Friday, August 30, 2013

Construction

There's a joke about Montana--There are 4 seasons in Montana--nearly winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.  That joke holds true for Astana as well.  (Except, it's not just a joke, it's quite true as well!)

Also, Astana is still a quite new city.  It was founded in the 1800s but was rather small until 1997, when the president of Kazakhstan (itself a brand-new country) moved the capital from Almaty in the south to Astana.

Kazakhstan is the most prosperous of all the Central Asian countries, thanks to a stable government and oil money.  And so Astana, a new capital city in a new country with high aspirations, is constantly under construction (and not just road construction).

My second year here I switched schools.  My new principal had been in Astana for over 3 years.  Every time we went somewhere, he would comment that this or that building had not been here when he had arrived.  Mega, the popular mall I live next to, was not there.

Now I have been here for over 4 years.  And as I drive people around, I find myself commenting on this or that building that hadn't been here when I arrived.  Astana is such a different city from what it was 4 years ago!  Which was such a different city from 3 years before that!  It's amazing!

Construction was recently finished on a new school building and so over the summer all of our things were moved into this nice, new building, which is about a fifteen minute walk from the former building.  When the land was purchased for this new building (over 4 years ago), there was nothing there.  Now the school is surrounded by construction--so much so that it is hard to get to!  The road that leads from the main road to our entrance is completely obstructed by construction.  Luckily, there are other ways to get to school, but you will pass construction and torn-up roads on your way to the school.  There's no way around it.

I enjoy being in a city that is changing so much.  I especially enjoy the new, fancy concert halls that are appearing, as well as the new opera theater which is grand and amazing and finally opened a few months ago.

Pretty soon winter will hit and then construction will slow down... but once the snow melts (April, May) construction will begin again!

PEANUT BUTTER!!!!


I think I found a consistent supply of peanut butter, and I'm so happy if this works out!

(See this post for a description of the ordeal of hunting for peanut butter in Astana)

Across from Keruen mall (near the Beiterek tower) is a small store called Fine Foods.  It sells expensive European products such as bread, jellies, and fresh fish imported from Europe.  A couple times last year I bought peanut butter there--1800 tenge (over 11$) for just 500 grams (a normal-sized jar) of Dutch peanut butter.

Since returning in early August, I haven't found peanut butter at any of the usual places, or at Metro, which only recently seemed to acquire peanut butter, and so I stopped by Fine Foods yesterday.  I couldn't find peanut butter, so I asked a worker, who had never heard of peanut butter but was convinced they had what I was looking for, and showed me something like Nutella as well as different kinds of butter.

A German guy (perhaps the owner?) came and he knew exactly what I was looking for and said it was in stock.  I gave them my name and number and they said they'd call when they had it in the store.  Also, he seemed to imply that I could order peanut butter from them and they would get it, just for me.

A few hours later they called to say they had peanut butter.  I haven't had time yet to go pick it up.  But I'm excited.  It's expensive, but if I can order it, then that means I'll always be able to get it.  Yay!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

A "Forest"


I'd heard of a forest near Astana; Sophia had gone there on a field trip in 2nd grade and it was mentioned on the Astana International Club web site as a day trip.  So I wrote down the directions to the forest as well as the directions for a suggested path to take, and off we went, just Sophia and me.

The forest is about a 30 to 45 minute drive from downtown Astana, past the huge Metro store on the Karaganda highway.  We parked in a small parking area with a few other cars.  A family was picnicking to our left.  To our right there was a small guard station and an entrance to what I assumed was the forest.

We first walked around the area near the parking lot.  It was similar to a small woods, with birch trees and quite a bit of undergrowth.  It has rained quite a bit this summer for Astana, so my guess is that there is usually not that much undergrowth.  There were overgrown trails and it was nice, nothing special.

Then we decided to try the recommended path.  We passed the guard house and turned left down a dirt road and soon turned left again onto another dirt road.  Here we came to a fork; judging from what I had written down, I guessed that we should go right.  We walked for quite a bit down this road, never near a forest.  (In fact, the only "forest" we had seen so far was the cluster of trees near the parking lot.)  We weren't in the steppe either; there were some small trees planted in rows on our right; on our left were bushes.  Some of the bushes had red or orange berries.  A family drove up and got out to collect some berries.

The temperature wasn't too hot, but the sky was clear and the sun bright, and soon we were hot and not quite happy.  I pressed on, and soon we came to what looked like an overgrown meadow with some birch trees.  We wandered through here a bit, off the dirt road, and finally turned around.

On our way back, we met a Kazakh man who had gone mushroom-picking.  He told me the name of the berries, which unfortunately I have forgotten, and that they are edible.  Each berry has one seed on the inside, almost as large as the berry itself.

I'm wondering if I should have turned left at the junction.  The people who wrote about this forest on the International Club web site seemed to really enjoy it.

It could perhaps be a nice place to go for a picnic, when the weather is a bit cooler.  But Central Park in Astana is also nice, and a lot closer.  We'll probably come back at some point, just to get out of the city!

Later on, I remembered a "resort" that is further outside of Astana, near where my friend is building a house.  Her brother-in-law had discovered it and recommended it, so one day last year we went.  We had to pay go go in (not much) and it was just a small, dirty place, with a tiny and incredibly dirty pond.  In comparison, the forest is marvelous.
Near the parking lot

Our hike--maybe we should have taken the road on the left?

Berries!  If anyone can name them for me, I'd be delighted.

Meadow?  Forest?  It was pretty.


View of Astana from to road to the forest.




Monday, August 19, 2013

Seeing Astana with New Eyes

I've been here so long that sometimes it's hard to remember what it was like to be new here!  This year the new teachers have all lived abroad, so that helps with the culture shock, I think.  They still have to learn what Astana is like and they have to deal with not knowing the language, but they are used to the surprises that await you when you leave your home country.

Last week I took one of the new teachers to Артем  (Artyom), a large, crowded mall that I enjoy going to, although sometimes it can give me a headache!  The ground floor is mostly full of vendors selling food, and sometimes teachers like to come here for fruits, vegetables, spices, etc.  The second floor has home items as well as souvenirs, pharmacies, and other odds and ends, and the next few floors have clothing and shoes.  The top floor has two cheap restaurants, cheap hair places, and cheap tailors.

When I shop at the fancy, modern malls such as Mega or Khan Shatyr, I hear so many foreign voices and often run into someone I know.  When I shop at Artyom, I never hear foreign voices and the vendors seem surprised and happy to see me.

Some foreigners don't like Atyom so much--it's crowed and dirty (and the clothes aren't cheaper than Khan Shatyr!) but the new teacher loved it.  She found quite a few items she needed, and said it would be a good place to come to practice speaking Kazakh.

She has lived the past several years in China and said it reminded her a lot of China.

A few days later we took a walk through Central Park.  It was around 9 pm, the sun was starting to set, and it wasn't too crowded.  There were still some vendors out--selling corn, ice cream, buttons with names on them--and there were still rides and games.  My co-worker said that this also reminded her a lot of China.

Per her experience so far, Astana is a lot like China, only smaller, less crowed, and cleaner, with much sunnier weather.

Sounds like a great place to live!

