In Praise of Vietnamese Toothpicks and Denouncement of "Body Positivistism"

Sitting here on my (hard) mattress in Hanoi, struggling in vain to get something out of my teeth, I bitterly regret not grabbing a toothpick at the little hole in a wall place where we grabbed lunch.  It may seem odd to make a big deal out of a toothpick, but here in Vietnam they're tiny--not short, but much narrower than in the US.  This means you can actually put them through the gaps in your teeth that only flossing will get in America.  Seriously, it's great.  When you've got that really deep stuck meat between the teeth--Vietnamese toothpicks'll get it out like it's nothing!

I suppose I should talk about lunch too.  It was great--had some spring rolls and this salad like thing made with shredded guava, beef, and jerky in a vinegary sauce.  We also had this pork and shrimp thing wrapped in a rice cake.  One thing I've noticed about Vietnamese cooking, is that in many cases it's not heavily spiced, but everything kind of brings its own flavor that is combined when you chew it--the tartness of the vinegar, the saltiness of fish sauce, the meat, and a bit of mint leaf--you notice it all, but just a little bit.  It's very interesting.  I'm kind of surprised it's not more popular in the US--it seems a lot more friendly to a Western palate than Korean, Thai, or Chinese food.  I'm enjoying it a lot, anyway.  I've been lucky too, nothing too fishy.  I'm not sure if that's because the family I'm with doesn't care for sea food (other than tiny shrimp and fish sauce), they're being mindful of me, or if Vietnamese food isn't as fishy tasting as I expected.

Today started with a nice bowl of pho (noodles are for breakfast--rice is for dinner and lunch), then took a cab to an old part of Hanoi where we had some coconut ice cream and coffee while we waited for the museum to open.  The coffee shop we chilled at was called "Cong Caphe."  And if you're going "Wait, like Viet Cong?'  Yes, exactly like that.  Cong means communism (or communist--I'm not 100% sure on the grammar) in Vietnamese.  The fact that a privately owned business was making profit under the name "Cong" in Vietnam did not strike anyone else as ironic.  Even when I looked up the word "ironic" in Vietnamese.  I think I must have not clearly explained it.  That or I'm crazy. It's hilarious right?  Right?!

Anyway, the coffee was good--very sweet and creamy.  It was iced.  I enjoyed a cup of it, but declined another offering.  Something came up that made me think--my hosts, though gracious, we're not quite as tactful as Americans might be about weight.  After bringing up how often I worked out (seldomly, so I mean, I can't really argue the point) out of left field (or is it center field when you're in a Left wing communist country?) and making the suggestion that I shouldn't drink beer--including showing a blog post of a guy who stopped drinking and lost a lot of weight.  Apparently--drinking beer is bad for you, but having Vietnamese frappechinos and sugary coffee does not contribute to weight gain.  Though again, everyone here is as skinny as a bean pole, so maybe they have a point.  Ironically, this discussion didn't seem to matter, as the next day, Thuy's brother invited me to have some beer on the street with some pork belly sausages and shishkabob--though his suggestion was that I needed to do sport because I "looked pregnant,"

(A small aside, I have tried some Vietnamese beer--called "Bia Saigon." I'm not a huge fan--it's a lager style beer, but it is really, really light.  I'm kind of reminded of Korean or Chinese beer.  It must be part of their palate to like very, very, very light tasting beers.  Lately, however, we've tried a local beer from Hanoi and it is miles better than the Saigon beer.)

Well, it's tough when you are in a situation like that.  I mean, it is true, I've put on a lot of weight and I'm lazy and don't exercise enough.  But, no one likes to be told that, no matter how nice it is.  And thus, we get to the inexplicable part of this post's title--or second inexplicable if the tooth pick thing is still throwing you.

This post got interrupted last night because we went out for dinner.  I had a longer part written about my issues with this whole "body positivism" and the women and girls who are pretty much the opposite of Mom and think Carrie Fisher looked great and were outraged someone asked her to lose a bit of weight for her role as General Organa.  But it didn't get saved.  Rough summary is: I didn't think Leia looked that bad, but she didn't strike me as very military like.  She looked more like the Resistance's grandmother than a leader.  Gone was the Leia who stayed at her post and had to be dragged away by Han at Echo base and in was a pleasant old woman who said comforting things to a defecting Storm Trooper, was worried about her kid, and hugged Rey.  These people who were outraged she should have lost any weight argued that we wanted to see her back in her slave costume (pro-tip: I don't think anyone wants to see a woman in her late 50s early 60s in that) and whined about our unrealistic beauty standards forcing women to have 0% body fat.

