Friends

Four out of five present. We miss Gina!

At the pond at the old square

Atakent

A picnic and a game of Fluxx in Atakent

Nauryz in the old square

On Sunday we visited the old square for the Nauryz celebrations there

ice cream

plov

two girls who wanted their picture taken

Nauryz kutty bolsyn (Happy Nauryz)

The band that played a medley of Abba songs :D

Off to the side of the building we found more performances. Lots of kids

I thought this girl was really pretty

:) and the horses... there were about six or so horses that were led around the park, for rides.

This horse was the prettiest. It looked like it had at least some spanish influence and it was spunky.

Nauryz at Kaim's village

One of our students invited us to visit his village for their Nauryz celebration on Saturday. We went and actually attended three different celebrations. The first was the Kazakh one.

This is Kaim

Lots of dancing

This spunky old granny enjoyed the dancing just as much as everyone else

The long table laden with goodies

There were salads, veggies, nuts, raisins, baursak, leposhka, crackers...

Dishing up the traditional "drink" of Nauryz Kuzhe. It consists of seven ingredients, but each cook can decide for themselves which seven they put in. Most commonly they include milk, meat, rice, salt and other stuff. Ours had the four ingredients mentioned, plus peas, noodles and probably salt. It wasn't actually too bad...

Biz Barmak: noodles with lots of meat. A very Kazakh food. They took hunks of meat and cut off chunks for each of us foreigners first, as an honor. Of course most of us were vegetarians :D but Rebekah and I tasted it. Not too bad either. As we were leaving they scooped up a "doggie bag" of everything and included a huge hunk of meat still attached to the bone. We smiled and said thank you :D It ended up in Tatiana and Lilya's fridge...

Rebekah with some baursak

The four of us with the granny

Burnie was our spokesperson at each of the celebrations

More dances on the Uyghyr side

The third feast, inside a yurt

Us and a few extras

The yurt

The school yard with the mountains in the background

Our supper of leposhka pizza after church that evening

Kaim's mother gave both Rebekah and I headscarves :)

Pretty money

Once upon a spring morning

Our blue stairwell

Our friend that lives down on the corner

Our yummy lunch of sushi and lagman with stirfry

Takatalvi

Last week winter decided to make another appearance (for a day). On Thursday it snowed and sleeted and slushed all day. The following morning we woke up to sunshine and blue skies and a winter wonderland. By Saturday the snow was mostly gone.
Spring is here :)

Home

My view every morning

This is our kitchen. Three people fit around the table, so we don't all eat at the same time. Rebekah and I have a fridge on the balcony and we keep most of our food either in or on it.
The stove uses gas (that took a little getting used to) and some burners work better than others.

This is Rebekah's room, which used to be the living room. She sleeps on the couch.

Our shower. It shares the faucet with the sink, you just have to pull it over. The white blotch in the lower right corner is the washing machine.
We always have hot water, which is very nice.

Our scandalous tiles in the WC.

My room. Please excuse the mess.

and my dear window :)

Time flies

I've been here for two and a half months already. And it seems like I just came yesterday. I suppose a lot has happened in that time, but it all happens fast.
This weekend is Nauryz, celebrating a New Year and spring. The weather outside doesn't look very springy though. Just last Sunday we were hiking in the mountains, sweating in +24 degree weather, even yesterday we didn't wear coats to work, since it was so warm. Today winter decided to make a desperate last stand though. It's been sleeting all day, and everything is covered in a wet blanket of white stuff. Rebekah and I decided to go explore town this morning and got to spend a few hours walking through the wet stuff.. Fun? We took a trolleybus to Mega and discovered that it wouldn't open until 10. So instead of waiting there for an hour and 15 minutes, we decided to take a hike. After a good kilometer, maybe kilometer and a half, we finally hit Timir..something..eva street and hopped on a bus for Atakent. It was only a few streets over, so next time we'll walk. But at least now we know a little bit more of our surroundings.
At the Atakent Ramstore we admired all the food-stuff they sell, then got some flour, yeast and oil to make baursaki with. Baursaki are mandazis, for those who have spent time in Kenya, and for those who haven't, they're like fried balls of dough :D They're especially good with Nutella! I promised my class last night that I would try to make some for our next class on Monday, since they seem to eat a lot of those aroud Nauryz.

I can't believe it's almost April. At this rate I'll be home soon. I don't know how soon, though..

Rebekah and I have been reading Three Cups of Tea every night for a week now. It's a well-written book and we've really enjoyed it thus far. It's really gotten me even more interested in the Karakoram mountains. Ojala! that I could visit there someday.

Today is the end of the end of this week's classes. We teach each class twice a week, either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, so today is the last day of classes. Yay..

I'm hoping to get some pictures taken this weekend of all the festivities. I'll put them up someday... ...maybe...

Happy spring :)

Spring hike

Last Sunday we had a beautiful day for a hike. +20 degrees and sunshine all the way up. I actually burned my face :D (true to form)

This was a friendly little dog we met at the Lenina bus stop while waiting for our bus.

Misha

Sergey, who pushed his bike all the way up the trail.

Rebekah, sporting Sergey's cool goggles

the trail

Sergey's cool goggles also doubled as a cool filter

On the ridge finally. I figure it would take another hour and a half to reach the peak in the distance. That's a hike I definitely want to do, but it might have to wait until the slush and mud are gone.

the Champion

Lunch break

We ran down the mountain. The other side of our ridge was steep and covered in snow, so we all slipped and ran and surfed down the trail. It's the best way to descend!

Horsies

Hilltop

Yummy lunch

Umit

A place I want to go

Our group that day

Triumphal descent

Another hike

Around home

More pictures of around here. This is from the intersection if Abaya-Gagarina, near to where we live. The mountains are in the background.

My favorite peak to look at.

This is Lilya in traditional Kazakh dress. She played her flute for a concert wearing that.

Cool moon halo one night

Moonrise (more proof that I need a tripod!)