Georgia And Its Furry Friends

Scott and I just got back yesterday morning from a fall break trip to Tbilisi, Georgia with four of our friends from here.  Our interest in Georgia was sparked by the fact that one of our favorite restaurants in Astana is Georgian--I can't believe I had never tried Georgian food before coming out here.  It also proved to be not too long of a trip and a relatively affordable destination from Kazakhstan.

I'll probably write several posts about the trip, but in a nutshell, it was a beautiful country, and we loved the food.  We weren't entirely lucky with either the weather or our guesthouse owner/tour operator, but we had a good time in spite of both.

As often happens when I travel, I saw lots of animals I wished I could adopt and take home with me.  I photographed a good number of them, and today's post is dedicated to them.

Proof that cats are largely the same everywhere.

Okay, the snail isn't a furry friend per se, and I was happy to leave it behind in Georgia, but it was still pretty cool.

I'm a fairly dedicated cat person, but I liked this dog, who peacefully followed us for a while in Mtskheta.

Acrobatic Cat #1

Acrobatic Cat #2

This little cat was my favorite in all of Georgia.  We took a break to sit on some benches while walking to the Narikala fortress on the last day.  I assumed when this cat came over to us that it was looking for food, but it eventually got in my lap, curled up, and started purring.  This was great, but as anyone who has ever had a cat in their lap knows, they can be quite resistant to leaving and they often dig their claws into your legs for leverage when they do finally jump down.  This kitty was indeed resistant to leaving my lap, but eventually left without clawing me at all.  I was so tempted to bring this cat home with me, but couldn't see how to work out the logistics, especially with just a few hours to go until heading to the airport.

This cat found us later on in the walk.  It seemed very interested in me, which made us wonder if it could smell the cat who was sitting on my lap earlier.  I decided not to press my lucky by letting yet another stray cat sit on me.

This concludes the tour of Georgia's animals.  Stay tuned for more posts about sites, and all that other stuff the guidebooks tell us about!

The Water Machine

We try to avoid drinking the tap water in Kazakhstan.

We actually never received any sort of "official" guidance on the water.  But since our employer put hot/cold water dispensers in all of the offices and provides large bottles of water for them, I'm led to believe that everyone--locals and foreigners alike--is concerned about the quality of the tap water.

Since we never received any official guidance, we don't know with any certainty what the problems are with the water.  Some people have told us it's heavy metals people are worried about, but we don't know where they may have heard that.  Everybody seems to have their own system for dealing with this.  I usually use tap water for cooking pasta, since I throw out so much of the water anyway, but bottled water for cooking anything else.  I figure I'm probably getting some cooked tap water when I eat in the cafeteria or in restaurants, anyway.

I've lived in a lot of places where at least some of the people avoid drinking tap water, but this is the first place I've seen a machine like this.

You pay 10 tenge per liter (Kazakhstan's tenge is floating but today that is worth about 4 cents).  So you can fill any size of container that will fit under the spout.  I usually just fill 5 liter containers because they're big enough to last a while, but small enough that I can still carry two or three of them.

The first time I used this machine, I spent some time trying to decipher the Russian directions.  Then I realized there were also English directions.  Oops.  Aside from my lack of attention to linguistic detail, it's pretty user-friendly.  The water splashes a bit, but...it's just water.  Also, the machine inexplicably rejects some coins.  It's not a matter of denomination, so I wonder if it's a matter of older and newer versions of the same denomination of coin being slightly different in some way that the machine can discern but I can't.

I look forward to the day when I no longer have to worry about the tap water.  But this machine is an okay way to get at least some of of our bottled water.  And as a bonus, it is keeping our supply of small coins under control.

The Clothing Conundrum

Today we went out to lunch with a couple of friends.  We were planning to go on a walk in the park afterwards, but when we walked out of the restaurant, it was raining very lightly...with very heavy winds.  So we walked ourselves over to the nearest mall for some coffee and highly caloric coffee shop desserts.  That was almost as healthy of an option, right?

As the cold and the winds start to set in in Astana, I've been thinking a lot about clothing and how to dress around here.  Before we came out here, I thought I had it all figured out:  The warmer, the better, no exceptions.  After all, I had read that Astana is the second coldest capital city in the world.

But here was the problem I didn't anticipate:  The weather is certainly very cold outside in the winter (as well as large swaths of the fall and spring), but the temperatures inside, at least where we live and work, are almost always suffocatingly hot.  Scott and I spent a good number of weekend days last winter wearing shorts and t-shirts inside our apartment, with the window open.  And if anything, I tend to be more sensitive to the cold than the heat.  In past workplaces, I always kept a sweater on hand.  (On a related note, did anyone else read about how office thermostats are often set with men in mind?)

So, with that in mind, here are the lessons I learned last year about what types of clothing are useful--and what types are not--for this most fascinating climatic situation.