Yeah, 0% body fat is unhealthy, but in a country where one third of adults are obese and most ppl of my generation (myself included) couldn't pass military PT tests if we were drafted, I don't think we really have an issue with people not accepting their bodies (the term some people I talked with on Facebook used).  In fact, I think (myself included) the bigger issue is that we've accepted being fat and get upset when people challenge it.  Military leaders have standards they should meet, Leia is a military leader, ergo Leia should meet military standards.  Carrie Fisher was asked to lose weight for a role, as an actress she should have done so, rather than go "No, this is who I am."  If she was auditioning for the role of Leia in this movie and had never played it before and said this, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have gotten the part.  It would have gone to someone who fit the director's image of what a military leader in this galaxy would look like.  I don't understand this cheering and "you go girling,"  Men add and drop weight for roles all the time--not just becoming buff action heroes, but also letting themselves go to play a middle aged slob.  If a man was told "You need to get in shape for this role as a Navy SEAL," no man would sympathize with a response like "This is who I am."  It's dumb to praise Carrie Fisher for it.  I'd also point out that I read that they asked Mark Hamil to do a bit of work--and he did (a bit is an understatement--he lost 50 lbs for the role http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3345081/Mark-Hamill-reveals-diet-heavily-reprise-role-Luke-Skywalker-Star-Wars-Force-Awakens-causing-lose-50-pounds.html).

I like to think I hold people to the same standards.  Or, maybe I realize that Leia is a fictional character seperate from Carrie Fisher and I have a higher standard for Princess Leia/General Organa than I do for a Hollywood actress. Princess Leia was a charismatic leader in the Rebel Alliance, often fighting in the front lines or holding her post until the last possible second.  I think as a general in the Resistance, she'd have kept that attitude and led by example.  Maybe I'm just sexist.

Anyway, as to yesterday...

We went to the Museum of the National Revolution.  It was interesting, but I was a little disappointed.  Most of it was artifacts or pictures with a single line caption.  No transitions or anything to different eras in the fighting and no greater details.  A lot of it was unclear to me "Photo of Waterfall from Quang Chen battle against French Colonists" (a made up example, but based on a real one) or "So and so leader of the X uprising," what they did besides lead and what the X uprising was, I'm not sure.  

The focus of the Vietnam War was interesting.  They discussed American massacres like My Lai less than the travel guide I have (it mentions it like 4 times) and focus more on how many aircraft they shot down.  Obviously they ignore anything negative the North did in the war, like POW torture or massacres at Hue (but my guide book also ignores Hue).  I found it very interesting that the Tet offensive is relatively unremarked-only thing I saw was a photo of troops at Hue castle.  For an event that is seen as so pivotal in our history of the war, it was not touched upon.  Something they made a big deal out of was the relocation of peasants into the strategic hamlets--so I guess that must have been effective and very frustrating for them.  They also put more emphasis on moral support from leftists in Europe and American hippies than they did to actual material aid from China and the Soviet Union.  I think that may be because the war is shown as a national struggle, so unity and self reliance is the main focus of it (no mention of Montangards or groups that fought with the US/French at all).

Also, the  museum didn't really have a gift store, which was disappointing.  I still need to find a few more souvenirs.  Something I did find out at the museum was that it really is "Uncle Ho."  I was asked about him, literally "Do you know Uncle Ho?" So that's a thing.''

That night, for dinner, we went to a restaraunt in down town.  We had this fish thing called Chu Ca (I think) that had no fishy taste.  Dinner was very good and afterwards they took me into the night market area.  We stopped down a street popular with ex-patriots to have a snack (right after dinner--I was full, but that and my overweighted ness didn't really matter.  At any rate, I enjoyed some Hanoi snacks--Tahitian Apple, some fried meatball, and a kind of mozzarella stick.  

