A Wander Around Town

Lights above the street

Saturday afternoon we had lunch with my co-workers and then everyone went off on their separate ways. Levi and I wandered down the street and I started taking pictures. We found some interesting things!

Lights above the street at night

Tulip shaped water fountain (we missed the water!)

Sign near the water fountain - at least you can still skateboard here lol

I don't have to go far to find some Avon

Random grass stand in the street

Camels chillin' at the Adidas store

This homeless kitty came to eat some lunch with us

Our 'hood in Shymkent

Within our first 48 hours we managed to walk all over our immediate neighborhood and check out the goods. Right in front of our building we have a little restaurant, a cell phone store, a row of stores packed full of shoes, clothing and other accessories, and a bus stop. Every day there are temporary vendors that set up on the sidewalk too. These may be selling underwear, pantyhose, fruit and veg, or anything else they so desire! Even in the alleyway between the buildings there is a small little shack that sells drinks – water, fruit juice, soda, etc.

View of the bus stop from our apartment

View of the bus stop from street level

Behind us is a large indoor/outdoor market that sells everything you can think of. We walked through one day to get a feel of the place and see what they had. The place is like a maze, you can take twists and turns all inside of it, and could probably be there forever based on the size of it all. Levi had a chance to scope out the place in a little more detail while I was at work last week. He picked up some lunch from one vendor, found packing tape at another, and some outlet adapters at another. He said that he walked all over and could see that several vendors even carry the same stuff, so if you can’t bargain for the right price at one, just walk ten feet and bargain with someone else. I hope to go back soon to peruse the goods and buy some cheap stuff.

One of the many market entrances

If we walk two blocks up from our place that is a park called Ken Baba. Inside it are some amusement park rides, fountains, and restaurants. Our first Saturday in Shymkent we ate at a little café with my supervisor and his wife. The menus are all in Russian and the servers hover over you waiting to take your order. So we had to order quickly that first time, but we have since returned and told the waiter we needed some time. Upon the second trip we managed to order some type of sangria fruit concoction (no alcohol) to drink while we translated the menu. They have a wide selection of salads, pasta dishes, shashlik (kabobs), and other meat dishes. Another restaurant within the park has terrible service and we won’t be returning, but while there we did try the national dish – beshbarmak – that consists of slices of meat and onions on a bed of pasta. The beer at these places is amazing and fresh and cold. We quickly found out that the alcohol content is much higher than our beers at home and two beers is more than enough!

Local beer selection

Beshbarmak

Fountain at Ken Baba

Central Park is only a few blocks away too. It’s very shady and cool, so it’s a great place to walk and hang out on hot days (which it has been!). Throughout the park there are paths and park benches, there are also several plays grounds for kids. On one side of the park is a water fountain. The sculpture in the middle doesn’t look like much when the water is off, but once the water is turned on you can see that it’s meant to look like dandelions when they’ve turned fuzzy and white! It sprays the surrounding area a bit and keeps you cool as you walk by. We’ve mostly used this park as a short cut to Mega (the mall), but I would like to return on the weekend and spend some time relaxing.

The dandelion fountain

Central park

Mega is the nice, new, big shopping mall about 1 mile from our place (shorter if we walk through the park). It’s mostly made up of trendy stores that I’m not interested in, but does contain a good grocery store. On the basement floor of the mall is an ice rink and it can be seen from the third floor food court. It looks like the rink is made of plastic and not ice, but we saw a group of kids taking lessons and it looked like fun.

Outside Mega

Bottom floor of Mega, looking up

Top floor of Mega, looking down

Top floor of Mega, looking outside

Across the street from Mega is Tsum. This used to be the big shopping market before Mega was built, but still contains small shops packed in back-to-back. We’ve only managed to tackle one-third of the first floor (we found a decent deal on cell phones at one shop and that was it so far), so hopefully we can go back soon and check out the rest.

Tsum

 Last night we were looking at a city map of the Shymkent. There are several other large parks throughout the city that we’d like to check out and there is a zoo! At the end of October we have a short fall break from school, so this will give me some time to explore with Levi without the rush of the weekend.

Passport Woes

It took us a long time to get to Kazakhstan – approximately 9 weeks from the time I accepted the position to actually arriving in Shymkent. I knew the process would be a bit long, but I expected about a month. We’ve been in KZ for 13 days and so far it’s been great. By talking with my co-workers it sounds like we have a great apartment, our taxi driver is on time and consistent everyday, and we’re starting to get used to shopping and the culture. So, yesterday took me quite by surprise.

