Monday, November 14, 2011

Sophia's 9th Birthday

Saturday, 12 November 2011

We invited 12 kids to her birthday party--all the girls in the 3rd & 4th grade, plus 3 boys, plus her friend that goes to a local school. All but two RSVP'ed, and all but one showed up, so that was a pretty good turnout.

First, we met at the entrance to the movie theater at the Mega Mall, and went to watch the movie The Adventures of Tin-tin. You can look up movie times on-line, for the current day as well as the next two days, but when I looked up the times for most of the week, only the current day's would show. On the other pages, it would say something like, Wait for the administration to put the schedule up.

So I was nervous--for one week, Tin-tin had shown at 11:30, but what if today they changed the schedule?

Luckily, Tin-tin was showing, and at 11:30. I'd asked everyone to show up at 11, which was good, since, as usual, several people were late.

I bought the tickets--12 children's tickets plus 1 adult ticket--for about 5600 Tenge. That's about $38. Really nice price :) (And Sophia was free because it was her birthday.)

The movie was in Russian, but only a few of the children don't understand Russian, and of them, only one was bored. There's enough action in Tin-tin to follow the basic plot and be entertained. Kids' movies in general are easier to understand than adult movies.

After the movie, we walked back to my house, where I had them do a small scavenger hunt and then open presents while I made macaroni & cheese (imported from the US!) and chicken nuggets. Sophia's local friend was a bit shy, so I had her help me. She'd never seen macaroni and cheese before and appeared disgusted by the mixture when I poured in a huge slab of butter, some milk, and the powdery mixture.

Several of the Kazakhs hadn't had mac and cheese before, but they all liked it. The chicken nuggets were popular too (the frozen kind! now readily available in stores here).

Then I decorated the cake and brought it out and we sang "Happy Birthday." My apartment isn't tiny, but 13 kids is a lot. (The 11 who came, plus Sophia, plus the cousin of one of the girls.) And even though I'd bought some paper plates and had some plastic silverware, we were running out of those! Especially by the time cake and ice cream came along.

At this point they were pretty rowdy, getting in pillow fights, and so I was grateful that it was a rather warm day for mid-November in Astana. It was just 1 degree below 0 Celsius, and it was sunny and not windy. So I sent them outside to play Capture the Flag.

They were still happily playing when their parents came so I judge this party a success :) My house was messy, but we'd still managed to have a good party and for not too much money. And Sophia now had over 11 presents (because some kids gave her more than one thing).

The party ended at 4 pm; the last parent picked up at 4:30 pm; I spent half an hour cleaning the house, and then it was time to get ready for the Marine Corps Ball.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

An English-speaking tailor

November 2011

For the most part, you don't need to speak the same language as a tailor. You can walk in, show them the tear in your coat (or whatever) and they can fix it. It helps to know times and numbers (for prices) but a large knowledge of English on their part or Russian or Kazakh on yours is not necessary.

There are a lot of tailors here; every mall seems to have one. The top floor of Artyom is full of cheap ones, and I learned my first year that taking something in to a tailor is cheaper and more convenient than pretending that I'd get around to sewing it myself. (Although I have sewn some things myself!) Like shoe-repair people, they're pretty cheap--a couple hundred Tenge (a few dollars) for the jobs I've used them for (fixing tears).

But this time I had a ballgown I wanted fitted, and so when a friend recommended an English-speaking tailor, I was more than glad to listen.

I took the dress in on Saturday, and by Tuesday evening it was ready. It cost me 2300 Tenge (about $15.50) and the tailor did a better job than the tailor in America who'd first fixed it.

So... in the rare chance that somebody reading this blog wants to find an English-speaking tailor, here goes my directions:

Start at the Mega shopping center. Walk past the circus and cross Kabanbai Batyr Street (the first big street you'll meet). The Kaskad buildings should be in front of you (the tallest of these buildings has a sign for "Turkish Airlines" on top of it.) Walk straight down the small street, so that Kaskad is on your right. The supermarket Alma is part of the Kaskad buildings, also on your right. A hotel will be on your left.

You'll walk about a block more after passing Kaskad, and probably start to wonder where I'm taking you, since it seems like just a neighborhood. But after about a block, a small, two-story shopping center will appear on your right. Enter by the first door. There will be stairs on your right; go up.

Upstairs are several small shops, walk straight down the hall until you get to a small set of steps; go up them. Directly on your right at the top of the stairs is a tailor--that's her!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Witnessing a kitten drown

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Behind our apartment building is another apartment building and a public school (School 17), with some shacks behind the other apartment building. Next to the shacks is the imposing Triumph building, an apartment complex and hotel with a swimming pool inside.

