New Traditions

One of my friends recently brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in awhile. Busted! I never like to admit to laziness so I'll say I really haven't had anything interesting to write about. I was thinking about this today and how after being here for awhile, things that I used to find abnormal are just everyday life. I could do an entire blog post about how I hail gypsy cabs everyday, but it just seems so normal to me now. Other things I find to be normal... Stores never have change, celery costs 10 dollars, unedited gangster rap playing at the supermarket, restaurants not having items listed on their menu, and the list goes on.

Anyway, since today is an American holiday I would like to share with you how I spent it being 6000 miles away from home.

For as long as I can remember, my parents had Thanksgiving at their house. I would wake up in the morning and find my mom at the dining room table making unique place settings for everyone. My dad would be in the kitchen chopping onions and carrots and celery for his delicious stuffing. We would then watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and then the dog show. I love watching dog shows with my dog, Jasper. He thinks the tv is magic and all the dogs must be behind it. Poor fella. My grandma, grandpa, and mom's brother would come over and we would all sit around the table and eat until we were too full to move.

The next day, my mom and I would go shopping for Black Friday sales. My dad would turn the leftover turkey into soup to take to his hunting camp the following Monday in hopes of getting a deer for the first day of buck season.

Now things have changed. I am sad to not be there with my family for the second year in a row, but I am excited about trying things out for myself. Therefore, this year I decided to make my very own Thanksgiving feast for Charlie and I. I enjoy cooking and tend to make unusual dishes. I rarely make the same thing twice. Besides looking up some cooking times and temperatures, I decided to make up my own recipes and start my own tradition.

Obviously today is not a holiday in Kazakhstan so Charlie had to go into work. After feeding and walking the dogs, I drank some instant coffee, threw on some make-up and off I went to the bazaar for some fresh fruits and veggies. I opted to take the bus since it was 10 am and I assumed traffic was not bad. The bus wasn't crowded so I took a seat, put in my ear buds and dozed off during the hour long trek across the city. I love shopping at the bazaar during the week because they are practically empty. There are rows and rows of vendors selling fruits,vegetables, spices, nuts, canned goods, and the list goes on.

I walked up to one that caught my eye because she was selling enormous, bright orange persimmons. I bought a kilo of those, some deliciously tart mandarins which she let me test, and a couple apples.

Right beside her a woman was selling vegetables so I bought a huge piece of pumpkin, a butternut squash, green turnips, basil, and the 10 dollar celery.


Before leaving I wanted to find some frozen cranberries. No luck. I had to settle for red currants. And of course I stopped and bought a jar of peanut butter and some treats for the dogs.







I hailed a gypsy cab and made my way back to the apartment.

After I arrived home I decided to start with making my fake cranberry chutney. I emptied the frozen currants into a saucepan and let them heat up. Meanwhile, I decided to take the handful of kumquats I had leftover from a previous shopping excursion and put them in my chopper. I mixed them in with the currants and added some sugar.

Kumquats

Chutney

I then decided to move onto the stuffing. I chopped celery, carrots, garlic, onions and butternut squash. My goal of the day wasn't to be healthy so I sauteed all of it in a "healthy" dose of butter, added some chicken stock, dried cranberries, and some bread cubes I had drying out on a tray since last night. I also used this same mixture plus beets and minus the bread to make a gluten free stuffing since my good friend who can't eat gluten was joining us for dinner.


 My gluten free friend came down to spend the afternoon with me and she brought her two dogs to play with Phantom and Mishka. They all enjoyed the chewy bones I bought them at the bazaar.

After taking a break from the kitchen, I returned to take on the turkey. I purchased a turkey breast at the market on Sunday and it was thawed out and ready to go. Let me tell you a little something about our apartment... We don't have an oven. Scratch that. We have a toaster oven if that counts. I wouldn't have even been able to make a whole turkey if I wanted to because it wouldn't fit in the toaster oven. I placed the turkey breast in a pan with some butter, basil, salt&pepper, carrots and onions, covered it with foil and set the time for an hour. While waiting I made some homemade mashed potatoes.


