Thursday, January 31, 2013

Extreme Weather


This past December, 2012, was extremely cold. It got below -40º C (which is equal to -40º F). I wasn't the only person who commented on how unusually cold it was. A co-worker mentioned that it was strange that people were acting so surprised by the cold—it got this cold last year. However, I reminded her, it usually didn't get this cold in December! That was what was so strange! 

Now it is January, 2013. Last week the temperature got above 0º C (32º F). I was stunned when I saw the weather prediction for +3º C. I don't think it got that high, but I do think it got to +2. I couldn't believe it would get above freezing in January! I know it hasn't done that in my 3 ½ years here!

So I checked wikipedia. According to wikipedia, the record low for December in Astana is -43.5º C. The record high for January in Astana is +3.4º C. So this year we have come close to beating the record lows and highs. Wow!

The downside to the thaw is that a lot of snow and ice melted and then quickly refroze. It is incredibly slippery outside.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Red Light, Green Light, Agh!... (Driving a car in Astana part 3)

(For previous posts on driving in Astana, see Driving A Car in Astana, and Driving in -40)

Goal #1 while driving is to not hit a pedestrian.

Goal #2 is to not hit anything or get hit by anything.

Goal #3 is to not get pulled over.


So far I've succeeded in all three goals, but for how much longer, I don't know!  If I hit a pedestrian, it'll be one of those pedestrians who likes to dart out in 60 kph traffic.  If I fail Goal #2 or #3 it'll most likely be due to the traffic lights.

This is the way the traffic lights work in Astana:  First, the green light flashes.  This lets you know that it's about to turn yellow.  Then it changes to yellow, then to red.  By the time it's red, you better be fully stopped or long gone.  You can get pulled over if you're in the intersection at this time.

This all sounds great.  No problem, you say.

The yellow light flashes for a total of 2 seconds.  The speed limit in Astana is 60 kilometers per hour.  Even if you chronically under-speed, like me, and go 40 kph or less, there's no way you can stop in 2 seconds.

That's what the flashing green light is for.  Except it only flashes for a few seconds.  So it's quite possible that when it starts flashing, you are unable to safely come to a complete stop yet you also are unable to fully get through the intersection before it turns red.  Especially when the road is covered in ice and if you slam on your brakes your car might spin.

Let's add to this problem the fact that everyone knows that everyone wants to stop well before the light turns yellow. Which means that when the green light is flashing, everyone who's waiting to turn left assumes that on-coming traffic has stopped and they can safely turn.

If you are driving a car, and have forgotten that you have to stop well before the light changes to yellow, and a bus decides to turn left on a flashing green light, that bus driver might not stop for you.  He might prefer to run into you.  I was nearly hit by such a bus, because I hadn't been driving in Astana long enough yet to fully comprehend the importance of stopping on the flashing green, and so I was in the intersection when the green light was flashing, and the bus was turning.  It did not stop, but it did drive slowly enough for me to veer around it.

Many lights also have counters (counting down to when it changes), and my Kazakh friend told me that if it's under 10 when she can see it, she stops if she has time.  Better to sit at a green light for a few seconds than risk getting hit by a bus (or pulled over for running a red).

But my vision's not the greatest and not all lights have these numbers.  So if I'm anywhere near a light and it's green, I just go slowly and pay attention.  If it starts flashing, I need to stop!  If I really can't stop, I'm too close to the intersection, then I need to get through as quickly and safely as possible.

It's quite terrifying for someone who's used to stopping on the yellow.  (And sometimes going through on the yellow, depending on where I am.)  I'm paying attention more, but still scared, and I've still gone through on flashing greens, worried I'll be hit, and I've slammed the brakes on flashing greens, worried that I'll be hit from behind and worrying that the car will spin on the ice.

Before the red light turns green again, it will turn yellow for a few seconds.  Also, there is sometimes a counter there, too.  And many drivers will start early.  I wait for the green, and they honk at me.  Oh, well.  I'm an extremely cautious driver (even in the US) and am quite used to impatient drivers honking at me.

I'll get used to this system.  And next time I drive in the US, I'll drive other drivers crazy by stopping when the lights are still green.

Water Delivery

As hopefully everyone knows, tap water here is undrinkable.  My first year here, Sophia and I did drink it (based on poor advice), and we really didn't drink that much, because, well, it didn't taste good!  But I used it for coffee and for cooking her pasta.

She had a horrible rash for the first year and a half, and her pediatrician in the US suggested it might be the water.  By that time we were drinking bottled water, but I was still using tap for coffee and pasta.  Well, I quit that and even had her use bottled water for brushing her teeth, and the rash went away and has never come back.

