Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Constitution Day



Monday, 30 August 2010

Today was Constitution Day, and thus no school. I had heard that there was to be a parade, and so a coworker and I decided to go with my Kazakh friend R. and her daughter. It would be near the Pyramid, and so I thought that trying to get there by car would be best.

The parade was to start at 11:00 am, we left a little after 10 am. And never made it.

The road was blocked due the parade, and we couldn't even cross the river to get close to the pyramid. We drove around for quite some time before finally parking the car by Beyterek Tower (nowhere near the Pyramid) in order to walk to the parade. The weather was in the mid 30's (90s Celsius) and the sun was VERY bright. Astana is mostly a cloudless place.

We made it onto one of the huge bridges that cross the river, and there, under the gleaming of the bright sun, we watched the jet show. Jet planes flew in formation, maneuvering and circling as they flew quite fast. They set off fireworks or something like that as their grand finale. Rather impressive.

We continued to walk across the bridge, towards the bank with the Pyramid; although, as other people kept walking back across the bridge, we began to wonder if we were too late. Finally, after asking a few people, we learned that the parade was indeed over.

At this point, however, everyone who had been to the parade seemed to be crossing the bridge, and so we decided to sit in a bit of shade and wait for the crowd to pass. The girls were hot and tired, and this was a very good idea. When we finally started walking again, it was still crowded, and R.'s daughter soon became lost in the crowd.

My coworker and Sophia ran ahead to look for her, R. ran backwards, and I stayed in the middle. After several minutes of nervousness, I saw my coworker, Sophia, and R.'s daughter. I ran back to tell R., while calling her on her phone. She passed by me in a police car. She had realized that it would be rather futile to search the entire crowd alone, and so had enlisted the help of a police officer. There were quite a few around, dealing with the crowds.

It is nice to know that, as intimidating as foreign cops can be, that they are there to help.

When we got off the bridge, we took another break in the shade, near the Ministry buildings. Then, walking back to Beyterek and the car, we passed by Arman, the restaurant that caters the food to our school. The principal had taken the new teachers there on the day that I had had off (to sleep off jet lag), and my coworker said it was really good. So we went in, and luckily they served pizza as well, so Sophia was able to eat.

R., my coworker & I all ate the first dish that we saw--something like noodles with meat. R. explained how they make the noodles, they really aren't noodles, they're made differently, from dough, and are really good.

After that, R. drove us home. I had been planning on going into the school to do some work, but the hot sun and walking had gotten to me. I was exhausted.

But it was a wonderful day, even though we didn't get to see the parade. Spending time with friends and seeing just how beautiful Astana can be in the summertime.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Back to Church!

Sunday, 21 & 28 August, and 5 September 2010

It was wonderful returning to church and seeing familiar faces. When we left in early June, the Mother Teresa nuns had already left the country, sorting out visa issues, and it was unclear when they would be able to return. The day we left Astana, Sophia's teacher and another teacher, also parishioners, also left the country, never to return. A week or two after we left, the other teachers who attended the English-language Mass also left the country.

As the nuns slowly left, we learned just how much work is put into making a Mass nice. Who decides who will do the readings? Who picks out the songs? Who sings in a loud, clear voice? Who decides when to start singing?

Our singing was falting and somewhat awful. Mass started late just so we could work out, in a last-minute whispering frenzy, who would do what reading and what songs we would sing. We stopped singing the Gloria and the Christe, Eleison, among others.

But, it wasn't so bad. I learned to show up early for church. Sophia's teacher and another Filipino teacher--who has an amazing voice--sorted through the hymnal and picked out and led songs.

Then we all left, leaving much of the details up to the the altar boy's Ukrainian, non-Catholic mother (she's Russian Orthodox, which is similar, at least).

Sometime during the summer, the altar boy's family left for vacation.

On the same day, we all returned--3 Filipino teachers, including the one with the amazing voice; Sophia & I; and the altar boy and his family. Not the nuns, not the teachers who hadn't planned on returning, but still, that's 9 people added to a rather tiny group of people. Including singers and people who know the routine.

