Last weekend I ventured to the Old Capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, to meet up with some friends and go hiking / camping! I got to Almaty early Saturday morning, met up with Hotard before we parted – he went to the city and I went to the PC office where I met up with other Volunteers I hadn’t seen in a while! We cooked a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs! Then I used the showers there…AMAZING! I went to Pizza Hut with Jacob for lunch…yes, I said Pizza Hut, I could hardly believe it myself, but it is true my friends, there is a Pizza Hut in Almaty. The workers speak English and it tastes like REAL pizza, although I’ve gotten used to the pizza here and think I may prefer it…AHH! Afterwards, we met up with the others at a Donor Kebob place and chatted for a bit before leaving for Talgar.
We hung out in Talgar for a bit before finally hitting the hills! We loaded up with Fanta, water, kielbasa and cheese and we were good to go. We walked for a little over an hour before setting up camp. We pitched the tent and made a fire to roast our kielbasa over and stayed up talking about nothing and everything and a new point system created by Kaz 20s. Then we called Mel (love ya girl!) And went to bed, Ken chose to sleep outside; apparently he didn’t enjoy the “coziness” of the tent. Or maybe he just wanted to hang out with the wild boar and German woman outside…who knows? He did come crawling back at like 5am when it was raining! Of course, it would rain! That was a bummer, but thankfully, we had the tent (thanks Hotard), because tents were not always in our original plan. In fact I remember a conversation a week previous to the hike where it was said that we could just sleep outside or make tents with sheets. Although we could have done either of those things, it was certainly nice to have tent.
The walk back proved to be a bit more difficult because the dirt had become mud and things were a bit more slippery, but we went back incredibly early so it wasn’t too hot yet. We all went back to sleep at Jacob’s and woke up late morning for another delicious breakfast! The guys went to Almaty to play Frisbee or to watch the new Harry Potter movie. I chose to stay in Talgar and hang out with Mai. We had lunch at a fancy café and then I was going to go visit my first host family, but they were not home, and I hung out for the day with Mai. We had a fun time hanging out at her place and eating LOTS of watermelon! Hotard came back in the evening. We met at the bus station and went out for Shashleek that was practically delivered to our table before we really ordered it, but hey, whatevs. After shashleek we wandered around Talgar in the dark looking for Jacob’s house only to realize we had absolutely NO idea how to find it in the dark. We hailed a taxi, a few taxi were unsure of where the house was also. One man agreed to look for it…SCORE! Kind of. There was another passenger he dropped off first, picked up two more people, dropped them off then attempted to find this house. What started as a fun adventure grew a bit frustrating after ½ an hour in the cab and still no luck. Eventually, we called Jacob, who called a local friend, who called Hotard and spoke with the cab driver and after a 40 minute ride, which should have taken MAYBE 5 minutes we were FINALLY at Jacob’s!
The following morning Ken came and we made breakfast! I LOVE breakfast! And hung out. We all went to lunch with Mai and then to her organization, where I’m pretty sure a good time was had by all! Speaking for myself, I absolutely loved it!! We met Jacob at the bus station with his house key, went to his house to get our stuff and left for the PC office in Almaty where we would stay for the night because of medical appointments in the early morning. It was nice to have internet at a time when my friends back home would be online! YEA!!
Tuesday morning was medical appointment day…a necessary evil as we have almost been here for a WHOLE year! I can hardly believe it!! The physicals were done by Peace Corps Medical Officers in the morning. In the afternoon we were driven to a dental place where we received a cavity scan (maybe a filling) and a cleaning. It was a bit different here than it is in America, but it wasn’t too bad and I’m proud to admit that I am cavity free!! WOO WOO!! Back at PC office people gathered there things and left back to site. I stayed a PC office one more night because I was going to visit my first host family the next day. I watched three movies and hung out online. It was a bit melancholy as I was there alone and the previous days had been fun-filled with lots of people! But I managed.
Wednesday, I left PC office rather early to get to Issyk where my first host family lives. Sometimes I think I visit them to often to be “cool” or “exciting,” but they are always very hospitable. And even the workers at the store near their house remember me and are also always very nice! One woman even remembers my favorite kind of candy…I miss being in Issyk! I hung out with my host family for a bit, Jacob stopped by, and then we went to visit his host grandma from Issyk. Her expression was priceless when she opened the door and Jacob was standing there! It was very sweet. Her grandson was visiting from Germany so that was fun. I went back to my host family’s place for about an hour before gathering my things and heading back to Almaty.
Jacob helped me get a taxi, mostly because he was looking for his own taxi and the first one that stopped was going to Almaty. I said goodbye and got in. The man driving knew that I was a foreigner and engaged a bit in conversation about what I was doing here and where I lived and such. He had a pretty sweet ride and was a super nice man. Only when we got to Almaty he ran a few errands before finally dropping me off at my destination, so that was kind of weird, but worked out okay. I went to the bus station where I would catch a bus back to site a few days either, all in the name of going to the circus! Which was quite an excitement…stay tuned!
