Late again :D  But at least I'm doing it.  Now I have to remember to remind Pavlína to do hers.

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They paint the trees here white from the ground to about... a metre or so up.  No one seems to know why, but the general thought is that it is to prevent the insects from destroying the trees, but this doesn't make so much sense to me.  They only paint the trees that are along the road, and they look like they've been painted well after they achieve maturity.  Perhaps its so that they look uniform when driving by?  It's a curiosity, for sure.

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Haven't potty-trained your toddler yet?  No problem!  If you're out in public and your little one has to pee, just pull down their pants, lift up their legs so their bottom is at the bottom, and let it flow.  It seems much more open to natural functions of kids here than in the West.  For better or for worse.

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Apparently there is a theatre in Almaty that regularly, once a week, shows movies in English.  We caught The Lady with Michelle Yeoh last week.  Good news: it was in English.  Bad news: 30% (or more) was in Burmese with Russian subtitles.  It was good, but I feel like I was missing some key parts spoken in Burmese.  Hopefully we can find more movies, but I was glad to catch this one while it was in town for a few days, as I doubt it even got a wide release back home.

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I was finally able to cook for the first time last week, after two weeks here.  It's a small 'kitchen' with few facilities, but it was nice to cook some pasta, even if the sauce wasn't so great.  I hope we'll be able to expand our cooking area so I can make some curry and other great things.  Boiling pasta in a frying pan is not the most effective way.

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Last weekend we went up to Medeo, the highest skating rink in the world, to see the view.  You cannot see Almaty from up there, but the view of the mountains is quite spectacular.  Up there, the air isn't so smoggy, and it was refreshing.  There were people riding horses, and one man even had a trained eagle with him.  It was pretty high up, but you can go even more past the dam to a ski resort that is also open in the summer.

For reference, here are some altitude (metres above sea level) comparisons of some places I've been.
4,979 m - Talgar Peak, the highest mountain in the Trans-Ili Alatau range, about 40 km from downtown
2,451 m - Sulphur Mountain, Banff (family vacation, summer 1997), about 125 km from Calgary
1,984 m - Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield (lower limit)
1,835 m - Medeo dam, approximately (where we were)
1,750 m - Lake Louise (shoreline)
1,691 m - Medeo skating rink
1,304 m - Mount Cindrel, Cisnădie, Romania (winter hiking, New Year's 2011)
1,049 m - Fiesch, Switzerland (Do It! 2010)
1,048 m - Calgary
   500 m - Almaty (lowest point)
     76 m - Toronto
       6 m - Montreal (lowest point)

In short, I thought that this weekend was the highest I'd ever been on Earth (flying excluded, naturally), but it appears that my trip up Sulphur Mountain when I was a kid is still the highest.  Maybe I'll beat it by going to Shymbulak, the ski resort south of Almaty, at an altitude of 2260 to 3200 depending on which lift you take, or maybe at a ski resort in Kyrgyzstan that my team is considering going to this winter.

The mountains here are quite close though, so even on a smoggy day, they still provide quite an impressive view.

Yesterday was a busy, crazy day full of attempted meetings and an official event, so I didn't get a chance to post.  This week's post will be quite disconnected, so be forewarned.

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Yesterday was the Annual Report ... event, which was causing a lot of headaches and running around to do last-minute preparations.  I was trying to have a meeting with my team, but it kept getting delayed.  The most epic reason for a delay?  To help our elderly neighbour weed her garden.  She came over to ask us if we had a sickle or something to cut the weeds with, and it ended up with us pulling out all these four-foot weeds from her garden.  From what I understand, in Kazakh culture neighbours are very important, as is keeping good relations with them.  It was kind of fun/funny, but oh so random.

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This week I had lukewarm showers on two occasions, and this afternoon I actually had a shower that could possibly qualify as hot.  Water temperature seems to be highest in the afternoon, so some tinkering with my schedule will need to be done to take advantage of this.

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Last night, after the official event, we went out to a nearby bar/pub/club that the AIESECers here frequent.  They have two floors, reasonably priced drinks, and on this particular night, a live band.  The band was surprisingly good.  I don't know why it surprised me, but it did.  In between sets they were playing random music and showing short films on a projector screen.  We also met an American and a Brit there, and spent most of the night with them due to our English language connection.  Both seem like cool and interesting people (one travelling here on business, the other living here for the past decade).