When the priest looked out before Mass began, he broke into a wide grin and couldn't stop smiling all during Mass. He was clearly happy.

He told us that the nuns were due to return next week.

After Mass, I hugged and gossiped with my former co-workers, the Filipinos who have returned to work at my former school. We were all so happy to see one another.

The next week, the nuns were back, and the singing was even better, crystal voices in the still air of the large, open church. The nuns were happy to see everyone, too.

The week after that, they added a piece to our small service--the procession that brings the offering to the altar. Our congregation had been too small, this piece had been left out up until now.

Sophia would lead the procession, carrying a candle. Before Mass, we practiced, and she became terrified. If there is a shy gene, then I've passed it onto her. She flew from the church, crying, and hid in a corner by the big entrance doors. A nun saw her and came up and offered words of advice--it's okay if she chooses not to participate; this procession is for Jesus Christ.

Sophia calmed down, we re-entered the church, and when it came time to do the procession, she was willing to do it. I walked next to her as she slowly carried the candle down the aisle, others followed with bread and wine and other offerings. Everyone was pleased that she had chosen to participate.

Hopefully soon we'll be able to get her in preparations for Reconciliation and First Communion, I have to talk to the nuns, I think one will be able to give her private lessons, since she is the only English-speaking child of age.

After Mass, we passed on a present for one of the Filipino teachers--a bottle of maple syrup, that he had requested from America. He was thrilled. We had already given our other present-from-America to the other teachers.

Earlier that week, Marilyn & Emily had come to our apartment--a full hour away, by bus and foot--to borrow our modem, as I had let them know that I now have an extra one. The teacher who lived here last year had bought one and left in the apartment, as his new apartment already has one. Well, no use in me keeping two modems and only using one! So I let the other teachers know that I had an extra modem to lend. Marilyn & Emily were thrilled, since modems cost about $50.

They came over and I gave them the modem plus the American presents--lotion from Bath & Body Works. (per request)

They told me that when they had told the vice principal that they were coming to me to get the modem, he had grown suspicious and asked, "Is it the school's modem?" Thinking that perhaps I had "stolen" a modem bought for me by the school.

No, they assured him, I had used my own money for this modem.

They were happy to see my place and we were happy to talk, but it was getting late and they had an hour return journey!

Astana's a small city but it can take quite some time to travel via bus.

But it's great to see familiar faces, to feel welcome. It's good returning to a city.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Khan Shatyr, the Palace of the King


Saturday, 28 August 2010

Khan Shatyr is Kazakh for Palace of the King, and it has been in the process of being built for several years now. My Lonely Planet puts its opening date in 2008, but it was not completed until this past summer and had a grand opening in July.

Khan Shatyr is, basically, a tent. A massive, leaning tent which contains a massive shopping mall. Another shopping mall for Astana.

Khan Shatyr is a big deal because it will maintain a consistent pleasant temperature all throughout the year, maybe 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. Even in the coldest of winter.

It was supposed to be like a mini-city, complete with parks, and contain the 4 seasons. Instead, it's just a big, extravagant shopping mall.

My friend & I were not impressed. My daughter and her daughter were.

Khan Shatyr has 6 floors. The bottom floor (basement) has a large supermarket, Green; there is a Green near Artyom where I once found tortillas for Sophia. There are some other stores on the bottom floor.

The first floor (or 2nd, depending on how you're counting them) has a large, open area in the middle. When we came on Saturday, a band was playing hip-hop music and dancing to it. They looked like your average scrawny, punk-ish, hip-hop-ish American boys. Except they were Russian and singing in Russian and actually the dancing was pretty amazing. (Break-dancing)

Behind them was a large pole leading up to the top, attached to the pole was an amusement-park-style ride, where people were sitting and the ride went up, halfway to the top of the building, and then the ride free-fell down. Up and down it went, sometimes going down slowly, sometimes as fast as you would if you were falling; sometimes going all the way down, sometimes going only halfway down. The people on it raised their hands or clung to the safety bars, squealing. Sophia, of course, wanted to ride (we didn't).

