This month of March has been filled with lots of activities!
First we had our First Annual Oscar Movie Night. All the classes made a film and had it edited by the technology class. All the films were shown in a Film Festival format, with different films shown in different venues at different times. It all took place in 1 hour. The awards ceremony was a black tie affair with a red carpet.
I don't always go to the Oscars, but when I do, I go with these two.
Some people were not as serious as some others. Clearly NOT understanding the whole red carpet thing.
Some of my students on the red carpet.
Next up in the month was Russian Orthodox beginning of Lent. The Orthodox calendar is different from Western Christianity. For instance, Christmas is January 7 and Easter is May 8. The 13th of March was their "Mardi Gras." There were a couple of celebrations. Dominique and I went to one on the north side. A platform was set up for performers to sing and dance. A large banner was behind the platform. It said "Goodby Winter, Hello Spring!" Then it started snowing heavily. The celebration was moved indoors. Usually these celebrations include blinis, a delicious crepe with filling, and burning old woman Winter in effigy. Neither of these happened, perhaps because of codes prohibiting lighting fires indoors.
I think perhaps the unmarried maidens had the flowers in their hair, while the old crones wore hats.
Very beautiful brocade vests.
The weeklong Nauruz holiday kicked off on Friday with a celebration at school. Nauruz celebrates spring, and the equinox and Kazakhs consider it a new year, although it doesn't really begin to feel like spring until late April.
There were traditional Kazakh games of strength, strategy and feats of daring.
This was a wrestling match. The skinny girl pinned the big girl. haha
Students against teachers in a tug o' war.
And performances by some of the students. One of my male students played the dombra, a two stringed instrument. He did a good job.
Ah! Finally, school is out and I can go play. I went to Almaty with the hiking group.
Panorama
Lunch break
We hiked up 5km to this meadow, where we stopped for lunch. It was a bright sunny day, about 46 degrees. We were at about 2,200 meters elevation. Many people realized they had gotten sunburned. "Princess" Tomato (so called by a couple of the women) was sunburned the worst of all. He wrapped a scarf around his head and face. Here he looks like he's joining ISIS.
Instead of hiking back down the same way, we went forward another 7km. That part of the hike was very easy. We got to the trailhead and our guide said, "Now we just hike down to the road." Understatement. The road was another 4km away. We traversed the mountain. We started near Shymbulak and ended at Presidential Park. I know that means nothing to you, but it means we hiked a loooong way. The next day we hiked 7km uphill. We're just gluttons for punishment.
On Tuesday, Red Bull was sponsoring the Jump and Freeze, which I had to see. Many ski resorts have a last hurrah at the end of the season called a pond skim. The idea is to try to ski/snowboard across the water without falling in. The water is 32-33 degrees. The idea in the Jump and Freeze is to jump and freeze. Participants dressed up in elaborate costumes. Elephants, birthday cakes, guitarists and others all froze.
There is no way anyone could jump across that pond. The bump before the water gets participants airborne.
Betty and Wilma were there, too.
There goes the Flintstones' car!
Yes, KISS was there, too.
The Soviet tank was the best. It took some getting into. One guy was on skis, the other on a snowboard. Both guys had foam helmets on. The crash was spectacular and got a huge cheer from the crowd.
Dressed in a belly dancer costume, her sign says "Flying Carpet." She seemed nervous and got a lot of instructions from the handlers.
But she did indeed fly.
One of the last was the sexy kitten.
Nice jump!
Red Bull Jump and Freeze is on YouTube. They have them at resorts all over the world.
Now I have 3 more days of holiday. It was windy, rainy and cold today. In like a lion, out like a lamb!
