Приветик, друзья! It has been quite some time since our last encounter and, although not much has happened, I thought it was about time that I got off my backside and posted an update. So.....here it goes.
So, as a typical Englishman, I feel the need to talk about the weather first. Ever since the beginning of spring the weather has basically been whatever you can imagine. Snow, rain, baking heat. The mud has come, frozen over, melted again. Last week we received the wonderful gift of 23 degree heat, almost like summer! If you want to imagine what it has been like, well, you can't. Because you don't live in Kazakhstan and you never will!
Besides the weather everything else has been kind of predictable here; only a few events of note have really occured (some of which are significant, others aren't).
*Checks back to the last blog post*
So let the melee continue!
The first event of note was that I had the opportunity to visit KarLag once more, this time with an English speaking guide. For those of you who don't know (which is probably most of you), KarLag was one of the biggest gulags (forced labour camps) in the Soviet Union, streching across nearly the whole of the territory of Karagandinskaya Oblast (it's big). It was more sobering and less humourous this time around, especially as we didn't only visit the very touristy museum but also got to see some of the old prison blocks that have been converted into houses by local residents and also the baby cemetary. The deportation of such a large amount of different peoples created a collective sorrow that has helped to unite everyone and let them all live in peace.
Probably (one of) the most significant things that I have done would have to be my long-awaited trip to our nation's capital, Astana. While not really capturing the beauty of Paris, the architecture of Berlin or London, or the bustle of New York or Tokyo (it has more of a Dubai-in-the-middle-of-Siberia feel) Astana has it's own unique charms. Oh no wait, it doesn't.
Imagine that someone spent a lot of money on building stuff very quickly in the middle of grassland. Astana is not so much a city as the absence of everything a city contains except people, buildings and concrete. There is not much soul to this place, and I don't think it will ever have much soul to it; the way it has been built has seen more or less to that. Nevertheless, allow me to document what I remember of my glorious journey to our столица.
For those of you who are familar with Central Asian or Persian traditions (I would imagine it's very few of you) there is a holiday in April called Nauryz. What this actually celebrates and why it exists I have absolutely no idea; for me the added two holiday days (thursday and friday, no less!) served as a perfect opportunity to visit Astana. Later of course, I was to find out that the celebrations in Karaganda were much better, but that's neither here nor there. Let's continue.
On Friday morning I ventured North in search of fun and excitement. Karaganda is in the central Kazakh steppe, and pretty far from absolutely anything. If you want to build a picture of it in your mind, imagine this: grass, grass, grass, city, city, grass, grass, grass. This of course means that any journey outside of the city will generally not be worth it unless you are staying away from it. So bravely I got into a taxi (I couldn't take the train because my passport was still in Almaty, apparently being registered; surely it doesn't take four months to register a passport?!) and began the two hour journey, jammed in between big, sweaty Kazakh guys. Upon arrival, I jumped on a bus and jumped off when my friend and colleague Pat told me to jump off. I settled in with Pat at his apartment, then we ate a glorious plate of shashlyk at Shymkent (the bar, not the city) and went shopping. This was more of a relaxing day than anything else, and also a fantastic opportunity to get Pat addicted to the wonders of EU3. I haven't heard from him sense, so I can only conclude that he is still at his computer, getting the shit kicked out of him by the Golden Horde. Hello Pat!
The next day we ventured out into the city in search of fun and excitement! Unfortunately for us, there was no-one around (possibly because it was a holiday, also possibly because it was freezing cold) so we were dissapointed in terms of Nauryz celebrations. But fear not! We went sight-seeing, saw the huge Bayterek (it's a big thing that looks like a lollipop), Khan Shatyr (a shopping centre full of children) and other outlandish sights of the capital (in otherwords, not much; there was a Costa Coffee, though). During the evening we went for shashlyk with Rudy and Theo, our other native English speaking colleagues in Astana (from South Africa and Malta, respectively), and then later we ventured to a really shit ex-pat bar full of really shit people. I don't want to discuss the events that occurred here, so just be content with the fact that it was shit.
The next morning I ventured back to Karaganda (god I missed her!) in yet another taxi. The whole point of trying to avoid the police was however quite moot, seeing as soon as I sat down in the back seat, two police officers joined me on either side for the whole journey back. I sat still and didn't say a word the whole journey back.
