On Friday & Saturday, 14 & 15 October, all the Central Asian schools in my school's organization came together in Almaty for professional development. They do this every other year. All together, 7 schools were represented. We were flown in and provided homestays (staying with a teacher from the Almaty school, which is large, with 500 students.)
Teachers from my school flew in Thursday night, and we had the option of staying on Sunday and going up to the mountains. Although my previous attempts at going into the mountains in Almaty have failed, I knew I'd rather get home Saturday night and have Sunday to relax before school started again on Monday.
So I didn't get to see much of Almaty. But I have been to Almaty twice before and plan on returning in a week for Fall Break, so missing out on a day of mountain sight-seeing wasn't really a big loss to me.
Sophia & I stayed in the house of one of the vice principals at the Almaty school. Almaty is an interesting city; the main downtown area is only about 2 or 3 km long and 1 km wide, very walkable. But it's a huge city, very spread out, with really bad traffic. So it took us over an hour to get from the airport to our home. And the school is about 30 - 40 minutes drive from downtown, possibly more.
A few of the teachers are housed in nice houses in the nice neighborhood surrounding the school; the rest are housed downtown, I heard that this is because there aren't that many available near the school. I also heard that first year teachers have to stay further away, and then I don't know what the system is for determining who lives closer.
Those that live near the school aren't very close to much else besides the school, the lovely neighborhood, and a store (which I never saw, so I can't comment on it). So the teachers that live near the school have cars, and the teachers that live far from the school either have cars or take taxis every day. So this made me happy that I'm only a 15 minute walk from my school (much less, if I choose to cross the busy 8-line highway, which I don't) and the mall and supermarket are on my way to school.
The vice principal who I stayed with lives in a nice two-story house near the school. He has a front and back yard, beautiful now that it's autumn and the leaves are changing colors and starting to fall. He has a swing set in his backyard, too (and an adorable 16-month old baby).
Sophia got to walk around the neighborhood some (with a babysitter and a few teachers' kids, toddlers) and she said it was very nice. There are a few play areas in the neighborhood.
There were 8 sessions, taught by different teachers on different topics on which they knew a lot. Some were better than others, of course, and I especially enjoyed a session on teaching English-Language Learners, by someone who'd gone through a program to become certified. I'm just certified in Elementary Education, not ESOL. This session was nice, because it confirmed that pretty much everything I'm currently doing is, according to current research, the best way to teach ESOL. It's nice to know that what I'm doing is correct.
I also got to meet and talk with other teachers. I met a nice lady who teaches in a very small school in Aktau, by the Caspian Sea, and she loves it. She says that Aktau is very multi-cultural, lots of different ethnicities, and the city is very quiet and peaceful, very safe to walk around in. Plus there's the beach and a few hours away are necropolises and underground mosques and white mountains and other interesting sites.
The teachers in Atyrau, also near the Caspian Sea, but further north than Aktau and about 20 km from the sea, said that it's a nice place, but not interesting for visiting.
A teacher in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) liked it, but I think she would rather be somewhere else. She has three young kids, and she said that city doesn't have a lot of options (clubs, activities, English-speaking children) for older children. Plus, the city is very dusty (dust from Afghanistan, she said) and she thought the smog-filled air in Almaty was cleaner than the air in Dushanbe (another Dushanbe teacher disagreed, though, and said that Almaty air was dirtier.)
Also, she said that policemen are everywhere, and often are closing down the main roads for important people or whatnot, so then they have to take the back roads to school, driving through dirt roads by shacks.
It was interesting to talk to different teachers about their experiences! And, really, the more I talk to others, the more I want to travel in Central Asia.
Friday evening a school van drove us to Mega Mall, a mall that compares to American malls (large). We ate at a Pizza Hut, and, yes, it was yummy. Some teachers ate at a Hardee's.
Everybody ran into the huge supermarket Ramstore, looking for Western products (more readily available in Almaty than Astana), but by the time I went in, looking for Cheerios, another teacher had beat me and bought the last two boxes.
Saturday I just went to the 4 sessions and then we left immediately after for the airport to go home.
It was a good experience, and I look forward to returning to Almaty to go to the mountains.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
My landlord's not crazy. He's MEAN!
I've written about them twice before - here (from May 2011) and here (from September 2011). But I'd started to think that maybe I'd been too mean, a whining American. I asked our school secretary how my landlords compared to the 15 others she deals with, she said they're okay compared to the others.
