Kok-tobe

My last week has been pretty tame, since medical issues previously mentioned did not clear up, and I’ve been exhausted a lot. Tomorrow I have a more serious exam of my intestines. To prepare for this exam I have to drink 3 liters of water, filled with a delightful powder which will “cleanse” my digestive system. It tastes a lot like carrots. I am nervous for tomorrow, but at the same time it will make it a lot more clear if I have something more serious going on, or if I just have an infection that wasn’t intimidated by the army of antibiotics I delivered to it. Someone in my building is cooking some delicious borsch or something, which is rather tantalizing to smell while I sip on my laxative water.

So that’s slowed me down some. Last week I presented my research ideas to my advisor and a few other professors from the kafedra. I prepared a powerpoint with photo examples, and an outline of the areas that I am interested in. Anyways, I was fairly proud of myself for putting together a presentation with 2 days notice all in Russian. It was very negatively received, unfortunately. It was explained to me that my objectives were not rigid enough and that it wasn’t clear why my project was important. It was suggested that I make a clearer thesis and make my project “of the soviet method”. This got me very frustrated, because 1. I made it clear that I am still exploring my topic, and that I will not be ready to make a definite thesis for another month. 2. most of my presentation had explained the usefulness of my project and my explanation that it would probably benefit western academia far more than here.

So it’s been a rough week, and I’ve been really slipping on my research reading and Russian studying. I am having a one month crisis already, thinking about how much more I have to accomplish in just 9 more months.

On Sunday, Kulyash and her daughter Janna, who is visiting from Turkey, went to Panfilov Park, and then Kok-Tobe. It means “Green Hill” in Kazakh. It’s a 20-30 minute walk to the top (alternatively, you can take a gondola back and forth in 5 or so minutes), and there’s a pleasant view of the whole city and a recreational area. There is also a Beatles statue. Obviously. We also stumbled across a rather funny mural painted by a child, of a what appears to be a fish riding what appears to be a bicycle. I explained Janna and Kulyash the expression “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” and after a few minutes of clarifying that no, I really didn’t actually mean to say water, I earned a chuckle. I find that laughs are hard to earn when speaking in another language.

This weekend, I discovered ebooks, and read “Half the Sky” by NYTimes journalist Nicholas Kristof and his wife (also a journalist) Sheryl Wudunn. It’s about the oppression of women in the developing world, and a must read.

I’m typing up a post about my research…. really this time.

charyn canyon

Yesterday, Kulyash, Tamerlane, and I journeyed 3.5 hours to Charyn Canyon, which is close to the Chinese border. The drive should have felt endless, but my eyes were glued to the window all seven hours, as we passed packs of horses, donkeys with their legs tied, jaywalking cows, countless fruit and vegetable vendors, a cattle bazaar, and cemetaries.

We spent 6 hours in the “Valley of Castles”, named so for the rock formations that have emerged over time. Just like watching for images in clouds, it’s impossible not to see rabbits, bears, forts, ships, faces in the rocks. The main path for the Valley terminates at a small river, where we ate our lunches. On the way back to the bus, our guide showed us an alternative, very steep route. The view from the top was worth it, but I was very glad we didn’t have to go back down the same way. Tamerlane had convinced me earlier to climb up a steep cliff, and I had not given much thought to the trip back down until I was crawling/falling like a spider.

sick week

So I lost most of this week to some unidentified infection/parasite-ish thing. Not quite sure what it was but at one point this week, I was convinced I was dying, but today I feel great again and everything is back to normal. I saw an ex-pat doctor instead of a local one, which made the whole event much less stressful. Unfortunately, all week I really didn’t have any motivation to do anything but sleep and occasionally play spider solitaire . It would have been my first week of busy evenings and I was supposed to make a mini-presentation for the grad students and department faculty, so I was really disappointed that I had to cancel everything.

This week Tamerlane, my 15 year old “host” brother came back from Astana, where he was getting therapy for his back. He is suspiciously polite for his age.

Kulyash and I have been getting along very well these last couple days. We’ve been having very long conversations, and she’s had more patience with explaining words and phrases I don’t understand. I’ve definently had more difficulty with her than with previous host families figuring out what kind of relationship she expects us to have (renter or guest). In any case, I think that she is finally warming up to me.