Useful:  Silk long johns.  Some days are cold enough that I, at least, need extra layers for my legs.  Silk provides extra warmth while outdoors, without still feeling cool to the touch indoors.

Not useful:  Synthetic long johns.  Way too warm indoors.  Ugh.

Useful:  Jackets or sweaters than can be layered under a winter coat, but are not an integral part of an outfit.  Layering is key some days to survive the short walk to work.  But it's good to be able to peel off a lot of those layers once you're in the office.

Not useful:  Heavy blazers or cardigans that are meant to "dress up" an outfit, and therefore be worn all day.  I was so proud of myself when I found a wool sweater blazer on sale, too!

On a related note, lighter weight tops that are reputable enough looking on their own to not need a blazer on top are extremely useful.

Useful:  Pants with enough room to layer long johns underneath if need be.

Not useful:  Flannel-lined jeans.  These are probably useful to winter sports enthusiasts, but they are way too hot indoors.

Useful:  Work-out shorts.  I have never worked out in such a hot gym in my life.

Not useful:  Work-out pants.  This is assuming, of course, that you don't have to go outside to access your gym.

Useful:  Really warm winter boots.

Not useful:  Very thick socks to wear with them.  Admittedly, this will depend a lot on your boots.  I bought myself a new pair of snow boots before coming out here, having had the same pair since college.  My new snow boots are down-filled, and amazingly, were warm enough to wear all winter with just tights or trouser socks underneath.  This is fine, since all of my super thick socks also date from college, so (a) I didn't spend money on them recently, (b) they're getting pretty floppy and not much fun to wear, and (c) it's easier to just change shoes at the office without also having to change socks.

Useful:  A heavy duty hat that can't be blown off your head.  I wasn't really sure what to do about hats before coming out here, but it quickly became clear that the hats I had brought out here were woefully insufficient.  I ordered a down-filled hat with earflaps that fastens under my chin.  It won't win any points for style, but it was a game changer in terms of my winter comfort.

Useful:  A long coat with room to layer underneath.  I'm not going to try to weigh in on which brands are best, but I think in this sort of climate, you do want something that covers a wide swath of your legs.

Useful:  A balaclava or scarf you can wrap around your nose and mouth.  Alas.

Useful:  Heavy gloves or mittens.  This probably goes without saying, but thin fleece gloves often won't cut it.

Useful:  Yaktrax.  They were a little bit of a nuisance, but I didn't fall once last winter!

Wishing everyone moderate, pleasant climates that don't require any clothing analysis!

Pictures From A Recent Saturday Walk

Before the cold sets in, Scott and I have been trying to take advantage of the weather and go on some walks over the weekend.  I saw a few things I'd never seen before on one of these walks, so I'm glad I had my camera!

This year marks the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate, so at least some of the new decorations were in honor of that.

Apologies to the complete strangers in the picture--I wasn't patient enough to wait to take the photo!

I wondered if these horses might have had to do with the anniversary, too, since I don't recall seeing them before.

My favorite one was painted with pomegranates.  Too bad pomegranates don't actually grow in Astana!

I was curious about the origins of this one, too.  I wondered if it might have been sponsored by the Israeli government or maybe the local Chabad.

No matter what the occasion, there is always more room for fake plants here.

And a sculpture I had never seen before!  Near something that looks like a disco ball!

The Dumpsters Have Dreams of World Domination! Or...

I suppose the more boring and likely possibility is what I've come to call a "Google Translate tragedy."  I received an email yesterday in three languages:  Russian, Kazakh, and English.  Here is the quote from the English portion that provoked my concern about the dumpsters' intentions:

We hereby inform you that due to the sport event in the Sport Center on September 19-20, 2015, the territory was liberated from the dumpsters.

On a related note, I'm happy to say that I don't think those of us who use foreign languages on the job will be replaced by machines any time soon.

Where Did My Attention To Detail Go? Oh, Yeah...

	12-12:50	1-1:50	2-2:50	3-3:50	4-4:50
Monday	Class 1, Classroom A		Class 2, Classroom B	Class 3, Classroom C	Class 4, Classroom D
Tuesday	Class 1, Classroom A			Class 3, Classroom C
Wednesday	Class 1, Classroom A		Class 2, Classroom B	Class 3, Classroom C	Class 4, Classroom D
Thursday	Class 2, Classroom B			Class 4, Classroom A
Friday	Class 1, Classroom A		Class 2, Classroom B	Class 3, Classroom C	Class 4, Classroom D

Behold, my teaching schedule for fall semester.  Is it just me, or does this seem particularly diabolical?  The chart I'm posting here, by the way, is an adaptation of one I made for my own personal use at the beginning of the semester in order to keep track of the ridiculous meeting time and classroom changes depending on the day.

I'm not the only one who has trouble with this, either.  One of my students from Class 2 missed a Thursday class and told me later that she had forgotten we had class that day.

In addition to what is readily apparent in the timetable, Class 1, 2, and 4 are different sections of the same course.  Class 3 is a different course.  So, I have the one different course smack dab between two of the same courses three days a week.

