Beijing Palace - the revolving restaurant

If you're in the new downtown, near Beiterek Tower, then you're sure to see a really tall Chinese building. This building is called the Beijing Palace and is home to a hotel and a few restaurants.

My friend from Semey was visiting Astana for a teachers' conference, and she was staying directly across from the Beijing Palace, so she suggested that we meet up for dinner there. So after school one evening, Sophia and I took a taxi to the Beijing Palace. My Kazakh friend and her daughter joined us as well.

The inside is quite grand, and we had to go through a metal detector and put our bags through an X-ray, although we all set it off and no one cared. Then we checked our coats and took the elevator to the 3rd floor. However, the restaurant there was full, due to a banquet, and they suggested that we go to the top, the 23rd floor, to the revolving restaurant. I'd heard it was expensive, but they assured us that the prices were the same.

So up we went. The restaurant is a big circle, and kinda like a doughnut--the dining area (the revolving part) is the doughnut, with the servers' stations, elevator area, and bathrooms being the hole in the middle. (I know, bad analogy...)

The outer walls were mostly windows, so we could see outside. At first, we saw the President's Palace and, beyond that, the Pyramid. Then we started revolving.

I was a bit nervous about the fact that we'd be moving while eating (wouldn't I get motion-sick?) But we moved so slowly that I didn't notice that we were moving. Just that every now and then we'd notice the view had changed. When the girls went to the bathroom, as soon as we arrived, they had to go around to the other side. Later on, my friend went to use the bathroom, she walked away from us--and ended up finding it just on the other side of us; she'd walked all around the restaurant. (And we'd moved so that we were no longer far from the bathroom.)

The menu shocked us at first with some of the prices--duck for 12000 Tenge ($81) but my Kazakh friend asked and was told that the duck could feed all of us. Some menu items were strange and unusual--bird's nest soup for 14800 (around $100) and "Deer soup for man's health" that included a certain male part from a deer. (My friend said that the Russian translation used a more technical term for this part, while the English translation was rather blunt.)

We each ordered a dish (between $10 and $20 each dish), and I ordered some plain noodles for 400 Tenge for Sophia. The food came out and they put it on a turntable in the middle so we all could share. This was great and we got to sample each other's food. When we were full, we noticed that we had only eaten about half the food! So in the end, not an expensive restaurant!

The view was very nice, Astana at nighttime from up high, and the girls were somewhat behaved. They enjoyed running around the restaurant circle, and had to be reprimanded.

It was definitely a nice experience, and hopefully we'll get to do it again.

-40º

There are so many different levels of cold, and this past week we experienced beyond cold, beyond freezing cold, beyond frigid. The highs were lower than -30º C (that's -22º F) and the lows got down to -40º (where it's the same in both Celsius and Fahrenheit).

At some level, you're no longer cold. You're in pain.

The previous week had been frigid, and there was no outdoor recess. Sophia and I bundled ourselves up before the walk to school and again at the end of the day; in the morning, we wore ski goggles. Bundled up so that no speck of our skin touched the cold air, we were fine during our walks.

This past Sunday after church a coworker offered to drive us to school in the mornings. He lives in our building and gives us rides home from church. I almost said no, we were doing fine, but I said yes. I'm quite glad I said yes.

Because there's a difference between -30 and -40. I learned this week that -30 and warmer I can handle, whether or not I want to. The closer you get to -40, the further you get from cold and the closer you get to pain.

We still bundled up just for the walk from our door to the parking lot. Yup, it was that cold. But we didn't need ski goggles. I learned my lesson, however, as one day I felt like my eyeballs themselves (and my contacts!) were starting to freeze during the walk home. I blinked my eyes rapidly, hoping to keep them warm, and the moisture from my breathe froze onto my eyelashes, nearly freezing my eyes shut.

Yup, it was that cold.

The principal sent out an email to everyone saying that school would close (or be delayed) when it got below -40. This means -41 and lower, and the only time it reached -41 was Tuesday, and it didn't reach that temperature until we'd all arrived at school, and so school was not cancelled. I learned this week that it actually does get colder after the sun rises! I hadn't known that before, nor would I have believed it until this week. The temperature would be -38 when I woke up, and slowly would drop as I got ready for school.

We were infinitely grateful for our ride to school. One morning, my coworker said that his car almost didn't start. It turns out that our apartment's garage isn't heated, and he has one of those automatic systems on his car so that it turns on when it gets too cold. But that hadn't worked well one night, and his car almost didn't start in the morning. The principal & her husband, however, he said, didn't even have a garage for their car. So their car froze and wouldn't work, and they've been walking to school.

At school, the hallways were cold. The school is made out of 5 buildings--one is used for the preschool through 1st grades, plus many activity classes; one is used for the elementary grades, plus the library and music room; one is used for the administration and high school; one is the gym; and one is the cafeteria, with the auditorium/indoor play area above it. So doors are constantly being opened and closed as children and teachers come and go from one building to the next. The hallway on the first floor got so cold that we could see our breath!

Luckily, the rooms managed to stay warm; we kept our doors closed to keep in the heat. My assistants get colder much faster than I do, so they kept the mini heater running, and I was quite cozy.

We had to warn the children not to touch door handles with their bare hands. The metal gets so cold it can burn your skin, so I was constantly reminding the children not to touch the handles without gloves on!

But there is at least one positive side effect of extreme cold: A friend of mine, who lives in South Carolina, where winter temperatures this year got close to +20º C (68º F), posted on facebook a video of people in Canada doing an experiment. They threw boiling hot water into the air, and it instantly turned into a puff of cloud.

I told my assistant, who was so excited that she immediately went to boil some water. The kettle is next to the 6th grade classroom, so they were the lucky ones to see the experiment first.