Tomorrow we are going to Charyn Canyon, which is about 3.5 hours by bus. It is marketed as the ”miniature Grand Canyon”. I’d be dreading the drive, but I haven’t had a chance to see the landscape outside of Almaty, and it ought to be really beautiful.

a little more settled in

So now I’ve had two weeks here, and I’m definitely already feeling much more comfortable with everything. My Russian still has a long way to go, but I’m getting back into the groove, and studying very hard. I’m excited about how well I should be able to speak by the time I leave, if I keep up at this pace.

I had my first ex-pat dinner this week. Jimmy (another one of the current Fulbrighters here) invited me out to dinner with his roommates – all of whom are Fulbrighters still here from last year. At the table were people who came to kstan for fulbright, peace corps, study abroad, NGOs. A very interesting crowd to talk to.

Last night, I went to yoga with two of the girls (both named Meg) from the group. I found it very hard to completely relax when I had to translate for myself the whole time. My yoga vocabulary isn’t that great in Russian, and they use the Sanskrit names for all the positions, rather than the cute animal names. I’m planning to go regularly, so I will pick up more each time. Makes me wish we had played Simon Says in Russian class.

After yoga, I went out with the two girls, and a bunch of their friends in Almaty to a restaurant and then a bar. There were some of the same people from the other night plus a few journalists. Again, I had several very useful conversations with people at the table. Between everyone I met those two nights, I feel really good about the contacts I have here, in terms of my research, travel, and life advice. Just talking to a few of them informally about my potential research gave me a collection of new leads and observations.

A few people have suggested that I do some of my travelling now before it gets cold, my top priorities being Bukhara, Samarkand (both in Uzbekistan), Turkestan (southern Kazakhstan)and Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan). At the same time, I am still getting used to Almaty, and could really use these weeks to flesh out my topic a little more. That way, I would be able to use my travel experiences more wisely and integrate them into my project.

I know a lot of you aren’t very familiar with Kazakhstan, and even fewer of you understand why on earth I wanted to move here. Soon I will try to type a quick introduction to the country, Almaty, and more about what I’ll be doing.

Tonight I am having dinner with a woman who studied architecture at KazNTU, Madina, and her husband who live nearby. It’s nice that my social life is picking up. Definently feeling less lonely.

my first week in Almaty

Here is my first entry from Kazakhstan. I arrived a little over a week ago to Almaty, but of course it feels like much longer than that. I’m trying to get in the habit of writing in here twice a week. Hopefully this attempt at blogging will be more successful than my last. Last year I went to Russia for four months and only managed to write a single entry (see below).

After two days (asleep) in a hotel in the center, I moved into my apartment in the Orbita district. My neighborhood is a few miles south of Almaty’s core, but much quieter and with much less smog. It’s hard to imagine after being in downtown Almaty that there could be fresh air to breathe within city limits. It’s one of the greenest cites I’ve ever seen, with fully grown trees –not the usual dinky urban trees– in every direction, but the city can’t handle the number of cars, and there aren’t strict regulations for emissions yet. I’ve heard the joke that “Almaty is a city of 2 million people and 4 million cars.”

We are very close to the Tien Shan mountains, and the view when walking down the street on a clear day is absolutely unbelievable. The snow-capped mountains seem like they are within walking distance, and that they might topple on top of you any moment. Much of the last week has been spent orienting myself, wandering, adjusting to the time difference (10hrs ahead of East Coast). I did have time to go to the art museum, which was amazing, though completely desolate. I definently plan to return. They have an excellent collection of Kazakh Soviet and contemporary art, but the applied arts section is lacking, and I probably saw more going to the big craft fair (not touristy yet! I think was the first craft fair I’ve been to that felt that way). Just like at the Novaya Tretyakovskaya gallery in Moscow, I stopped in front of nearly every art piece and had to even pull myself away from a few of them.

For the next couple months I am living with a Kazakh woman, Kulyash. She is an art professor at the university I am affiliated with. She has a 15 year old son, Tamerlane, who will be returning from Astana (the capital) on the 15th. She also has 25 year old daughter who married a Turk and now lives in Turkey. Each of the family members has such impressive artistic talent!

