Flex Gym (Flex, Jim!)

Jim says...

To keep from getting too fat from the copious good food and fairly sedentary life here in Taraz, I've been working out at the local soccer stadium's "Flex Gym." They run a tight ship at the Flex.

The fourteen year old girl running the front desk has come down on me for wearing my street shoes into the gym. I, of course, thought she was asking me if I wanted another bottle of water and replied, in Russian, "Not right now." Now I understand how wars can start from a simple miscommunication. I assume they want to keep the street grime on the street and off their rubber mats. Additionally, though I've told her I can only speak a very small amount of Russian, she has explained at length that one does not jump off the moving treadmill to get their water bottle, complete with a full introduction on how to use the emergency chord. Perhaps even better was her standing about two feet from me, arms crossed, as I started the machine back up for my run. There's nothing like an audience for inspiring a good run. I really had to fight my urge to glare and shout "DA?? CHEHVO??" I was later told this would have been exceptionally rude. I've also had a female staff person whom I'd wrongly assumed was a member try to correct my form on one machine. What was funny was her correction was one that I wanted to give another fellow in the U.S. just before having a trainer use the fellow as an example of correct form. Needless to say, there's some amount of well-intentioned but unwanted attention I'm getting at the gym.

The gym is actually really nice. It's clean, has a great variety of weight equipment (if lacking on cardio equipment) and offers showers, locking lockers for free, and a variety of refreshments. The posters on the wall are a riot. Muscle-bound freaks looking seconds away from a steriodal rage and medically-enhanced softcore female shots remind you that even in Taraz, Kazakhstan (population 400,000), it's all about image. The workout music has given me a chance to catch what passes for Top 40 in KZ. It's flimsy catchy stuff just like ours but just add in an occasional accordion. They also crank up the metal, in particular German industrial metal hit "Du Hast (Mich Gefragt)." I halfway wondered what kind of looks I'd get if I let out the loudest grunt my vocal chords could muster in response.

Socially, the people in the gym are usually nice. A few guys whom I would guess were either Georgian, Turkish, or something west of here definitely stared at me. But, I should note that I wear shorts and t-shirts which in this season the locals think are a death-wish -- or more accurately asking for the flu. Men in KZ only wear dark clothes. So, my green shorts and concert shirt may look bizarre, leaning towards fruity. What can I say? I packed light. What's more, I don't much care if they think I'm Bozo the Clown. I'm there to sweat and get my workout done. The tradition I like is when a newcomer shakes hands with each person at the gym. It's not to meet people or network or anything of the sort. It's a Kazakh custom, probably from their laid-back nomadic days. However, everyone does it. Pretty cool. Bear in mind, this is not Bally's with hundreds of people. Six is the most I've seen at Flex. Working out in KZ is a fairly new thing.

Tips for Future Travelers

Don't bring anything unless you just simply can't live without a certain brand or a certain something. For example: my husband and coffee. All the coffee here is Nescafe. Jim brought some ground Starbucks and a French press so he could brew it in the room.

Call Sara or Beth at Interlink when you get here. Main office # is 45 41 01 or 45 38 97. Call during business hours--voicemail is nonexistent. Interlink has a welcome package with a map of the area featuring US friendly restaurants, grocery stores, etc. They also have a library of about 200 DVDs you can borrow. And if you want your video camera batteries recharged (or anything that needs a US plug) Sara can do it at her desk. They can also help out with any questions you have--just ask!And Sara makes the best pizza in town so try to get invited to some sort of Interlink get-together :)

At restaurants, any of the pizzas are safe (safe meaning, no strange ingredients like sheep's head). Also, doner kebab is like a gyro. Any of the kebabs are safe, provided you like the taste of gyros (lamb). What we think of as a kebab is called a 'shashlik' here. The salads might seem odd but they are good. They aren't bowls of lettuce but more like chicken salad--chopped veggies sometimes with vinegar dressing, sometimes with mayo dressing.

About 1/3 of the time we order something and are told it isn't available so have a backup plan :)

Also, they don't give you a lot of time between sitting down and ordering and they expect you to order everything--drinks, food--at once. Learn the phrase "minoot koo"--it means give me a minute, please. Menus at the popular restaurants will be in English but the ingredients generally won't, so you'll be able to read that it is a "Malibu Salad" but not that it has tomatoes, etc. in it. The menu at the Gazovik has everything in English--names of the dish and ingredients and the Sakartvelo menu has many of the ingredients in English.

Learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You can read a lot of the signs by sounding things out if you know that C makes the 's' sound, P makes the 'r' sound, etc. And, if you learn the vocabulary for typical ingredients in Russian (tomato, corn, meat, chicken, etc.) you can sound out the ingredients and know what is on that pizza you just ordered.

