My Kazakh Television Debut

This morning I woke up early and headed to the Khabar television station studios to be on television. No, my television appearance wasn't because I've gained such notoriety or fame... and it wasn't to discuss my research. I was on a game show! My friend is a producer for the Kazakh Lotto and asked me to come to today's episode to be in the studio audience. It was an odd hybrid of the lottery and The Price is Right. They sell lotto tickets for this during the week and we, as the studio audience, received free tickets so we could follow along and look interested. Just like the regular lotto, they drew numbers, called them out, and showed them on the bottom of the tv screen. And, drawing from The Price is Right, they had lots of flashy lights, an enthusiastic studio audience composed entirely of retired people and college students (and me), and they had the prizes on the studio floor-- including a couple cars. I'm pretty sure they showed me on tv, because they kept putting one of the cameras directly in front of me. So I made sure to smile and look excited and engrossed in my lottery card, even though I didn't actually quite understand the rules of the game. Unfortunately, I didn't win (as far as I could tell), but I guess that is ok. What would I do with a brand new car here anyway? The half hour live broadcast included several rounds of lottery drawings, a performance by a famous Kazakh musical group, and an official presentation of a million dollars to a woman who won the lotto a few weeks ago.

Kyrgyzstan

This weekend was a holiday weekend here, in celebration of Victory in WWII Day (May 9th). I went to Kyrgyzstan for the long weekend with some local friends. There were 30 of us who went, 25 Kazakhs, 4 Italians who live in Almaty, and me. We stayed up at a camp in the mountains outside of Bishkek (the capital of Kyrgyzstan) that had a dormitory/hotel and a cafeteria.... and electricity most of the time (except midnight til morning) and hot water rarely. But no worries. It was a nice change of pace from city life in Almaty and the mountains and views were beautiful. The trip took about 6 hours each way (or would have without unexpected delays), including the hour it took to cross the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border, which we had to do on foot.

When my friends invited me on the trip, they explained that it was a retreat and that each year they do this annual trip and pick a "theme" for the trip. There turned out to be two themes this year. We played a lot of games and the theme of the games was the movie "I am Legend." The group was divided into 3 groups and were told that there was a virus on the loose, threatening to destroy humanity and we had to develop an antidote. Each game was supposed to be a step towards successfully developing this antidote, culminating in a big scavenger hunt on Sunday morning. We were sent on all sorts of crazy tasks to collect ingredients and supplies and then had to build a fire in an abandoned building and use the ingredients to make a stew-- i.e., the antidote. This was followed by a blind taste test, and the tastiest stew won. You'll be happy to know that my team was named the winners of the competition... no thanks to me! The instructions for the scavenger hunt were given in Russian. By the time I translated the instructions and pieced together what we were supposed to do, the rest of the team had taken off running and I ended up chasing after them trying to catch up. So, for example, we were instructed to gather between 2 and 4 kg of wood for the fire. But I didn't understand the word for "fire wood" so I took off running to gather something... but wasn't sure what! I had to look around and see what the rest of the team was looking for in order to follow along. Or otherwise, I understood the instructions, but didn't believe that I had correctly understood because it didn't make sense. So when we were instructed to tie ourselves together before setting off on the next task, I assumed I had misunderstood-- until I looked down and realized the guy next to me was tying some shoelaces around my wrist to link me to himself!

The second theme of the weekend was reflecting on what it means to be the "main character" in life. In other words, what it means to be yourself instead of being constantly judged by others. There were a few evening activities designed around this theme, including a presentation on an Italian singer whose songs were about such topics.

Overall, the weekend involved games, hiking in the mountains and a lot of group singing. These two activities were often combined, as we would hike into the mountains, play a game, and then someone would pull out a guitar and we would all sit around and sing, and then hike back. At one point on Saturday they suggested that we sing American spirituals in honor of me, as the American in the group. It was a different kind of vacation, but it was a fun time and I met some nice new people.

Various Adventures

It has been a while since I've posted. I have been alternatively busy (with research or otherwise!) or tired for the past couple of weeks. Here are a couple of pictures from some of my various adventures last weekend. On Saturday, I went up to Kok Tobe, which is a cable car that runs from the city center up into the lower foothills that surround the city. There is a park up there to walk around (including a zoo and a restaurant) and some overlooks that provide great views of the city as well as further up into the mountains. Last Sunday was Easter in the Orthodox faith and I attended an Easter service at the St Nicholaus Cathedral. Here are some pictures from outside the cathedral, waiting for the bishop to arrive, as well as inside during the service. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture on film the beautiful music (chanting and hymns) and the smell of incense that filled the sanctuary.