We could see all the way to the top, the funky leaning-tent ceiling, and partially outside, as the outer material is some kind of near-see-through material, supposedly good for maintaining a good climate inside.

The levels immediately above us seemed to contain shops, above that, we could not see. On one of the top levels there was another ride--like a roller coaster, but not fast or scary, just a roller coaster-like set of cars that went around some track, circling the 5th floor, way above the ground. Interesting. Perhaps dangerous, I'm not sure what the safety standards for rides are in Kazakhstan.

There were lots of plants, perhaps trying to give the place a park-like feel. (Fail)

The 2nd & maybe the 3rd levels had shops (I can't remember the floors exactly). Then came the level with food and some games for kids. The usual video games, Chucky-Cheese-like stuff, and.. bumper cars, and some amusement-park rides. Wow. We also saw a "Krusty Krab's" fast food restaurant--the restaurant from Sponge Bob Squarepants!!

We went up and there was a water ride. Kind of like the log ride, where you and one other person get in a log and then go around in water on various turns and sorts, and then go down really fast and splash and get wet. Sophia and her friend had plenty of fun watching the ride.

Then we found the entrance to the beach and spa. This was one floor above us, but to get up you had to pay or have a membership. Another teacher had been given a tour of the beach when he inquired about a membership, so I told my friend that that's what we would do.

The woman working there recognized us from the dancing lessons we'd attended last year. How nice!

The price list sheet was in Russian and the prices all had too many zeros on them for me to figure much out. 8000 Tenge ($54) for one day at the "beach", 4000 Tenge for a child. Membership for a year cost 400,000 Tenge ($2714). That's almost half a million Tenge for a membership!! Which includes the spa, but still!!!

So we asked about a membership and were given a tour. We got in the elevator and went up.

Upon exiting the elevator, there were two "beaches". Which looked like shallow and not-too-large pools surrounded by sand. There were a few people wandering around in skimpy bathing suits or robes.

One of things I like least about the beach is the sand. So why pay 8000 Tenge for sand plus a pool?

There were some water slides at one pool; later, one of my students would come here and then draw a picture of himself rather happy on the slide. There were waiters and food, and a spa somewhere.

But seriously. 8000 Tenge for one day. I'd pay close to $100 just for Sophia and I to go to a pool with sand. The pool that my friend had taken us to last year cost about 500 Tenge a person. And it was much nicer. Maybe the water slide wasn't as fancy, maybe it wasn't as warm, maybe there was no restaurant. But a nice 3-foot deep pool with a slide, a wading area for young children, a hot tub, and an Olympic-sized pool that was at least 12 feet deep on the shallowest end, with high-diving boards. Much better than what Khan Shatyr had to offer.

The Palace of the King... Maybe I'll come to like it in the winter, but seeing as it's a 20-minute walk, and in the winter nothing is worth 20 minutes in hellish-ly freezing cold, then maybe not.

(This picture is of the inside of Khan Shatyr, taking around Christmas-time)

Return to the American Libary & Artyom!

Saturday, 28 August 2010

Sophia & I left the maid, still cleaning, at 1 pm, to meet another teacher, L, to show her where the American library is. Really, it's an English-language library & American-style coffee shop, run by an American, not an "American library". It's called Eagilik, and it can be rather hard to find the first couple times.

This is Ls first year in Astana, first time living abroad since before I was born, and I was quite happy to help show her around. We took bus 18, which drops you off right in front of the library. Except that the library is hidden behind some other buildings, so really, not noticeable from the road.

We went inside, said hello to Martha, the owner, and L instantly made friends with her and then with another American, who lives in Almaty and knows some of the teachers at our school.

Sophia was happy to have her chocolate cake and hot chocolate again. Then we picked out 3 books and 2 DVDs. My co-worker signed up for an account.