Uzbek Restaurant

One of the new teachers lives in my apartment building, and last week she said she wanted to go eat at a local restaurant.  And suddenly, I realized--I've lived here for 4 years and I don't have any recommendations for restaurants serving local food!  Sure, I've eaten local food, but where?

Luckily I have local friends so I texted one and got 3 recommendations--Russian, Uzbek, and Kazakh.  The Russian and Uzbek ones were within walking distance, so we walked.

These two restaurants are located with several more expensive restaurants, in the area that's called the 'round square'.

This round square is located behind the KazMunaiGas building that is across the park from Khan Shatyr.  If you're standing in front of Khan Shatyr, you can see Lovers' Park across the street, and behind that the KazMunaiGas building.  You can even see beyond, to Beiterek.  It's a lovely view and a lovely walk.


We found the Uzbek restaurant, but did not see the Russian one, Самовар (Samovar), so we ate at the Uzbek one, Кишлак, (Kishlak).  As far as I know, Uzbek and Kazakh foods are very similar; at least, this restaurant offered quite a few dishes that I associate with Kazakhstan.

We settled on shashlyk and lagman, with baursak for bread and some vegetables.  Shashlyk is like kebab--it's meat grilled on a stick--and the one we got was lamb mixed with something else.  Usually the shashlyk I get is not mixed or ground, it's just the meat, and I did not like this one as much.

Lagman is a type of noodle; this one was served in a soup-like mixture with meat.   It was very good.  Baursak is a puffy fried bread-ball and is one of Sophia's favorite foods.

The restaurant seemed very Uzbek to me, the waiters were in traditional costumes, and the tiles on the walls reminded me of the mausoleum in southern Kazakhstan.  My friend, who had spent the past several years in China, said everything--from the décor to the costumes to the food--reminded her of western China!

So I'm happy I got to experience a local restaurant, maybe someday I'll try Samovar or the Kazakh restaurant.



Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Language Learning Is Not As Easy As It Seems!

My senior year in high school I opted to take a Russian language class instead of higher-level mathematics.  My family hosted a Russian foreign exchange student for half the year.  In university I decided to continue to pursue my interest in Russian, and I took Russian language classes as well as Russian history and culture classes, for the first 2 1/2 years.  I even took Russian while studying at the Sorbonne in France my junior year.

Then I put Russian aside and mostly forgot about it.  I liked the Russian alphabet and sometimes doodled in Cyrillic when bored, but that was it.

Then I moved to Kazakhstan.  I found some of my old Russian textbook tapes and listened to them in preparation for the move.

My first year, I worked at a school where there was very little English.  I got to practice my Russian with my co-workers as well as my students, and I became more confident in very basic conversation.  I learned how to say 'Sit down!' and 'Be quiet' and 'Because I said so!' in Russian.

I also learned how to communicate, at a very basic level, while out and about--I learned vocabulary and phrases for shopping and eating at restaurants as well as giving directions.

Sophia struggled immensely, despite being 6 years old and immersed in the language and taking 8 hours a week of intensive Russian.  By the end of the year, she had learned enough phrases to play on the playground, and she knew the Russian alphabet and could sound out words.  In sum, very little Russian for a young child immersed in the language.  I'd always heard that language learning was so easy for young children, especially if they were immersed in it.  Yet, it turned out that it's nowhere near as easy as we think!

Then we moved to an English-language school, where we hear English in the hallways, my co-workers all speak fluent English, and of course English is required in the classroom.  Sophia had just 3 hours a week of Russian.

We've been at that school for just over 3 years now.  I love this school and it's wonderful--a great environment for me to teach in and a great environment for Sophia to learn in.   But it's not great for learning Russian.  (Which is fine, since it's an English-language schools and the parents who send their kids here are more concerned with their kids' level of English than their level of Russian.)

My Russian now is not much better than it was 3 years ago, and perhaps still worse than it was in university.  Sophia's has barely improved in the past 3 years.

Yet we live in a Russian-speaking country, surrounded by Russian!  You'd think we'd be fluent by now!  And Sophia has watched countless hours of Russian cartoons.

On the one hand, it's embarrassing to admit how little I know.  On the other hand, language learning is tough!  It's not something that comes naturally when you're immersed in it!  It's something that takes a lot of TIME and EFFORT--and time is something a single working mother doesn't have much of, and effort is something a stubborn child doesn't have much of.  There is no need for either of us to speak Russian (other than the basic Russian I already know), and need is usually the driving force for language learning--the children at our school learn English because otherwise they can't communicate.

I watch the students at our school learn English and realize just how hard language learning is.  They are immersed in English for 8 hours a day; they are surrounded by teachers who care and who try to help them every step of the way.  They get special small-group intensive English instruction.  They are motivated by the strong desire to be able to communicate.

And it is so hard.  They struggle, they feel frustrated, they act out.  Some learn more quickly than others; usually this is because their parents are fluent in English and help them at home.  The children whose parents do not speak English usually learn the slowest.

Some children are naturals at language.  They embrace English and love it and work so hard, happily and constantly, and excel.  Other children just can't figure it out.  Sometimes they try hard and just don't get it, other times they don't even want to try.

In the end, they all learn English, and I am so amazed watching them.  But they have the ideal, perfect circumstance for learning a language--the immersion, the caring teachers, the small teacher-to-student environment, the time (no job, just full-time students!)--and it takes a lot of time and effort.

So how can I learn Russian when I don't have all this?  I don't have 8 hours a day to dedicate to learning Russian.

The point is, language learning is not easy.  Even for kids, even for people immersed in a foreign country.  It is easier for some people than for others.  And some people are more motivated than others.  And it is possible for all people.

Just it takes time.  And I will continue to work on my Russian, and maybe one day I will be able to have a decent conversation in Russian about something other than weather, family, shopping, directions, and a menu.

A Doctor House-Call

April 2013
On and off during her life, Sophia has had mild breathing issues--sometimes she feels like she can't breath, and this happens in all sorts of situations--during activity, during rest, outside, inside, hot weather, cold weather, humid weather, dry weather.  She was having more difficulty this past spring, so I decided to find a doctor in Kazakhstan.

I emailed my co-workers for suggestions, and one woman suggested the family doctor she'd been using with her two small children.  She was quite happy with him and he made house calls.

I had a friend call him and he agreed to meet.  However, I had to either pay the taxi fare for him to come to my place or I had to pick him up, so after school one day we drove to pick him up.  He lived on the other side of town, far away from the school, and it was rush hour, so it took over an hour to get him and then get to my place.

He was perhaps in his 50s or 60s and carried a small doctor's kit with him.  He spoke no English, and my friend had to translate.

Note--however good someone's language skills are, there are always areas in which they're not familiar.  My friend's English is awesome, but her knowledge of technical medical terms is not that vast.  My knowledge of technical medical terms isn't that vast either.  So while my friend did a great job translating, there were some terms she couldn't translate.

The doctor spent an hour with us, asking detailed questions and examining Sophia.  He even had her do some exercises so he could check her breathing after them.

However, he wasn't sure what was wrong, especially since she was breathing fine then.  It could be allergy-related, though he really didn't think so, and he was sure it was not asthma.   His best recommendation was to go to an allergist.  He also explained something to do with the nervous system that my friend was unable to translate well and made no sense to me.