The chutney turned out a bit sour and the turkey was dry (nothing some gravy can't fix!). The stuffing was excellent. I think I'll have to have a throw down with my dad. The dried cranberries I added to mine really added an interesting touch. We sat down to eat around 7 and finished the meal off with some pecan pie.

Even though I wasn't with my loved ones back home, I spent the day with a great friend, wonderful dogs, and Charlie. I enjoyed creating my own new tradition. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Charity

Last Spring I joined a group called "Community Helpers." This is a group of ladies who, every month put together money to purchase items for people in need. If you're part of this group, you decide how much you want to donate. You can even just donate your time if you don't want to donate money. After the money has been collected, we go purchase various items to put together care packages. The packages are given to the catholic church, and then the Sisters of the church distribute the packages to families in need. On Tuesday the Community Helpers met to go purchase all the items. We first went to the bazaar, Artuem, for the sugar, flour, pasta, rice, soap, detergent, and plastic bags. The shop where we purchase all these items knows we come every month so they now have everything ready and sorted for us. We used to have to buy the the sugar, flour, and pasta in packages, then redistribute it all in plastic bags. Now this shop does all that for us. After Artuem, we made the trek across the city to Metro.

Spotted a train on our way to Metro

Metro is a European chain shopping center. I think it is similar to Sam's club. You have to have a membership card to shop there, and you can buy things in bulk. It is hard to find items in bulk here. Even juice boxes are sold separately! Metro is a bit of a ways outside the city. Nazarbayev University arranges a bus trip out there every Saturday morning for the faculty. I tend to go twice a month. They have hummus and bacon! Plus, this is a place where you can get everything you need in one place, and only pay for your things one time! It's the closest thing to a Wal-Mart so I really enjoy it. If you shop at the bazaar, you have to purchase different items separately from different vendors, which always turns out to be a very long process.

Back to the charity story. We went to Metro to pick up the rest of the items. Tea, bullion, tomato paste, vegetable oil, and powdered creamer.  Metro also now knows we make this monthly purchase so they had all these items ready to go for us. We just had to pay. After we left Metro, we went over to a house where the Sisters of the Catholic Church live. They have a place in their basement for us to sort all of our items. We purchase enough items for thirty families so we start out by setting 30 plastic bags out on the tables. Then we place one of each item on the bags to make sure each family is getting the same items. When we are finished, we leave the packaged bags at the house, and the Sister's deliver them to the families. The Sister's also run a soup kitchen out of this house. They have it every Wednesday and Saturday. I'm going next Tuesday to help peel and chop vegetables for them to make the soup.

Items being sorted.

I'm really glad I found this group of ladies. It's such a great feeling to do something for others.

Mishka

Today I had the experience of going to the vet clinic. Although it wasn't my first time taking Mishka there, I still knew it would be a hectic afternoon.


My very active, playful, happy dog just wasn't acting like herself. I noticed it at first on Sunday. She would just lie on the couch whenever Charlie and I played with Phantom. (She is usually barking really loud and trying to bite Phantom's legs.) Mishka also wasn't eating and she threw up while we were sleeping.

Phantom, our pitbull, was so worried about her. He kept following me around and whining. Then he would lay by her and take her toys. Such a sweet dog.

I was also very worried so I decided we needed a vet. I called our dog sitter to have him accompany me so he could help translate. I arranged for a taxi and off we went. You don't have to make an appointment at the vet clinic. Just show up and they'll see you on a 'first come first serve' basis. When we walked in the door, the ladies who worked at the clinic got huge smiles on their faces, and shouted, "Mishka!" I couldn't believe they remembered her from a year ago when I went to have her spayed. We lifted Mishka up on the table, they drew blood, gave her iv fluids and a couple shots. The doctor said she was probably bit by a tick. She wants us to come back every day for the next three days for treatment. It cost about $25 for the treatment, and would only be $10 for the additional three treatments. I'll pay more for the taxi we take there and back! 

After the treatment, the doctor asked if I wanted a kitten because they had so many that had been abandoned. I said no, but I wanted to see them anyways. I brought one out and introduced her to Mishka. Mishka was more afraid than the kitten was! Here is a picture of Mishka looking annoyed and the kitty looking curious.