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To get around in Almaty, there are buses, streetcars, and a brand-new subway system.  But the most common method is to take a taxi.  But taking a taxi means flagging down a random car from the road, negotiating a price, and getting in.  The prices this way are cheaper than taking a proper taxi, but this isn't hitchhiking, so you do have to pay.  It was so strange for me at first, and I'm not sure if I'll be using it regularly, but it's quite useful at least, when you need to get around in a hurry.  Pretty much anyone will stop and see where you want to go and how much you are willing to pay.  But don't expect a seat belt in the back seat: they hide them or cover them, even though they are required by law.  I find that peculiar.

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I might go to the mountains tomorrow, but I'm rather quite exhausted and there is still much work to do.  Rest assured, though, that if I don't go tomorrow, I will take a trip there at some point this year.  They are quite close, and quite spectacular, so I'd rather spend more time than just a half-day out in the open.

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My latest pair of headphones that I bought in Croatia because I left my previous (decent) pair in Slovenia have a tendency to come apart.  Mainly, the rubber ear buds at the ends don't stay attached to the rest of the headphones, and stick in my ear when I try to take them out.  Good for nighttime earplugs, perhaps, but highly inconvenient otherwise.

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Oh potable tap water, how I miss thee.

My First Week in Kazakhstan

It's Thursday, and I'm going to keep to my schedule.  I found out that blogger and most other blog websites are blocked here in Kazakhstan due to a previous case where two blogs on livejournal and another site were deemed to be a threat to national security (or something to that effect), and so they blocked all such ilk.  I can edit and publish my blog, but I cannot see my blog (yay irony!), though hopefully by next week I can acquire a program that allows me to see it again.

It's been almost one week in Kazakhstan, and things are going okay so far.  No major shocks (well, not too major), but a lot of randomness and a lot of work to do for transition to try and make up for the first three weeks of June that didn't go quite as planned.  It's nice to see my team, all together, and I truly am looking forward to working with them this term.

Minor culture shocks so far:

• The flat has no hot water at all.  Apparently this only happened right before I arrived, but it's still somewhat strange.  For me, I view KZ as a mid-developed country, but it's a bit less developed than I had thought.  So far I'm able the manage the cold showers (which is huge for me, especially with my poor circulation), but I really hope the hot water comes back in the wintertime.
• There is absolutely no recycling here.  And they use plastic bags for everything.  It's a strange dichotomy for me, in that it's developed enough to have a proliferation of plastic bags, but not developed enough to recycle.  I remember (I think) in Kenya, where there also isn't really recycling, there were people who would go around and collect the trash to reuse it in some manner.
• When I first arrived, it was 4 am, my favourite time of day, and dark.  By 4h30am, when we were in the taxi to the flat, it was already light out.  I can't remember the last time I was awake this early when it was light out, and it was quite nice.  But I know then the winter will be that much darker too.  The view of the mountains is quite spectacular.
• Someone thought I was French. :p

The air quality is not that great, but so far I haven't had much of a problem breathing.  It gets quite warm during the day (high 20s-low 30s) and cooler at night (mid-high teens), but it's manageable and quite comparable to Madrid or Toronto, actually.  Winter should be more Calgaryish, I believe, due to the mountains that are really close by.  Their altitudes are somewhat similar (~1000m), but the nearby mountains are much closer and higher here in Almaty, so they seem much more majestic, if that's even possible.  I hope I get the chance to go hiking up in the mountains, because I really do miss the Rockies.

I'm still tired all of the time, possibly still due to jetlag?  I can't sleep in though, which is a good thing, because the MC office and flat are the same place, so when people are coming I have to wake up.

New favourite expression (that still doesn't really make sense to me... something about being quick): "Let's be short and pregnant!"

Until next Thursday!

I've decided I will be updating this every Thursday.  Why?  Because I like Thursdays, and I think that trying to schedule a blog update will actually motivate me to get it done.

Right now I'm at the airport in Barcelona, waiting for my flight to Almaty via Kiev.  I took the overnight bus from Madrid, so I didn't sleep much, and carrying all of my luggage across town made me so ridiculously sweaty that I'm glad I brought an extra shirt to change in to.