Next, we let Sophia play on the playground outside the library before heading off towards Artyom.L had been there before with some other new teachers. There is no bus that goes from our place to Artyom, compared to last year there were several. It's a few blocks from the library, so that's not bad.

Some of the other teachers had walked the 3 miles from our place to Artyom! Sure, the weather's nice, but I'm not sure Sophia's ready for that much walking.

L is a great shopping partner; like me, she enjoys just wandering around the markets, seeing what there is to see--the little vendors in their little stalls. Everything is crammed together, there's lots of people and lots to see and very few price tags.

We first looked for shoes for Sophia in some of the market-stalls next to the 6-story building that is Artyom. Then we went inside Artyom and on the second floor looked for household items. Then we went back down to the first floor--and indoor market of food, full of colors and fantastic looking fruit and vegetables. I bought raisins and nuts.

Then we went into a large-ish room, crammed full of tables and stalls selling household items, toys, makeup and toiletry items, and school supplies. We each bought a "Chinese bag" -- a large tote that can carry quite a bit -- for 350 Tenge (a little over $2). Sophia bought some bubbles.

It was getting late so at this point we headed home. I had plans to visit Khan Shatyr that evening with my Kazakh friend & her child.

I have a maid!

Saturday, 27 August 2010

When the teacher who'd lived in my apartment last year mentioned that he'd had a maid, I instantly jumped on the idea and kept asking him about it--how do you get a maid? Where did you find her? How much?

So when she came into the school (having now been hired to help clean after school), he introduced her to me. She speaks some English and seems very nice. She is still cleaning for him, and now that she works for the school--she sounds trustworthy. And I just love the thought of not having to worry about cleaning my own place!

So, we decided that she would come in on Saturday at 10 am, while I'm there, and from then on she would come on Fridays, while I'm at work.

It was a bit awkward, because, well, I've never had a maid, and I am not good at telling others what to do. Luckily, I just asked her, "What did you do for Eddie last year?" and when she told me, I said, "Okay." She dusts, sweeps & mops the floors, vacuums, irons, cleans the bathrooms & the kitchen, washes the dishes. How great!

Sophia watched a video and I graded papers while she worked. As she worked, I kept thinking about how little I enjoy cleaning and how much work it is to clean a house! So I was quite glad to have her.

I'm paying her as much as Eddie paid her last year, which sounds like a bit much to me, but I justify it because I'm not paying rent. And if I am over-paying her, well, then, that's okay, I don't have to worry that I'm exploiting her.

I feel a bit weird giving a near-stranger the extra set of keys to my place and allowing her in my house when I'm gone. But, I remind myself--the landlords' stuff is far more expensive than any of my stuff, so if she could be trusted last year then she surely can be trusted this year!

So far, so good. Every Friday I come home to a clean house. I've realized that I'm really not a very dirty person, the house is usually rather clean when I leave it Friday morning. But it's nice to know that someone will be doing the vacuuming for me, the floors will be mopped weekly, the bathrooms cleaned--and Friday morning's dishes will be washed. Plus, the ironing will be done.

First Days of School

Thursday - Friday, 26 - 27 August 2010

The first day of school was a half-day, which was nice. The kids met their new teachers, took a tour of the school, got accustomed to their classrooms, etc. My aide and I wandered the school and introduced ourselves to the 6-to-11 year old classrooms, the classes from which we might have students.

My 6th grade math class went okay. We didn't have tables or chairs in that room until the night before, I was pretty impressed by how quickly it went from an empty room to one that could be used as a classroom. I had the children look through the textbooks, I discussed the units we would be doing this year and about when we would be doing them. It's great to have a well-defined curriculum, because otherwise I wouldn't have a clue as to what we're going to be doing this year! But it's nicely divided into 10 units (plus 2 "selective" units that you can teach if you have time); with 180 days in a school year, you can assign 18 days per unit and easily determine about when you should be finishing each unit. The units are also closely correlated to the textbook, so, although you don't have to use the textbook, you can easily move through the textbook--which greatly helps someone who hasn't taught 6th grade math before!