The rest of April passed with more or less no action or excitement. When I wasn't working I was either going out with my new friend Ablay or trying to get rid of German house-squatters. Eat my food and leave me with nothing, will you?! Bastards!
May came and was far less eventful than I hoped. In Kazakhstan the 1st, 7th and 9th are public holidays and I had hoped that more would happen during it (it actually kind of did, but I missed most of it for a combination of reasons). The 1st is some kind of celebration of the friendship of all the nationalities of Kazakhstan (I saw some people out in national dress, but no many), the 7th is armed-forces days (I saw some soldiers, but missed the parade) and the 9th is, of course, the celebration of the end of the Second World War (for more information on why in the former-USSR it's the 9th and not the 8th, please consult Wikipedia). All of these days I spent with my new-girlfriend Bayan (or Баня, as I like to call her), and we had a wonderful time together. But we missed all of the parades.
Work work work work work.
Last weekend I was invited by a student of mine to his dance recital in the Miner's Palace of Culture. The hall was much more crowded than I thought it was going to be (though it looked like I was the only one who wasn't a parent or a grandparent) and the dances themselves were actually far more skillful than I was expecting, too. I can only imagine how dances like this would be England, seeing as how we rarely have these kinds of things in England anymore.
If the events of this blog-post seem a bit lack-lustre, that's because the situation in Kazakhstan seems to be settling into a period of semi-normalness. Of course life in Kazakhstan will never truly be normal as we think of it to be in Western Europe, but for me things just feel normal again. Naturally this feeling isn't so great for an adventure like myself, so I have developed a few summer plans. Stay tuned for them in a later blog post, which should hopefully not be too far away.
As usual, here as some photos documenting the events described above.
Ablay, looking a little squiffy
Memorial outside of KarLag
A statue of Lenin
A hammer and sickle
Three guesses...
:(
A monument to a mining accident
Strange thing in Astana
The "Arman" market
A television studio
Bayterek, from a distance
Mosque
Khan Shatyr (thanks Pat for ruining this picture! :P)
Khan Shatyr; like City Mall, but bigger
Bayterek and a yurt!
Library
The Chinese embassy
Glorious Flag of Kazakhstan!
RBS MOTHERFUCKER!
Looks a bit like a UFO, therefore took a picture
Mega in Astana
Costa!
Walking to a shitty ex-pat bar
When gay Germans invade!
Line Brew; local Kazakhstan premium beer
a BTR-80
Me and children with a BTR80
My lips look a little blue in this picture
:)
Vechnii Ogun, after the 9th
Victory Park in the city centre
Various dances
Wind: it's a killer
Until next time!
So, as a typical Englishman, I feel the need to talk about the weather first. Ever since the beginning of spring the weather has basically been whatever you can imagine. Snow, rain, baking heat. The mud has come, frozen over, melted again. Last week we received the wonderful gift of 23 degree heat, almost like summer! If you want to imagine what it has been like, well, you can't. Because you don't live in Kazakhstan and you never will!
Besides the weather everything else has been kind of predictable here; only a few events of note have really occured (some of which are significant, others aren't).
*Checks back to the last blog post*
So let the melee continue!
The first event of note was that I had the opportunity to visit KarLag once more, this time with an English speaking guide. For those of you who don't know (which is probably most of you), KarLag was one of the biggest gulags (forced labour camps) in the Soviet Union, streching across nearly the whole of the territory of Karagandinskaya Oblast (it's big). It was more sobering and less humourous this time around, especially as we didn't only visit the very touristy museum but also got to see some of the old prison blocks that have been converted into houses by local residents and also the baby cemetary. The deportation of such a large amount of different peoples created a collective sorrow that has helped to unite everyone and let them all live in peace.
Probably (one of) the most significant things that I have done would have to be my long-awaited trip to our nation's capital, Astana. While not really capturing the beauty of Paris, the architecture of Berlin or London, or the bustle of New York or Tokyo (it has more of a Dubai-in-the-middle-of-Siberia feel) Astana has it's own unique charms. Oh no wait, it doesn't.