Today, we went to an English club and there were a ton of people.  I was asked to step up and say a few things and people were very interested in talking to me.  I should add that most people have been very polite and friendly to me (with the exception of a rickshaw driver who grabbed my arm and I had to pull it free) and haven't made a big deal out of me being a tourist.  Hanoi has a lot more tourists than I expected.  Another minor exception is small children--they seem to be very shy around me and are always watching me, silently.  The couple I'm staying with's daughter is one such example.  Around her family she's very talkative and outgoing, but when I'm around she kind of shuts up and starts watching me, like she's not sure what to make of me.  It was funny, when we were having the beer on the street, we ate some boiled peanuts.  She couldn't open them up, so she handed them to her dad.  One time, he was on the phone and she wanted him to open one, so I grabbed a peanut and opened it for her.  However, she refused to take it--even after her father took it from me and handed it to her.  This kid is in no stranger-danger.

Tonight Thuy is coming back from the South, so I think we'll be taking the bus to her village.  I'm not sure how far away it is, but I don't imagine it'll be that long of a bus ride.  At any rate, I'm leaving some of my stuff back here, like my pottery and my second bag.  

Going to pieces

Alternative title: Still haven't found Charlie.

Slept all right--though the hard mattress ensured that I woke up a few times during the night and was a little bit stiff this morning.  Still, can't complain too much.  Had some authentic Vietnamese "pho" for breakfast today.  I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I found out that when you say "pho" with an o, it means street, but with the "uh" sound it is the food.  I was confused earlier because it seemed that there was some strange advertising strategy with all these street signs saying "Lan Troc Pho" and I figured I had vastly underestimated the popularity of pho.  

Today we went to Bat Trang village (spelling is probably butchered to hell) a village famous for its pottery. I rode on the back of a motorbike.  Somehow there seems to be an understood method of communication--you honk, then you do whatever the hell you wanted.  Signaling is optional and apparently not recommended.  We took a pretty interesting route to the village--across an old French railroad bridge, which apparently had a system where you drove on the opposite side of the road like in Britain (this too is apparently optional--we saw a couple guys going against traffic--but honk and all is understood).

Bat Trang is pretty well known in Vietnam for its pottery and has a long tradition of selling it to Hanoi and places like China.  The pottery was very impressive--a lot of it was very similar to Chinese porcelain, the white and blue kind, but they also sold many other kinds.  I personally liked the earthy looking ones and they also had some plates and paintings on them--some of scenes of life, others of Vietnamese leaders (Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap were the most popular).

I picked up a few souvenirs and stuff was pretty inexpensive (I think).  I still haven't been to an exchange yet, but I was able to give Khai $20 for some of the stuff I bought and he got a few things that I plan to give to the Gerges cousins.  At Bat Trang, we had some milk from a coconut--the big green kind with a straw sticking out of it, and some sweat potato cakes.  

We went back home and I took a nap--but I did help with dinner. Well, I boiled some broccoli and cauliflower.  But I helped!  This was completely negated because during dinner, I was so bad at rolling the stuff, they all felt bad enough for me that they rolled stuff for me.  I think I would have been better at it, but since dinner is always on the floor and I'm not too good at sitting cross legged, this makes things more of a challenge.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Museum of the National Revolution.  I'm excited to see that and I hope that I'll be able to get to an exchange and I can find some nice souvenirs for the boys.

I forgot to mention, outside our apartment there's some fields where people farm.  I think they're cooperatives for the apartments, but I had a chance to walk through them and see what people grow here.

Goooooood Evening Vietnam!

Arrived late last night Hanoi time.  Thuy arranged for her brother to pick me up from the airport and I slept pretty well, though the Vietnamese also appear to ascribe to the belief that the harder the mattress, the better.  The mattress looks normal enough, but when I sat down on it, there was almost no give at all!  But, when in Rome, I do as Romans do.  I've been fortunate enough that all the toilets I've seen so far are normal ones--or at least I had the choice to avoid the squat toilets.  The weirdest experience in that department was in Japan's airport, which had a heated (oh God, I hope it was heated--otherwise the person before me has the warmest butt in the history of the world) toilet seat.  Which was weird.  And a boudet.  But that's optional (again, thank the maker).  The only really negative thing about Vietnam so far has been that chairs seem to be an option feature in homes here and the furniture in general seems to be a lot smaller--my knees are banging the top of the desk and the one folding chair in this apartment is too small for my wide behind (though that may be just as much my fault as anything else).