In order to get to Kabanbai Batyr Street, with buses to Artyom and other places, we cut through a large vacant lot behind the school.

Sunday as we were walking there, we heard a loud meowing. We stopped and saw a kitten on top of a sewer/manhole covering. There are lots of these in Astana, and, unlike those in the US, many of them are not secure. Oftentimes the covering is not there, and when winter comes you have to be careful! And even when the covering is on, it might not be securely on. Although, on this side of town, we've had few problems; two years ago, there were more uncovered and poorly-covered manholes.

There are lots of stray cats and dogs in Astana, looking rather pathetic, and we worry about them when winter comes. I used to carry a small bag of cat food around with me, just in case. (We are BIG cat lovers.)

So we went towards this kitten, and it got scared and ran off the manhole covering and started looking into a hole in the ground. Then it started to fall in. For whatever reason I told Sophia not to touch it, I would get it, but by the time I came up to it, it had fallen in.

The hole led to the sewer below, and the kitten was in the water. It had stopped meowing, at the time I thought this meant was okay; looking back, I realize that it was either too terrified to meow, or too busy trying not to drown to bother with trying to meow.

I opened the manhole covering (it was heavy) and we looked inside. The kitten had grabbed onto a stick and was paddling around. A ladder led to the water below.

We debated what to do. It was too far down to reach in and grab it. And it didn't think to grab onto the ladder that led to safety.

I debated climbing down. How safe was the ladder? How safe was the water? What was that strange valve-like thing that I'd most likely bump into while climbing down? Could the kitten find safety without us?

Then, we didn't see it, but we heard it -- a few loud, plaintive, gurgling meows. (We could hear the bubbles of water....) The most awful, horrifying, and pitiful sound I have ever heard.

Silence.

We looked in, we couldn't see it, we put the covering back, we started to walk to the bus stop, Sophia burst into tears, we returned home.

We'd witnessed a kitten drown.

And probably could have done something about it.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

My first ballet in Astana

Friday, 28 October 2011

It wasn't until the end of last school year that I finally managed to get on the US Embassy's unofficial newsletter, a bi-monthly email with information about goings-on in Astana. So now, every two weeks, I learn about events such as ballets and operas, as well as symphonies, art exhibits, and other information.

The National Ballet & Opera Theater is located by the train station, an odd location for such a place, since that area isn't exactly the nicest area of town, nor is it near much else. And as far as I know, tickets have to be bought from there (but maybe I'm wrong?)

Most ballets and operas are Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evenings, and this year my friend's daughter has afternoon school -- half-day classes from 2 until 7 pm, Monday through Saturdays. And Sophia & I have church Sunday evenings. So it's difficult to fit in an opera or ballet.

But "Coppelia" (a ballet) was showing on Friday, 28 October, and Sophia & I were on Fall Break, and my friend decided that she and her daughter would just show up late. So Sophia & I took bus 12 for quite some ways to the theater to get tickets, and on Friday we went to the ballet.

We paid 1000 Tenge (under $7) for our tickets and had good seats, near the front. The theater is small, so just about everyone can see, but it's also very beautiful, very elaborately decorated inside. I later learned that the cheap balcony seats are awful--you can't see the entire stage.

My friend didn't show up until Intermission, which was good, because I was worried I'd get in trouble when my cell phone beeped (I told her to text me when she arrived, because I had her tickets). And luckily it was a 3-act play, so we still had 2 acts to go.

Not the most impressive story (guy falls in love with a doll, girlfriend pretends she's a doll to show him how ridiculous it is to love a doll, then they marry and everyone dances). But a weak story can make for a great ballet, and it was really well-done and the dancing was impressive to watch.

The audience really got into it, and during the final act they clapped enthusiastically in beat to the music. We all cheered quite a bit when it ended.

My friend's daughter wanted her picture taken with a ballerina, so after it ended, we climbed on stage and went backstage. No one told us not to, so we went backstage and met some of the dancers. They were all very friendly and quite happy to have their photo taken with Sophia and her friend. The lead ballerina talked to us for a while. She's 18 and has been practicing ballet for 8 years now.

I was happy that Sophia and her friend enjoyed it; we look forward to going to a ballet or opera again soon!

(Update--That night we learned that the opera "Madame Butterfly" would be playing Monday, 7 November, which is a Kazakh holiday, meaning we both would be free to go. After getting a co-teacher to watch Sophia, I took the bus to the theater after school one day--to find out it'd been canceled! The whole trip took close to two hours, just for nothing! On a positive note, I learned that I knew the Russian word for "canceled".)