Not Really a Fan --

Last week we celebrated Halloween. I really don’t care for this “holiday.” Aside from the fact that I hate hate hate being scared, I also thinks it goes against the very thing that we teach kids when they’re young…you know the part where you’re “not supposed to take candy from strangers,” remember that? On Halloween you actually CAN dress up as something you’re not and then ask strangers to give you candy…hmm…

Nevertheless, we had a small celebration at my school. There are about 184953294 holidays in Kazakhstan, but Halloween is not one of them. We actually celebrated the day before Halloween. During our celebration we learned how to say “Happy Halloween” and “Trick-or-Treat”  this is actually REALLY difficult for an English learner to say but they were all such good sports and attempting and then reattempting; I’m certain it had everything to do with the bag of candy I was holding.

We had a skeleton scavenger hunt, mummifying people with toilet paper, bobbing for apples, pin the nose on the Jack-O-Lantern and ended with decorating masks to wear and use our new English phrases. It was fun and the kids really seemed to have a good time  And even carried “Trick-or-Treat” over until Monday…I was impressed!

Birthdays are exhausting…but oh so much fun!

So I've been 25 for almost two weeks now. And have neglected to blog about my birthday weekend of funness (<-- is that a word?) My flat is rather small so I had to have birthday parties in shifts. I invited my director and the ladies from my office over for lunch. Naturally, we had pizza...their choice. They came a little past 12pm; I stayed home that day cleaning, cooking and preparing everything. They got here and we had a SUPER fun time. At least I think they did. I made them birthday hats with poster board and made them wear them the WHOLE time they were here. They purchased for me a chai set. I drew it on a piece of paper earlier in the week when they asked what I wanted...I didn't know the word for it :) We ate lots of food and I was rather impressed with myself. There were 2 salads...I purchased those, fruited gelatin, pizza and cake. Then we had a photo shoot. And I made them take silly pictures...even when they didn't want to by saying, "it's MY birthday" <-- I'm kind of a brat like that :)

After they left, I immediately went to work cleaning, cooking and preparing for more guests. Yes, more pizza. These were my English teacher friends and they arrived around 6pm for dinner. They stayed until like 11pm and we had a good time just eating and chatting. I didn't have hats for this group, but it was still fun!

After they left. I went to bed. Cleaning could wait until morning. The following morning I went to cleaning, cooking and preparing everything <-- noticing a trend. Some teachers from my school came for early evening for dinner. and you guessed it, we had...MORE PIZZA! I was totally pizzaed out, but they really seemed to enjoy it. After they left I cleaned my flat one final time and put everything back where it belonged.

It was fun, but during the time I was cleaning and cooking, I remember thinking 'it's my birthday' and then thought back in America I would have gone out to a restaurant with friends, where someone else would have picked up my tab and the people at Olive Garden would have brought things directly to our table and then cleaned up after us. Here the birthday person is responsible for everything. Had we gone to a restaurant, I would have had to front the $$. CrAzY! But super fun when you get invited to a party :-)

Teacher's Day

This past weekend teachers in Kazakhstan celebrated a holiday just for them. This was quite an exciting day! We worked in the morning and then in the evening we went to a café where there was music and, of course, dancing! I tried to teach the “open mouth” picture which just erupted into LOTS of laughing. I love the teachers at my school. We said lots of toasts. My friend Rada assisted me in writing a Russian toast. Usually, I reuse, but think that eventually my school will catch on and demand a different toast from me. After reading my Russian toast the ladies at my table shouted, “Now in Kazakh.” I stood silent for about 2 seconds before my memorized Kazakh toast (for these particular moments came to mind) and with confidence I continued; I got lots of claps afterwards and then we celebrated with more dancing! The night ended at 1am when the café closed. Some of my coworkers continued their party at another place where they played billiards, I went home…I know, LAME, but we still had to work on Saturday!

Saturday is normally a work day in Kazakhstan. Teachers and students go to school Mon-Sat, this was a bit difficult to get used to, they have a 1 day weekend! Crazy! But this particular Saturday did not include any lessons, but rather a concert put on by the children for the teachers, although some teachers also had acts. I didn’t understand very much of it, but it was still super fun and one of teachers said something about me during his song (it was in KazakhI just smiled and gave the thumbs up sign). After the concert many of us went to lunch where, yep, you guessed it, there was more toasting! This time I did just say the same thing I said the night before.

Later that evening I went to the Theatre that was here at site called, Old Son. It was entertaining; there were some parts that I didn’t understand and was unable to follow, but when that happened I just made up my own plot. At any rate I was excited to show off my 50 tenge pearls, that clearly look like they were 50 tenge, but I didn’t care. I love them!

