June 17, 2012

An apparent routine has developed: I get up relatively early, make coffee and sit down to write my blog, and look at the photos taken the day before while Valerie sleeps usually until ten. It had started raining lightly before she woke up and thus the day didn’t seem like a promising one for doing anything outside. Valerie informed she she’d give me the key to the apartment as she’d spending all afternoon at the American Corner doing TOEFL preparation and then running a movie club. I made myself a cup of muesli and after exchanging some money, set out for the Panfilov Park beyond which I would be able to visit the Grand Mosque. I was off by a couple of blocks and ended up at a brand new Christian Orthodox Church being built behind the Zeilony Bazaar. The neighborhood was a grim one with one story houses looking as if they had been through a civil war, and no paved sidewalks which made it difficult to walk after the heavy rains the night before.

I retraced my steps and found Pushkin Street and then the mosque, built in 1999, to which a lot of families seemed to come in just to have their photos taken outside while wearing their finest Sunday clothes. I didn’t go inside being aware of the prohibition for women to enter the general area and instead retraced my steps to the Panfilov Park so as to get my bearings while seating under a shaded bench. By looking at the map, I noticed I wasn’t too far from the Gorki Park and made my way there as the rain sprinkled on and off. There was a grand entrance to the park where vendors were hawking all kinds of knick knacks intended mostly for children such as balloons in the shape of Mickey Mouse and the like. It cost 50 tenge, or 33 cents, to get in and the place was jammed packed with families, couples and hordes of teenager males looking bored. The highlight of the day at the park was a presentation by a group of Tatarstan people who had come in their traditional costumes to offer songs, dances and goodies to sell. I noticed that most of the entertainers were decidedly on the senior citizen side and no young people could be seen around helping out in any capacity.

Gorki Park is a combination urban park, amusement park, Aquatic Park and a favorite place to celebrate weddings. I walked for hours pausing a couple of times to ask a few women to allow me to photograph them with their impossibly high heel shoes with which they walk all over town without apparently ever toppling over. I managed to communicate with the bus driver that I needed to get off at Furmanov Avenue in order to meet with Valerie at the American Corner and then decide what to do for dinner. She dropped me off at the right intersection and I made a detour to the Tsum Department Store to find another magnet for Ryan and look for that elusive spoon my brother-in-law would like to add to his collection.

Just as the Lonely Planet had described it, the first floor was a beehive of cell phone vendors each jammed with many customers admiring, trying on or buying new cell phones. I really cannot explain the appeal of this type of set up. I went up directly to the third floor where souvenir stores are gathered and quickly found a magnet for 580.00 tenge or under 4.00 dollars. I walked around trying to find the spoon, but only found cigarette lighters, key holders, flasks, and wooden spoons. A couple of sales ladies who spoke some English also tried to help me out, but with no success. I made it to the American Corner as the movie was about to end and caught with my email for a few minutes.

Valerie decided to join the Fulbrighters in the area who were free now that Tech Forum was over and we met them at a restaurant near her apartment. I was thirsty and ordered a big bottle of water with gas and was brought the tiny Perrier bottle costing 600.00 or $4.00. I told the server I wanted a big bottle of the local water and he responded that was all he had to offer. I returned the bottle of Perrier and decided not to order anything. Jenna, Danielle, Maria and a guy from the UK had already eaten and were in the middle of smoking a hookah pipe as were most of the diners at the tables around us. Valerie ordered plov and was brought a tiny round container with plov decorated with strips of beef and vegetables. She had drunk her little bottle of local water in one long sip.

When it was prudent enough, I bid everyone goodbye as I made my way to the supermarket to buy my dinner: water, plov, marinated eggplant and Greek salad, and I paid about ten dollars for everything. Valerie returned to the apartment with Danielle as she had a meeting with her new landlord and needed someone to interpret. Internet access had been available at the apartment the whole time she’d been here, but she didn’t know it. I decided to watch a movie, “Arranged”, about a friendship between two school teachers, one Jewish and the other Muslim, that had been recommended to me and which I found full of clichés. Valerie tried to skype with her parents as it was Father’s Day in the States. I had only realized that after checking the postings on Facebook.

I went to bed at nine as I could not keep my eyes open any longer while  wondering how I was going to spend the next two days as I seemed to have pretty much run out of options unless I chose to go out of town, but without someone who spoke the language, that option seemed moot.