And then this happened:
I came home Wednesday, 5th October, at around 6 pm, in a good mood. Then I saw that EVERYTHING had been taken out of my freezer, and placed on the bench in the kitchen. The refrigerator had been unplugged.
Yes, my refrigerator has been broken since May, and to get to the piece that's broken you have to go through the freezer. But my landlord had come over, taken everything out of the freezer, attempted to fix the fridge, failed, and then left the apartment. Like that.
He also put up some of the hooks so I could hang the curtain, not all of them. And someone didn't notice the rainwater coming in through the gaps in the windows.
I had a stuffed freezer, and everything was slowly thawing, and it was raining in my bedroom. I was not in a good mood.
I checked my email, the secretary had emailed that he was coming over at 3 pm. So that means my food had only been out for 3 hours, so that's not too bad. And when I plugged the fridge back in, the freezer appeared to still be working.
I was livid, though. I emailed the secretary and said that I wanted to move immediately. I tried calling her, but she didn't answer. I later learned that she'd had a very, very busy day, with lots of people being mean to her. So when she finally got hold of me, and I was angry, I know that just made her miserable day even worse.
The next day at work I typed up all my complaints about the apartment, ready to turn that in to the principal as an explanation as to why I wanted to move. But I waited, knowing I had to be calm and thinking rationally before I did so.
At the end of the day, our new accountant came to talk to me. He's a Russian guy, recently arrived from Novosibirsk, married to our 2nd grade teacher. He told me that from now on, he was in charge of dealing with the landlords. The landlords were quite mean to our secretary, and apparently thought they could take advantage of her because she's female.
Our accountant said that the landlord is no longer allowed in my apartment without 24-hour written notice, and that no one is allowed in my apartment without my presence. He explained that for some reason, in the apartment contract, the school is liable for the fridge if it breaks. Rather than pay the money for the expensive broken piece, the school would buy me a new fridge (which the school will then keep, not the landlord, when the apartment stops being rented by the school).
So now I have a new, working refrigerator. It's a bit smaller than the old one, and not as fancy, but it works.
And now I'm not planning on moving. I'm quite impressed with how quickly the school decided to help me, considering I hadn't yet complained as I had planned on.
And then this happened:
I came home Wednesday, 5th October, at around 6 pm, in a good mood. Then I saw that EVERYTHING had been taken out of my freezer, and placed on the bench in the kitchen. The refrigerator had been unplugged.
Yes, my refrigerator has been broken since May, and to get to the piece that's broken you have to go through the freezer. But my landlord had come over, taken everything out of the freezer, attempted to fix the fridge, failed, and then left the apartment. Like that.
He also put up some of the hooks so I could hang the curtain, not all of them. And someone didn't notice the rainwater coming in through the gaps in the windows.
I had a stuffed freezer, and everything was slowly thawing, and it was raining in my bedroom. I was not in a good mood.
I checked my email, the secretary had emailed that he was coming over at 3 pm. So that means my food had only been out for 3 hours, so that's not too bad. And when I plugged the fridge back in, the freezer appeared to still be working.
I was livid, though. I emailed the secretary and said that I wanted to move immediately. I tried calling her, but she didn't answer. I later learned that she'd had a very, very busy day, with lots of people being mean to her. So when she finally got hold of me, and I was angry, I know that just made her miserable day even worse.
The next day at work I typed up all my complaints about the apartment, ready to turn that in to the principal as an explanation as to why I wanted to move. But I waited, knowing I had to be calm and thinking rationally before I did so.
At the end of the day, our new accountant came to talk to me. He's a Russian guy, recently arrived from Novosibirsk, married to our 2nd grade teacher. He told me that from now on, he was in charge of dealing with the landlords. The landlords were quite mean to our secretary, and apparently thought they could take advantage of her because she's female.
Our accountant said that the landlord is no longer allowed in my apartment without 24-hour written notice, and that no one is allowed in my apartment without my presence. He explained that for some reason, in the apartment contract, the school is liable for the fridge if it breaks. Rather than pay the money for the expensive broken piece, the school would buy me a new fridge (which the school will then keep, not the landlord, when the apartment stops being rented by the school).
So now I have a new, working refrigerator. It's a bit smaller than the old one, and not as fancy, but it works.
And now I'm not planning on moving. I'm quite impressed with how quickly the school decided to help me, considering I hadn't yet complained as I had planned on.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Computer Shopping
Sophia has used my mom's old computer for the 2+ years that we've been in Astana, and I'm afraid it's finally breathed its last. So I decided to look into buying her a cheap netbook or notebook here in Astana. I'd heard of Tekhnodom, an electronics store, and on Saturday we went there.
