March in Almaty, and April in Paris
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
29
32
Trip End
Jun 14, 2007
Almaty,
Kazakhstan
Saturday, March 17, 2007
"KC Blues"- byCharlie Parker
Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven't written any time sooner.
I've been kind of busy with the every day stuff in life. Zhanara and I had some friends over the last couple weeks. Zhanara's old house mate and classmate at Stanford Tania, came from Pakistan. She is doing her fieldwork there. Nick and Tania made our apartment their midyear meeting point. He flew in from Canada via Marseille where he was attending a math conference.
During this same week, my friend and old coworker from Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Christa came to Kazakhstan
Christa attending many parties.
. She was here with a group of around 15 students from Columbia University studying the architecture of Astana and Almaty. She was in town for around 4 days. Christa ditched her group to hang out with us locals. I'm sure her classmates were pretty impressed that she had some friends in the middle of Central Asia. So, I gave her the grand tour of our lovely town. She was really amazed by the architecture! I was so glad to have her visit to see how beautiful this city is. We went on walking tours taking pictures. I think she had a great time. We went out to clubs and parties and dinners. We met with all sorts of different friends who I think really got along with her. I think we had a great couple of weeks spending time with our friends here. Perhaps it wasn't enough time for them? I think they really didn't know what to expect about this place. But, all of them vowed to return to Almaty.
A little glitch happened with Tania and Nick's time here. When she arrived she got sick. She thinks it was the water she drank out of the fountain in the Dubai airport on her way to Kazakhstan. The bacteria here isn't too bad. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the water here. Although to be safe I wouldn't really recommend ever drinking out of the tap unless you boil it. We sent her to the hospital. It was the infectious diseases hospital. Well to make a long story short, she was fine after 24 hours. Hence, we believe it was merely a 24 hour stomach flu(food poisoning). The problem is, it was difficult to get her out of the hospital. The doctors around here weren't willing to release someone who came from Pakistan via Dubai. It took us 4 days to get her out of the hospital! Finally, after nagging the nurses and doctors constantly they agreed with signing a release that they weren't responsible when they let her out
Christa taking many photos
. Afterwards, we made up for all of this hassle, by just giving the deserved time Nick and Tania needed together. So, the lesson here is watch out for these hospitals. They are not drop in clinics. They take medicine here very seriously. If you go to the hospital by all means, make sure you're willing to spend the time it takes for a full recovery in there. This doesn't mean that you should ever endanger your life by avoiding hospitals. Just make sure that if you're sick and you go to the hospital, to remember the doctors here are very formal and they may want to make sure you're completely well before they let you out.
How is everyone? I'm sure life is moving along well for all of you. Send me an e-mail. I love hearing from all of you who write back. I know everyone isn't computer savvy and big on writing long letters. It's ok. I don't judge you all on your lack of responses. I just want to hear what is going on in your lives. Send me photos of your new hair do's and latest major purchases for me to scrutinize.
As for art here in Almaty. I do have some work in The Tengri Umai Gallery. They're working on reopening their space. They have 3 of my works. I posted some of the new stuff on Charles Saatchi's "Your Gallery" site. Feel free to let me know what you all think. I encourage criticism and praise. The comments help me out.
Oh, Zhanara and I are on our way to Paris in a couple of weeks. First, we're going to Taraz to visit her parents and to get a tasty plate of Shashlyk
City Beautiful
. Then, we're off to Paris for 3 weeks. Our friend Aminatou will host us for two weeks in Paris, She recommends we stay in her cottage a few days in Normandy. My parents are going to meet us in Paris for a week. It will be my parents first time in Paris!! The apartment is in the 5th arrondissement. We plan on doing some home cooking with a few visits to the market to catch up with my mom and dad over dinner. We have a nice list of places that people have recommended. We have some friends who live in Paris, so we're looking forward to hanging out with them as well. Most of all, it will be important for Zhanara to spend some time away from Kazakhstan to give her a little perspective on her work. A much needed vacation from her fieldwork is due to her. Things get pretty intense here in Almaty, so we're looking forward to a little down time in the "City Of Lights".Daniel
