Getting Around

I've been meaning to post this for months. It took me a really long time to figure out my way around Almaty. It wasn't hard to get my bearings. The city is at the base of mountains and from almost anywhere in the city you can look up, check where the mountains are, and know what direction you're headed in. Nope, the problem was that there are no street signs! Or at least, not many.

To be fair, some intersections are marked with street signs-- maybe 25% of them. (See the top picture.) However, the signs often mark not just this intersection, but also what street is coming up next. Unless you already know, it can be hard to figure out which street you're actually on. Moreover, these signs are written in both Kazakh (on top) and Russian (bottom). So if there are signs around, the problem is that there is too much information!

Many intersections have no signs at all. (See middle picture.) In this case, you have to either keep walking to the next intersection, which might not have a sign, or poke around the buildings nearby. Sometimes they're labeled with the full address (see bottom picture) and sometimes not. All this can leave you wandering in circles for hours trying to figure out where you are, whether it's where you're supposed to be, and (if not) how you might get where you're supposed to be.

This is all complicated by the fact that many of the street names were changed after the fall of the Soviet Union to be more Kazakh and less Soviet. So Astronaut/Kosmonot Street became Baytursinova, Soviet Street became Kazybek Bi, October Street became Tole Bi, etc. And in case you haven't guessed, most of the streets sound the same to the untrained ear. How many times did I end up wandering around Kabanbay Batyr Street when I was supposed to be on Karasay Batyr or Bogenbay Batyr or.... you get the picture.

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.

National Library

I am now the proud owner of a Kazakh library card! On Friday I went to the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan to see if they had any useful material for my research and to figure out how things work. I have never seen such inefficiency. First, I went to get my library card. The woman at the registration desk took issue with the fact that I had a US passport and that it was written in English. (Her: "Why is this passport not in Russian?" Me: "Because it is an American passport." Her: "Why do you have an American passport." Me: "Because I'm American." Her: Deeply skeptical look in my direction.) I also knew that you needed two passport-sized photos of yourself, but had heard that they could take those photos there at the desk. The woman refused to do that, saying only Almaty residents can have their pictures taken there, and sent me down the street to get it done. Phew, that process in itself took about an hour.

Then I got to the fun part of figuring out how to find and check out books. Kazakhstan has the closed stacks system, so there is no option of browsing through books on the shelf. First, you have to go through metal detectors and get a slip of paper from the security guard. This slip of paper must be signed and stamped by a librarian before you can leave the library, supposedly guaranteeing that you haven't any stolen books. Then you have to *buy* slips of paper (at 1 tenge, or less than a penny, per slip) to order books. Once you find the book you want in the card catalogue, you have to fill out these slips (one slip per book) with the appropriate information and give them to the librarian, who goes and finds the books for you. For no apparent reason, you have to write the book's information twice on the same slip of paper and you have to wait at least an hour for them to return with your books. Once you get the books, you aren't allowed to take them out of the library, but you can either read them there or photocopy them. Naturally, you aren't allowed to do the photocopying yourself. You have to pay for the librarians to do the copying for you, and there are only two librarians that do copying. Are you confused yet? I was.

After figuring this all out, I was so exhausted that I didn't actually get any research done. I had to come home and take a nap.

Snow

Today is April 17th and it snowed almost all day. Ooof. It is weird seeing snow accumulating on green leaves and spring flowers. Suddenly, I'm not so excited that the city turned off everyone's heat, and I'm regretting my decision to leave all my warm winter clothes at home last week. I could really go for a pair of mittens and my warm hat right about now...

Back in the USSR

I have been absent from blog-land for the past couple weeks. (I was going to say that I have been "conspicuously absent" but that is probably an overstatement.) As most of you probably know, my dad passed away two weeks ago and I went back to the U.S. to be with my family for a little while. I don't really feel like talking about the terrible-ness of the past two weeks. Suffice it to say, yadda yadda yadda, I'm back in Almaty now. I'll continue to update the blog periodically with insights and adventures from Kazakhstan as they come... though I sadly think I have lost the blog's biggest fan.

There have been a few improvements here while I was gone. First, Almaty is in bloom! All of the leaves have come out on the trees, the grass is green, and flowers are popping up. All of this green stuff makes the city a lot prettier, and is going a long way towards covering up the dirt and pollution. In a recent study, Almaty was rated the world's 9th dirtiest city... right behind Baghdad. Second, they finally have turned off the heat in the apartment buildings! Heat here is centrally controlled (I have no idea by whom) and there is no way to adjust the heat up or down inside your single apartment. Before I left two weeks ago, the outside temperatures were in the 70s every day and they were still pumping heat into all of the apartments. It was stuffy, to say the least. They have now turned off the heat and things are more comfortable, although the weather forecast for Friday is snow and highs in the 30s.