Since I know very little about computers, and not enough Russian to converse with employees about computers, when we went inside the store I took out a pencil and my notebook and starting copying the information about the netbooks. ALL of the information, since I didn't really know what would be useful or not. (The plan was to email the information to my dad, and to ask his advice.)
An employee attempted to speak to me in Russian and found out that I didn't speak Russian. He must have gone to find an English-speaking employee, because soon one came up to me and said that I couldn't write down the prices, it was not allowed.
I explained to her what I was doing, and she said okay, although her okay seemed to come more from resignation (how can you argue with someone who doesn't speak your language) than from agreeing with me.
The next day, I went to a computer store, Beliy Veter (which means "White Wind" in Russian.) I'd been to this store my first year, the school's IT guy had called it the Best Buy of Kazakhstan, and it was seriously disappointing in that respect.
Maybe it was because I was with my Russian-speaking friend, and maybe it's because Beliy Veter has better service. But an employee was very helpful, and when I started to copy information into my notebook, he said no need, he could print out all the information (included price) for me.
The computers were a bit more expensive at Beliy Veter, but better models. Also, Beliy Veter has a service center and a one-year guarantee. I'm pretty sure that when I finally get around to buying Sophia a computer, I will do so from Beliy Veter.
Since I know very little about computers, and not enough Russian to converse with employees about computers, when we went inside the store I took out a pencil and my notebook and starting copying the information about the netbooks. ALL of the information, since I didn't really know what would be useful or not. (The plan was to email the information to my dad, and to ask his advice.)
An employee attempted to speak to me in Russian and found out that I didn't speak Russian. He must have gone to find an English-speaking employee, because soon one came up to me and said that I couldn't write down the prices, it was not allowed.
I explained to her what I was doing, and she said okay, although her okay seemed to come more from resignation (how can you argue with someone who doesn't speak your language) than from agreeing with me.
The next day, I went to a computer store, Beliy Veter (which means "White Wind" in Russian.) I'd been to this store my first year, the school's IT guy had called it the Best Buy of Kazakhstan, and it was seriously disappointing in that respect.
Maybe it was because I was with my Russian-speaking friend, and maybe it's because Beliy Veter has better service. But an employee was very helpful, and when I started to copy information into my notebook, he said no need, he could print out all the information (included price) for me.
The computers were a bit more expensive at Beliy Veter, but better models. Also, Beliy Veter has a service center and a one-year guarantee. I'm pretty sure that when I finally get around to buying Sophia a computer, I will do so from Beliy Veter.
A Good Restaurant Next to Artyom
On Saturday, after sleeping in and resting from the full week and Fall Festival, we went shopping. We had several things on the list--most importantly, an autumn coat for Sophia. She has a light raincoat plus some sweatshirts, and a below-the-knee, down-filled winter coat. But lately she's been rather cold--it's too cold for mere sweatshirts and not yet cold enough for the winter coat.
We went into the shopping center across from Artyom. I've mentioned Artyom, this huge, crowded shopping complex, many times before (for example, in these posts from November 2009, November 14 2009, September 2010, and, most recently, September 2011.) Yes, judging by how much I've written about it, you might be quite surprised to learn my first time in the shopping complex across from Artyom was just 2 weeks ago. I'd gone in to look for speakers at Tekhnodom, an electronics store someone had recommended to me. I'd only been on the first floor of the shopping complex.
There are several small shopping complexes behind Artyom and a half-block down the street from it. I'd finally managed to visit most of those , but not this one. It has a sign on it saying that Ramstore is located there. Ramstore is the grocery store closest to me now, and one that sometimes has peanut butter.
So two weeks ago, I went in, and noticed a sports store that seemed bigger and nicer than MegaSports (*the* sports store in Astana, but maybe no longer!)
First, we went to Tekhnodom, then we wandered upstairs. There are four floors in this thing! Most of the floors sell furniture--some furniture in stores, some out in the open. But there are several other smaller stores.
Begemot, a toystore, was on the top floor. I noticed that it seemed to specialize in non-brand-name stuff, knock-offs of Barbie and My Little Pony, with bad English. Sophia enjoyed it though.
The cafe on the top floor was your usual Kazakh diner--food seemed greasy.
But on the third floor we found something I wish we'd found earlier--a clean, cheap Italian restaurant. How many times have we been hungry while shopping at Artyom! Artyom has a cheap cafeteria on the top floor, plus a crummy pizza restaurant, and nearby there are sketchy places for shashlyk (Kazakh kebab). But this place was nice.