By the time evening rolled around, Mishka had already perked up quite a bit. I'll get the results of the blood test tomorrow and start round two of the treatment.  That was my vet experience. I'm so happy it turned out to be very pleasant.

Kazakh Instruments

Last Wednesday, I went to the Radisson for a weekly coffee outing that the club i belong to hosts. Every other week we have a guest speaker. Our Russian tutor had the brilliant idea of setting up a performance with traditional Kazakh instruments. The female performers were wearing beautifully detailed, and very traditional Kazakh dresses complete with the pointy hats. If you visit Kazakhstan, and you attend a wedding, upscale dinner, party, festival, etc, you will definitely get a performance complete with dancers donning these traditional clothes.

Here is a picture of me with two of the performers.







The hats you see in the picture above are part of the costume. The style of hat you wear will change when you get married, then again when you have your first child. The skull cap is called a Takiya, the warmer hat is called a Borik, and the wedding hat is called a Saukele. Most of the hats are decorated at the top with a burst of feathers. These feathers not only serve as decoration, but also as a symbol of good luck and fortune.

We have a cluster of these feathers in our apartment. Maybe that's how we survived the winter!

Moving onto the instruments...









Dombra

The lady pictured on the left traveled all the way from the southern Kazakh city, Almaty. She has been a music teacher for over 15 years. The instrument she is holding is called a Dombra. This instrument is typically seen with two strings, although they can also have three. The dombra was considered the most necessary thing in the life of the Kazakh people.
















Zhetygen

The girl on the left is playing an instrument called a Zhetygen. This is a seven-string plucking instrument, similar to a lying harp.

Check out the videos below to hear the sounds of the Dombra and the Zhetygen. Thanks for stopping by! I had a very eventful week, so look forward to more posts on my daily life in Kazakhstan.

Masseuse Abuse

It's Monday! That means I had Russian class this morning. Our class is very laid back and basic. Every Monday we are given a new list of vocab words. Today we spent most of the class going through the numbers. I have had a couple tutors since moving to Kazakhstan, so I know my numbers and can speak very little. "Ya gavaru choot choot pa russki." Aka, I speak little Russian. Even though I already know most of the things we are learning, I still take the class because it really inspires me to try harder with learning the language. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've lived here for a year and a half, and can only speak a tiny bit. My goal isn't to read Tolstoy or anything, but I really would like to communicate in any situation that comes at me.

This afternoon I had an appointment for a deep-pore-cleansing facial. I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew it would be painful. For some reason, now that I'm in my 27th year of life, I have more pimples on my face than I have had in my entire life. My feet have also grown from a size 6 to a 7...puberty round two??? Maybe I will finally grow from my measly 5'0 status to a model-esque 5'7. A girl can dream, right? Anyways, back to the facial. My first facial was done here in Astana about six months ago. I can't really remember what was done first, but I definitely remember the lady using one of those metal pimple extracting tools. At the end, she used this incredible gel mask that hardened and peeled off in one, smooth, cooling piece. Today was a bit different. My first facial was done at a spa, so this time I tried an actual cosmetology center. Sounded legit.

The cosmetologist cleaned my face, put on a warming cream, wrapped it in saran wrap, and let me lie there for about 10 minutes. When she came back, I knew it was time for the extraction. I was nervous yet anxious to find out what her technique would be. She used a "pierce with needle then squeeze" technique. I have seen this done on very deep, so-called blind pimples, but never on the type of zits I had. It actually wasn't as painful as that metal extracting device from the last place, but she didn't use that awesome mask at the end. So they tie when it comes to comfort level. I'm hoping I wake up tomorrow or the next day with radiantly clear skin. Right now, I look like a meth addict who needs a fix.