When ordering water: 'vada biz gaza' is without bubbles. 'vada su gaza' is with bubbles. All restaurants also have Pepsi, Fanta, etc.

If there is a charge of about 25-30 tenge on your bill and you can't figure out what it is for you have probably fallen for the bread basket trick. That bread you ate isn't free. But at about 20 cents, who's complaining? Also, they do add a 10% service fee to the bill.

Vera sells Avon!

Bring a gift for the judge and prosecutor even if your agency says not to. We hear they are big on hunting.

Bring 5 or 6 extra small gifts for helpful people along the way. For example, Sara at Interlink set us up with a Kazakh college student who took us to the bazaar so we could see what it was like and so that he could practice his English with us. He wouldn't let us pay him so we gave him a gift (via Sara).

If you are going to do laundry at the hotel buy liquid Woolite. I've seen all kinds of powdered soap for automatic washers but haven't noticed soap for doing laundry by hand. I'm sure they have it, I just haven't seen it.

Bring good earplugs. Our hotel room practically faces the square and there is always someone out there at 1 a.m. There is also some guy who can't figure out how his car alarm works but tries almost every night and every morning at about 7. Earplugs are so tiny you won't notice the extra weight in your luggage :)

Bring chapstick and hand sanitizer. Unless you are particular about brands, buy shampoo and lotion here (nothing worse than having that stuff leak in your luggage). They have a bunch of US brands as well as Western Europe brands.

Gros supermarket carries a wide variety of frozen pizzas. I've wondered if the kitchen staff here at the Gazovik would heat one up for us. I haven't asked but I bet they would.

Vera can get a small fridge for your room as well as a set of plates. Ask at the hotel restaurant for silverware. We used a hotel coffee spoon to feed Alex 1/2 jar of baby food each morning at the baby house. Also good to bring one or two of the tiny Ziploc or Glad plastic containers--we put 1/2 the baby food in it each day.

Interlingua's phone number (where you can take the classes on Kazakh culture and history) is 45 30 82. They all speak English--or ask for Adilya. Set this up early, the first week you get here, so you have time to take a good number of classes.

Depending on where you have a layover, get about $50-60 of that local currency before leaving the US. We had euros (thanks, Genie!) to spend in Frankfurt so we could get a little lunch.

Don't bring a donation for the baby house. The director will tell Vera what she wants the last week you are here.

Don't buy "Daisy Bloom" brand baby wipes. They smell strongly like the most flowery perfume ever. Makes me gag just thinking about it.

At the Orthodox Church (which is breathtakingly beautiful!) women traditionally wear a scarf over their heads, tied under the chin.

Before leaving the US check on phone card charges per minute. If you buy a phone card here you will spend $1+ /minute to the US.

We wish we had brought small plastic water bottles to carry around with us rather than buying them whenever we got thirsty. Buy bottles with a wide neck so it is easy to fill them from the water you buy at the grocery store.

There is no Equal/Nutrasweet, etc. here so if you have to have it, bring it. There is 'Pepsi Light', which we think has 1/2 the sugar. There used to be Diet Coke, but no more. Maybe it will return??

Bring a travel alarm clock--there isn't one provided in the room.

Bring a leatherman, Swiss army knife or small toolkit just in case. Don't pack it in carry-on.

Be VERY CAREFUL crossing the street. Look both ways and then look again. And one more time. A lot of times people stop for us and let us through because I think they can tell we are foreigners and are just being nice but still....look out!

If you bring flowers to someone (say, if you are going to their house for dinner) bring an odd number. Even numbers of flowers are for funerals and the dead, odd are for the living.

Sakartvelo (the Georgian restaurant) and the gym by the soccer stadium are closed on Sundays.

Sakartvelo has GREAT food! Their Greek salad is wonderful and their grilled meats are awesome, especially the pork shashlik.

Bathroom Break(down)

GOOD:
Good public restroom at Gros supermarket--downstairs and take a right. The "M" is for men, the "X" with a line through it is for women.
Interlink has the best bathroom in KZ!
Interlingua also has a nice bathroom. Watch out for the tricky lock.
Sakartvelo bathroom is also nice--toilet paper, soap AND paper towels! Hat trick!
Bathroom at Umit (orphanage) is quite nice but no toilet paper or soap. Also, the toilet doesn't flush properly so you have to fill a bucket (provided) and pour it into the toilet to 'flush'.
UPDATE--on my 2nd trip we ate at King David, a Jewish restaurant. Excellent facilities!