Pre Wedding Party

My SM was invited to the pre wedding party of his former site mate. Because I still have yet to experience the wedding in Kazakhstan, I found myself slightly jealous. But, I didn’t need to be because he called the bride-to-be and got me an invite! The woman who had been working on my flat (happy to inform that they FINALLY finished and my windows are Amazing!), assisted me with a Kazakh toast when I shared my evening plans with her. Skirt on, toast in hand, taxi I on the way I was excited! The evening started with eating salad and the emcee speaking. There was a man with a video camera wandering around, I tried to make it my goal to appear in the video as much as possible…that was my goal for the night :-) Salad was followed by, Beshbarmark, naturally. And there was more speaking and tons and tons of dancing! The night ended sooner than I would have liked it to, but I was happy to have been able to attend!

Birthday Celebrations --

This month two of the ladies in my office celebrated birthdays within a week of each other and when in Kaz, we celebrate like ain’t no tomorrow!

First, was the birthday of one of the assistants to the director. She celebrated her birthday here at school. She brought in TONS of food and we ate for a long time pausing only to give toasts! We all chipped in and got her a juicer. I’m not sure how often people really use these here…heck, I’m not even sure how often people in America use these; but she seemed to enjoy it. I gave her candy from America.

A few days later my best work friend Rada celebrated her 25th birthday. It was at a local café where we again ate A LOT of food, gave many toasts and then got our dance on! Rada always steals my sharpies, so I asked for some specifically for Rada’s birthday. They came earlier this summer and it was all I could do to not give them to her early or just use them myself :-)

My flat is having repair right now. I knew that when I agreed to rent that my landlady wanted it to have repairs done on it. I’m in the process of getting new windows! This is actually SUPER good for me considering that winter is approaching much more quickly than I want it to. I already got the windows and they are in, but there are 2 women who are still working on the wall around the windows. Yesterday there was wet cement on the walls and it took all I had in me to NOT make some sort of mark in it. This was very difficult! But I managed. As much as I want it to be done, my living room is torn apart and everything is covered in a light dust, I kind of enjoy the company of these women. They have both been over for like 5 hours for the last few days and although I haven’t been home the whole time that they have been there, it’s kind of nice to have “company.”

Next my landlady wants to get new wallpaper. I kind of don’t want new wallpaper. I mean, I like the idea of having pictures of friends and family as “wallpaper.” And if it’s new I probably won’t be able to tape pictures up because it will ruin the wall paper. I guess there is always the ever popular photo albums.

Town Day Celebrations

Earlier this month my town celebrated Town Day! At first I thought, of course, we have a holiday for this, there really is a holiday for EVERYTHING, but then I remembered Sparta Town & Country days – we kind of celebrate Sparta for 5 days; this was a one day celebration and was lots of fun.

I tried Kumyz (fermented horse’s milk) for the first time! And probably for the last:-) it wasn’t that great, in fact, I thought it was rather disgusting, but since I purchased it I did manage to drink all of it. There were speeches made and awards were given. I’m not sure for what though. Then singing and dancing ensued.

Totally Touristy

This past weekend I ventured to Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital. I left my site on Friday night, travelled by train to Karaganda and then onto Astana by bus. I arriving in Astana mid-morning on Saturday, I found an apartment where I would sleep before hitting the town! I first went to Bayterek. I took to lift up to the top for 500 tenge and was able to put my hand in Nazerbyev’s hand print…cool huh?! From the top of Bayterek I could see many parts of Astana. I took lots of pictures like a crazy tourist and then went for a walk outside. It’s too bad it started to rain. To stay dry I waited under a building. Finally, when the rain let up I wandered to find the T.G.I.Friday’s I had heard about. I was SUPER nervous that it was going to be a lie, that there really wasn’t going to be a T.G.I.Fridays, but I was in luck, there REALLY one! It was totally INCREDIBLY tasty! I ordered a soda (coke light, of course). Followed by an appetizer, mozzarella sticks (I don’t even get appetizers in America). Then I had some sort of chicken meal – like cheesy chicken, I don’t remember it’s name, it came with mashed potatoes and was divine! This was followed by a Friday’s Sundae, which was out of this world! It was a small price to pay for a fabulous meal from a restaurant that I hadn’t been to in over a year! Although, while I was eating I couldn’t help but wonder, if I should be eating local foods out of a yurt or doing something cultural, but I guess I have a whole to do cultural things huh?

Sunday was Constitution Day and I was excited. I had heard there was going to be a parade and that other activities would be going on around town. Unfortunately, I never made it to the parade. But I did find the other activities. There was a concert in a park area where people were dressed in traditional Kazakhstani wear. There was singing and dancing and toasting and dombra playing. This was cause for a good time! My only regret is that I didn’t take as many pictures as I should have.

Late afternoon I boarded a bus to return to site. I would first go to Karaganda and then take a train back to site. I had 3 hours to wander the city of Karaganda and went on the hunt for more Constitution Day activities, I think they had passed by the time I went out looking for them. Instead, I went shopping and tried on things that I would most likely never buy. Then headed back to the train station to catch the train. This train was perhaps one of the greatest train rides I’ve had The people in my cart were exceptionally friendly. They shared their meal with me and we all played cards. Then we hit the bunks and I woke up as the train was stopping at my site.