Are facials supposed to be relaxing? I believe that some probably are, but not the kind I need. Something else that should be relaxing, but never is for me, is a massage. My first experience with meeting our masseuse happened hours after I first arrived in Kazakhstan. I realize that "our masseuse" sounds extremely pretentious, but I can assure you that it shouldn't. Anyways, there I was standing  in the living room, bloated from retaining about 25 gallons of water, and having to get naked for this stranger to massage me. I was nervous, but when she arrived at our place, she seemed like such a sweet lady. And she was. Until about the 5th or 6th time she came over. By this time, we kinda knew each other so I think she felt like we were good enough friends for her to critique me. She started telling me I was fat. Literally pulled the skin below my belly button, looked me in the eye, and said, 'tisk tisk Jessica.' She would then fiercely wrap me in saran wrap so I could sweat the fat out. I put up with it because she really is awesome at getting my knots out, and she comes to the apartment.

Does beauty really have to be so painful?

Eagilik

This afternoon, I went out for lunch with a couple friends to a place called Eagilik Books and Coffee. I have heard countless people talk about this place ever since I arrived in Astana. So FINALLY I went to check it out. In my hometown, there is a place called The Commonplace. This is a coffee shop that is known not only for it's delicious coffee, but for it's calm and relaxing atmosphere. The reason why I mention this is because that is exactly what Eaglik reminded me of. Delicious coffee and wait for it... Oreo cheesecake, quishe, and cinnamon rolls! Needless to say I was in heaven. Why? Well, Oreo's are basically non existent in Kazakhstan, and so are "American-style" cinnamon rolls. I indulged in a 'kofe Amerikano smolokom y bulochka c kuritze.' In English, Americano coffee with milk and a cinnamon roll. I am such a pro at ordering an american coffee with milk in Russian, because I order one every time I go to a restaurant.

Eagilik Books & Coffee

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today so I didn't get any pictures. I got the one pictured above from the website I helped design for the club I belong to. (More on that at a later date.) Anyways, you can become a member of this coffee shop for 3000 tenge. That is equivalent to 20 US dollars. With this membership you can check out books and movies from their very own personal library. Yes, they are in English. Score! It is always nice finding places like this to make you feel more at home.

Since I didn't take any pictures today, I will leave you with some pictures I took last week while walking to see the Kimono exhibit I posted about yesterday.

Adorable tunnel in Highvill Park

 Palace of Peace and Reconciliation - Although this building was constructed to host the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, it also hosts art exhibits and boasts a 1500 seat Opera house.

The round building is commonly referred to as the "Dog Bowl." It is actually an art school where my art teacher just graduated from. 

 

One of the many seasonal workers who help create the intricate patterns of flowers you see around the city.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Itchiku Kubota

Last Thursday, I ventured over to the Palace of Independence for the first time in my year and a half of living in Astana. The Palace of Independence is a place where you can see art exhibits and even take art classes. The building a a work of art itself. The outside is covered in the typical blue glass that you will see on many of the buildings throughout the city. Over top of the blue glass, is a diamond like pattern of white...poles?

Palace of Independence

The reason why I visited this building was to see an exhibit by a Japanese artist named Itchiku Kubota. Kubota is considered the most important Japanese textile artist of the 20th century. His specialty was creating kimonos with a special technique called, Tsujigahana. This technique was used way back in the 15th century and Kubota spent 30 years of his life working to reinvent this lost technique.

When he was 20 years old, he saw a fragment of  a textile in the Tokyo National Museum that was created with the Tsujiguhana technique. Unfortunately, Kubota was captured and sent to a Siberian labor camp and spent his 20s locked away. He used this time to become more inspired to create these works of art. Every day he watched the beautiful Siberian sunset and incorporated this picturesque scene into his first Kimono.

Left: Japanese Ambassador's Wife with The Burning Sun Kimono     Right: The Burning Sun detail

Burning Sun detail

It wasn't until Kubota was 60 years old, that he finally put his first kimono on display. His lifework is called "Symphony of Light." It is consists of 80 kimono's representing the 4 seasons. Only 46 kimonos have been completed upon his death in 2003. Because of the immense detail going into these kimonos, it took an entire year to complete only 3 kimonos.

Symphony of Light winter series

Kubota used chirimen (silk crepe) as the fabric base for the kimono. Most of them are furisode (long sleeved). The panels of fabric would be shaped and dyed independently, called shibori. After this timely process, the pieces were then joined together to form the robe.

I hope you enjoyed my post on Itchiku Kubota!