I was happy with how thorough the exam was, and he did listen to her chest quite a bit.  It didn't seem like her troubled breathing was a big deal, which was good.

When I asked him how much, he said however much I wanted to pay.  Well!  I had no idea!  I gave him 3000 tenge, 20$.

This summer, we explained the same problem to Sophia's American doctor.  He was just as stumped as the Kazakh doctor; however, he thought it could be mild asthma and prescribed an inhaler.  Sophia's been fine since then, so I don't know yet how well it will work.

So far, I've had little experience with Kazakh health care, and I can't quite recommend this doctor based on one experience.  I do know others who have experienced the health care here, and I do know that I prefer to return to the US for most my health care.

But it was nice to have a house call!  We don't get that in the US!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Restaurants in Karaganda

Since we have no kitchen, we've eaten out quite a bit. So here's my review of some restaurants in Karaganda, all within walking distance of our hotel, the Grand Luxe Gracia Hotel, which is located next to the City Mall and across from the circus. The main street in downtown Karaganda is Bukhar-Zhyrau Avenue.

In the City Mall (on Bukhar-Zhyrau Avenue), we like to eat at Charlotka, which is located on the 2nd floor and has an outdoor cafe feel, since the tables are just in an open area in the mall. The food is rather good and moderately expensive (1200 Tenge  ($8) for pasta; 1400 to 2300 Tenge for a meat dish). They open at 10 am and serve omelettes and blini (like French crepes) for breakfast. They also have delicious desserts and good coffee. Food takes a while to be prepared and delivered.

On the top floor of City Mall is Assorti, an Italian and pizza restaurant that I've been to in Astana. Many people like it; I've never been too pleased. I think the quality of food is not as good as it should be, based on price. There's also Mac & Dac, a fast food restaurant similar to McDonald's.

Across from the TsUM department store (also on Bukhar-Zhyrau Avenue) is another of our favorite Karaganda restaurants, Ankara. It a blue-circular building. Inside there are some birds in bird cages by some of the tables, which of course makes this the girls' favorite restaurant. We always sit next to the birds.

I highly recommend this restaurant as it's very cheap but good quality.  On Tuesday  I paid 1150 Tenge (less than $8) and got a hamburger, tea, 3 pieces of baklava, and a mini cheese pizza. The margarita pizza says it comes only with cheese and tomatoes, but sometimes they put olives on it. To order, you wait in line and order, then you receive a small stand with a number on it, which you place at your table and your food is delivered to you. It can get quite crowded at times.

Also down the main street is the Johnny Walker pub, a moderately expensive restaurant with good steaks. I ate at it a year ago.

If you are walking down the Bukhar-Zhyrau Avenue,, and you've passed Ankara and Johnny Walker on your right, then turn on Beybitshilik Boulevard, and on your right you will find a German beer pub. We went in there today but did not eat, but I was very impressed and want to come back. You have to go down several flights of steps to get there, and it very much feels like you are going to the dungeon of a German castle. The walls are made of stone, and it really has the look and feel of a German castle. There are some private rooms as well as a long room full of tables. There are some decorations—an old typewriter, and old telephone. The menu is in English and Russian, but I didn't look at prices. I think they make their own beer.

There is one other place that makes their own beer, Traktir. I've never been there, but my friend says she once went with Englishmen, and they really liked the beer.

So, we haven't eaten at a wide variety of places, but we like where we've eaten. For dessert or coffee, go to Charlotka. For beer, go to Traktir or the German pub. For steak, go to Johnny Walkers. For a nice meal, go to Johnny Walkers or Charlotka. For a cheap yet fulfilling meal, go to Ankara. For a kid-friendly restaurant, go to Ankara, Charlotka, or Mac & Dac.
Ankara, the inexpensive and yummy Turkish restaurant

Johnny Walker pub

German pub


Saturday, March 30, 2013

Karaganda - More Shopping and More Doctors, But No Baby

 Tuesday, 26 March

My friend's sister's release date from the hospital was delayed once more; we were unsure when she would finally be free to go, and we both had work to do in Astana, so we booked our return tickets for Wednesday at 12:30, after the final eye doctor appointment.  In the end, she was released Wednesday at 4 pm, so we just missed her!

We had a slow morning and after a fast food lunch at City Mall, we went to the dentist for my friend's daughter's appointment.  I went along because I was curious; Sophia went along because her other option was shopping with me.

This dentist place is different from many in Kazakshtan because it is a stand-alone dentist building, not connected to a hospital. The majority of dentist offices in Kazakhstan are in a hospital. As we were sitting in the waiting room, my friend commented on how it was different from most hospitals but it took some explaining for me to understand what was different. We had a pre-scheduled appointment, we signed in, and we waited. That was quite unusual! In most hospitals, you go to whatever room you need to go to, and wait outside with a crowd of other people waiting to get in.

The place smelled very much of a hospital, not the sanitized bleach smell, but rather the latex/plastic smell of gloves and hats.

We were called on time and went to another waiting room. My friend's daughter went into the patient's room by herself. She had been quite scared, so I popped my head in and wished her good luck. The two dental hygienists there smiled at me.

Everything looked just like a normal dentist's office, nothing new or different. I waited for a bit and then said good-bye to Sophia and my friend, and I went outside to go shopping.

It was raining a little, and the rain combined with melting snow made for quite a few muddy rivers that were quite difficult to cross. I did accidentally step in one and got my feet rather wet.

I did some shopping and found “bargains”--shoes and clothes that were similarly priced to what I would pay in the US. So many things in Kazakhstan are cheaper than in the US, but shoes and clothes aren't. In the US it is possible to spend $40 on a pair of shoes that will last you several years; in Kazakhstan it is possible to spend $100 on a pair of shoes that fall apart after one season. So the 5000 Tenge ($35) shoes I bought may not last, but one can hope! I also bought some running clothes, which are also very difficult to find at a decent price here.

After shopping, I met up with my friend and our daughters, we ate and returned to the hotel. My friend's daughter had been quite scared before, but she was in a super mood afterwards, so obviously the procedure had gone well. (She'd had a mild cavity.)

The circus is across from the hotel room and we could see that people were lining up to go to an event, so I offered to take the girls to the circus while my friend worked. Unfortunately, when we got there we learned that it was just a concert (someone singing), so I took them to the mall and they went to a movie. I found a stand that sold candy from Germany, including Advent calendars (although it's about 9 more months until Advent!) and Easter candy, so I bought some chocolate bunnies and eggs for the girls.

Not a very eventful day, but I do think I'm feeling done with shopping!
A small example of the mud and ice that make up the smaller raods

Plastic cover-ups for our shoes that we wore in the dentist's office


Karaganda - Shopping & Doctors

Monday, 25 March

Today we ate breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Charlotka in City Mall. The food took forever to be prepared, but was quite delicious (omelettes and blini—like French crepes). Then my friend took her daughter to the dentist while I dragged Sophia shopping. My friend is from Karaganda, and prefers the doctors here.  Karaganda is also known for having cheaper shopping than Astana.