My adventure in Kazakhstan is about to start.  Somewhat scary, yes, but also exciting.  It hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm moving halfway across the world for another year; maybe once I get there it will.

It's been a great two weeks in Spain, but I'm glad to finally have my visa and soon a place to call my own.

As a side note, I really need to learn how to properly gauge the weight of my luggage, and/or start getting rid of more things.

Until next week!

New Year's Resolution

So it's been well over a year since I last updated this. It seems no matter how I try, or where I post, or what format, I just don't have the motivation to keep it up for long.

So let's change that.

I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions, but I've made one this year. Two actually: Communication and Commitment.

Anyone who knows me well knows that communication is not my strong point. I've been working on it over the past few years, but sometimes it feels like I have not made any progress at all. For a while last year I was really on top of my email... I even had it down to 9 messages that I had left to deal with after starting with 250... but then I got busy/distracted/etc. and now I'm up to over 450, many of which probably are so old that they don't need to be dealt with anymore. I try tricks and other strategies to improve my email communication, but nothing seems to work over the long term.

I think part of that reason is commitment. I'm committed to what I do, or at least I say I am, but I think I can go further. For me, I'm quantifying commitment as doing everything I can to make something happen; If I'm in, I'm all in. I have a tendency (as demonstrated by this blog), to start things and not finish them. I do consider myself more of an idea generator, and in that personality test I was definitely not an implementer.

So, what does this mean?

First, I'm going to try to post...

no, scratch that, not try...

First, I'm going to post here at least once a month with updates on what's happening in my life. My mom will be happy about that :p but I figure she's not the only one wondering what's going on in my life and where I am. I promise to not pull any more surprises like last summer ("Hi Brett, where are you?" "Oh, just in Kenya for the summer...").

Second, I've changed the way I use my email to better flag what messages I need to tend to, and which ones I don't. I'm trying to respond faster, and not let apathy get the best of me.

Third, I might need your help to keep me going. If you notice that I'm not responding to you, or that I've not done something I said I would do, call me out on it. I may be awesome, but I do need support. :)

So, if you've been waiting for me to do something, and I haven't done it yet, I'm sorry. I am working on it, but sending me a reminder won't hurt. My first priority right now is to my LC, and I know I have to send out a bunch of things related to planning, and I want to get them done tonight.

Later, I'll post updates about what I was up to this past year. But for now, it's back to work.

I could wash my clothes on his stomach

I need to update more. I've been so concerned with updating all the big things that have been happening that I've been neglecting the little things. So I'm going to start blogging about the little things, and bit by bit update the big events, like conferences, travels, and LC visits. They'll be tagged retro so y'all don't get confused.

Just finished watching the Real Madrid vs. AC Milan game of the Champions League (we won 2-0). My goodness, Ronaldo has the body of a Greek god! Also, I was proud that I could tell he is Portuguese (even though I already knew that) based on his accent in Spanish during a post-game interview. Yay me!

Additionally, at the beginning of the month, I was pissed off at the Mercadona (local grocery store) for posting a notice that they would be starting their winter hours a few days later. This basically meant they wouldn't be open by the time I got home from work, and only until 2 pm on Saturdays, closed Sundays. For a country that doesn't get winter, and took all of August off, I was super pissed off. But, it turns out its just the market vendors in the same building who are operating on the new hours, not the grocery store itself. But still, does no one in this country work like a normal* person?

*from my biased North American perspective, of course.

Espanish

I was able to talk to people on the phone in Spanish today, more than once! This is a huge accomplishment for me. When I first came here, I tried to answer in Spanish, but I ended up just saying "sí... sí... uno momento por favor" before passing the phone off to whomever I thought they wanted to speak with.

Now, thanks to a suggestion from Camby, I answer the phone in English. I think this causes people to speak Spanish slower and more clearly, as they can sense that I'm not a native speaker, even though they continue to speak in Spanish. Today I spoke with a businessman about a TN he has taken, and guy who was interested in going on exchange with AIESEC, and a girl who ended up being Scottish so we spoke in English.

Now I just have to learn how to answer the phone and talk in Spanish without the rest of the team giggling behind me, lol.