Most locals I talk to don't even use tap water for cooking.

So then comes the issue of bringing that much water to your home.  I would buy it in 5-liter bottles for about 240 Tenge a bottle ($1.33) and I could lug two bottles home with me at a time.  I would buy from the mini-market that's in my building; it's more expensive but so close!  Nearby there is a water store that will refill for about 70 Tenge, but I rarely was in the mood to walk.

A teacher's son started a business; he would refill my water for 100 Tenge; he made money and I saved time.  But during the winter, his mother didn't want him walking that distance in the dark (it gets dark early) and so slowly I stopped using him so much.

This past August, my Kazakh friend was over at my home when I ran out of water.  She just called a place and they delivered.  I had thought delivery was something where you set up a time, and you have to be home at that time every week.  Apparently, you just call when you need it.

So I did that a few times.  The place my friend uses, Rosinka, is 400 Tenge for 19 gallons; the place the school uses is 500 Tenge for 19 gallons.  They also each charge for the bottles, but I already had two bottles in my house, so I never have to pay that.  (They come with however many full bottles that you requested, and take away that many empty bottles.)

So every time I needed water I had someone call for me.  Then the school secretary noticed that you can order delivery for Rosinka on-line.  The address is roskinka.kz.  I used google translate to put my address in Russian, and I ordered.  So now I can order water to be delivered and I don't have to call anyone!

They do call me, however, but usually I just say, "da, da" (which means "yes, yes") and sometimes I recite my address in Russian, and they seem satisfied.  A bit frustrated with my lack of understanding, but satisfied that they have my address and that I am home, and then they come and deliver.

The problem is... I entered my mobile phone number the first time I did this.  And somehow now that is in their system and they seem incapable of changing it.

One day I ordered water to be delivered while a friend babysat Sophia.  I entered my friend's mobile phone number.   However, Rosinka called me, while I was in a taxi on the way to a concert.  Luckily, I was with a Russian-speaker, who explained to them that while I was not home, my friend was, and they could deliver the water.  I then called my friend to make sure that she was home.  She was, and I got my water.

When I went to Berlin for the winter holidays, a friend stayed at my place to watch my cat.  One day, as I was shopping in the famous KaDeWe department store, I had a phone call. It was Rosinka.  I tried my best to explain that I was not home, but a friend was staying there, and maybe she had ordered water, but I did not know.  They were frustrated and simply wanted to know, was I at home?  To which I replied in frustration, "I don't know!"  After I hung up on them, I texted my friend, who then called them and managed to receive her water.

Yet another time I had water ordered to be delivered when a friend was there instead of me, and this time my friend called and specified that they had to call her number, not mine.  However, they called me.  I explained that they had to call her.  They said they didn't have her number.  I said that she'd given it to them!  They were frustrated, so finally, I said, yes, she's home, and they were satisfied and hung up on me and delivered the water.  Funny, though, since I'm sure that I had originally said that I wasn't home and didn't know if she was home.  But all they needed was a "Da, doma" ("yes, home") to be hapy.

Later that evening they called me again!  Apparently they'd forgotten that they'd already delivered!  My friend laughed and said maybe they just like the sound of my voice!

Anyways, I'm still happy to have water delivered, and happy to pay 400 Tenge per 19 gallons.  Just wish I'd originally given my land-line number instead of my mobile.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Celebrating New Year's in Astana

New Year's is a big holiday in the USA, but nowhere near as big as it is in other parts of the world.  In Kazakhstan, as well as other parts of the former USSR, New Year's is like a combination of Christmas and New Year's.  Everyone stays up to midnight and drinks champagne and watches fireworks, but also there's a New Year's tree (identical to a Christmas tree), there's Grandfather Frost (nearly identical to Santa Claus), children get presents, schools throw elaborate parties, etc, etc.

Here, it seems common for children to stay up to midnight and celebrate, too.  Also, presents arrive at midnight, I think.  When I returned from Berlin, on New Year's Eve morning, I gave presents to my friend and her daughter, who was surprised to receive presents before midnight.

So, since I was in Kazakhstan for New Year's Eve, I thought I might as well celebrate.  I returned too late to really make plans, so in the evening, my friend and I got dressed up and went on a walk.  Ostensibly it was just a walk, but we dressed up for fun and just in case.

Outside, the weather was so nice--mostly clear, cool, crisp, about -10º C (14º F). 10 degrees colder than it had been in Berlin, but I was dressed the same as I'd dressed in Berlin, and perfectly fine.  Less humidity = less cold.

Outside, we saw the Tre Kroner restaurant, a fancy Dutch (I think) restaurant across the street from my building.  Let's go there, we said.  We went there and found it was full--tickets for tonight had to be bought in advance.