We went over some math terminology--I've learned that in a class with mostly non-native speakers, math terminology is often the part that really throws the kids off. You might be an expert in math, but if you don't know what a "product" is in English, how do you know what to do when the problem says to find the product of two numbers?

Since we had little to do, my aides and I took our own mini-tour of the school, exploring some of the buildings we hadn't looked at yet.

On Friday, I started pulling kids to test them. I was glad that I didn't have to teach that day (except for math--we started a Pre-Test), and that I could focus exclusively on testing. I got about 3 students tested in one day! The other teachers were quite happy that I was helping them with testing. Until we finish testing the students, we won't know who goes into my classroom and what groups those students will be in.

We had an Elementary School assembly in the afternoon, where all the teachers introduced themselves. The head for all the schools in Kazakhstan (and perhaps Central Asia) was there, he was very enthusiastic & the kids loved him. The kids surprised us all when he asked if they knew the "Success Orientations." Success Orientations are 8 "orientations" that are important for success in life--character education basically--and QSI, the school's organization--stresses these skills. Skills such as responsibility, caring for others, independent endeavor, etc. But, well, most schools have something like that and the kids really don't pay attention. So we were rather impressed when, on the first day back to school, the kids could remember all eight of these orientations. Even pronounce "aesthetic appreciation" correctly. Remember, most of these kids aren't native English speakers. So that's impressive.

The weekend was going to be a long one--Constitution Day on Monday--and in the end, I think this is a good way to start a school year. The students have two days to adjust to their new classrooms, meet their new friends, learn the rules & procedures. It takes a while to get into your study-mode and away from your play-all-summer mode.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Tuesday I met with the principal to discuss Intensive English. A lot of work, and we had barely touched on the curriculum (the point of the meeting) when an hour was over. At this point, I heard Sophia coming crying into the building. She had a headache, she said. The principal said it was fine if I go home. We had a Meet-the-Teachers BBQ that night, and the teachers were allowed to take a break in the afternoon before the BBQ. So no problem if I had to go home with Sophia.

I asked and he was able to arrange for the driver to take us home, which was nice. The Kazakh accountant was in the car with us. She's an older woman and very much a babushka (Russian for grandma, but pretty much describes most older Kazakh women--just very caring and nurturing when it comes to young children and young adults.) She fretted over Sophia and provided a plastic bag for Sophia to throw up in, although luckily Sophia never did.

At home, I checked her temperature--over 100. Since I usually get temperatures around 86 or something unreasonably low, I had to wonder--was this accurate? Was it possibly much higher? I tried another thermometer and also got over 100. Okay, so she had a fever.

I called the principal and he was understanding that I would miss the BBQ.

The next morning Sophia didn't have a temperature so we went into school. One more day to get ready and then school would start! I have two aides, but I wasn't sure what to have them do. I'm horrible at telling others what to do, and I wasn't too sure what I'd be doing anyways. They were helpful Tuesday, though. I left a note of things that I wanted to get done--and one item was "clean and organize room" and they did a good job. What a relief that something could get done in my absence. To come back to a clean, organized room, to know that it wasn't a mess when the parents were there, that was nice.

The other elementary teachers and I decided that I wouldn't teach Intensive English the first two days. I would let the children get used to their classes, the teachers do their introductory things--introduce people, tour the school, introduce and practice rules and routines. I would wander, meet the classes, and talk to the students. Also, I would help with testing.

The school requires that all elementary students are given a DRA reading assessment at the beginning of the year (and also later in the year, I think). Plus the younger kids get a test on ABCs and phonemic awareness. Good tests, but these take time. About half an hour to do one DRA test on one kid.

Luckily, these are the exact same test that I spent endless hours in training for back in Laurens, and I have 4 years experience of administering these tests to children. The exact same tests--the exact same books that we'd used. So I volunteered to spend my first few days helping the other teachers test their kids. It was pretty quickly decided that I'd do all kids who were being considered for Intensive English.

School tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

First Days at a New School, Same City

The first day for new staff was Thursday, 19 August, but luckily my new principal told me that I could take the day off, since we had just arrived Wednesday at midnight! (Visa issues... Too many little mistakes plus the Kazakhstan Embassy taking longer than expected, meant that we had to put off our arrival in Kazakhstan by a week.)

Jet lag hit Sophia bad, as usual. Thursday she fell asleep around 6 pm, and I thought, maybe she'll sleep most the night. At least until 4 am. No, she woke up by 11 and from then on, she woke me up every half hour, saying "Momma!" Around 5 am I yelled at her and she was finally quiet. But then, I had to wake up at 6...

At 8 am, I came into the new school and met the new staff. The principal had lined up an aide to watch over the teacher's children, which was very nice. It's still a small school--maybe 120 students this year, or a bit more--and growing every year. It's in its 5th year.

Every year they've had to buy a new school building, as enrollment keeps growing. This year, the school is located in 3 tall buildings. My room will be in the middle building, the Elementary Building, for students aged 7 to 11 years old. Because the school caters to an international crowd, they call the classes by ages and not by grades. Because in different countries different grades mean different things.

On the first floor in my building are the 9-year old and the 7-year old classrooms, as well as a small bathroom. The second floor is where my rooms are located, plus the 8-year old classroom, the teacher resource room, and a bathroom. I'm doing Intensive English--English for students whose English is not good enough to take English and Reading in their regular classrooms--and I have 2 aides and a wide range of students, ages 6 to 11, with a wide range of abilities. So two classrooms, the second one being rather small. The 3rd floor has the 10-year old room, the 11-year old room, the assistant principal's office, and the cafeteria. The top floor has the library.

Each building has a cafeteria, which will be nice in cold weather. The less the students have to travel between buildings, the better. A local restaurant caters and children can decide if they want to buy lunch or bring their own.

One building contains the preschool through 6-year olds, plus the Elementary Kazakh and Russian classrooms, plus the computer lab and the Elementary art room. The Elementary music room is the cafeteria, as the 10-year-old teacher also teaches music, and her room is next to the cafeteria. The third building contains the main office and staff rooms, plus all the high school classes. Another building has the gym and storage--they are really excited, since this is the first year that the school will have a real gym. Another building contains an indoor play area for when it gets cold, plus an auditorium (just a large, empty room) on the second floor.

There are two areas with some play equipment, plus a basketball hoop. The entire area is gated, and there is a little guard house near the main entrance, and there are guards 24/7. So, in theory, if I wanted to get some work down at midnight on a weekend, I could come by and a guard would let me in. Also, in theory (and hopefully in practice, too!) if a kid wants to run away during the school day, a guard will notice and stop him.

I found out on Friday that I would also be teaching 11-year old Mathematics (Middle School Course 1, is what the textbook says). I decided to convert my 2nd room into a Mathematics room, which worked nicely when there were only nine 11-year old students, but now there are 12 and it's rather cramped!

I spent that Friday as well as Saturday and many days the next week attempting to get my room in order, to decorate it and make it look nice. Hard, since I wasn't sure exactly what I'd be doing, who I'd be teaching, how I'd be teaching, what they'd be needing. I was thankful for all the supplies the principal's wife had brought with her, and in the end, my room looked rather nice.

Friday for lunch were were driven to the American Embassy, where the Librarian / French teacher's husband works. Here I was able to order pizza for Sophia, which she only somewhat liked.

Saturday, while I worked in my classroom, my Kazakh friend watched Sophia for most of the entire day. That was rather nice. They went to eat at Mega, played in a park, went out for cake and tea, then Sophia went to the ice skating rink to watch her friend ice skate. I got quite a bit of work done without Sophia!