Also, because Class 1 meets on MTWF and Classes 2 and 4 meet on MWRF, Class 1 is always one lesson ahead of the other two classes on Wednesday.  So on Wednesdays, I teach three different lesson plans.

Also, as is apparent on the timetable, Classes 2, 3, and 4 are back to back on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  That means no time to clear my head between classes, especially if students come up to me after class to ask questions.  (I don't mind questions about the actual material I covered, but unfortunately, they're not always so relevant.  Grade grubbing for one extra point on a test comes to mind.)

I was pondering all of this today, wondering why I had had so many brain farts over the course of the day, and I came to the sad conclusion that this is likely to be the case all semester, particularly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

On the flip side, those three days have opportunities for exercise.  While all of my classrooms are under one roof, I teach in three different "blocks".  I have to traverse a common area on the ground floor to get between blocks.  I generally avoid the elevators because they are hot, slow, and crowded.  So a typical stair-climbing schedule on MWF looks like this:
1.  Climb to 4th floor office on Block A
2.  Go down four flights of stairs, climb to 5th floor classroom in Block B.
3.  Go down five flights of stairs, return to 4th floor classroom in Block A.
4.  Walk down one flight of stairs to classrooms in Block A.
5.  Walk down three flights of stairs and climb to 5th floor of Block C.
6.  Walk down five flights of stairs, and climb to 4th floor office of Block A.

My brain may be mush by the end of the semester (or perhaps by next week) but maybe I at least have the hope of some level of physical fitness.

Flamingos, At Long Last!

Incredible though it may seem to anyone who has ever spent a winter in or around Astana, Kazakhstan boasts a colony of flamingos for several months out of the year.  Seeing these flamingos in the wild has been on my Kazakhstan bucket list even before we arrived.  I've blogged about my two previous (failed) attempts here and here.

A few weeks ago, one of our colleagues started organizing another trip out to the Korgalzhyn Nature Reserve, which includes Lake Tengiz, where the flamingos stay while in Kazakhstan.  The trip was for today, with a scheduled departure time of 6 AM.  We had a lot of thinking to do.  Should we take the near certain reward of sleeping in on a Saturday morning?  Or should we forgo the sleep and have a long, bumpy ride to Korgalzhyn, where we had already failed to see any flamingos twice before?

We ultimately decided on the trip.  We had an immediate reward of the departure time being pushed back to 7 AM, and a more long term reward of finally seeing the flamingos!

The ride to Korgalzhyn was even bumpier than I had remembered it.  Some of the roads are in pretty poor condition, and the combination of the driver driving over some potholes, swerving wildly to avoid others, and speeding on the relatively smooth sections of road made for an exciting trip.  We stopped at the visitor center where I had taken pictures of the flamingo gate previously as some sort of proof that these flamingos existed.  We had a small breakfast that our guide had packed and used the facilities (outdoor squat toilets with no lighting!).

Mural at the visitor center

 Then we headed off to Lake Tengiz.  As we approached, we could see lots of obviously tall birds in the lake, and my hopes soared.  While the birds appeared white from a distance, they were indeed the flamingos!  With the aid of binoculars and a telescope, we were able to get a much better look at them.  We could really see their pink color when they flapped their wings or flew.  Interestingly, their wings also had black feathers, which was a very striking contrast to the pink.  We could even hear the flamingos honking at each other (I'm not sure that's the term ornithologists would use for flamingo vocalizations, but that's what it sounded like to me!).

Despite Scott's and my many efforts to get good pictures of the flamingos, we didn't have much success.  A better zoom on the camera might have helped some, but the other issue was that the flamingos understandably didn't want much to do with a minibus full of sleep-deprived humans, and tended to fly progressively farther from the lake's shore as they saw and heard us approach.  The two pictures below are probably our best ones of them.  The little white dots are the flamingos.  If nothing else, I think the pictures give an idea of the sheer number of them.

We also found some pink flamingo feathers and what appear to be flamingo tracks

I wasn't at all optimistic about seeing saiga, another famous steppe inhabitant.  And we didn't, although we did see some saiga tracks.  I was happy to even see evidence that they had been in the area.  Between poaching and a mysterious wave of deaths last spring, the saiga have been having a very hard time.

I would have missed these, but the guide pointed out these saiga tracks to us.

After flamingo-watching, we had lunch at a guest house near the visitor center, the same guest house where we ate when we visited Korgalzhyn last spring.  The food was delicious.  I wish I knew of a restaurant with such well-prepared Kazakh cuisine near us.

It was a wonderful day.  It was amazing to be in the presence of large numbers of such an iconic animal in the wild.  Our photos leave much to be desired, but I don't think I'll ever forget watching the flamingos through the binoculars and the telescope.  Whatever else Kazakhstan may have in store for us, I am happy to have had this particular experience.

Beautiful blue sky on the steppe today