Thuy's family has been extremely hospitable and today we went and saw some historic sights in Hanoi, such as Hoan Kiem Lake--which has a legend very similar to the Excalibur one.  An ancient Vietnamese King received a sword from a tortoise there (the tortoises there are huge--the preserved one in the temple there must have been five feet long at least) and used it to defeat the Chinese.  Then when he went back to the lake, the gods took the sword back and it's supposedly still in the lake (no word if the sword or the king will come back at Vietnam's hour of need or not).

Before we went to Hoan Kiem Lake, we had a very nice breakfast at a small, hole-in-the-wall (almost literally) shop.  I found out that noodles are apparently eaten in the morning, and rice tends to be eaten for lunch and dinner.  For breakfast then, I had something I think called "muong suon" (or something to that effect).  It was kind of a noodle soup like pho, but there's pork with bone in it and it was delicious. They had me put some green lemon (I thought they were tiny limes, but the taste is more like lemon, I think) some pickled garlic sauce, and some chilies in it.  It was hearty and flavorful.  It was filling at the time, but I think it wore off quickly because we had lunch shortly after the palace of literature--which must have only been three hours afterwards.

After walking a short bit around Hoan Kiem lake and seeing this island temple built in the middle of the lake, we took a taxi to the first university in Vietnam.  It was built in the 11th century and it had all of its graduates' (or a large portion of them--there seemed to only be a few years--relatively speaking) names written in stone on these big tablets resting on the back of turtles (they must be a very important animal to the Vietnamese--I saw lots of turtle statues).  The university was pretty well preserved, though a section of it (the temple to Confucious) had been destroyed during fighting in 1946 and was completely rebuilt (ironically enough with the help of American Express in the early 2000s). 

Afterwards, we went to lunch at a place that specialized in Hue cuisine.  I had a ton of the things we saw on that Anthony Bourdain show--the in-shell shrimp in the rice thing and that clam soup thing.  We also had some pork belly that we rolled with basil, pineapple, and cucumbers in a spring roll type thing that we dipped in a shrimp-chili sauce.  We also had this fried pork thing with shrimp and bean sprouts that we also rolled in spring roll type stuff.  Everything was very good--the different things in the roll all had unique flavors that really came out as you chewed--pineapple, cucumber, papaya, basil, radish, the meat, and the sauces.  I have photos of the food--but it's all on my camera.  The shrimp on a wafer in the rice cake thing was especially good--you didn't notice the shell at all.  Actually, despite having sea food (shrimp anyway) in everything, nothing tasted fishy.  With the exception of the baby clam thing from Hue--though even that wasn't too fishy, but it was still my least favorite part of the meal.

After lunch we went and had coffee--first I tried a Vietnamese espresso--which basically had a ton of sugar or something in it.  Then I had a Vietnamese frappe chino--which had coconut and a lot more cream or something (a huge part of it was white and that had the coconut flavor) and I really think if Starbucks or someone tried selling it in the US, it'd do well--the coffee wasn't too strong and the hint of coconut was great.

From the cafe, we took a taxi to the Vietnamese opera, which is near the museum of the national revolution and the National Museum of Vietnam.  Today we went to the NMV, hopefully tomorrow or the next day, we'll see the museum of the revolution.  The NMV was smaller than I expected, but had a lot of bronze and Stone Age artifacts, as well as a great deal of pottery and images from the wars against the Chinese and Mongols for Vietnamese independence.  Vietnam's been invaded a crap ton of times from the north--one of the battles that turned back an invasion was interesting because it was a naval battle, which took place in a river and the image of it showed the Vietnamese land soldiers charging into the shallows of the river to hit the Chinese soldiers wading in from sinking ships.

We had to leave that museum and come back to Thuy's brother's apartment at 5 to pick up his daughter from day care.  I spent most of the day with Thuy's sister-in-law and her brother-in-law (extended families seem close here).  Unfortunately I'm butchering their names--I think the brother-in-law is Khai and I'm going to have to ask her sister in law again...

