The Hunt
In which I wander, wait, and eat very well
I’d intended to write a triumphant post about finally making it to Chabad for Friday night services, but it turns out that bus #99 may actually not exist. At the very least, it did not show up at 3 of its scheduled times, so I gave up and went to meet one of my roommates at a cafe. Pearl1 works at another university in Almaty through our program, and she’s staying with me and my roommate Edna while she searches for a room. I’ve been touring with her as designated translator. It’s been kind of a cool way to see the city, from the woman who said she never smokes even though the house smelled like a cigarette factory, to the woman who spoke so quietly I could not understand a single one of her voice messages and accidentally buzzed the wrong apartment. We also got stuck inside someone’s apartment complex and she had to lean out the window and shout instructions on how to open the gate.
My personal favorite was about 15 minutes from our place. In the photos on the apartment-hunting website, there was a single cat, which was delightful. When we came in and introduced ourselves, the landlady explained that she was planning to take 3 cats to be neutered the next day. Then I thought I spotted a fourth cat. Then she references her “семь кошек”. I wondered briefly if this was a Russian expression with which I was unfamiliar. It wasn’t. The apartment is in fact home to 4 people, 1 dog (а poodle named Peach) and SEVEN cats. Pearl unfortunately decided too late that she’d want to live there and someone else took the room, but I’m still hoping to go visit.
PRESS TIME UPDATE:
The other girl living there also decided to move out, so Pearl is in! We were sitting at a cafe when we each got like 5 texts from the landlord, and we ran right over to eat blini with approximately 6 kinds of jam and seal the deal. Huge win for me personally. And I guess Pearl having a place to live is good too.
Other than waiting for the bus and waiting to be buzzed up into apartments, I’ve been waiting at the document processing center. Kazakhstan implemented a new rule about importing phones that requires them to be registered within 30 days of arrival, but they also made it an extremely confusing process that no one really understands. Also in the case of our course registration, we’ve been running into bureaucratic issues that are both mandatory and impossible to accomplish. We spent 3 hours last week at the government service center, while the poor administrative assistant ran around trying to help both us and random other groups of foreigners. Hopefully both are settled now, but I guess we’ll see if I still have cell service next week.
All is not waiting and bureaucracy, however. I have also been eating Very Well, wandering the streets, and doing battle with the office printer.
Last weekend, some of the other fellows and I went up to Kok Tobe, which is a sort of amusement part on top of a mountain. You take a cable car up (not my favorite in the high winds) and we were able to get a decent view of the mountains despite the smog. I did lose my ticket for the cable car down, but that apparently happens all the time and they were able to issue me a new one.
On Sunday (after, of course, an apartment tour), Pearl and I went to both Panfilov Cathedral and the Central Mosque, both gorgeous.
There was no class last Monday, so Jillian and Edna and I went to the Almaty Botanic Gardens, which are just 30 minutes away by bus. It’s huge, gorgeous, and admission is about $1.50. We stayed until we started to get cold.
Then, of course, we went to Popeye’s.
Then Jillian spotted Krispy Kreme. All in all, it was a very American night.
I do also work occasionally, in case you were starting to wonder, meaning that every morning I teach from 8:30-9:45, then I get a cheese samsa from the cafeteria and drink my coffee, and then somehow it’s 4pm. On Mondays I teach a double section, 8:30 to 11:15, so this week I had my students write and perform skits for the second half. The skits were interviews about daily routines, to help them practice the present simple and present continuous. We had some great interviews with Hailey Bieber, Snow White, and an unnamed millionaire. I think I’m starting to settle into my teaching routine a little bit, and I’ve made friends with the librarian by being the quite possibly the only person utilizing the fiction collection. Currently reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which is both far more racist and contains far more paragraphs that are just lists of fish than I remember from my kid’s version. I also read through book 4 of Dune thanks to the Libby app. It gets real weird, guys.
In conclusion, here are some other things that I’ve eaten lately.
In sum, my apartment tour days are over, I have almost figured out how to configure the air conditioner in my classroom. I have managed to register for a class so I’m not in violation of my visa (huge win), and all is well. Even better, I’m headed back to Bishkek this weekend to see some old friends. Сау бол!
If you’re thinking, “huh, I just spoke to Julia and none of these names sound familiar” it is because they all insisted on choosing pseudonyms (of varying degrees of silliness.)
This was an awesome read and made me miss you!!😭
Julia, I just love reading about your adventures!