SO-SO:
Bathroom at Sanprize restaurant has no light so they gave me a candle to use when I had to go. It did have a toilet, soap and paper towel. Hard to tell cleanliness in candlelight.
Surprisingly, the bathroom at one of the newest restaurants in town, City Center, is a squatty potty but is quite clean (porcelain fixtures but basically a hole in the ground. The odd thing here is that the women's part has two porcelain holes with no barrier between them. Who wants to squat next to a friend, much less a perfect stranger????). Still, usable and clean. Kind of like if you were camping and had to go but there was porcelain available.
Bosfor also has unisex bathroom with squatty potties. You go into the bathroom and there is a room with a pedestal sink with two doors just beyond. Behind each door is a squatty potty (one per room, unlike City Center).
LL Restaurant is similar to Bosfor--unisex, everything in its own little room. I think LL is more like a banquet hall--it is where we went for the big 50th birthday party.

UNVERIFIED:
Marmaris has squatty potty, not sure of cleanliness factor.
Cafe Istanbul has squatty potty, not sure of cleanliness factor.

All toilet paper is either one ply, brown and smooth or thick, brown and crinkled (like thick crepe paper). So if you're picky, bring some from home.

How To Connect To The Internet from Hotel Gazovik Without Calling Nursat Guy

If you want to call Nursat Guy that is your choice but try this first:

Get an icard at Gros supermarket
Scratch off the number on the back
Set up a dial up connection to phone number 9,,,911 911
Use 'nursat' as both the login and the password (this will allow temporary access so you can set up your real account)
While waiting for connection, scratch of silver at the bottom right corner on the front of the card--you might win a prize (we won a mousepad!).
Once connected, go to www.nursat.kz
At the top of the page there is a teeny drop down menu. It will be in Cyrillic letters that look like PYCCKNN. Pull it down so it says "English".
You will go to a page in English with a couple of choices up top. Choose "Open New Internet Account"
You will be asked to accept their rules.
The next page has a place to enter the icard number. Enter it, then scroll down to the bottom. There will be a spot for you to enter a login name. There will already be a "C" there. You have to keep the C, then choose a login name that is 5 letters or less. Every time you enter a letter you will get an error message from Windows. Just close the error message box and keep typing in your login name.
Enter a password of your choosing in the next 2 boxes. Then choose a question (mom's maiden name or whatever) and answer. Click Create.
The page will say you have created the account with your login name. You have to click the button at the bottom of that page to fully activate the account.
Close the connection, then redial the connection using the login and password you just created (remember, it will start with C), and password.

Genghis Khan

We have heard many times that all Kazakhs are descended from one of three tribes, each of which lived in a certain region in ancient times and had a number of sub-tribes below them. Even modern Kazakhs know what tribe they are descended from. We found out last night that Medet is a rarity in that he is not descended from one of the tribes. He is actually a direct descendent of Genghis Khan. So if Kazakhstan decided to have a monarchy he would be in line for the throne.


This morning we went and picked up Alex and took him to the photo store to take passport pictures. He was very cute, all bundled up, and very quiet during the car ride. He has never been in a car so it was pretty interesting for him. After the photos we went to the amazingly beautiful Russian Orthodox church in town. There were many people there since it is Sunday and getting close to Easter. There are no pews; everyone stands. People were lined up to receive communion and blessings. There were a few groups of about 5 people who had the most amazing voices and took turns singing the most beautiful hymns I have ever heard. We wandered around a bit but couldn't take any photos since so many people but we hope to go back before we leave on Wednesday.

Double Feast Day

I can say that we are definitely the most well fed Americans to have ever visited Taraz. Today we had not one, but two stomach-expanding feasts.

We got to the baby house this morning knowing that they had planned a Nauryz celebration program and lunch. We thought they were going to have the kids come in and sing traditional songs, do traditional dances and then we would have some tea and cookies. Boy were we wrong! The party was supposed to start at 10:00 but one of the special invited guests was running late so we had our visit with Alex and returned at 1:00. When we got to the party room there were at least 80 people there. Many of the baby house workers were wearing traditional Kazakh clothing and one of the doctors was playing the dombra (Kazakh two-stringed instrument) and singing. This went on for some time and then they played out many of the Kazakh traditions that we had learned about at our Interlingua classes--what they do when a baby is born, when he turns 1, etc. Then we all got up to go out while the room was set up for the feast.

And what a feast it was! The table was piled with food and drink--salads, fruits, vegetables, cognac, vodka, etc. We tried a little bit of everything and did many toasts. We forgot that this is only the beginning. Soon the 'first main course' came out, a delicious soup named after the holiday. Then the 'second main course' came out, a dish called beshbarmak (translated it means 5 fingers because you traditionally eat it with your fingers), which is lots of meat on top of tasty wide noodles. Since we were honored guests, sitting at the head table with the orphanage director and other distinguished guests, we got the first serving and it was so much food and quite delicious. And I'm going to have to admit it--we ate horse. And it was delicious. No lie. I'll end it there, you can debate amongst yourselves. All I'm going to say is you don't know what you're missing.