We hopped on Bus 43 and it was only 3 stops to the big bazaar. Many of the stalls were closed today, because today is part of the Nauriz holiday, but it still was fun wandering the bazaar. I stopped at a shoe place and as Sophia tried on winter boots (for next year), a woman came up to us and said she came because she had heard us speaking English, and she hasn't heard English in a long time. She was quite happy to talk to us. The woman selling the boots was very friendly and also curious as to why we're here, and in the end we bought the boots for 4500 Tenge ($30), which is pretty cheap for winter boots. If they are cheaply made and don't last long, that's fine. Sophia's feet grow so fast! (I bought one size up, hoping they will fit next winter.)

We bought a few more items before heading out of the bazaar and across the street to a huge shopping center. This one is like Artyom in Astana, huge and easy to get lost in, with tiny hallways leading you through a maze with tiny shops separated from each other by glass walls. I found a fashionable autumn coat for 9000 Tenge ($60 - most were much more expensive than that) and we found the Reebok and Adidas outlet store, where I bought a pair of running shoes for myself.

Then, Sophia was tired (she hates shopping) so we headed home. My friend and her daughter arrived a few minutes after us. They had been to the dentist, the eye doctor, and the hair dresser! The dentist had pulled one baby tooth and they had scheduled an appointment for a cavity to be filled the next day.

The eye doctor had said that the girl had vision problems, but could not what. She gave my friend drops with instructions on how to adminster them and told her to return by 6 pm (when the office closed). The drops seemed similar to the kind my eye doctor gives me—they make your pupils larger so the eye doctor can see into your eye. But they were a bit different—my friend was to adminster them, not the doctor, and she had to put two drops in each eye every 10 minutes for 6 times. Then, after a half hour wait, she was to return to the eye doctor.

So we went to eat and then my friend gave her daughter the drops after we ate, while still at the restaurant. That took about an hour, and then we walked to the eye doctor. Since her pupils were large, she couldn't see very well, so she wore sunglasses and closed her eyes as my friend and Sophia helped her along. We must have been such a strange sight, helping this girl along, and also Sophia and I were just in short-sleeved shirts while everyone else was in coats! It was probably about 50º F (10º C) so it was cool but not too cool, and I was tired of getting hot every time I went indoors, so we had left our coats in the hotel.

The eye doctor was located on the second floor of another crowded shopping center, and it looked just like every eye place I've been to the in US, nice and neat with displays of eyeglasses. While waiting, my friend's daughter poked her head behind the door that led to the doctor's room, and she asked if she was ready. I would never do that in the US, but the doctor didn't seem to mind.

They let Sophia go in, but I stayed in the lobby. Within minutes she was finished, with a diagnosis of far-sightedness (she needs reading glasses). But the doctor can't give her a prescription yet. She has to examine her again, when her pupils are back to normal. Again, this is different from when I go in the US, when everything gets done in one visit.

We had planned to return to Astana on Tuesday, but now we have to wait until Wednesday afternoon. I guess I'll have more time for shopping...

In other news, my friend's sister's release date from the hospital was changed from Monday to Tuesday, which is fine, because we were so busy today we wouldn't have been able to visit her.
At the huge shopping center

Friday, March 29, 2013

Giving Birth in Karaganda

Sunday, 24 March 2013

In Kazakhstan, most your doctor and dental services are located in the hospital, which is convenient, but this surprised me my first year here, when my assistants every now and then had to miss work to go to the hospital. I finally learned that this simply meant they had to have a check-up or bloodwork, it did not mean that they were very sick.

However, one place is separate here—the birthing center.

My friend's brother-in-law picked us up and drove us, out of town and quite some ways to this birthing center. It was down quite a bumpy and pothole-filled road. (Remember, winter has just ended, so most roads in Kazakhstan are like this.)

They live near here, which is why his wife gave birth here. (I was wondering why it was so out of the way!)

When we arrived and before we went in, we waved at the windows and searched for the one she was in; she was sitting there with her newborn and waving back at us.

We went into the front lobby, which was as far as we got. They have a strict no-visitors policy. No one is allowed, not even husbands. However, husbands are allowed during labor, which is a new policy, I heard. This is all for hygenic reasons, I believe.

There was a video-phone for each floor, which cost 40 Tenge a minute to use. My friend's sister knew we were coming, so she came with her baby to the phone, and my friend talked to her for a few minutes, while she showed off her baby. Then my friend's daughter talked to her. But the baby started to cry so we let her go.

Meanwhile, her husband was filling out a form and passing along the baby presents and food we had brought.

When I expressed how stunned I was at this, and how awful it must be on the mother to be shuttered away like this, my friend said, no one felt like this. It was normal, it was what you expect.

Different cultures, different experiences, different expectations...


Karaganda - Cathedral

 Sunday, 24 March

Karaganda is like my 2nd Kazakh home; this is my 4th time here. It's one of the largest cities in Kazakhstan, but it doesn't feel that large. I love its downtown, which is stretched over one long road for a few kilometers. Just about everything you need is on this road—dozens of shopping centers, the drama theatre and symphony hall, the circus, a Western-style mall, restaurants, our hotel, and the entrance to the very large park which borders a lake. Further down this road is the train station and further down is the big bazaar and not too far from that is a new, huge, and beautiful mosque, which is next to the new, huge, and beautiful Catholic cathedral.

After breakfast, we walked until we neared the train station, where we realized that there really was no safe pedestrian way to cross the bridge over the train tracks, so we took a taxi. We first went to my friend's church, and then Sophia and I left her there to walk to our church, which was a pleasant 15 minute walk away.

Three years ago we visited this church as it was being built; it was completed in September, but I haven't been here since it's been finished. I was so excited to see the final product and sad to realize that I'd forgotten to bring my camera.

It is so beautiful; it looks like it belongs in Europe. It's made of stone, but somehow colored light brown to look like wood. The inside is beautiful. There are a few stained glass windows, but most the windows are bare, allowing for plenty of light. The stations of the cross are beautifully painted statues that line the wall. There are statues of saints along the colums.

I'm horrible at descriptions, so I won't describe it more.

After Mass, we took bus 43 to the City Mall, glad that our hotel is located on the main street, next to the department store TsUM, so I was easily able to ask if the bus went there. The elderly man who helped me seemed really concerned that I knew where I was going.

We met my friend and her daughter at Charlotka, where we had lunch. The waitress remembered us from yesterday.  We relaxed with coffee until 4 pm, when my friend's brother-in-law picked us up to take us to the hospital.  My friend's sister had just had a baby, which is the reason we're here in Karaganda.
Downtown Karaganda

Thursday, March 28, 2013

To Karaganda via train

 Saturday, 23 March 2013

My friend needed to go to Karaganda, and it was my spring break, so I said, as usual, why not?  I've been to Karaganda three times before, and have really enjoyed it every time.

We planned on driving; however, on Saturday we learned that the roads were icy so we decided to take a train. We left at 3:30 pm, and it was a 4-hour train ride. Tickets were about 2000 Tenge each one way (children half price), so in the end it probably was cheaper than driving, considering gas prices.

It was the same kind of train as we've taken to Almaty before, not the nice new ones, but a nice layout—we had a small room with two sets of bunkbeds. We were next to the bathroom and somebody most likely had peed on the carpet in the small corridor, and it stunk like urine. Not a good smell to have to deal with for four hours.