On Monday, I met the rest of the staff. Maybe about 20 people in all. Mostly Americans, some Canadians, a Korean-American, a woman from Barbados who I think is also Canadian. Mostly couples also, as the organization that runs the school prefers to hire teaching couples (to save on the cost of apartments, I believe, possibly other reasons too). Mostly around my age, in their 30s or late 20s, from what I could guess. The principal and his wife have two children, ages 9 and almost-7; a new couple have two children, ages 10 and 7; another new couple has an 18-month old daughter. The librarian (older) has two teenage daughters. A male teacher has a 4-month old baby; his wife taught here last year but now is staying home with her baby. She will be babysitting the 18-month old during the day. For now, the 18-month old's grandparents are here to help babysit.

For lunch, they took us to a restaurant with a buffet. Sophia did not like much of the food, but was able to eat the salami. She and some of the other children got quite silly after a while, which is to be expected, and it was nice to see her playing.

Two more days until school would start!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Returning to Astana - My New Home

Hooray! I had seen my new apartment last year, but now I get to live in it. It is as nice as I remembered.

It is located on the other side of town from where I once lived, near the "new" downtown, where the fancy new buildings and government offices and the funky Beyterek Tower are. It is near the river and the large park by the river that I have never gone to but am slowly hearing good things about.

It is next door to Mega, the fancy shopping mall that Sophia loves, which has a fast food court, a theater, a children's area with games & roller skating, and Ramstore, the grocery store that sometimes sells items such as peanut butter and Parmesan cheese.

It is practically next door to Sariarka, another shopping mall, which seems pretty similar to Mega except no Babylon (the play place).

It is a bit more than a stone's throw from the steppe, but not that far at all. If we lived a bit higher up, I'm sure we could see the steppe from our window. But we're on the first floor.

It is about a 20 minute walk from Khan Shatyr (Kazakh for "Palace of the King", the large crazy tent-like structure that is supposed to be a city within a city, an architectural marvel that maintains a constant pleasant temperature year-round, with a beach and a waterpark--but it's really just a huge, over-done mall. With a pathetic excuse for a beach that costs 8000 Tenge ($54) just to go in for a day.

Our apartment's biggest downside is that the only buses that come by the nearest bus stop don't go anywhere that I'd ever care to go, except Khan Shatyr (which is only 2 bus stops away, so why bother with a bus?) or the airport (which is nice). It's about a 10 - 15 minute walk to the bus stops where I can find a bus to take me shopping, to the river, to the old downtown, to the American library, to church, etc. Since the weather is nice, that's not a problem. When the weather is minus 40, that might be a problem.

We are also pretty close to the new school; however, we must first cross a super-busy street before we have a 5 - 10 minute walk. In the mornings, we have mastered the art of jay-walking, as it's not too busy. But sometimes we get stuck in the middle of the road while cars whiz by us on either side. NOT GOOD. Even though plenty of Kazakhs--even with kids younger than Sophia--do this, that's not something I think I could ever get comfortable doing. Sure, I've yet to see anyone get hit. But still....

It's a short walk to the intersection with a light and crosswalk, and that entire area is under construction. Maybe by the time snow and ice have covered the ground, then there will be a real sidewalk there, and I won't be tramping through dirt on my way to school. But then, I won't be able to see a real sidewalk and I'll be tramping through ice not dirt...

Still, the location is great. There is a mini-mart, the Dolphin, directly below us--literally. If you look out Sophia's bedroom window, you see the tip of the glowing blue dolphin that marks the entrance to the store. The mini-mart will be very useful when it is too cold to run to Mega for groceries. And useful when I'm just too lazy. Great for a sugar run, when all you want is something sweet and you have nothing in your house.

Our apartment is on the first floor on one side, the second on the other. Underneath us (besides the mini-mart) is an enclosed basement garage, meaning that if we got a car (which we won't) we could keep it inside in the winter, making it so much easier to start. The playground is nice, nothing fancy, and the whole area around it is concrete, like a parking lot, but cars are blocked from coming there. A good area to practice riding a bike, but I've yet to get Sophia one (I've been looking). I wonder if when winter comes, if it'll be good for ice skating...