Now determined to do more than just take a walk, we went to the next restaurant (there are several rather expensive restaurants in a row here), a Georgian restaurant.  Yes, they had tickets, they said, for 25000 Tenge a piece.  That's $167.  We actually considered it--on the program was Grandfather Frost and Georgian dancers.  But we passed.

The next few restaurants were closed, which we thought was amazing--closed on what could be the busiest night of the year?  Closed when people were willing to pay 25000 Tenge just to go out?

We crossed the street and walked by the Sariarka mall; maybe we could go to our favorite pizza place, Il Platio.  The entire mall was closed!  Next we walked towards the Triumph apartments, where I'd once spotted a pub.  That might be nice to try.

It was closed!

(FYI:  This is not Germany, where shops love to close early and often.  Shops are open late here, 7 days a week, and on every other holiday for which I've been here.  I've been here for Nauryz, the biggest holiday, and they're open then.)

We hailed a taxi and went to the American Bar and Grill, formerly TGI Friday's.  It was completely full, and tickets were 15000 Tenge ($100) each.

We crossed the street and entered a small Russian restaurant.  It was open and completely empty!  We decided against it and entered the Chelsea English Pub.  There were some men milling around, but the bar and restaurant itself was empty.  We left.

The small Turkish restaurant was closed, and so we decided to walk down to the Guns N Roses restaurant.  I've been there three times before, and I've tried to go two other times, when it was too crowded and they wouldn't let anyone else in.  I was assuming it would be too crowded today, however it wasn't.  However tickets were 25000 Tenge!!

We found out that there were 10000 Tenge tickets--sit at the bar and order a la carte, and finally, we agreed.  I was getting hungry and I was a bit curious as to what this New Year's show would be.

Inside it was less than half-full, and we were ushered to the bar--we couldn't sit at any of the empty tables.  We sat next to an Australian man who said he used to come here a lot, and it used to always be crowded, but lately it hasn't gotten very crowded.  It's under new management and it's less crowded now.

We ordered hamburgers and drinks, and we ate and talked until it was almost midnight--not many more people arrived and not much happened, and we were wondering what on earth we had paid 10000 Tenge for.

Finally, they changed the TV to a Kazakh station and the president came on.  We listened to his speech, in Kazakh and in Russian, before counting down and drinking champagne.

Then Grandfather Frost and his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden (who accompanies him in former USSR countries) arrived.  He was tall, with a long, curly white beard, and dressed in a fancy red robe.  She was dressed in some kind of silver dress.

He talked and then danced and then we had a "Countries of the World Dance Contest."  They played music from different countries while we tried to dance in different styles.  My knowledge of music isn't good enough to tell you what countries we heard, until finally "Gangnam Style" came on--everyone knew that!

My friend and another lady won!  How nice!  She got a coupon for 15% off at the restaurant.

Then Grandfather Frost selected some people to help tell a Russian fairy tale.  He wanted some foreigners, so a Turkish guy and our new Australian friend were picked.  My friend was picked to be the translator (which is, by the way, her real job).

He had everyone stand in a line of sorts, gave everyone a name and something to say when he called their name.  It took a few minutes, but I figured it out--they were acting out "The Enormous Turnip."

Next, Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden left, but first we made sure to have our photo taken with them!  Several people had that request.

Then, after some music and dancing, three young women came out to dance.  They were scantily dressed in Santa outfits and danced quite sexily.  After their dance, we had another "break" with just us normal patrons dancing, and then these women came back dressed even barer.  After another sexy dance and another break, they came back again.  At this point I was ready to go home.  It was past one o'clock and it was clear that a good bit of my 10000 Tenge had been for these barely-dressed ladies.

As we paid our bill, the ladies left and a live band came on.  Still, it was time to go.  We paid and walked outside.

The weather was nice--still crisp and light--and so we decided to walk home.  Some people were setting off fireworks in the Guns N Roses parking lot, and we ran away from that noise.  As we crossed the Rainbow Bridge, we saw people on the ice and even people ice skating!

We made it home to find our daughters still awake and stubbornly insistent that we had never even told them to go to bed!  They had watched fireworks from the windows, and had seen a police officer talk to some of the people shooting fireworks in the parking lot.

Finally we made it to bed.  An interesting New Year's Eve, to say the least.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Flying through Moscow without a visa


Usually when I book my flights, I automatically disregard the ones that fly through Moscow.  I've heard that you need a visa just to be in the Moscow airport.  However, more recently I've heard that that only applies to certain terminals, it is possible to fly via Moscow without a Russian visa and be okay.