The bathroom in the train stunk so bad I almost threw up when I used it. I promise you, I've had better experiences on trains in Kazakhstan.  (Update:  Our train ride back, on Wednesday, 27 March, was similar in layout and looks to this train, but seemed cleaner overall and smelled much nicer, bathrooms included.  There's also an electric train that goes between Astana and Karaganda that's nice and clean; however it wasn't available at the time we wanted.)

We slept most of the way and arrived at 7:30 pm. We asked around for taxis, but they said 700 Tenge, which was how much we had paid in Astana, for a much longer trip. We were walking distance to our hotel, but we had luggage and didn't want to walk.

So we went to the bus stop and asked a person waiting if the bus would take us where we were going. He said yes, so we got on. The bus was very crowded.

When the ticket-collector saw our luggage, she asked what all this luggage was doing there. She and my friend proceeded to get into an argument, where she asked my friend why she had all this luggage, this was an inter-city bus, and was she crazy? To which my friend responded, are you crazy. (Sadly, I did not understand this conversation, but my friend told me about it later.) Which had me wondering why an inter-city bus that stops at a train station should expect to not get people with luggage...

Two stops later, we got off and walked the short distance to our hotel. We checked in and then went to the next-door mall and ate in the restaurant Charlotka, which is on the 2nd floor and very nice.

Finally, we went to bed, with plans for church and shopping the next day.
View from the train as we neared Karaganda


World Cup Qualifying Match, Germany vs Kazakhstan

Friday/Saturday 22/23 March Midnight, 2013

I'm not much of a sports fan, but when a friend asked if I wanted to go to the Fifa World Cup Qualifying Match between Germany and Kazakhstan, I said yes. It was a midnight on a Friday, so really it was on Saturday, 23 March. It was at midnight so that it would air in the evening in Germany.

My German students were going; my friend said that many high school students were going; pretty much everyone I knew who was still in town went. (It's Nauriz, the largest Kazakh holiday, the festival of spring, so a lot of people are out of town on vacation.)  However, we saw no one that we knew there because it was so crowded.

Tickets for the cheapest section were just 500 Tenge (less than $4).

We left my home at around 11:20. The game was at the football stadium that was built for the Winter Games two years ago; it's next to the Cycling Arena and the ice skating arena Alau, and it's on the road that leads to the airport. It takes less than 10 minutes to get there from my house when there's no traffic.

We walked behind my apartment complex and through some mud to get to a road and hailed a taxi on Kabanbai Batyr Street (the same street that the stadium is on). The first one stopped for us; the two guys in it were also going to the game, but they still charged us 500 Tenge.

The guy who wasn't driving asked questions about me and then asked if I'd like to marry a Kazakh guy.  My friend answered for me, "Maybe."

The traffic was bad for the majority of the ride, and I joked that we could have walked faster. We probably could have. The guys were nice and let us out when we neared the stadium; they still had to find parking.

We saw people running (we still had a huge parking lot to cross) and as we got closer, we started running too. Somebody said that Germany already had scored a goal.  (Yes, the 10-minute trip took close to one hour due to traffic.)

Inside the stadium, we could hear people cheering and we became rather excited, running to find our seats. We found our section, but could not find our seats, so I took a seat near the aisle and my friend sat on the steps next to me. (At halftime, we switched spots.)

The excitement of the crowd was infectious. Germany already had two points by the time we arrived (20 minutes late), and most of the action took place on Germany's side of the field. But every time the Kazakhs got the ball on their half, the crowd around us stood up and roared and cheered. There was just so much enthusiasm!

The score was still 2 to 0 at halftime, and as the second half continued it became obvious that Kazakhstan would not win (which, okay, was pretty obvious before the game even began.) Then Germany scored another goal, so it was 3 to 0.

Then somebody started the wave. It went around the entire stadium and then kept going... and going and going and going. After it went around several times, my friend took out her camera to video it; lots of people were videoing it. And it kept going. I stopped counting after 4 times. I think it made it about 10 times. It was quite fun.

In the end, we lost, Kazakhstan didn't even score a point. But it was fun being in the crowd, and the crowd was enthusiastic and happy, despite losing. We were happy just when we came close to scoring a goal. And we cheered the German team when they wandered around the field waving at the end.

Then there was a raffle for a brand new car—I didn't win—and then we left.

It was cold now, and we debated walking to the packed road to find a taxi, even though there were buses, because the buses were packed full. Then we found a bus that was not full, and we got on it. But it was a long wait before it became full and left (but at least we had seats, so we were not crammed.) Then it went behind the stadium, then did a u-turn and went back in front of the stadium, and then it turned right on the crowded main road—away from downtown, where we needed to go.

The road was packed and we traveled very slowly for a short ways; then we turned left and finally made a u-turn and turned back on the main road, finally heading in the correct direction.

This bus' route is not a direct route to my place, and so it took a while to get to my stop, and then it was a short walk to my apartment, and so it was nearly 4 am when we got home, even though the game had ended at 2.

I had a lot of fun, though I'm not sure I'll ever go again. I'm not a big fan of huge crowds. But the enthusiasm during the game was wonderful.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Crazy taxi ride

There are three kinds of taxis in Kazakhstan:

1 - your "normal" taxi, the kind most Westerners think of when they hear the word taxi, a car that is clearly labeled as a taxi and you can either flag down or call a service and have a taxi meet you wherever you are.  These are, of course, the most expensive, and you can't really bargain the price--there's a meter.

2 - a taxi that belongs to a service, and thus can be called like the normal taxi, but it's usually just a regular, unmarked car, usually one that's rather old.  Some of these have meters too, but you can sometimes bargain too.  (Asking for a price at the beginning of the ride and then sticking with it.)

3 - any car that sees your outstretched hand and decides to stop for you.  Anyone can be a taxi here.  Some people are what I call freelance taxi drivers, they don't have a real job, they spend their day in well-traversed areas such as airports and get customers there; they might drive around the city looking for people with outstretched hands.  A freelance taxi driver may give you his number, so you can call him.  Others, you just hail on the street.  It's best to bargain a price before you get in.  They are often male and rather fast.  It's quite similar to the Western version of hitch-hiking, except that it's so common here, and people think I'm weird when I say it worries me.

I often take the last kind when I take a taxi, and I have finally gotten comfortable with it.  This past Friday, a friend and I planned to go to a violin concert, after which I would go to a St. Patrick's Day event at the US Embassy, and since I planned on drinking, I decided to take a taxi.  We took a taxi to the Organ Hall, only to find out that the venue was not the Organ Hall (where most of the classical music concerts are) but rather at the new building called Shabyt, a building that was being built my first year here, and is large and blue and circular and I think is sometimes referred to as the "dog-bowl" building (a lot of buildings have weird nicknames).

Shabyt is quite a ways away from the Organ Hall, but we had arrived early and had almost 30 minutes.  We got in the first car that stopped for us.

My friend asked the driver if he could go quickly, and the driver gave some explanation as to the ice being slippery.  If a taxi driver has an excuse for not going fast, that's a bad sign; he was the first taxi driver I've ever encountered who preferred to go slow.