At 4 pm my supervisor came into the teacher work room and wrangled 3 of us up for a meeting with the principal. We joked a bit and said, “uh-oh, we’re in trouble, haha.” We each failed to notice that our supervisor did not join in the joke. Down the hallway we went and into the principal’s office area where the secretary ushered in. We grouped ourselves in chairs already set up for us around the desk. The principal started off with, “I’m sorry to gather you here under these circumstances…” and while the translator relayed this first message we sat in stunned silence. I was thinking, “I haven’t even been here long enough to get fired from this job! What could I have done already?!?!?!” But the principal continued, “we are sorry to report that we’ve lost your passports.” More stunned silence from the group around the table. I was speechless, wondering what else could go wrong with this job.

Apparently, the VP of International Relations, whom we had given our passports to last Wednesday, failed to return them to us at the Teacher’s Day party last Friday. He took all 3 passports to immigration and was to return them to us when they were complete. Mr. VP drank WAY too much at the Teacher’s Day party. When my supervisor saw that he had the passports he told him to come straight to our table and deliver them. Well, he came to the table and took a toast with Levi and then walked away. The story goes that he ended up in the hospital for the next few days. When he emerged on Tuesday this week the passports were missing. People have been back to the restaurant to ask about them, “Wanted” posters have been posted offering money for their return, etc., but to no avail. The school staff has high hopes that they will be returned, but it’s been almost a week and I’m highly doubtful of that.

Our supervisor was kind enough to look up the information for our embassies online and hand that over so we can start the process of renewal. There is a U.S. Embassy in Astana and a Consulate in Almaty. I have to apply in person for a passport renewal but I have to have a passport to fly. At first this meant 40 hours in a car or bus to drive to Astana (I’ll admit at this point I really started to panic!); thankfully we quickly found out that I can be issued a letter and then I can fly (panic abated).

So, now I’m making all the necessary arrangements for obtaining the new papers. I can only make an appointment with the embassy in Astana on a Tuesday or Thursday between 2 and 4 pm, so I can’t rush around too much; as usual I just have to wait.

School Smool

           

School, for local teachers and students, is Monday through Saturday, 8:30 am to 3:55 pm. Fortunately for me, the international teachers only have to work Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (sometimes until 6). The local teachers also stay later throughout the week for IELTS (English language) training, professional development, extra curricular activities with students, or other various activities with the school. Students also stay late for extra curriculars, IELTS (just 11^th graders), or other activities. 120 of the 500 students actually live at the boarding school attached to the back of the building.

           The Nazarbayev Intellectual School system was created to help support gifted and talented students. Each student is expected to attend university when they graduate – either at home or abroad. Their schooling is paid for as long as they commit to working in Kazkhstan for 5 years after to the earning their degree. All of the students in our school are from the surrounding province known as Southern Kazkhstan and because some students do not live close by there is boarding school provided. Every student is given a FREE breakfast and lunch everyday (even non-boarding school students). The cafeteria is also open between meals so students can pick up some water or a snack in between classes.

            My morning starts off with a taxi ride at 7:30 am to the school, I ride with just one of my co-workers now, but we suspect that as new teachers arrive we may have company. Monday mornings at 8 am, the students assemble in the front courtyard for the national anthem and announcements. Tuesday through Friday the 11^th grade students report to the auditorium at 8 am for English debates (meant to prepare them for IELTS and it helps to make them globally aware of hot topics throughout the world).

Game tables in the hallway.

            Throughout the school day I visit teachers in their classrooms to observe or help teach a class. Since this is just the beginning of my second week I have only been observing. My hope is that this week I’ll get to do some teaching! Right now I’m mainly working with 11^th grade students (as this is the nation-wide focus right now). There are 3 of us international math teachers, and I’m still unsure as to how many local 11^th grade math teachers there are, but if I had to guess I’d say around 5. 11^th graders take math 6 class periods a week and they are in the midst of learning basic calculus. The past few years I’ve been accustomed to teaching middle school math, so I have to brush up on my calculus!

            Right now I’m working in a general teacher’s workroom, but we are hoping for a math workroom soon. It would be nice to be in the same area as math teachers to interact with them more frequently.

           

Between 11:55 am and 12:15 pm, the students have flash mob. The dance teachers have choreographed a 15 minute dance to a mash-up of songs. The students assemble in the court yard (each one standing on a blue dot painted on the ground) and follow along to the dance. I’m a little curious as to how this is going to look when the weather turns too cold to go outside, but for right now I think it’s a great way to break up the school day for students.