This past spring our principal and her husband flew to Moldova.  On their way back, they were not allowed to board the plane because they didn't have a visa for Russia, and they were flying via Moscow.  After several days, they finally returned to Astana via Ukraine.  I learned then that Kazakhstan is considered "domestic" in Russia, and they were booked to fly a domestic flight from Moscow, meaning they'd have to go through passport control in Moscow, which they couldn't, because they didn't have a visa.

However, this past summer two families from our school flew through Moscow.  The school secretary told me that the principal had booked her Moscow-to-Astana flight separately from her Moldova-to-Moscow ticket, and that is what caused her problem.  And when looking for flights to Berlin for Christmas, Transaero (a Russian airline that flies through Moscow) kept coming up as the cheapest.  I finally decided to book the tickets, after which I panicked and asked around.  It seemed like technically I should be okay, Transaero should provide a way for me to get to my gate without needing a visa, but no one knew for sure.

I must admit I was worried.

So...

Sophia and I left Astana early morning 18th December, and we flew to Moscow's Domodedovo airport.  When we left the plane, we followed everyone else down a tiny hallway to a small room where everyone got in the passport control line.  I saw a woman sitting behind a desk, above her was a sign, in Russian and in English, that said something like "Transfers for non-visa holders".  I talked to her; she checked our tickets and passports, wrote something down in her book, and told me to wait.  Three other people waited with us--a woman with a small child, and a man.  They both looked Kazakh and I heard the airport woman try to tell the man that he didn't have to wait with us (but he did anyway).

Finally a shuttle bus came; she unlocked a door and led us to the bus.  It drove around in mostly a large semi-circle before dropping us off somewhere else.  We entered another, larger hall, with lots of other people exiting planes and going into long passport-control lines.  A woman ushered me up the stairs, and I saw a sign saying "Transfers" pointing up the stairs.  I also saw a sign saying this was for holders of Belorussian passports.

Upstairs Sophia and I went to the transfer desk and they pointed to another sign that said "transfer," which was next to the stairs I'd just come up.  I was confused until I noticed that there was a small hallway behind this sign.  So we went that way.

There, we went through security and had our passport checked before entering the international terminal.

The international terminal was nice, although crowded.  We shopped for a few souvenirs and looked in the cafes before searching for a seat.  It was a large terminal, but not large enough for all the people, and we milled around a bunch of seats until someone finally moved and we could snag one.  A man had pity on me and stood up, so I got a seat too.

Finally, it was time for our flight...  So far, so good!  We made it through Moscow!

In Berlin, I started to worry again...  Would the return home be as easy?  Because this time, I'd been going from a supposedly domestic flight to an international terminal; next time, I'll be transferring from an international flight to a supposedly domestic flight.   I emailed the school secretary and my co-worker (who'd flown through Moscow before).  The secretary said the same as she'd said before--it should be okay, but of course she couldn't be sure.

The day before our flight back, my co-worker responded.  She'd been in Kyrgystan with no internet.  She and her family had had no problems coming back, except for the 6-hour layover with no food.

Yes, we too had a 6-hour layover.  Ugh.  I made sure to put some movies on my computer for us to watch and to pack some apples and croissants!

When we arrived at Domodedovo, we entered the hallway we'd been in before (the larger one with the stairs).  So we went upstairs and registered at the transfer desk.  They asked about our baggage and checked our baggage ticket; I think they had to call someone to make sure our baggage went where it was supposed to go.  Then we were told to wait.

We waited for an hour here, quite patiently, and two more people showed up.  Both were far more impatient than us, and after some time asked the transfer desk women how much longer. 

Finally, the tall Russian woman with long blond hair briskly told us to follow her; we followed her down the stairs and waited by a door for some time for the shuttle bus to show up.  She seemed a bit frustrated that it took a while to come.

She unlocked the door, told the bus attendant how many of us there were, and then we were in this other woman's charge.

We drove to the other terminal, and then waited in the bus while the attendant waited for someone to come to unlock the door.  Then we entered a tiny room at the bottom of a staircase and were led to the 3rd floor, where we went through security.  Then we were free to go.

The terminal we were in was a long hallway with several gates, all to Kazakhstan.  There were two closed shops here, plus two vending machines, an ATM, a water cooler, a smoking room, and bathrooms.  At this point we were down to about 3 1/2 hours (our first flight had been an hour late) and so settled down to watch a movie.  Not long after the movie ended, the screen with our flight information said "go to gate."  Our gate had no seats, so we just stood there with a bunch of other people, in front of the smoking room (ugh!) until we were finally able to board.

Not a bad experience.  But it would have been nicer if there'd been a cafe in the Kazakhstan terminal!