Ridder, I've been sick off and on.  So today I woke up and was absolutely miserable.  Could barely even get out of bed, so most of today I didn't do much besides crawl to the toilet...talk about blargh.

On the plus side, one of the ladies who sits at the front desk apparently noticed I didn't leave my room today and came by a little while ago to check on me.  Not much she could do, but a very nice gesture.  I think if I'm feeling better tomorrow, I'll go out and get some flowers or something.  It's nice to know that if I disappear or turn into a zombie (that's kind of how i feel right now), someone'll at least come looking--though that is kind of a danger, if I do transform into a zombie and they come looking, that's an easy way to spread the infection.  Better lock my door so they can't get in.

Anyway, my two weeks in Ridder were a lot of fun.  The first week I spent it with the students from the Pushkin Library's "Access" group (Access is this US embassy program for disadvantageous kids to study English).  I was there with the other American who lived here in Ust-Kamenogorsk (He just left this weekend to go back home--after he hits Bangladesh first).

By the way--it was absolutely gorgeous and the cabins were far nicer than I expected!

After the "Access" group left, I stuck around another week to work with the students who were the children of the KazZinc workers.  KazZinc is the local mining/metal producing company here in Eastern Kazakhstan, and I learned that their union built this camp in Ridder, called "Sinegoria."  It is extremely beautiful--one of Dad's co-workers says it is like Montana.  But I wouldn't know.

I want to write more, but I'm still not feeling too well.  To cut things short--the camp was great, even though the students didn't speak english and I had to rely on teachers translating for me, it was a lot of fun and I felt like a minor celebrity.

'

  

That's a old fashioned "Young Pioneer" style hat by the way.  Not a garden gnome thing.    The camp gave it to me.  I won't forget that camp for a long time..

Thoughts, post test

I finished up the FSOT this morning.  As of writing time (June 15th, 2013) I should have about three weeks to wait until I get the results this time.  I'd like to say I feel good about this time, because I kind of do--the questions seemed simple enough and I thought I answered most of them well...but I felt the same way last time and I ended up four points short of going to the next exam level...so we'll just have to see I guess.  Even then, the exam process is still a pretty tough one with a huge rate of attrition.

I'm writing this in Murat's flat, which is actually really nice compared to the one he used to have with Victor.  It's a little bit larger and they have their own shower; though there is no kitchen so they don't cook.  Dad, you'll be excited to hear that Murat's roommate is one of the guys you went to Oskamen with two years ago--Yerlan I think--the younger (but still older than me or Murat) history guy.  I gave him your regards and he did the same to you.  

The bus ride here kind of sucked--the bus was better than I expected; one of those greyhound type buses, but they still didn't bother to turn the AC on and my seat was directly above the driver at the front of the bus..so driving westward meant I was getting the full force of the sun the whole journey.  So it was quite hot.

I'm sitting here snacking on some peanuts and I'm not sure if this makes the Kazakh/Russians crazy or brilliant--but they are bacon flavored peanuts.  I would say the flavor is mild, mostly coming from the seasoning, but more like that Italian slice ham thing that I can't remember how to spell it and I have no google so I'm out of luck.  They are OK.  I'm sure they'd be much better if I was drinking beer instead of coke.

One thing I should mention before I stop writing this for now, is that the guy who was proctoring the exam was an ex-army guy.  We got to chatting because I had gotten there first and we still had to wait for the other examinees (two guys who worked at the embassy--'in house' but if they worked at the embassy...why were they taking the exam?  Were they interns?  I never found out).  Anyway, I found out that while you and he probably never served together, he had served with H.R. McMaster and I think is mentioned on the acknowledgements of McMaster's book because he helped McMaster get a computer to write it.  Talk about degrees of separation...he'll be coming to Oskamen for that summer camp that I'll be helping out at in July.  I'm not sure if I'll have my results by then, but that's still pretty neat coincidence.

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.

A lazy poster, I...

I haven't posted in a while...I am an extremely lazy poster...


But I have been a little bit busier...I went on a trip to Astana, which was a very neat experience.  I went with a group of students of Zarina's from the Pushkin Library American Corner.  I think there was about twenty of them.   They were nice kids, but they could drive Zarina  a little wild at times.

Our trip was a nice one overall...I got to see some stuff I probably wouldn't have been able to see otherwise as this trip had excursions planned.  I was able to see the national symphony hall, the palace of independence, some interesting malls, and of course, the Bayterek.


It was very cool to see the places, but the problem is that despite their desire to make the place more of a spot for tourists to come to, they are not quite there...I've heard that everything in Astana is supposed to be tri-lingual (Kazakh, Russian, and English) they have not really developed it besides sometimes having an English menu at a restaurant.  I have yet to see a museum exhibit in English or anything to that effect.  Likewise, even in Astana the streets are mostly dirty and I can't really say there is much to really draw tourists there.  The national symphony hall is smaller than the one they've got in Kansas City where I saw the Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble and the Palace of Independence really only had a model of Astana as it plans to be in twenty years or so.  Personally, I liked Almaty better--though again, not many places are really developed for tourists. 

But the trip was good, the students were an interesting bunch and I was able to learn about life for Kazakh teenagers, as well as teach a couple of students some poker hands (though only bastardized Texas Hold'em...) and train rides are always an (awful) adventure.


So, I didn't really have much to say here, but what drove  me to post was that I received a package from my family--and I felt I owed them a little something since they sent me spam, hot sauce, Jack Stack BBQ Sauce, and some other stuff!  I should mention that one of the packages looked like it had been opened and Victor suggests next time you guys should make a list and tell us the order things were packed in.

Anyway, last classes of the week are tomorrow and saturday, and it is very late here...but I watched the Hobbit...and it was pretty good.  I was a little concerned about them stretching it out for three movies, but it didn't feel like they were padding it too badly...though some of the "humor" stuff was a little far for me...