Kazakhstan

The heating finally came on in my flat a few days ago.  I was freezing and considering wearing a hat and gloves inside.

I had been waking up every day and touching the radiator to see if the heating was on I had been looking forward to this moment. However the morning I woke up to a nice warm flat I also woke up to a flood in the kitchen!  I pipe had burst and was spurting water everywhere! I had a little panic attack and quickly phone the school. 

They sent someone to fix the problem. It took a couple of hours I was waiting in my pajamas for the men to leave because I had to go to school and teach but I didnt want to change in front of the men!

Astana, Kazakhstan.

I went to Astana at the weekend for the first time! I went with Peter and our boss Sam.

The road from Karaganda to Astana is being repaired and the temporary replacement road is terrible! Also my boss isn't the best driver in the world. In fact we were pulled over by the police twice for speeding. 

Peter and I left Sam pant shopping while we went up Baiterek for a pint or two of beer! 

HELLO 

Im back in Kazakhstan!!!

Let's talk about last year. There were a few Americans.  Jon and Paige and then David.  I miss them actually. I think this year will be different without them.  Paige was interesting. She is a talented writer. I actually didnt see very much of her. She left Karaganda and Kazakhstan before her contract finished. 

I am grateful that she arranged for us to go to  Karlag (a soviet concentration camp).

Ok I am sorry I haven't posted on here for such a long time. 

I survived working in Kazakhstan! I will share a few anecdotes and stories with you.

I am currently home for the summer which is going by so quickly. 

It's my in kazakhstan.

One kid made me some origami and wrote on it "happy birthday dear Claire get lucky"

I went for a meal with one of the teachers just a pub really close by. It is a pub downstairs and has a restaurant upstairs. We usually just go to the pub to avoid the really bad karaoke upstairs.

So, we are having a meal and Peter gets up to go to the toilet. He comes back 30 seconds later saying the toilet is out of order and he will have to go upstairs. So he has to go outside and along the street to use the toilet in the restaurant.

All our lessons had to be formally observed. So one of my teens lessons was observed and it went well. I won't have to be watched again. The school is being inspected soon so everyone is a little bit worried. 

There is a brilliant cafe/restaurant just next door to the school. So we have been going in there after work for food and a drink it's great.

At the weekend we went to Karlag a town near by to learn and read about what happened there when Stalin was in power. 

It was incredible I had no idea of the size of the operation and had no idea about Stalin's power and the terrible things that happened. 

The museum was an beautiful building but the building around about it were pretty run down. It's hard to imagine how the people living there survive the extreme winter they get here. 

Today I had to go for my TB test. 

The place was more like a hospital than the last one. It was cleaner. Anyway, we queued up, there were loads of people waiting for their x-ray. 

So we went in to the room. There was a massive machine in one then one the right another woman where a larger woman sat at a computer. She asked for our details. Then we were told to "take off everything" no please here!

One brought in a toy guy which doubled up as a lazer pen. So I confiscated it. what I did not know was when you pulled the trigger you got an electric shock!