Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2015
Greetings from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Fall is in the air here and the trees are starting to change colors. We are getting into a routine now and adjusting to the new experiences that we are given. The hardest thing for me has been the language barrier, but usually someone is nearby willing to help, whether it be in a stranger in a store or a passer by on the street. The most fun is trying to buy something in a store. The salespeople all have calculators and that's how they tell us the price seeing we havent learned our numbers yet. They are big on security in the stores here both shoplifting and personal. Just inside most stores are lockers to put your big bags in when you go into a store. Also in some stores you get a personal assistant whether you want one or not that will take your items up to the register for you. Something that hard for me, makes it hard to change your mind or contemplate if you want or really need it. I'm not sure if they are being nice or what, but it is just strange.
I have started helping out at the
school the last couple weeks working in the text book room organizing and moving books around getting it ready to inventory and order books for next year. It has been a project but gives me something to do during the day. Plus I get to be part of the school experience, see Kim and her class, and eat lunch in the cafeteria there. Good local dishes from the main dish to the deserts.
Every weekend we are trying to get out of the city for the day. The air in the city here can be bad. It reminds me of the air in Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley in California. Between the factories and all the cars the pollution just hangs in the city. This weekend we traveled to Kok-Tobe mountain. It is the highest point within the city of Almaty at 1,100 M (3,600ft). Beautiful views of the city and the fall colors were exquisite. The air was clean and breathing easier. The tower there is a T.V. tower that unfortunately is not open to the public. I would love to see the views from the observation decks on the tower. I am thinking I need to
research a way to get a invitation. Maybe a small fee 'bribe' would work. The tower itself is 372 M tall and if measured from sea level it is one of the tallest in the world. There is also a small zoo and a amusement park there. The rides are a little dated but the rope course looked like fun! A full size bronze statue of 'The Beatles' by sculptor Eduard Kazaryan was placed the mountain in 2007. They have speakers with Beatles music playing around the statue. It is suppose to b the first full size statue of all four together. There is a lot of work going on there so the roller coaster, Ferris wheel and gondola rides were closed. The gondola takes you from the Kazakhstan Hotel in the city up to the top so I am looking forward to the reopening of that. Cars are not allowed in the park due to environmental reasons so the only way up now is a shuttle bus or walking up the hill which is what we did. There is a couple restaurants to eat at there with beautiful views overlooking the city and as we are finding every where
here the food is very good too. The zoo wasn't too bad...a lot of different kinds of chickens, birds and other kinds of local animals I have never heard of. Kim and her other two teaching partners are taking there classes there on Friday this week so I will get to experience it with 45 8 year old kids. Should be fun.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0414s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kim Kalberg
non-member comment
Grateful Wife
When two people get married, they vow to support each other for better or for worse. Dave Kalberg knew when he married me that I wanted to pursue a teaching job overseas. We imagined Germany or Italy or some European country. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine dragging him to the other side of the world and live in Central Asia in a city of 2 million people who speak Russian. Not only did he join me, he supported any doubts I had and has encouraged me every day to appreciate this adventure. We are not bike trekking across Europe, we are climbing mountains, watching hockey, riding subways and city buses and loving almost every minute of it. I am so grateful to have him by my side, on my team and loving me every day.