Vietnamese is very difficult to pronounce--and from what I'm learning, they have just as difficult a time pronouncing English.  One odd thing I've noticed is that I feel a lot more comfortable here since I can at least read the script than when I was in China or Korea.  I think there's something about being able to at least recognize the writing on stores and shops makes it less alien, though it's just about as foreign as China was, and arguably more foreign than Korea!  I also found it strange that there were a bunch of foreign tourists--but the most seemed to be French or English speaking.  I only saw about two people who spoke Russian, which surprised me, as I expected the close Cold War ties between Russia and Vietnam to lend to more tourism from there.  Apparently the ties to France and the West seem to be growing much faster than I expected.

It gets dark very early here.  I started writing this at about 5:50, and by 6:45, it's completely dark outside.  We're having dinner here and I'm going to try to stay awake until at least 8 or 9, then go to bed.  I believe I'm heading out by motorbike with Khai to a village that specializes in pottery.  Hopefully I'll be able to exchange money soon so I can start grabbing souvenirs.  I at least hope to be able to get something at the museum of the revolution--I saw some neat post cards that had old propaganda images on it.  I expect there'll be some cooler stuff there.

Going to Kansas City

Today's my last day in Almaty and by extension Kazakhstan (obviously).  Technically, my flight takes off around 4 AM tomorrow morning, but I won't see another sunrise in Almaty.  Though, to be honest, I didn't see too many of those anyway--our window faces west and the sun comes up at a stupidly early hour.  But that's besides the point.  This weekend has been a lot of fun--Friday night I had a chance to go to  the Arasan Public Baths in Almaty.

Arsan is  A soviet era public baths/health spa.  It was fantastic.  I'm not sure I ever felt so clean and refreshed--especially after Friday had been another balmy day and I'd been sweating like a pig.  The change from broiling hot in the banya to icey cold in the pool...was just amazing.  Just lovely.

Afterwards, Alibek (my host and one of Marah's students--thanks again Marah!) took us to...a rather interesting club--at first they wouldn't let me in because I was wearing my sneakers--I'd put away all my other shoes away.  Eventually they let me in, but it's kind of a typical club, other than not letting me in.  

The next day, Alibek invited me to his nephew's birthday party, which was a very interesting experience.  We went to a small village near Almaty known as "Kalinina"  so called because there's a statue of Kalinin (think Kaliningrad) in the middle of the village.  I had a chance to try Shurbat (camel's milk--not that great, but tons better than Kumis).  These people welcomed me to their family celebration with open arms and smiles and I had a great time.  

I'm going to miss this very much.  Fortunately, Alibek says he has plans to visit the US and do a road trip, so I hope to be able to return the hospitality.  As well to Marah and her family if they come!  As excited as I am to see you guys again (and of course the pups), but the more I think of going back to Lawrence, the less exciting it gets.  I guess I'll have to deal with it, but...egh, Lawrence again.

Still, looks like I'm heading back to Kansas City!

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.

Eating Out

So I sit here, apparently poised to enjoy my most expensive meal to date, here.  I'm at a place called        "The Yard House Pub" (no relation to the one in the US, I don't think, but it's quite nice).

It  kind of appears to be a typical sort of "pub"y place, wwwith a very dark interior a lot of wood and some barrels sticking out the wall.

This beer tray is called "a yard of beer" which lets you try 6 types of their draught beer for 1500 Tg, which is a little under $10 (185 being the current rate to a dollar I believe).  I chose (from right to left) a Guiness, a German beer called "Hacker Pschorr", Paulaner (Weissbier), a Belgian beer Romy, a Czech beer--Praga dark Lager, and an English ale called "Abbot".  

For reference I'm using the A-F scale familiar with American educational systems.  A is Excellent, B is Above Average, C is Average, D is Below Average, and F is Budweiser--I mean fails.  So if something gets a C or low B, it's still a good beer, but nothing to crow about.

I'm  starting with the Hacker Pschorr as it appears to be the lightest and it is fantastic.  Honestly it looks like a light beer, like Bud light or something like that--so clear and yellow, but oh my goodness.  I don't think I've ever tasted a light beer quite like this.  It just has so much flavor in a little light colored beer.   It's quite light (obviously), not very hoppy at all, but a hint of a fruity taste.  Definitely an A+.

Next I think I'll go with the Romy as it is the next lightest in color.  I'm writing this faster than I'm drinking my beer however and the food has come before I finished the Hacker.  I want to savor it--it's so good.  

I ordered an Irish Stew (about 2500 Tg, so $13.50).  It isn't  a whole lot of soup disappointing, but it tastes really good. It isn't really that much of an Irish stewy flavor though--there's some stuff I've never seen in an Irish stew in the US--tomatos, red and green peppers.  But the taste is great--if I didn't know it was an Irish stew, I d think it was just a really good beef stew.  The beef in particular is very tender and flavorful (but so far I've only found two pieces of beef).  Really enjoying it-- A-: just because it isn't what I was expecting and I kind of was hoping for more for 2500 tg.

Now I'll start with the Romy. It also is pretty light, but a little bit less flavorful than the Hacker, but far superior to a comparable looking U.S. light beer.  A solid B.  It would probably be higher if I hadn't had that Hacker first. 

Following the Romy I'm going with the Paulaner, since it's  a weissbier, before I get into the ales.  Self disclosure--I'm not a huge wheat beer fan, so i"ll try to be as fair to this as possible, but of course because this is personal taste that's just an occupational hazard.  In the light here, it's got more of an pale yellowish color and kind of a cloudy consistancy.  Surprisingly it doesn't have that much of a "wheat" flavor--I kind of assumed Weissbier was wheat bear because of the color, but I could be mistaken.  Unfortunately I haven't asked for the Wifi password yet, so I can't be sure.  It's not bad, very mild flavor with a hint of the "wheaty" kind of taste at the end.  C- If I had to have a wheat beer I'd take a Boulevarrd Wheat or Blue Moon, honestly.  

Next is the Abbot Ale.  This beer I'm kind of excited about--in the light and with the stained color of the wood table it looks like amber.  But at first, I'm not really impressed. The flavor is mild and nothing fantastic.  But as I swallow I get a hint of an aftertaste that kind of intrigues me.  I take another sip and it's the same--first taste is just "eh, a beer" but then there's this aftertaste of ale that I really enjoy.  I'll rank this one as a B-.  I really like the aftertaste, but it's so mild you almost don't notice it.  I could definitely see this beer growing on me and pushing up the score after I have a few.

The penultimate beer is the Praga Dark Lager.  Not sure what to expect--I chose the dark lager over the Pils because I had so many other light colored beers I wanted to have a nice color palate.  Praga is very strange.  It's dark brown, almost black in the shadows, but when there's light it's just a dark amber brown.  It's kind of sweet, really not what I'm expecting.  The sweetness is a little off-putting for me, so I'm unfortunately going to have to give it a D.   Just kind of underwhelming and odd.  I'm actually a little torn if I should give it lower or not--I mean I'm not really wanting to even finish it, but at least it has flavor (even if it is bad) which I think kind of gives it a leg over Bud or PBR.  

And lastly, Guinness Draught.  Not much to really say--it's so ubiquitous what can I add to it?  It's black, but I guess because I've taken so long to drink the other beers the head is almost gone, but there's still a tiny bit left.  Flavorwise?  It's Guinness.  if you like Stouts, you'll like Guinness.  If you don't like Stouts, you won't.  I've become a bit more of a fan of Porters lately, so I find stouts a little more bland, but It's Guinness.  Definitely a B+.

So that about wraps it up here.  The atmosphere of The Yard House is nice.  They've got a lot of TVs showing some soccer game, all the furnature looks "antique" but is clealry new.  So honestly it just gives a feeling of quality you don't always have here in KZ.  That's also probably why the prices are so much higher than places I normally go--I don't care too much for the frills.  The music playing is pretty good--kind of a classic rock/alternative playlist--I heard some Billy Joel, but that was the only artist I recognized, but there hasn't been a song that actually bothered   me, and quite a few I kind of liked.

Biggest issue rightt now is since I got my food, I haven't seen a waiter so getting the check and seeing about the wifi password is taking longer than it really shoold--I think there's just me and maybe the bartender here  But I'm not sure if he is or not.  