The problem with being on the first floor (at least on half of the apartment) is that if I open the curtains, all the children playing and all the people walking to and from their homes can look inside and see us. If I open the windows because I am hot (no air-conditioning, a bright sun, and 95 degree weather does make the inside quite hot!), then I can hear everyone outside and they can hear us. Not all the windows have screens, and it would be very easy to climb inside our apartment from the outside. So I keep the windows on that half of the apartment closed when I can.

In the apartment, there's a nice entrance foyer, with plenty of room for shoes, a wardrobe for hanging coats, a table with the phone and a stool for taking off shoes. To your right as you walk in, there's the large living room, with a couch and a two-person couch, a dining table, and a super-large flat screen TV that I'm quite terrified will one day just fall over and break. Usually Astana apartments have an indoor (but not heated) porch attached to each room; in this house, the owners made those porches part of the inside. So there's an extra mini-room, or sun-room, attached to the living room, making the living room even larger. The cabinets in this living room contain what looks like real crystal. So I stay away. And made a rule: no throwing balls in the living room. (I have a 7-year old, so of course one day she decided to play ball in the living room, so I had to make that rule.)

From the entrance foyer, to your left, is the kitchen, not exceptionally large but larger than any kitchen I've ever had. It has a nice table, plus a bench, a stainless-steel refrigerator, a bit of counter space, 2 small sinks (I only had one last year!), a flat-top stove, and an oven that took me quite some time to figure out how to work. And plenty of liquor stored in a cabinet.

Further down the entrance foyer is another hallway; straight ahead are the bathroom and toilet room; to the left is Sophia's room; to the right is mine. The bathroom is long and narrow, with a small German washing machine in it, and a tiny yet mostly clean shower. The sink area is large and beautiful. Plenty of space to store my stuff! Finally!

The toilet room has a bidet.

Sophia's room has a large cabinet and I found an extra small cabinet in my room's storage space that I put into her room. Plus, I have a couple other plastic storage units for her. So for once she has enough room for all her stuff. Her bed is cool. It took the school's driver, Abai, coming over for me to learn how to work it. But the side can go up and down, turning it into a couch if you want; the head can go up and down, kind of like a hospital bed. It's cool. Good for raising the head when I want to read her a story.

My room has more furniture than I've ever had before: a TV table and TV, a computer desk; a fancy bookshelf/cabinet thingy; a vanity (make-up table with drawers); a wardrobe; a full-sized bed; two end-tables on both sides of the bed. Everything in matching dark wood. And nothing's broken yet, so I'm guessing it's at least decent quality.

What the bedrooms are missing are sheets. I sleep on a sheet that is too small for my bed; Sophia sleeps on a bedcover. So we need to buy sheets. But that's okay.

Sophia's bedroom has the indoor-porch, that's where I put the Christmas tree and her sled. My room has the extra space, which is good for storage (empty boxes and suitcases) as well as a great place to keep the vacuum cleaner out of sight and to hang-dry the clothes.

Yeah, no clothes-dryer and no dishwasher. Two appliances I miss.

So, as wonderful as this place is, I was a bit daunted by the sheer thought of cleaning it, so as soon as the teacher who lived here last year mentioned that he'd had a maid, I begged him to hook me up with her. He gladly did. He still uses her--he's a single guy, so he was moved to a smaller apartment this year, and seems to bear me no ill-will at having him move out of this fancy place. So now I have a maid, someone who's cleaned this place before, which is nice, because I'd have no idea what to tell a maid to do. So she just does for me what she did for the other teacher. She's come by twice so far, and my place is sparkling clean. She'll also iron any clothes I leave out for her. Last year, I got by without ironing.

So, really, it's not like she's doing any work that I'd be doing otherwise. She's sparing me the pain of thinking about work that I should be doing.

And I'm happy with this place. It's large; it's well-furnished; well-stocked in the kitchen (pots and pans, etc); good location; and it's clean!