            I have been eating my lunch at school everyday. It has never cost me more than $3.50 for a full meal of starches, meat, and sometimes a salad of cucumber and tomatoes or coleslaw, plus a bottle of water. In the morning, if I forget to bring my own water, I will go and pick one up at the cafeteria for $0.50. Last Friday, 4 October, I sat with a co-worker from Malaysia and a local teacher who spoke English very well. We were discussing the price of lunch and they both agreed that lunch is expensive here. I’m concerned about what they are paying the teachers here if that is expensive L My husband and I were discussing how $3.50 is about half or a third of what we were paying for lunch in the US everyday. My one concern with the food at the cafeteria is that it might get old, as in, they pretty much make the same thing everyday. Although there are choices, sometimes potatoes and rice, other times rice and noodles; meatballs or meatloaf lasagna (well, that’s what I’m calling it anyway); there may be two starch choices and then three meat choices, but they don’t seem to vary as to what they are. As I get more comfortable with cooking and buying food at the market, I’ll probably start to vary my lunches a bit.

The Canteen (cafeteria!)

            The classrooms in the building look just like ours in the States – rows of desks, with a teacher desk and whiteboard at the front of the room. The teachers do not have posters up on the walls, but do have one display type of bookshelf that have 3D shapes and a few books on them. Each classroom has a Promethean board. My fellow teachers will know what that is, but in short, it’s a smart board. Teachers can display presentations on it, use it as a whiteboard, or have students write with special markers directly on the presentation or blank Word Doc to be saved for later. I’m sure there are other uses, but I have yet to discover those for myself and it seems the teachers here do too.

 The classes are set for 40 minutes, but the 11^th grade math students sit for back-to-back periods making their math class 80 minutes long. I’ve found that many of the local teachers do not know how to fill the time and therefore tend to give 20 minute tests during the last part of the class. Also, the classes are very teacher-centered, so it is a long, hard task of encouraging more student-centered learning.

Sponsors to the NIS program.

            I’ve been asked several times why Americans were chosen for assisting in improving schools in various countries. I guess it never occurred to us that our schools are doing a good job. The teachers spend 10 hours a day (sometimes more) grading, planning, participating in extra curricular activities, mentoring students, going back to school themselves, etc. etc. and all that work really is paying off. Our students are smart, our classrooms are full but we are managing to relay an education to them. There are always improvements to be made and when we start comparing ourselves to countries that track their students, then of course it looks like we are not doing a good job, those countries send test results for students that have been specially selected to go onto college. Every system is flawed and that is why I have my job today. I think the rest of the world can look up to Western education in general (Western including Australia, UK, New Zealand, Canada, the US, etc.) because we do strive to give our students the best and we never stop!

Mural on the second floor near the math and physics department.

Kazakhstan's constitution and a bust of President Nazarbayev.

Finally Arriving In Kazakhstan

We finally arrived in Kazakhstan on Thursday September 26^th around 1:20 am. There was supposed to be a 5 hour layover and then our last flight into Shymkent. We hung around the airport with all our luggage and boxes (we paid extra to take everything with us on the plane), we tried out some local hamburgers (loaded with cucumbers, mayonnaise, and ketchup), and were able to walk the dog a bit (yes, she went with us on the plane!). At 6 am we sauntered up to the check-in counter to get ready for our flight. Well, the attendant couldn’t find our reservation and sent us to another desk. Come to find out, Lufthansa, the airline we took from Denver to Frankfurt to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and inadvertently cancelled our flight to Shymkent.

On Monday September 23^rd we showed up to the Denver airport ready to go, only to find our flight 5 hours delayed. We stood in line for over 2 hours just for them to tell us that because of our connections we couldn’t fly out until the next day (September 24^th). When Lufthansa re-scheduled their flights they neglected to re-schedule our last flight between Almaty and Shymkent with Air Astana airline. Once we arrived in Almaty this caused a huge issue because the airline was unable to fix it all. Originally, we booked our flights with a travel agent, so Air Astana was unable to see our reservation and to us on a new flight. It was 7 am in Almaty, meaning that it was 7 pm at home where our travel agent was located. Our electronics were running low on power (we used some of them during the flight and others were just low after 30 hours of not being charged), but I was able to jump onto my computer and attempt contact with people. We sent out an email to the travel agent and attempted to contact anyone at home by starting a Google Hangout (Droid/Google phone should have the Hangout app automatically uploaded and logged in), but we didn’t hear back from anyone within enough time before the battery died. We figured we were in for a stay and decided to find a hotel room – mostly to re-charge the electronics – but to also get some sleep.