We sat next to the window, watching the crowds in the streets outside, and for $10 we had a medium-sized cheese pizza, a small Greek salad, a milkshake, and a bottled water. Not bad.
Then, after several hours in the mall, we finally made it to the sports store, where the first thing we saw was an girls' autumn coat, in light blue (Sophia's favorite color) and on sale. Super.
Now Sophia has a coat to keep her warm in this weather, and I know where to go when we're hungry and shopping at Artyom.
We went into the shopping center across from Artyom. I've mentioned Artyom, this huge, crowded shopping complex, many times before (for example, in these posts from November 2009, November 14 2009, September 2010, and, most recently, September 2011.) Yes, judging by how much I've written about it, you might be quite surprised to learn my first time in the shopping complex across from Artyom was just 2 weeks ago. I'd gone in to look for speakers at Tekhnodom, an electronics store someone had recommended to me. I'd only been on the first floor of the shopping complex.
There are several small shopping complexes behind Artyom and a half-block down the street from it. I'd finally managed to visit most of those , but not this one. It has a sign on it saying that Ramstore is located there. Ramstore is the grocery store closest to me now, and one that sometimes has peanut butter.
So two weeks ago, I went in, and noticed a sports store that seemed bigger and nicer than MegaSports (*the* sports store in Astana, but maybe no longer!)
First, we went to Tekhnodom, then we wandered upstairs. There are four floors in this thing! Most of the floors sell furniture--some furniture in stores, some out in the open. But there are several other smaller stores.
Begemot, a toystore, was on the top floor. I noticed that it seemed to specialize in non-brand-name stuff, knock-offs of Barbie and My Little Pony, with bad English. Sophia enjoyed it though.
The cafe on the top floor was your usual Kazakh diner--food seemed greasy.
But on the third floor we found something I wish we'd found earlier--a clean, cheap Italian restaurant. How many times have we been hungry while shopping at Artyom! Artyom has a cheap cafeteria on the top floor, plus a crummy pizza restaurant, and nearby there are sketchy places for shashlyk (Kazakh kebab). But this place was nice.
We sat next to the window, watching the crowds in the streets outside, and for $10 we had a medium-sized cheese pizza, a small Greek salad, a milkshake, and a bottled water. Not bad.
Then, after several hours in the mall, we finally made it to the sports store, where the first thing we saw was an girls' autumn coat, in light blue (Sophia's favorite color) and on sale. Super.
Now Sophia has a coat to keep her warm in this weather, and I know where to go when we're hungry and shopping at Artyom.
Fall Festival 2011
Our school has an annual Fall Festival, which most kids just refer to as "Halloween." (See last year's post about the Fall Festival.) Most kids aren't sure as to when the exact date of Halloween is, so they were quite happy to believe that Halloween this year fell on Friday, 7th October. I was quite happy to spend a week with a "Monster" theme, an evening doing Halloween activities, and then to have it over with.
During the week, we listened to the song "Purple People Eater" and other songs I have on a Halloween CD. We made monsters from some worksheets I have of various ghoulish eyes, noses, and mouths. The next activity was to write a descriptive paragraph about those monsters, of course.
This year, I was assigned an activity for the Fall Festival--the Cake Walk--along with a co-teacher. This turned out to be great. There was little prep work--parents brought in cakes--and the event was so popular that we ran out of cakes in a little over an hour, leaving us with almost hour free to explore.
I didn't have a costume idea, but my co-worker's haircut looks like Justin Bieber's, so she went as Justin Bieber and I went as Justin Bieber's fan. She printed out a photo of him; I cut it out in a heart-shape and glued it onto the back of my hoodie. (I learned that Justin Bieber likes hoodies.)
Every activity at the Fall Festival is free; however, food was being sold, since it was dinner time. Kids came dressed in different costumes--Sophia wore an Indian dress; cat costumes were popular for girls (easy to make, I think); boys came as various superheroes.
Since there are so many activities, at first it was hard to get about 10 people for the Cake Walk. We did the Cake Walk as a variant of musical chairs & cake walks that I've done before--we had ten numbers on the floor in a circle. Everyone walked around the numbers while the music played; when it stopped, they stopped on a number. I stood in the center with my eyes closed and called out a number. Whoever was standing on that number won a cake.