He went slow, really slow, and other cars passed him.  I could drive faster than him (and I'm an incredibly slow and cautious driver). Also, he had another passenger, who sat quietly for most of the ride.

We did not drive in what I would think is the most direct route, but I figured, it was rush hour, maybe he knew a less traffic-y route.  But he kept driving in the wrong direction, so finally I had my friend say something.  He said he was going in the most direct route, I did not know what I was talking about.  I suggested we hop out, and I wish we had.

He was going to drop off the other guy first, but after we protested so much that we were going the wrong way and that we had to be there by 6, the other guy said he could drop us off first, and helped give the guy directions.

The trip ended up taking 50 minutes.  It should have taken 20 - 30 minutes, depending on traffic.

During the trip, the guy talked to my friend most the time.  She was sitting in the front, and her Russian is better than mine.  I understood about half of what he was saying, and she translated some more for me, and well, he was rather rude and inappropriate.  At one point he asked her how much money she makes, and when she said she didn't want to say because that's personal information, he kept at it, asking again and again and insisting that she tell him.

At another point he asked if she had children and told her that she should have five children because that's best, but she argued with him, why should she have five children?  Who said that's a good number?

He asked for her name, and she said she didn't want to give it, and he said why, it's the young men you should be scared of, but he's old, like a grandfather.

In the end, we were quite glad when we made it to the Shabyt, twenty minutes late for our concert.

We were just so happy to get out of that car!

At least we got a story out of our adventure!  And the concert had started late (as they frequently do) and had not sold out of tickets (as they rarely do) so we managed to enjoy a nice concert in a new venue.


Water!


With the warmer weather comes water, of course, before it re-freezes every night.  This winter has seen so much more snow than previous winters, and my daughter asked one day what would happen if it all melted at the same time.  Astana would go underwater.

Astana is a very flat city, built on a swamp, and whenever it rains (which, luckily, is rarely), roads and parts of sidewalks start to flood.  It's just not built for water.

So every spring, the snow melts and the city starts to flood.

Which is why, of course, you see crews working all winter on snow removal.  But this year there was so much snow!  The children had so much fun playing in it at recess time, but our school did remove a lot of it.  At one point the mounds of snow reached to the tops of the tall fences that enclose our campus, and small children tried to climb to the top--quite unsafe, and the snow there was removed immediately.  There is still plenty of snow on our playground and in our tiny parking lot, and the principal told me that she's already spent $1000 on snow removal.  Wow!  Imagine how much it costs to clear an entire city of snow!

I have a car now, which is nice, because instead of trekking through water and mud, I get to drive through it.  A co-worker gave me instructions for driving through mud.  This year has seen the first time I've ever driven through snow, as well as the first time I've ever driven through a considerable amount of mud.

Luckily, a lot of the mud/water mixture has evaporated or been removed already, but there's still plenty of snow (now icky and brown and slushy) waiting to melt.  My hunch is that in another two weeks most will be gone, and the city will be beautiful once again.

This is my least favorite time of year, despite the fact that the weather is nice.  I'm not a big fan of the ickiness of ice and slush and mud and water.  But it will be gone soon.  This part of the year usually only lasts two to four weeks.

Ice!

Every winter is different, which is nice, since I've just completed my fourth winter here.  It hasn't gotten boring yet!

This winter we saw one of the coldest Decembers ever, and then proceeded to record-breaking warmth.  We even surpassed 0º at one point in January!

Today is Наурыз (Nauriz), the first day of spring, and it feels like it never really was winter (except for December).  It never even got to -30º C in the past few months.  (I know, because I promised a co-worker I'd drive her to school if it ever got below that temperature.)

Last year on this date, my mom and I were walking on a frozen lake in a winter wonderland in Borovoe.  Currently, it's above freezing, and every day this past week has been above freezing.

Another anomaly of this winter--it has snowed far more than usual.

So what happens when it snows far more than usual and then gets to above or near 0º every day for a week?

Ice!

Even when it's slightly below freezing, the sun starts to melt the snow.  The last two weeks were so bad, I drove my co-worker to school every day.  She's pregnant, and there's no way that she could safely walk the 10-minute walk to school in the mornings.

The ice was so horrible, I really thought we'd all be better off in ice-skates.  It was everywhere--road, sidewalks, everywhere.  The huge mounds of snow stayed, but they were less soft and powdery and instead crackling and icy.

The wind was fierce for a week, also, making everything incredibly dangerous.  Everyone I know fell at least one time.  I received two bruises on my knees for my fall.  A co-worker received a broken arm.

My daughter and her friend thought the ice was a lot of fun, and they enjoyed slip-sliding on it.  They, too, got bruises.

One day the weather was around freezing, well above the -20º C limit we place on outdoor recess, but we had indoor recess because the playground was so dangerous.   We have a school building being built, but currently we are in a rental place, with five separate buildings.  Just walking from one building to another (no more than a few meters apart) was dangerous.

This has definitely been the iciest spring I have seen in Astana.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Turkistan

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmat Yassawi

Turkistan is a city about 160 km northwest of Shymkent, and we headed here after leaving Otrar.  We arrived at around 2 pm and wanted to eat and warm up some more.  We stopped at a small restaurant and had lunch (I had lamb shashlyk--like a kebab).

Like Otrar, Turkistan was an important city during the Silk Road Era, and it is about 1600 years old or so.  In the 1390s, the Kazakh king Timur built a large mausoleum to Khoja Ahmat Yassawi, a revered poet and Sufi mystic.  This unfinished mausoleum is a place of pilgrimage to many Muslims and is also a UNESCO heritage site.

Our driver dropped us off, and we started walking.  There was a museum on one side of the parking lot, and a row of small souvenir shops to our left.  The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining bright.  The wind was less fierce now and we weren't feeling as cold.

 At first a tree blocked our view of the mausoleum, but we took a few pictures.  There was a very hairy camel, which we probably could have ridden.  It looked quite ready for the Mongolian desert or a Kazakh winter.
The camel
As we got closer, we saw an owl in a hole in the ground, glaring at us with bright yellow eyes!  We stopped to take pictures.  Then a man approached, and the bird flew to the man, and we noticed that it was on a rope.  The man said it was a holy bird, and I remembered learning about it at the Nature Reserve museum.  The guide had said that these birds have a pattern across their chest, and on one bird the pattern looked like it said "Allah" in Arabic, and so now it is considered to be a holy bird.

To our left was a smaller mausoleum, with a fancy tiled dome top.  In front of us, great and looming, was the famous mausoleum of Khoja Ahmat Yassawi.  It wasn't as colorful as I'd thought it would be, it was just mostly brown.  Still, we took plenty of pictures, and I liked the wooden door, carved very intricately.  A woman with two small girls stopped to talk to me.

When I entered, a woman at a desk stopped me and asked me where I was from and how many were in my group.  At first I thought this meant we'd have to pay, but, no, they were just keeping a record of who came here.

Inside it seemed that quite a bit was being fixed up, but we still were able to enter many rooms.  No photos were allowed though.  We went into a lot of large, mostly empty rooms, and passed by a lot of low-lying rocks with names next to them--grave markers?  A lot of people were silent and in prayer.

