late october

Pics: My co-teacher during training and our 8th grade class – mostly Russian kids.

I recently saw a talent show at a nearby school and it was great. Multiple acts were simply teenage girls doing unrehearsed, naughty dances to rap music to a crowd of silenced teachers and roaring children. Before the judges voted, they were pursued by the performers with baskets of fruit and fried bread, perhaps to win them over. Among the other sections of the show were a breakdance routine by 10 boys (who did flips off the stage) and a ballroom dance routine by 8 couples to “Only Hope” by Mandy Moore from A Walk to Remember. Magical.

I met one of my co-teachers. She's a lovely woman that's close to my age. We're basically going to be best friends because she loves horror movies and likes to dance. Me and some friends spent the night in Almaty recently and it was a beautiful disaster as usual. We rented an apartment for a night, got the key from an office and walked 20 minutes in the rain to the room. I broke the key in the keyhole (it got stuck), so we had to return to the office where the receptionist luckily gave as another room (which was in a completely different part of town). We walked 20 minutes there and after putting our stuff in the room, I accidentally locked the door without the passcode to the door. So we had to yell for help to second-floor tenants and after 10 minutes of this a stranger finally yelled out the code. I was a complete screw-up. Twice. We went to a restaurant after and a Russian woman said, in English, “Shut Up” because we were excitedly talking. Later a Kazakh businessman sat with us to practice his English. He cracked up when I said a Kazakh word (as many people do) and knew more about American agriculture and demographics than most Americans. He asked if we were protestant missionaries, in which we emphatically told him we're just teachers.

early october

Pic: My new coat...
I finally had my first professional haircut ever in my life. It was $4, slightly choppy, but solid. I do miss the hands of Sheri, however. At English Club last week, me and Sam had a mini dance workshop and choreographed something hideous for 20 kids, based on recycled moves from our teenage performances. The kids had fun, though some of my dance move ideas were rejected for reasons I'm not willing to admit. This past weekend me and a few peers had to sing a Kazakh love lullaby in front of all the teachers for Teacher's Day. It wasn't a complete disaster until everyone chose to follow up the song with an English church hymn. I went to a classical kazakh orchestra recently and it was very cool. There was an opera singer (who secretly picked at her nose on stage), lots of dombra action, and a jaw harp soloist. I find out my permanent site on the 9th! I'm hoping to get to be in the south, near a city, in a Kazakh speaking community, next to a bud or two. I'm logging this in my blog so I can have a good laugh and cry when my placement is the exact opposite.

On Halloween I will be taking a 42 hour train ride to Karagalinsk (I think the Kazakh version is Kargala), my new hometown. It may or may not mean “cow-ish”. It's 40 minutes outside Aktobe, a pretty big city in the northwest of Kazakhstan. I'm 40 hours from my best friend (and many others), in a very cold region (usually 25 below in the winter), in a small village of only 8,000, just 150 kilometers from the Russian border. I'll be teaching elementary and middle schoolers. Everything discussed so far is the the exact opposite of what I expressed interest in. Nonetheless, it could be fun. I'll be meeting my main co-teacher in a week. If she's pretty cool, I'll have some renewed enthusiasm.

After shopping with Sam yesterday (I bought a heavy duty winter coat), I was dehydrated and tired and had to stand for a long time on a super cramped bus. So...I blacked out on the bus. I had glazed eyes and swayed into a woman and couldn't respond when Sam spoke to me. The bus stopped for me and let me clumsily get off without paying (after someone unsuccessfully tried getting a granny to give her seat up for me). After recovering immediately with some fresh air and water, I realized it was actually pretty funny. I'll take better care of myself in the future.