Finally, we got to see it. She poured some of the water from the kettle into a cup, opened the window, and threw the water outside. Poof! Suddenly there was a huge, vaporous cloud coming towards us! The children squealed in delight.

A coworker tried to see what would happen to room-temperature water; nothing. I guess it will have to get colder for something to happen!

On the walk home one day, I didn't think to make sure Sophia's face was fully bundled. She had on snow pants, extra socks, gloves under her mittens, and even a balaclava (ski mask), but I didn't insist that she cover her face with it, so she rested it under her chin like she prefers. I just wasn't thinking that it can still be painfully frigid in the afternoon.

She started crying right away that she was cold, so I stopped to pull her hat over her forehead more. Then I hurried her along until we got to Mega, the mall that's halfway between our school and our home. We went inside and then I saw what had happened--her tears had frozen into rather large chunks of ice on her cheeks. I wiped them off and saw that while most of her exposed skin was bright red, the skin under the ice was white. This concerned me, and we stayed in Mega for some time as I waited for her to warm up.

Those spots on her cheeks remained white for a while, and at home I googled "frostbite". In the end, she probably just had what's called frostnip, not even superficial frostbite. (And definitely not the worrisome deep frostbite.) The area is now red and it blistered a little and some skin came off, but it never looked too bad, never blistered very much, and never turned black, as skin affected by superficial frostbite will do. Phew! But now I definitely make sure her face is properly covered!

So the moral of the story is this--Don't cry if you're outside in temperatures below -30º C! But if you're inside, do throw some boiling water out the window.

Kitten!

Two weeks ago, I went to our accountant to ask for money. (Since we don't have local bank accounts, the school holds onto our money for us and we can "withdraw" from our accounts... Some of our money goes directly into our home bank accounts, and some stays here.)

He then asked me, "Do you know anybody who'd like a kitten?"

Well, Sophia and I had to leave two cats in the US when we came here, and ever since then we've been dying for a cat. But I've been trying to be practical--I travel so much, how could I find someone to watch a cat every time we leave the country? Plus, my landlords here are so weird and so nitpicky about little things, I'm not so sure they'd agree to a cat.

But I always knew that if I were given a cat, I wouldn't be able to say no.

The accountant is taking driving lessons, and for weeks now he'd been seeing this kitten at the place where he takes lessons. He said it was obvious that the cat didn't have a home, although he suspected that some kind soul might be feeding it. So the other night, he put the cat in his coat and took it home with him. He and his wife recently bought two guinea pigs, so they can't keep the cat.

I asked him about my landlords, since he's the one in charge of dealing with issues and problems with the landlords; he seemed to think it would be okay. I think he was being overly optimistic; being Russian maybe he doesn't understand that Kazakhs just aren't used to house pets. But I also know that he is very good at dealing with landlords, so I figure he can help sort that issue out.

That very night, he and his wife came over to our place with the kitten. It wasn't too tiny, probably between 3 and 6 months old. And it's definitely a boy. I was quite surprised with how well it reacted to being suddenly placed in a new environment; it wasn't scared and seemed to like people.

I made a make-shift litter box out of an old cardboard box; the accountant's wife had bought us some litter and kitten food. The kitten instantly knew how to use the litter box.

Sophia and I debated over the name; she didn't like any of the cute Russian names I suggested (such as Mitya, Sasha, Vanya). I suggested Balthazar and for some reason that stuck. All of my students burst out laughing when I said our cat's name is Balthazar; no one seems to think it's a pet name.

Balthazar adjusted rather quickly to our house, and slowly has grown more comfortable. He's now trying to climb up and onto more things. I've made him perches by two windows, which he seems to enjoy, even though it's rather cold by the windows. He's a kitten, and he loves to play, and meows until we play with him.

The week after we got him, we went to Artyom to look for cat supplies. In my limited Russian, I managed to ask for cat toys, a cat scratcher, and a litter box. The cat toys are fine, the cat scratcher is small and needs to be hung up (no scratching posts) and the only litter boxes they had are tiny. I found one piece of cat furniture, nothing too fancy, and it cost 25000 Tenge (around $168)! We might just buy something in the US and pay for the extra luggage; that'd be cheaper!

Sophia's Kazakh friend spent the night last night, and it was interesting, because she was rather scared of the cat. We had to keep Balthazar away from her! Over the course of the evening and next morning, Sophia managed to help her to feel a bit calmer around him.

We're glad to have him. Here's hoping we'll find a good summer home for him!

Mimioriya - a children's play area

A few Saturdays ago, Sophia was invited to a classmate's birthday party. It was located at the Saryarka Mall, which is near our house. On the second floor in the mall is a place called Mimioriya, which is where the party was held. I'd seen this place before but had never gone into it.

Mimioriya is like a child's dreamland. When you enter, you first encounter the cashier; then you can cross over a small bridge to a colorful land that looks very much like a place where you'd find fairies. You walk down a small path and can choose between several small cottages, again, looking like fairies' homes. One looks somewhat like a mushroom; one has a Japanese look; one is Kazakh, designed like a camel.

Inside each cottage is an artsy activity, with an adult ready to help you. There are spaces for 4 to 6 children at each table. The art project takes approximately 45 minutes to complete, with the adult walking the child through each step. Sophia made a painting on glass; she also made a cat out of playdough-like material.

It's calm and serene and I can imagine being a very happy child here! There's also a pirate ship, but I didn't get to see that. On the other side, there are tables and places to sit and eat, and the children can even help bake things.

Sophia had a good time at the party; when it was over, I even paid 1000 Tenge for her to do one more activity. I'm not completely sure how the pricing works. I know one activity is 1500 Tenge ($10) and each subsequent one is 1000 Tenge. It seems like a great place for a children's party!