There was a blocked-off room with Ablai Khan's tomb; I don't know who he is, but I do know that Astana has a street named after him.  Some people sat next to this room and prayed.  I realized that we don't take the girls to holy places very often, and had to hush them.

Another room was a mosque; it also contained many stands with information in Russian and Kazakh.  Several women prayed on rugs in front of the "altar," a very pretty tiled section of the wall.

When we left, the girls were happy and we let them run off and play.  We walked around to the side, and I saw that the side was not as plain as the front, but rather full of beautiful tiles.  There also was a guard-wall on this side; we went up it and it seemed like a wall from the Middle Ages, with tiny windows from which you could watch who's approaching.
the guard wall, with mountains in the distance
Then we went to the back of the mausoleum, probably the prettiest section of it.  The tiles along the top showed Arabic letters, most likely something from the Koran.



After more wandering and picture-taking, we stopped in some souvenir shops and then headed home.  We wanted to go to the museum, but it was 4 pm now, and we wanted to be at the airport by 8:30.  In the end, we got back to Shymkent at 6 pm and had plenty of time!  Luckily, we persuaded our driver to drive us to the center of town to the Mega shopping mall, and he kept all of our luggage while we ate dinner, before driving us to the airport.

The airport was tiny but had free wi-fi.  Our flight home was uneventful.  We were very excited to have had the opportunity to go to a place of such history and beauty.  Maybe we'll find our way back here some day!

Otrar - Ruined City of the Silk Road

Sunday was our big day.  We woke up early and left at 8 am.  The taxi driver whom we'd met at the airport was wonderful; he had taken us to the Nature Reserve on Thursday, and we really liked him.  He's quiet (rather than inquisitive or flirtatious), and he's mostly a safe driver.  If we ever thought he was driving a bit fast, we could ask him to slow down, and he would, no problem.  (Some taxi drivers will laugh at that suggestion, and many driver rather crazy.)  He also was quite willing and ready to stop whenever we wanted to--for apples sold on the side of the street, for Sophia's stomach to calm down (motion sickness!), for me to take a photo.  So we hired him to drive us to Otrar and Turkistan.

These two cities are northwest of Shymkent and made up part of the Silk Road.  Otrar was founded most likely about 2000 years ago and was seiged and destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1219.  It was rebuilt, but by the 18th century it was mostly empty, and is currently a "ghost town" under excavation by UNESCO.

It took us about 2 hours to get there (I didn't do a good job keeping track of time) and the driver let us out in front of a fence; beyond the fence were some buildings spread out on the desolate steppe, with paths leading to the buildings and tall grass between the paths.  The wind was fierce, and although it was bright and sunny and above freezing, and I was dressed quite well for this temperature, I soon became quite freezing and felt like my fingers would become frostbitten.

We soon learned that all the buildings were mausoleums, and we went into one.  Two older men were caretakers there and they let us in and talked to us.  Their ancestor was someone well-known in the area and important in the Muslim religion (at least locally) and this was a mausoleum to him.  There were plaques on the wall for each of his children, and my friend R. told me that some of the names were rather rude words in Kazakh.  Every culture, I have learned, has people who give their kids odd names.

We then left and went to the biggest mausoleum.  We saw some people taking water (most likely holy) out of a well.  We were told we could enter and an imam could give us a blessing.  But we had to take off our shoes, and we were cold and not in the mood.

Then we learned that this was not Otrar, this was a holy site with mausoleums, but Ortrar was somewhere else.  Absolutely freezing by now, we hurried back to the car and explained to our driver that this was not it!

He asked directions of someone and off we went, down a small dirt road that ended at another dirt road in front of a large, dusty hill.  Right or left?  He turned right and as he sped down this road, I could tell that he wasn't sure where he was going.  R. talked to him, and they decided to turn back and check out that hill.  R. remembered reading in my Lonely Planet that Otrar is a mound, and she thought that hill might be it.

She was right, and we noticed that the hill was surrounded by a fence, and we soon found the entrance.  R. and the driver got out and it took about 5 minutes for them to find and wake up the guard, asleep in a small guard house.  He then opened the gate and we went up a dusty, wind-swept path.  Soon we were near the baths, and we got out to explore.
The Baths
After we we'd had enough of being outside (that wind!!!) we got in the car and drove up more.  We got out near some other ruins.  R. said that much of Otrar had been underground, and we could see trenches or hallways or whatever dug out below us.  I can't describe it, so I shall put up pictures.  We wandered around this for quite a while.  There were bits of pottery and bones strewn around all over the place.  It  was exciting and fascinating to be somewhere that had once been a relatively thriving city, and to wonder what it must have been like to be on the Silk Road, traveling across this desolate steppe, with this fierce wind, and coming to one of these cities.

Finally I was so frozen I had to return to the car and my fingers burned as they slowly regained their warmth.  (I had been wearing gloves!)  We drove back down and paid the 500 Tenge entrance fee.  Then off it was to Turkistan.

Part of the ruined city of Otrar

Looking at our car from the ruined city

Monday, February 11, 2013

Shymkent - a Lazy Day

Our 3rd day in Shymkent was a nice and relaxing day, although we didn't do anything special. My friend's daughter had round 2 of her figure skating competition, and after that we went to the nearby mall, Mega, which was quite similar to the Mega mall we have in Astana. Next was the closing ceremony for the Kazakhstan Winter Games (my friend's daughter came in 8th out of 15 in her division) and we got to watch the winning figure skaters do their routines again.
Then we walked back towards Mega and went shopping at TsUM, the large shopping center across the street from Mega. I don't know what TsUM stands for (Ts probably stands for “center” or “central” and M probably stands for “store”) but Almaty and Astana also have a TsUM. TsUM is older than Mega (Mega is not listed in my “Lonely Planet,” which is about 5 years old, but TsUM is.) TsUM is a bit more like Artyom in Astana—a large, multi-storied building full of alleyways and small, enclosed spaces—shops. It looks like it should be cheaper than a modern, Western-style shopping mall like Mega, but it didn't seem so. I think you can bargain more in a place like TsUM, but in Mega you can hunt for sales and discounts (just like at TsUM, I guess). We did find a necklace for 2 million Tenge. That's about $12,000.
We went back to eat at Mega. Later that night, my friend commented on what a lovely vacation we were having, how much she liked Shymkent. “You like being on vacation,” I said, reminding her that we hadn't done much in Shymkent that we couldn't do in Astana. She laughed and agreed with me.
So how is Shymkent different from Astana, since in so many ways it's alike? Well, I think if you take Astana—or Almaty—and take away most of the the modern, Western elements (in Astana, this would be all the funky, modern architecture; this would also be restaurant chains like Pizza Hut, Hardee's, and even my favorite pizza restaurant, Il Platio), and keep the Kazakh/Soviet elements—the Soviet architecture (very square); the wide streets; the small cluttered shops; the Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkish, and Russian food; the people (though slightly less stylish)--then you have Shymkent.  I'm not too good at describing it, but it seemed more Kazakh, which, well, it is.  It's known for having more Kazakhs than many other cities (such as Astana, Almaty, or Karaganda), but a quick wikipedia search tells me that it is 65% Kazakh, just like Astana...  Maybe the difference is that in Astana, Russians make up most the rest, whereas in Shymkent, Uzbeks and Russians tie for second place...  Whatever it is, as I sat in the Mega food court, I noticed almost no Russians.
In Shymkent, I stood out as a foreigner.  Even before I spoke, I was recognized as a foreigner.  I was a novelty, and lots of people talked to me or asked my friend where I am from.  This happens in Astana, too, but was more frequent in Shymkent.
All in all, I liked Shymkent.  We didn't get to see all of it--I later learned that there is a Central Bazaar which is quite cheap--but I enjoyed the parts I did see.  Nothing fancy, nothing new or different, but a nice, familiar vacation.
On Sunday we went to Otrar and Turkistan...  That was fascinating and will be in the next post!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Shymkent - the Bazaar


Today my friend's daughter had only ice skating practice in the afternoon, and our morning was free.  We took our time getting up, enjoying the free breakfast the hotel serves (I had coffee, eggs, and blini -- Russian crepe-like pancakes; Sophia had sausage and blini).  Then we decided to get a taxi to the bazaar, so we'd have time to shop before heading to the ice skating rink.