Imagine that someone spent a lot of money on building stuff very quickly in the middle of grassland. Astana is not so much a city as the absence of everything a city contains except people, buildings and concrete. There is not much soul to this place, and I don't think it will ever have much soul to it; the way it has been built has seen more or less to that. Nevertheless, allow me to document what I remember of my glorious journey to our столица.
For those of you who are familar with Central Asian or Persian traditions (I would imagine it's very few of you) there is a holiday in April called Nauryz. What this actually celebrates and why it exists I have absolutely no idea; for me the added two holiday days (thursday and friday, no less!) served as a perfect opportunity to visit Astana. Later of course, I was to find out that the celebrations in Karaganda were much better, but that's neither here nor there. Let's continue.
On Friday morning I ventured North in search of fun and excitement. Karaganda is in the central Kazakh steppe, and pretty far from absolutely anything. If you want to build a picture of it in your mind, imagine this: grass, grass, grass, city, city, grass, grass, grass. This of course means that any journey outside of the city will generally not be worth it unless you are staying away from it. So bravely I got into a taxi (I couldn't take the train because my passport was still in Almaty, apparently being registered; surely it doesn't take four months to register a passport?!) and began the two hour journey, jammed in between big, sweaty Kazakh guys. Upon arrival, I jumped on a bus and jumped off when my friend and colleague Pat told me to jump off. I settled in with Pat at his apartment, then we ate a glorious plate of shashlyk at Shymkent (the bar, not the city) and went shopping. This was more of a relaxing day than anything else, and also a fantastic opportunity to get Pat addicted to the wonders of EU3. I haven't heard from him sense, so I can only conclude that he is still at his computer, getting the shit kicked out of him by the Golden Horde. Hello Pat!
The next day we ventured out into the city in search of fun and excitement! Unfortunately for us, there was no-one around (possibly because it was a holiday, also possibly because it was freezing cold) so we were dissapointed in terms of Nauryz celebrations. But fear not! We went sight-seeing, saw the huge Bayterek (it's a big thing that looks like a lollipop), Khan Shatyr (a shopping centre full of children) and other outlandish sights of the capital (in otherwords, not much; there was a Costa Coffee, though). During the evening we went for shashlyk with Rudy and Theo, our other native English speaking colleagues in Astana (from South Africa and Malta, respectively), and then later we ventured to a really shit ex-pat bar full of really shit people. I don't want to discuss the events that occurred here, so just be content with the fact that it was shit.
The next morning I ventured back to Karaganda (god I missed her!) in yet another taxi. The whole point of trying to avoid the police was however quite moot, seeing as soon as I sat down in the back seat, two police officers joined me on either side for the whole journey back. I sat still and didn't say a word the whole journey back.
The rest of April passed with more or less no action or excitement. When I wasn't working I was either going out with my new friend Ablay or trying to get rid of German house-squatters. Eat my food and leave me with nothing, will you?! Bastards!
May came and was far less eventful than I hoped. In Kazakhstan the 1st, 7th and 9th are public holidays and I had hoped that more would happen during it (it actually kind of did, but I missed most of it for a combination of reasons). The 1st is some kind of celebration of the friendship of all the nationalities of Kazakhstan (I saw some people out in national dress, but no many), the 7th is armed-forces days (I saw some soldiers, but missed the parade) and the 9th is, of course, the celebration of the end of the Second World War (for more information on why in the former-USSR it's the 9th and not the 8th, please consult Wikipedia). All of these days I spent with my new-girlfriend Bayan (or Баня, as I like to call her), and we had a wonderful time together. But we missed all of the parades.
Work work work work work.
Last weekend I was invited by a student of mine to his dance recital in the Miner's Palace of Culture. The hall was much more crowded than I thought it was going to be (though it looked like I was the only one who wasn't a parent or a grandparent) and the dances themselves were actually far more skillful than I was expecting, too. I can only imagine how dances like this would be England, seeing as how we rarely have these kinds of things in England anymore.
If the events of this blog-post seem a bit lack-lustre, that's because the situation in Kazakhstan seems to be settling into a period of semi-normalness. Of course life in Kazakhstan will never truly be normal as we think of it to be in Western Europe, but for me things just feel normal again. Naturally this feeling isn't so great for an adventure like myself, so I have developed a few summer plans. Stay tuned for them in a later blog post, which should hopefully not be too far away.
As usual, here as some photos documenting the events described above.
Until next time!