In our haze of sleepiness, weariness, and frustration we paid $100 for a cab ride. Once we realized our mistake we were kicking ourselves. How stupid could we be? It was too late to fix it and at least we were in a bed and our computers were charging with access to the internet. All three of us, dog included, crashed out on the bed for several hours, waking only to check for emails from the travel agent. 15 hours after the ordeal began we finally had new tickets to get to Shymkent! We could rest easy and get some food in our stomachs (oh yeah, we forgot to eat!). Our new flight would leave 27^th September at 3 pm. We had to check out of the hotel at 8:30 am (that was 24 hours after check-in), so we packed all our things and waited for a taxi (ooopps! Should have told them 2 taxis for our 4 boxes, 4 suitcases, 1 dog, and several carryons). The taxi driver waited with us for another taxi to arrive – an hour and a half later we had a second taxi! All loaded up, we headed for the airport – this time we paid a reasonable amount (and tipped the guy for waiting so long) [side note: tipping is NOT expected here].

This is a picture out front of our hotel - The Royal Palace - facing towards the mountains that are difficult to see through the haze of smog. In Kazakhstan they use tenge for money (153 tenge equal $1), but I'm not sure how much gas you get for the amount shown on that display.

3 hours waiting at the airport, finally we were able to get on the flight! Our dog, Lulu, did not like this plane for some reason (she flew on 2 planes to get there and hardly made a peep), but she continued to whine on this one. We were lucky enough to have a seat free between us, so we put here there, still in her carrier, so she could see and smell us. A short hour later we were on the ground in Shymkent. If it’s this much of an adventure to get, how much of an adventure will have?!?!? Bring it on!

New Adventures - Onward and Upward!

I recently accepted a position as a high school teacher in Kazakhstan. It has been a long road of interviews and paperwork, and we're still waiting for our visas, but we are excited to go!

We don't know a lot about Kazakhstan and so picked up a few books to help us out. I'm currently reading Apples are from Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins. Although I'm only a few chapters in I've already learned about how diverse the country is and how accepting they'll be of us. Also, apples have deep roots in KZ, so there better be some tasty dishes to try! 

My husband is reading Kazakhstan, 2nd (Brandt Travel Guide) by Paul Brummell. He skips around to find the information he's wondering about so he keeps me informed of what he learns. We've learned, first hand and from the book, about the difficult and long visa process. I'm trying to learn some patience.

We'll be living in the southern city of Shymkent. It's the third largest city in the country and is difficult to find information on. The climate is similar to our current city of Denver, Colorado, which is a relief as the northern cities can get VERY cold. We'll see some negatives in the winter, but nothing we haven't seen before. There are mountains close by so there's lots of exploring to be had. Tulips are an abundant flower in the country, and it's been said that they shared with the Dutch!

Once we finally arrive we'll be sure to keep up on the blog and let you know about the adventures. Until then, we're waiting patiently....

TX Road Trip Days 7,8,9 - On the Road Home

Friday morning it was time to pack up and leave San Antonio. It was slow going for us and the we checked out about an hour late! But once we were on the road we were able to make good time.

Heading west towards Odessa there was not a lot of traffic and at one point the speed limit went up to 80 mph. I had downloaded some 'discussion' questions, so Thckblckglasses and I sat in the front talking, while my mom slept in the back. I was so engrossed with our discussion I didn't notice that TBG was pushing the speed limit a bit far and soon there were flashing lights behind us. He quickly pulled over and the police officer approached us. TBG had been going only 8 mph over the speed limit - not a big deal, right? Well, not so much. In Texas, going 10% or more over the speed limit is worthy of a ticket, 80 mph speed limit @ 88 mph actual speed = 10% above the limit = speeding ticket! D'oh

It's not a road trip without adventure, and if you've never been pulled over in Texas you've never had an adventure. hahaha Ok we weren't laughing then, but looking back it's all part of being on vacation.

West Texas

Our arrival in Odessa was met by only 1 family member - unfortunately, everyone else had traveled to Dallas for a funeral or gone to the lake for the 3-day weekend. Cousin Karyn was more than happy to meet up with us for an early dinner. She took us to a local place called Casa Ole and we sat and let Karyn chat us up. Awesome Texas accent, along with non-stop story telling equaled a great time (and now we're caught up on all the family going-ons).

We decided to stop in Lubbock, TX for the night, only a 2 hour drive from Odessa. To be safe we made reservations and headed out of town. An uneventful evening, but a well-deserved sleep in and free breakfast allowed us a great Saturday drive. Only 5 hours to Trinidad, CO to spend the evening and Easter holiday with TBG's mother.

Phone in the bathroom of our hotel room.

Texas waffles!

I slept for the last 2 hours of the trip so that's boring! We were finally able to meet up with our pug, Lulu, as she had spent the week with TBG's mom. She was running around like crazy and so happy to see us (how do you explain to a dog that you'll be back? She was so confused for the first few days after we left!).

Easter brunch in the morning on Sunday and a short 3 hour drive home. Thinking back to what we had endured that first day in order to get to Trinidad and here we were cruising up the highway - snow free - on our way back home.

It was an amazing trip, but I think we're all glad to be home!