To say we were stuffed would be an understatement. It was about 4:00 by this time and we went up to Alex's room so we could have a shortened afternoon visit. We met another set of his nannies and they were very nice, saying how much Alex looks like Jim. It was heartwarming to see them interact with him and to see him get so excited when he recognized us. He has 2 new bunkmates who arrived recently and they are very cute babies.

We left at 5:00 and went back to the hotel to rest up before going to Slava's house for dinner. Again, a huge meal with shashlik, and lots of tasty salads. Vera and Medet were invited, too, and Marlin (Slava's wife's brother) and Natasha were there, as well as Marlin's mother. We learned that the woman who we thought was Marlin's wife from the birthday party a few weeks ago was actually a friend named Ira (pronounced EE-ra). She's the one who got us in so much trouble with the toasting and drinking. A little mix-up but at least we now know who's who and it is true--Marlin's wife, Natasha, does not drink.

We had lots of fun eating, toasting, telling stories, sharing photos of our trip and videos of Sam, and playing guitar. We taught them "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and had them clapping at the appropriate times. Marlin played and sang a beautiful song as did Karina. As the evening was winding down Elvina, Slava's wife, said they had gifts for us. They brought out the coolest stuff--traditional Kazakh outfits for both Jim and I plus some accessories and a Kazakh hat for Sam and some toys for Alex. We were really excited and totally blown away by their generosity. We started getting a little choked up when they were helping us into our new clothes and Jim gave a toast thanking them for everything and especially for being our family on the other side of the world. We are so blessed to have met them and shared so many good times in the short time we've been here. We are planning on going to the big town Nauryz festival that is on the square on Tuesday and we will, of course, be wearing our new outfits.

We have just about a week left in Kazakhstan and only 4 days left in Taraz and we are getting sad at the prospect of leaving this wonderful town and these wonderful people. And, of course, we will be missing Alex during the month we are in the US before I return to pick him up.

Three Day Post

We had a celebratory dinner Wednesday night with Vera and Medet since we had had a good outcome at Guardianship Council. We also found out that our final court date will be Wednesday the 23rd at 3:00 so we should make our return date (but not come home early as the airlines have all kinds of dumb rules) AND get on the nicest train in KZ from Taraz to Almaty, locally known as the Spanish train. For the first time in weeks we went to a restaurant that was not Turkish. It was a nice break from eating lamb, kebabs and pizza. We had some tasty Korean type dishes as well as fish. We also made many toasts with the bottle of cognac Vera and Medet ordered for the table. We had a great dinner and told lots of funny stories and laughed a lot. We will really miss them when we have to leave. They are the perfect mix: business-like and professional but with a personal touch.

Thursday--typical schedule of visits with Alex and free time. We went back to the bazaar between our Alex visits and took photos this time. Wanted to buy a rug but they are all machine-made of synthetic yarn. We were looking for a traditional Kazakh rug but there weren't any. As with the rest of the world, the majority of the goods available at the bazaar are made in China.

Alex's nannies told Vera he is getting more spoiled by the day: wanting to be held non-stop, insisting on being fed first, etc. We showed him some short videos of Sam that we were able to upload to our computer before we left the US and he seemed interested.

Taraz started on some kind of city-wide spring cleaning today. As we drove to the baby house in the morning we noticed school kids out on the sidewalks sweeping with small brooms made of twigs. I guess since all the snow melted and it was sunny out and Nauryz is coming up (major holidy similar to Chinese New Year) everyone is out getting ready.

Today (Friday) was a busy day, getting all our final papers done before court Wednesday (Saturday through Tuesday are official holidays for Nauryz), going back to the bazaar and some stores to buy toys to donate to the baby house, taking our final language/culture class at Intrlinga and buying train tickets. The Spanish train was already booked full so we bought a compartment to ourselves (4 tickets) on one of the older trains. Pray that we won't have to use the bathroom often--I hear they are awful.

When we got to the baby house this morning all the workers were outside cleaning everything in site--pruning trees, pulling weeds, washing the windows, etc. Everyone seemed really cheerful, as if they were happy spring was coming and it was a relief to be outside in the fresh air. It was fun to watch them smiling and laughing with each other and the weather was perfect. In the afternoon, after doing all the shopping, notarizing, etc. we got to go through the museum, which was closed a few days ago. It is very nice and they have many interesting archaeological artifacts as well as many exhibits devoted to the different times in Kazakh history. Well worth the $3 it cost us to get in, which included a guided tour with an English speaking guide!


Meat at the bazaar. All of it is out in the open--no refrigeration. The funniest thing was seeing this big cold case that was totally empty except for a few apples--and about 100 lbs. of meat resting on top of the cold case, out in the open. For a traditional Kazakh feast a cooked sheep's head is presented to the guest of honor so some lucky devil got to eat the stuff in this photo. By the way, the eyeball is the most savory part.