Looks like I finally got it.   Total with tip 4400 Tg, so $23.78.  Quality of food I'd rate the same as in    US, beers were all import so I think that $9 for 6 test glasses seems reasonable.  Only thing is I'd be happier with the Irish stew if it was more like  $10.  It just didn't seem like $13.50 worth of food.  But that's about it.  I like this place.  I may come back here--definitely would if I had friends in Almaty who liked beer and didn't mind a bit higher prices than normal.

On my own--I don't know if I'll come back.  If this was a US restaurant (the prices are) it'd be a no brainer--heck i'm still interested--here is a sausage place for 2500tg of horse sausage, so who knows?  But I mean, I can get a plate of lagman for 650 tenge and .5 l of Pislner at Tashkent for 350 tenge, so this place has definitely hurt itself catering to me in particular because of the prices.

 

Over the Mountains and Far Away

Apologies for the delay in updates.  I've been a little bit busy getting some things in order and settling down.  Some things have gone well while others haven't gone so well.  In our first week, through some poor decision making I lost a few things, including a key to the dormroom, my old Kazakh cellphone, and my ipod.  Personally I'm not too upset about all that (though I will miss the ipod, but it was four or five years old), but losing the key caused some severe distress among my roommates and a bit of tension between us.  Things have mostly settled down, but there's still some lingering tension.  But I've resolved to move forward and enjoy my time here as best as I can.

School classes are rather a mixed bag--the classwork itself isn't too difficult, but all of the class is conducted in Russian, so there's often a lot of things I don't understand and it's quite difficult to ask a question when you're confused about the basic grammar or lexicon. But like I said, the actual work isn't too bad, but when we're in class I feel like a moron.

We've had some nice excursions in the past couple of weekends.  First we went to the mountains near Almaty--passing over the Medeo where i saw something amazing!  

His hair was perfect.

Oh and there were some mountains or something too.

The weather up at the top of the mountains was so amazingly cool, I hated coming down from there back into the heat of Almaty's summer.

And this Saturday we went to Churin canyon.  Which is basically a "Not Quite so Grand, but Still Pretty Cool" Canyon, about three hours away from Almaty.  It was a little warm, but for most of the day we had an overcast sky so we didn't roast completely.

Things have been going well at the Kazakhstan Press Club, last week we went to an event for the Special Olympics and we took some of the photos that ended up on their instagram.  It was pretty humbling, though I think most of those photos were the ones Garrett took.  (By the way, you can follow Garrett at his website for some nice photos and videos of where we've been.

Politically, we haven't stirred the boat too much here.  Some of the people at the press club seem a lot more sympathetic to the more 'liberal' (as in Western European sense, not American political sense necessarily) and even among some of the random people I've met while having tea with the local Mr. Donerci place there's an acknowledgement that they're not living in a democracy.  But out of respect for our hosts, I don't press the issue unless they seem to be willing to talk about it.

That's not to say everyone here is feeling the love--one of our drivers was a die hard Putanist and we were told not to make any comments about Putin, because he might refuse to work for us (not sure how much of that was a joke from our trip coordinator), and I've lost a friend or two due to philosophical differences about Stalin, World War II (and presumably they weren't too happy about some of my FB posts about the Russian invasion of Ukraine--let's call it what it is).

So I've been a little gun shy of talking about that with people here.  I think a lot of the people who support Nazarbayev are also pretty pro-Putin and  buy the "Ukrainians are all fascists" line--though not all.  The RA who has been helping me out trying to find my lost stuff seems to be a lot more sympathetic to Ukraine and we had a very interesting talk about it.  I didn't however breach the question of whether people here are concerned about what has happened to Ukraine happening here, because she's actually from Turkmenistan (though she's half Russian by ethnicity).    But the general feeling I get, especially from the pro-Putanists, is that "it can't happen here" or that Ukraine was a special case because of the fascists and NATO/EU/ International Banking/Jewish conspiracy (Yes that is a thing still in some circles of Russia.  Anti-semitism is still pretty strong among the hard core nationalist groups in Russia and as of 2007 held half of the world's total Neo-Nazi population.)  So remember that next time RT talks about Right Sector--ask them about the National Bolsheviks