A Walk Through the Park

Central Park is in the middle of Astana, not far from my apartment. The online newspaper, Astana Times, had an article about fitness classes being held in the park every Sunday. So Ms Briza Bohne and I decide to go check it out. Briza is very athletic and I pretend to be, so we thought it could be fun. When we got there, however, there was a Junior Olympiad going on with lots of things for kids. We continued to stroll, hoping to find the Zumba class.

...when these guys showed up.

I'd like to see them transform into a car!

And this lovely was on display. I don't know if they were going to demonstrate his hunting abilities. Hunting children?

We wandered around for a bit and stopped at a ropes course, which we decided would be perfect for a last field trip for our students. Please wait with bated breath so see if this field actually occurs!

International Day 2016

One of my favorite school activities is International Day. We all parade with our country flags, embassies come and talk about the countries they represent and give out goodies, and many children and teachers dress in their native costumes. The day has a festive air.

The American girl lived in Yemen for about 6 years. They were forced to leave because of the war, but the family still misses Yemen.

Some of the students in my class.

A beautiful day for a flag parade on the soccer field. We have over 30 nationalities represented.

The 'Merican delegation. Americans and Kazakhs are the two largest populations in the school.

The Indian Cultural Center sent dancers, not all of whom are Indian.

Our librarian, in the middle, is French. She's Indian for a day.

April 2016

We were very busy in April. It seemed we had something every weekend. We had Suess Night, a Talent Show, Parent/Teacher conferences, a run in Almaty, and the Science Fair.  My students had an information essay to complete, a presentation in Cultural Studies, MAP testing and the Science Fair all due in the same week. I bought them a pizza lunch to reward them for all their hard work. Then a three day weekend!

First Suess Night. I had more fun setting up the Great Hall than I did at the actual event.

                               Briza could not believe we were all wearing Thing One and Thing Two wigs!

A Suessical centerpiece

Red fish, two fish. Somewhere in this food is green eggs.

My sweet students

The Talent Show. Students really want to show off their talents. It is quite enjoyable, although I couldn't see very well because the parents were all in the way! Ah, well.

Two ballerinas

Modern Indian dance

She sang James Brown's "I Feel Good"

My favorite performer had the duty of announcer this evening, but after the show was over, she asked Erik, the sound guy, to play some music and she did a special dance. She's quite talented.

The Science Fair was a stressful event for me. It was put on differently than last year, which created a lot of grumbling by the staff. The students worked really hard on their projects, but I was afraid they wouldn't get done. It all worked out in the end.

I love these two

Pete and Repete

Briza and I took off early the next morning for Almaty. Martin was running the marathohn, Briza the half-marathon and I was walking the 10k.

13,000 people participated, with all their friends cheering for us from the bridges.

 Whew! We need a three day weekend! It was Unity Day (formerly known as May Day) and Orthodox Easter, so I went hiking and camping with the hiking group. We went to Vishnevka. That was the place I first hiked in March 2015 in the windy snow. The steppe is beautiful this time of year. It was green and there were still some flowers. Vishnevka has a few small hills. We camped on the steppe. The stars were amazing. The light pollution in Astana is pretty bad, so we cannot see many stars. Early in the morning I got up while it was still dark. The moon was just rising, a yellow half-ball on the horizon. The stars were shining brightly, but there were different constellations. It was exquisite.

Part of the group. We split into different level groups - fast, slow and smell the roses.

We originally decided to camp at Big Salt Lake, but the mosquitoes were so bad, we went back to Vishnevka. We took a little jaunt the next morning before setting out for Astana.

And that was my April. How was yours?