The taxi driver said there are many bazaars in Shymkent, which one did we want to go to?  ("Bazaar" is the Kazakh word; "rynok" is the Russian word, meaning market... Both words refer to a shopping place and not necessarily what we foreigners think of when we hear the word bazaar.)  I looked in my Lonely Planet and gave the street names of the one mentioned in the book; he said there is no bazaar there.  So we said the biggest; he said there are three.  The biggest and the closest, we said, and so off we went to one called Eurasia.

(I later learned that there is a large and extremely cheap Central Bazaar, which definitely was not the one we ended up at.)

It didn't look like what I'd had in mind, and it was rather dirty, but we decided to try it.  It was a large cluster of shops around dirty alley-ways, and several of the shops were empty.  But once we got started, I enjoyed myself, because I enjoy shopping.  I found a pair of gloves that I really wanted, but the vendor wasn't there, and so I wasn't able to buy them.  I found a dress I really liked, not cheap but not outrageously priced either, and so I bought it.

I've always wanted a decent fur hat for the winter, and so I tried some on.  One hat in particular suited me very well.  The vendor asked where I am from and then he asked if I am married.  He said he wanted me to be his daughter-in-law.  I told my friend to tell him that I'm married.

The vendor clasped my hands in his very tightly and seemed unwilling to let me go.  He told my friend that my being married didn't matter, he would kidnap me.  I know he was mostly joking, but I also know that bride kidnapping used to be a bit common in Kazakhstan, and it still happens from time to time here, and it happens with greater frequency in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.  So a joke about kidnapping me isn't very funny.

He said I would get the hat for free if I married his son.  It's a $200 hat, but that's not enough to make me want to marry some stranger's son!

I managed to decline and get out of there.  Once I had overcome my shock, I realized I had the perfect response to, "will you marry my son?"  I should have asked if the son can cook and clean, because, really, that is what I need--a stay-at-home husband (or live-in maid, that would be just as fine!)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Shymkent - to the mountains and back


Several years ago, I went to Almaty for the first time.  Everywhere you go in Almaty, you can see beautiful, snow-capped mountains.  We took a taxi to the most popular ski resort part of these mountains, only to find out that everything was closed due to the weather.  I was so disappointed.

Today reminded me of that time.  The Aksu-Zhabaghly Nature Reserve is located not far from Shymkent, and when we found out that we were free for the afternoon, we decided to go there.  (We didn't know the ice skating schedule until today.)  We booked the same taxi driver who had taken us from the airport, he is very friendly and a safe driver.

As we left Shymkent, we could see beautiful snow-capped mountains to our right; I think Uzbekistan is on the other side.

We drove for two hours, the mountains always on our right, but slowly we got closer and closer.

Finally, we were so close we could almost touch them, and we arrived at a closed gate.

We were told to go back to the small village to get passes at the office.  We went there, and went to the second floor and walked into a room full of people sitting around a powerpoint presentation on the English language.

The workers were learning how to say "wild boar" in English.

Unfortunately, they said, the Nature Reserve was closed because it's winter.  They could, however, arrange a horseback-riding trip, but they needed a day's advance warning.

We pleaded with them, but the most we got was a tantalizing tour of their museum, where we learned what we would have seen had we been able to get into the Nature Reserve.  Okay, we probably wouldn't have seen golden eagles or wild boars, and we definitely wouldn't have spotted the elusive snow leopard... But it looks so beautiful, with steep mountains, ravines, a canyon, glaciers, and a wide variety of plants and animals.

Finally, we got back into the car and drove back to Shymkent.

I'm not sure if I'll ever come to Shymkent again--I love to travel and have so much on my agenda, Shymkent might not make a second round.

Oh well!

Shymkent - in search of a restaurant


Thursday morning my friend's daughter had ice skating practice and round 1 of the competition, which we watched.  Afterwards, we decided to go eat.

At first we were looking for a restaurant where other ice skaters had said they were going, too.  After walking quite a bit, and meeting few people who knew how to direct us to this restaurant, we decided to just find a place for ourselves.

We walked into quite a few restaurants that we instantly decided we didn't like, and we joked that we're getting picky!  Some restaurants looked too dirty, some looked too dark, and quite a few had people smoking inside.  I try to be open-minded about food, but I am a somewhat picky eater, and many restaurants here serve traditional Kazakh or Central Asian food, super cheap and super-greasy.  I am sometimes in the mood for plov or pelmeni or other traditional dishes, but I rarely am in the mood for the cheap-and-greasy versions of these foods.

My friend's daughter really wanted KFC, so we told her to ask people if they knew where that was.  The answer:  "Who's KFC?"  They definitely hadn't heard of it, and I doubt Shymkent has a KFC.

We found a promising-looking pizzeria and crossed a busy street to get there, only to find someone smoking inside.  We asked a passer-by if she had any suggestions, she recommended a place across the street, said it was really good.

We really didn't want to cross the street again, but we did, and when we entered the restaurant--smoke!  But then we were told that the next building was the non-smoking part of this restaurant, so we went there.  It was small, but light and airy, without loud music playing, and although every table was taken, we decide to stay.  A worker had been sitting at a messy table near the back, and they cleaned this up for us.  We sat next to the stand of yummy-looking desserts.

My friend had a club sandwich, I had a croissant with chicken, lettuce, tomato, and garlic sauce.  The vegetables were fresh, and I could see other customers eating salads that looked fresh and delicious.  The girls had chicken nuggets which were dry and they didn't eat, and also a cheese pizza, which they did eat.  There was a large selection of coffees, but I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy.

For dessert I had a banana "milk cocktail" (like a smoothie), the girls had chocolate ice cream, and my friend had one of the best tiramsus I've ever had.  Simply delicious.

The total for all of us--4 people, 4 dishes, 4+ drinks (extra water and coffee), 4 desserts--was 6000 Tenge ($40), so not a bad price.  The places we'd passed up were probably cheaper, but I'm sure this was better.

The place is called Madlen, on Ilyeva Street, and we were told that they are located in Astana!  I'd seen a restaurant called Madlen before, but had never gone there.  I probably will try them now!

So now I know of one restaurant in Shymkent that's good!