My Russian is slowly coming back up to speed. My vocabulary is largely restored, but my grammar is a mess. I never would have imagined 4 years ago when I took my first Russian class that I’d still be reviewing irregular case endings today. This is one of my main focuses for now. People here speak much faster than in Samara and even than in Moscow. I’m feeling impatient with myself to rapidly improve my Russian and dive into my research.

I am having trouble deciding if ten months is a long time or a short time. At this point, looking forward, it seems long, but when I think of the current scope of my topic, ten months already seems too short.

Especially the first few days, I found myself missing home a lot. I had a great last couple weeks saying goodbye to everyone: leaving Habitat and Delaware, seeing Phish at SPAC, Jersey shore with the Lowdermilks.  Adam and I had too fantastic of a last week together in New york and Baltimore, which made leaving even harder. He got his first — though brief– trip to New York. We walked on the Highline, and ate great thai food, but did not find delicious fresh bagels. In Baltimore, we finally made to the aquarium, took multiple trips to the Annabel Lee, and I ate my last slices of Ledo’s pizza, before we had to put on our sad faces and head to Dulles, still the worst airport ever.

So I’m here on a Fulbright grant, which has given me the opportunity to live here for a year and work on a academic project in my discipline. My topic is still fairly general, because there are many different aspects of Kazakhstan’s architectural history and present which I find fascinating. These first few months I will spend doing general research in my areas of interest, before deciding on a more defined topic to spend the rest of my time here on. The Kazakh National Technical University is hosting me here. I use its library and computers, and I even have my own desk in the kafedra (faculty lounge), where I can read, write, and talk with the professors in the architecture department. The facilities are very nice. Professor Abilov is serving as my adviser on the project, though it is not completely clear what his role will become. He had a Fulbright to come to the US in 2000, so he is familiar with the program. However, it was much later in life when he did his Fulbright, so his area of interest and topic were much more specific before he arrived. I think he is a bit disappointed that I will be flailing around for the first few months.

Prices are lower than I had expected. From information conveyed at orientation and from several guidebooks I was expecting London-like prices, but it is certainly not the case. Food is especially inexpensive, of course not at the restaurants. Hard as it is to believe, Almaty is a city known for its restaurants and nightlife. Yes, this is Kazakhstan.

This Wednesday, at the last minute, I was invited to go to a night of entertainment, provided by Isover, a French company that designs and produces building materials. It was held at a very upscale hotel restaurant, and Kulyash and I were both very undressed for the occasion, since we came right from the university. The first two hours were spent listening to seminars about new techology and Isover’s role in Central Asia. My brain checked out after about an hour of listening to construction jargon in Russian. The prize for surviving was an elaborate dinner, including my first taste of horse meat. Yes, this is how I at last broke my vegetarianism. The house band played an interesting array of English songs, from Louis Armstrong to “I’m too sexy”. The host of the night was a very well known Kazakh television host, who Kulyash explained to me has been publically cynical of Nazerbayev in the past. He had a very quick wit. And despite all hopes that I could keep a low profile, I managed to win a raffle that I was not even aware that I entered. I went up to accept my prize and my accent tipped off the host to ask where I was from. After explaining that I was from America and that I was only there because the head of the architecture department was too busy to attend, there was a cricket-chirp response from the crowd. So, feeling rather embarassed, I sat back down at my seat with my new industrial strength thermos.  But, from then on I became American Girl and everyone warmed up to me, asking me to dance and toasting to my arrival. The regional head of the company seemed very relieved that he had someone he could talk to in English. He was French, so in his honor they had French trivia.  Nightlife in Russian culture has much more of a live entertainment focus than in the US. They love dancing, singing, activities. Well anyways, one of the questions was “Name one work by Jean Paul Sartre”. I hate attention in these sorts of situations, but after 10 seconds of awkward silence, I pointed to the exit sign and said rather unconfidently ”Byez Vihoda?” (“Without an Exit”?). I was lucky enough that people understood that I meant No Exit (Nyet Vihoda). For my correct answer I was awarded a very nice bottle of cognac.

I’m thinking about all the places I’d like to visit before my time is up. Right now it’s really an overwheming list, and I know I won’t be able to see all of them before time is up.

Detail of the main building on my campus:

Building with my apartment:

My desk in the kafedra: