Shanhai Bazaar

Saturday, 23 April

There are two large bazaars located a bit outside the city. I'd been to the one called Central 3 or 4 times by now, but never to the one that's a bit further away, called Shanhai or something.

Buses 36 and 43 can take us there; we hopped on Bus 36 and waited quite some time as we slowly passed through part of the city, past one busy section full of shopping centers and smaller markets, across the long bridge after which you find yourself effectively out of the city, and a few stops more to Central Bazaar.

One or two more stops later there appeared on our right another bazaar, and everyone got off the bus. This must be our stop!

It was early afternoon, chilly yet sunny, and luckily the bazaar was not crowded. Sophia and I wandered around, and I found that visiting a bazaar is not stressful if you're not intent on buying something in particular. The bazaars are huge, with hundreds, maybe thousands, of stands, and while you can find a bargain in the bazaar, it can take a whole day of searching to find one. So going just to look and see was a pleasant enough experience.

I found a cheap pair of tennis shoes, pretending to be the Puma brand, and I bought those for $10, not even bothering to bargain, the price was low enough. We went to an indoor place with bathroom and bedroom stuff, and I searched amongst the pillows for a soft pillow. How could I explain to the lady working there that I did not want a "nice" pillow, because all the nice pillows are firm? I finally found two cheap, soft pillows, less than $10 for both--and again, I did not bother to bargain.

We wandered some more, looking for a purse for Sophia. She had had a nice "purse" (a handbag or something that would be appropriate on a guy, so not sure the exact name for it), that she had lost a month ago. It had been good quality and we'd got it for only $10, but we couldn't find anything of similar quality and price today.

She looked at toys, and one thing I've noticed about bazaars is that the toys are always crummily cheap.

We found a candy store, selling candy by the kilo, and Sophia recognized some chocolates that she liked. 700 Tenge for a kilo sounded expensive, but I ended up getting half a kilo--which was a ton of candy! For only a bit more than $2, so that was a good deal after all.

Then we saw bikes. I've been wanting to get her a bike for some time now; we looked a lot last year, but spending over 100 bucks on something makes me wary; yet I know that bikes cost more than that!

This year we looked again, and bikes were even more expensive than last year. And Sophia's at an awkward stage, too big for a little kids' bike, too small for a teen bike; and she's still very awkward at riding, she still needs to practice.

So we tried a bike--too big--and then another one--good size and blue, too! (She doesn't like pink.) It didn't have gears, as a lot of bikes do, and I figure that's okay since she's still learning, plus gears are probably more expensive. The guy selling the bike saw how much she wobbled while testing it, so he offered to put on training wheels--2000 Tenge. I said okay. I'd really been hoping she wouldn't need training wheels, but I guess she does.

In the end, the grand total for her bike was 13000 Tenge -- that's just under $90.

Now--how to get this bike home? Home was rather far away, and there are no nice bike lanes on the busy road back into the city. And the wind was fierce.

So I decided to see if we could get it onto the bus.

The bus attendant said something to us when we got on; in fact, she said a lot. But she never said anything resembling, "Get off my bus!" or anything that I could understand. She never made any "Get off my bus!" gestures, so I figured, if she didn't force us off the bus, we'd stay on. She charged me 40 extra Tenge for the bike.

I felt bad as we went further into the city and the bus got really crowded. I avoided eye contact with the attendant, who at one point spoke to me again. Not sure what she said, but after several guesses on google translate, it looks like she might have said, "это выжает" which means something like "It's a squeeze." So maybe she was unhappy, but I wasn't breaking any rules (maybe?)

She helped us get the bike off the bus when we finally made it to our stop.

Sophia biked part of the home, and then after dinner she biked in front of our apartment.

We're on the first floor, and right out the door is a large play area, consisting of a small playground and a large concrete area, akin to a parking lot--but no cars allowed. Perfect for a kid to practice bike riding on.

Beach Day!

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Beach Day was hilarious, because everyone dressed in beach clothes. Most teachers just wore shorts and t-shirts, as well as flip-flops and sunhats if they had them. A lot of kids wore bathing suits. The weather was sunny and above freezing, but still cold enough to wear plenty of clothes over the bathing suits.

I had recess duty, and I wish I'd had my camera with me! The kids were running around, playing, some in full winter gear--snow boots, winter coats, hats. (Ok, not "winter" by Astana-winter, but definitely more than most people in South Carolina wear in the winter!)

And some girls had taken off their shirts and were running around in shorts, bathing suits, and snow boots! Yes, bathing suits and snow boots! What a sight!

Crazy Hair Day & New Students

Monday, 4th April 2011

This week was our school's Spirit Week, and each day had a crazy theme. Monday was Crazy Hair Day, so most of the teachers and students did their hair in a crazy way. My hair is short and straight, so I just made about 6 pigtails, the top one stood up straight and bounced around. I definitely looked crazy.

This being an international school with many students from embassies, and embassies not following a school-year calendar when they bring in new staff, we can get new students at any time of the year. Including in April. So last Friday, a Korean man with almost no English walked into the principal's office and said something akin to, "Me, children, 2, no English, Monday," which meant--"I have two children who speak no English and will start school here on Monday."

So on Friday afternoon I was informed that starting Monday, I would have two new students in my Intensive English class.

My aide hypothesized that they can't possibly have worse English than my lowest group, three 6-year old's who all arrived at the school within the past few months, with extremely limited English at the time. Except now they are all reading (very simple books, but still) and can speak in complete sentences. How fast these children progress!

So, Monday morning, I arrived at 8 am with incredibly wacky hair, and promptly met the mother and father and two children, none of whom spoke English as well as I speak Russian (which is to say, rather poorly if at all!)

The boys are 6 and 8 years old, with names that are impossibly difficult to pronounce--for me, at least. I think Korean is the hardest language for me, pronunciation-wise.

The boys recognize most of the letters of the alphabet and can count in sequence to 20, but that's it. Ask them, "What is your name?" and if they are paying attention, they'll repeat back, "Whatisyourname."

I have them during the first 2 periods--for English class--as well as after Math, during the Cultural Studies/Science time.

During Math class on Monday, we had a fire drill, and although the weather is nicer, it's still a bit cold. These boys must certainly think we are crazy! Everyone with funky hair and then everyone forced to go outside in the cold during the day, standing in line outside for 5 minutes, for no apparent reason.

At lunch, I tried to get a sweet 7-year old Korean girl to talk to one of the boys, but she was way too shy. So I found the high school teacher who is Korean-American, and he helped the boy figure out lunch.

He told me, that once the boys were seated and eating, and they thought he had gone away, one boy said to the other, "What are we doing in this place?" Poor kids.

Luckily, most of the other students are nice to them, as most of the students know exactly what it feels like to be in a strange place where they don't know the language. The 6-year old's tend to laugh at and mimic Korean, but they also get along with their new classmate, since 6-year old's tend to be silly, and silliness needs no language. We're trying to explain to K--a Russian boy in the 8-year-old class who arrived with no English and who spent the first month being utterly lost--that he needs to go out of his way to help his new classmate. It took a week, but he's finally learned to look for this boy, grab his hand, and show him the way.

And the boys are progressing. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out--I realized that I've never worked with students whom I have absolutely no method of communicating with; usually I or someone nearby speaks their language. (The Korean-American teacher is in another building and I never see him, except for sometimes at lunch.) But they now know a few core vocabulary words (still confuse "folder" with "bathroom"!) and can answer the questions "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" and "How old are you?"

I know that by the end of the year they'll be doing nicely, and perhaps by then they'll understand just why everyone was acting so strange their first week. (Crazy Hair Day on Monday, Twin Day on Tuesday, Pajama Day on Wednesday, Beach Day on Thursday, and Alien Day on Friday.)

A Walk in the Park

Saturday, 2 April

The morning snow did not leave too much of a mess, the sky cleared and the sun shone brightly, so at about 4 pm Sophia and I set out on a walk. I decided to try and walk the roughly 3 km to Eagilik, the English-language library that I call the "American library."

Between Mega (the mall we are next to) and the river, there is a vast park, that I hadn't given much thought to due to the fact that, obviously, buses and cars go around it, so I'd never really seen it. During spring break was my first day there, when we crossed the bridge and Sophia went ice-skating on the river, after eating at the French cafe.

So I decided we'd walk through there.

We ended up spending 2 hours on our walk, mostly just ambling through the immense park, not even seeing all of it. There is an amusement park there, which looks just as abandoned as can be, although maybe it just looks that way due to the harsh winter. Rides looked old, gates were open so people could even go up to the rides and sit in the seats, glass on a kiosk was smashed. Mud was everywhere. But again, winter just finished, and who would try to upkeep an amusement park during the kind of winter that Astana gets? Maybe it'll be fixed and running by summer time.

We weren't the only ones in the park, several people and groups of people were wandering around. We had fun going up to the rickety roller coaster, we could have walked on the tracks if we'd wanted to. There were kid-friendly rides, including a safe-and-slow-looking mini roller coaster called the "Worm." And lots of kiosks for ice cream and such.

It was a very pleasant walk, and should be even more fun in the summer time.

Then we tried to get to the pedestrian bridge by walking on a path next to the river, but soon we
were cut off by a barbed wire fence. I didn't want to turn around, so we stepped onto the river. Yes, on 2nd April we walked on the river! It looked messy--very, very slushy--but most of that was melted snow, not melted ice. I saw a few other people on the river, and it seemed like the ice was still very thick, but in the end I panicked and we turned back. I don't know enough about frozen rivers to know how safe we were.

We made it to the pedestrian bridge, and we saw plenty of ice-fishermen, relaxing on the river. So I guess the ice is still okay?

Across the bridge there was a cool playground, with all the equipment based on gym-type equipment. A woman with her 12-year old daughter became very interested in me, although she
didn't speak any English. She managed to communicate to me, however, that she has another daughter at a university in Rochester, New York.

Finally, I was cold, and we made it to a bus stop--we had only 3 bus stops before the library, but we were ready to ride the bus!

It was a good day and a great walk. Looking forward now to Astana in the summer!


Photos: At the top, the entrance to the Park from the bus stop on Sary Arka Street, as well as a view of the ferris wheel with some funky buildings in the background. (Those buildings are on the other side of the river, and next to the cool playground we found.)

At the bottom, a man ice fishing. The box helps protect him from the wind. Some men were fishing from inside small tents, some were just out in the open.

Spring Snow

I know this is my second year in Astana, but I have spent most of my life in the American South, and yesterday was such a warm, pretty, sunny day (above freezing!), so I was quite surprised when I woke up today and looked out the window and saw snow.

Snow!

Yes, indeed, snow on the 2nd of April. Lots of beautiful, white snow flurries. Hurriedly rushing to the streets where they will gather and stay for a few moments or hours before they melt, refreeze, and melt again, ensuring that our streets and sidewalks stay slushy and slippery and brown-ish-gray.

It will be a while before spring as I see it in my mind (flowers!) appears.