At least today, anyway. And I mean that literally, not figuratively. I'm not like that. :) It has been raining (Hard!) on and off all day today. So I came to the internet cafe in hopes that by the time I'm done it will have stopped raining again. I thought I had brought along my flash drive so I could upload some pics, but I must have left it at home. Sorry. Next time!
So this weekend was pretty cool. After classes on saturday a group of us played ultimate frisbee, which attracted quiate a lot of attention - expecially from the little boys who came to play soccer. It was dirty (they don't have nice grassy parks to play at like in Sandy!) and hot outside, but it was bannya night at my house! So I didn't mind the extra bit of stink.
Sunday was Constitution Day here in Kz. A bunch of us got together to see the parade. I use the term parade loosely. It was groups of people, beggining with military, walking down the street - just one street, maybe 400 meters. After all the military people they had groups of Tukish, Uzbek, Russian and Kazakhs in their native dress, and then it was just groups of workers and teachers and different organizations. After that they had people singing, playing crazy cool instruments and dancing. It was a good cultual experience!
After the parade we went to a cafe for shashleek - kabobs, basically. Pretty good stuff! We then broke off into groups and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Bazaar and town. A pretty good day.
Then monday it was back to classes, training, and studying. Not much else to report there.
Then today... September 1st is always the first day of school, and the school have a Bell Ceremony to celebrate and open the school year. Each of the PC Trainees had to get up at the ceremony and give a short introduction. That's intimidating anytime, but try doing it in another language! We were all a little nervous, but it went well. There are only 5 of us at this school, and another group at another secondary school, and then a college group, so they each went to their own school's bell ceremony. Ours is actually a pivate school, and probably nicer than where I'll be teaching for real once I go to my site. So the rest of the bell ceremony included skits from what I'm guessing are the SBO's, as well as some singing and dancing. I'll post pictures of that next time, too.
So, now you're all up to date! Good times in Kazakhstan. Later!
4 comments:
I'm guessing people don't sleep out all night to get a good spot for that parade. Maybe next year you can introduce the concept of a "float" if you can find a bike or wagon and decorate it!
I'll have to make sure Alyssa has your email or this blog contact - she can talk Frisbee with you. She played Ultimate Frisbee for a league this past spring/summer - and is trying to get onto the University intramural team. Right now is tough though because she's recovering from a dislocated elbow (not from Ultimate) so, she may be a few more weeks from playing again.
I'm guessing Bannya night is not every night then??
Het! Bannya night is definitely not every night. They only turn the water heater on once a week - it's been a different day every week so far. So one real bannya each week, and then I bucket bathe one other time, if possible. It's been too cold this week though, so I went 5 days without bathing. Luckily they had the bannya on on Monday to get clean for the first day of school. But 5 days... with hair as greasy as mine.. scary! My friends say I'm doing a good job of hiding it though. :)
To that I can say braids and ponytails are your best hairdo friends.
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