We showed off a fancy-looking cake to entice people to play. I saw my 9-year old Korean boy (with very limited English) and dragged him into the circle. He was completely confused, but when I yelled out "3!" he was standing on the 3, so I shoved the cake into his hands. He ran off excitedly to his mother.
Later, in class, he happily told the events, with plenty of expressions and hand gestures--"Cake Walk! Three! Cake! Yay!"
The high schoolers put on a haunted house in the room above the cafeteria. This proved to be rather popular. It was neat to see what they could do with little time and space. They managed to create a spooky atmosphere with spooky music and little light, to make rooms by hanging dark-colored sheets, and to do a good job with make-up.
Overall, it was a fun night. The kids seemed really, really happy. It rained outside and to walk from the gym to the cafeteria you had to go through puddles, but no one seemed to mind.
And maybe next year, I'll finally have a real costume...
During the week, we listened to the song "Purple People Eater" and other songs I have on a Halloween CD. We made monsters from some worksheets I have of various ghoulish eyes, noses, and mouths. The next activity was to write a descriptive paragraph about those monsters, of course.
This year, I was assigned an activity for the Fall Festival--the Cake Walk--along with a co-teacher. This turned out to be great. There was little prep work--parents brought in cakes--and the event was so popular that we ran out of cakes in a little over an hour, leaving us with almost hour free to explore.
I didn't have a costume idea, but my co-worker's haircut looks like Justin Bieber's, so she went as Justin Bieber and I went as Justin Bieber's fan. She printed out a photo of him; I cut it out in a heart-shape and glued it onto the back of my hoodie. (I learned that Justin Bieber likes hoodies.)
Every activity at the Fall Festival is free; however, food was being sold, since it was dinner time. Kids came dressed in different costumes--Sophia wore an Indian dress; cat costumes were popular for girls (easy to make, I think); boys came as various superheroes.
Since there are so many activities, at first it was hard to get about 10 people for the Cake Walk. We did the Cake Walk as a variant of musical chairs & cake walks that I've done before--we had ten numbers on the floor in a circle. Everyone walked around the numbers while the music played; when it stopped, they stopped on a number. I stood in the center with my eyes closed and called out a number. Whoever was standing on that number won a cake.
We showed off a fancy-looking cake to entice people to play. I saw my 9-year old Korean boy (with very limited English) and dragged him into the circle. He was completely confused, but when I yelled out "3!" he was standing on the 3, so I shoved the cake into his hands. He ran off excitedly to his mother.
Later, in class, he happily told the events, with plenty of expressions and hand gestures--"Cake Walk! Three! Cake! Yay!"
The high schoolers put on a haunted house in the room above the cafeteria. This proved to be rather popular. It was neat to see what they could do with little time and space. They managed to create a spooky atmosphere with spooky music and little light, to make rooms by hanging dark-colored sheets, and to do a good job with make-up.
Overall, it was a fun night. The kids seemed really, really happy. It rained outside and to walk from the gym to the cafeteria you had to go through puddles, but no one seemed to mind.
And maybe next year, I'll finally have a real costume...
Saturday, October 1, 2011
French Club
This year, the school is having after-school activities twice a week for the elementary school students. The elementary school gets out 50 minutes earlier than the high school; last year, it started 50 minutes later, and kids who arrived early were watched by an assistant in the gym. This year, they can go home at 3:15, or they can go to Study Hall or an after-school activity.
Teachers are required to lead one activity every week; every 6 weeks or so the activities change. Unfortunately, we also have to come up with the activity ourselves, and this was hard for me to do. Some teachers are doing different arts and crafts, some are doing board games or outdoor games. One teacher is leading a very-popular cookie-making class; another teacher is leading a science club (also very popular).
I decided to do a French Club, partly expecting that no one would sign up and then I'd get relegated to helping someone else. After all, we're in an English-language school in a Russian-and-Kazakh-language country; what kid wants to add another language on top of all those?
But 6 kids did sign up for my club, which is a decent-sized number, considering we're such a small school. And their teachers say that they are talking excitedly about it in their classrooms.
It's turned out to be a lot of fun. I know many French children's songs, plus have tons on CD, so I've taught them a song every week. We also play Bingo (learning colors, numbers, and parts of the body along the way) and eat cheese and bread. They really aren't learning much; once a week for 50 minutes isn't really enough time to learn a language, but they seem to be having fun.
And I do enjoy talking in a foreign language that I actually know, rather than stumbling through Russian. I really need to work on my Russian, don't I?
Teachers are required to lead one activity every week; every 6 weeks or so the activities change. Unfortunately, we also have to come up with the activity ourselves, and this was hard for me to do. Some teachers are doing different arts and crafts, some are doing board games or outdoor games. One teacher is leading a very-popular cookie-making class; another teacher is leading a science club (also very popular).
I decided to do a French Club, partly expecting that no one would sign up and then I'd get relegated to helping someone else. After all, we're in an English-language school in a Russian-and-Kazakh-language country; what kid wants to add another language on top of all those?
But 6 kids did sign up for my club, which is a decent-sized number, considering we're such a small school. And their teachers say that they are talking excitedly about it in their classrooms.
It's turned out to be a lot of fun. I know many French children's songs, plus have tons on CD, so I've taught them a song every week. We also play Bingo (learning colors, numbers, and parts of the body along the way) and eat cheese and bread. They really aren't learning much; once a week for 50 minutes isn't really enough time to learn a language, but they seem to be having fun.
And I do enjoy talking in a foreign language that I actually know, rather than stumbling through Russian. I really need to work on my Russian, don't I?
Bikes
Sophia's bicycle is broken - something happened and the handlebars could no longer turn. With the help of one of my assistants, I took it to the bike shop I'd found at the end of last year. (See previous entry.) My assistant filled out a form with her phone number and we left the bike there.
About a week later, they called saying that they couldn't fix it, at least not without some part that they didn't have. Their best guess was that we might be able to find it at the bazaar. So now I have to find some time to go with my assistant, first back to the shop to figure out what piece we need, and then to the bazaar to hunt for this piece. Ugh.
It stopped working only a few days after I'd bought my bike, so I've rarely ridden mine. I was so excited that we'd finally be getting around Astana a bit faster, on bike rather than bus or foot, but we're back to being pedestrians and bus-riders.
Today Sophia was at a friend's house all day, and I had some shopping to do, so I got to ride my bike. First I went to the bike shop to buy myself a helmet. After I'd gotten a helmet, the guy who'd helped me get it followed me outside to check on my bike. I obviously seemed clueless, and not just clueless in the Russian language but clueless about bikes too. He checked the tires and said that they needed the be pumped, and he brought out a pump and did that for me. Then he asked to ride my bike, I let him. He didn't seem to impressed with my bike. He used the word "tyazholi" which google translate says means heavy or hard. But he didn't seem to be too alarmed, and he let me ride away, didn't insist on fixing anything. So I hope it's okay!
(I bought my bike at a bazaar, it was cheap, so I'm sure it's cheap quality.)
I rode away, finished my shopping, and it was nice to ride a bike and not have to wait forever for a bus. I wore my helmet, despite most likely looking ridiculous because nobody here wears helmets.
And I'm glad the guy at the shop seemed concerned about my bike, even though I couldn't understand him. I came in for just a helmet, and he cared enough to check out my bike.
Hopefully, my bike will last me the remainder of my time here in Kazakhstan.
About a week later, they called saying that they couldn't fix it, at least not without some part that they didn't have. Their best guess was that we might be able to find it at the bazaar. So now I have to find some time to go with my assistant, first back to the shop to figure out what piece we need, and then to the bazaar to hunt for this piece. Ugh.
It stopped working only a few days after I'd bought my bike, so I've rarely ridden mine. I was so excited that we'd finally be getting around Astana a bit faster, on bike rather than bus or foot, but we're back to being pedestrians and bus-riders.
Today Sophia was at a friend's house all day, and I had some shopping to do, so I got to ride my bike. First I went to the bike shop to buy myself a helmet. After I'd gotten a helmet, the guy who'd helped me get it followed me outside to check on my bike. I obviously seemed clueless, and not just clueless in the Russian language but clueless about bikes too. He checked the tires and said that they needed the be pumped, and he brought out a pump and did that for me. Then he asked to ride my bike, I let him. He didn't seem to impressed with my bike. He used the word "tyazholi" which google translate says means heavy or hard. But he didn't seem to be too alarmed, and he let me ride away, didn't insist on fixing anything. So I hope it's okay!
(I bought my bike at a bazaar, it was cheap, so I'm sure it's cheap quality.)
I rode away, finished my shopping, and it was nice to ride a bike and not have to wait forever for a bus. I wore my helmet, despite most likely looking ridiculous because nobody here wears helmets.
And I'm glad the guy at the shop seemed concerned about my bike, even though I couldn't understand him. I came in for just a helmet, and he cared enough to check out my bike.
Hopefully, my bike will last me the remainder of my time here in Kazakhstan.
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