New to me...

Today at work, I actually feel as if I've completed my first constructive task. It was a small task of visually inspecting a boom arm that places concrete in a desired area. It wasn't difficult or intensive, but it was SOMETHING. Works been soooo boring otherwise. I am challenged daily to not fall asleep. Even the little video game I play on my phone isn't entertaining because I play so much. I've started putting more time into practicing Russian at work. So at least I'm not just staring at a wall, or walking around the job site with no direction. Also, recently I've been planning this trip to Spain, so that takes up a bit of time also, and gives me a future vacation to work towards. But even with all that, I've got free time coming out my ears, which is ironic because outside of work I have no free time! Fuckin way she goes...

Yesterday was pretty eventful for me. I went to lunch at a really great place called 'The Chef', a brand new restaurant that has it's own farm from which it sources the menu ingredients. It was really great. Afterwords I met with my new friend Elena, a masters student and English teacher here in Astana. We went to a nice cafe in a small library, Eagilik Books & Coffee, that has English printed books and had some delicious coffee and cake. After relaxing and talking in the cafe for a while, we went to meetup with a few of her English students. I participated as a guest in their speaking club, asking questions of the students, soliciting responses in English as a way for them to practice conversational English. Mostly we talked about travel, life in Astana, societal norms and behaviors, and just generally anything that came to mind. Luckily US politics, or any for that matter, never really came, as I am totally indifferent to these types of conversations. I find them to be mostly unproductive exertions of energy.

So that was a new experience for me, and something I was nervous about, but it went swimmingly. We went and met Elena's classmate/friend for pizza afterwards, and eventually ended the night afterwards. What a full day! I was beat.

I'm really excited about Spain! I'm hoping my friends Emily and Jordan are gonna join my sister and I for the trip in Spain. It's gonna be awesome! I've found out that when we're going to San Sebastian there's an annual jazz festival happening with concerts on the beach. I wish I could bring everyone I know with me. Well, gonna get back to work, or uhhhh whatever.

-Till next time.

What I tend to eat on Saturday or Sunday during the evening. I found some good salami and cheeses. Also found a horse salami that I've yet to try.

Beer and Beef. Had a pretty good burger, good drink selections, and some live music. Definietely WAY CLASSIER than most places. I was out of place with my T-shirt and jeans. Won't be going back.

So on my way to lunch at The Chef, this was a surprising scene of military trucks and tanks. A little bit up the road there was a large march of soldiers up and down the street. It was some type of preparations for the upcoming Victory day, celebrating the fall of the Nazi's.

Accidentally walked by the US embassy. A nice sight to see my home country's flag.

A swanky butcher shop, that was closed. I'll have to go back and check it out.

A nice gift from Marina, the headmistress of BrainPower, the school where Elena teaches and I met with the English students. It's a little ceramic Kazakh Yurt.

The cake in the office the day after Easter Sunday, with dyed quail eggs.

Sitting with the speaking club at the BrainPower school. You can see it was a mixed group of old and young alike.

Mid April.

All of the snow has pretty much melted away, and the days are mostly sunny. The temps are getting up to around 45 degrees F, which is nice. No more need to wear 2 pairs of long underwear underneath my pants accompanied by layer upon layer of thermal shirts and scarves. But now the puddles of muddy water are vast, at least on the work site and in various spots around town. The rest of the city is just covered in dried dirt dust, covering the buses and cars all with the same color scheme, fading from any color of paint to deep brownish dirt color at the bottom.

Work is the same. Not much going on there. I've been going to the main site more to sit with the mechanic, electrician, and laborer that work on small repairs, but nothing ever seems to happen, except for the random headlight replacement or flat tire repair. Most of the major repairs are done at a different location, where I'll sometimes go just to check out what crane or forklift is under repair at any given time. But still, no work for me to actually perform. I just work on excel worksheets, and when that's done, try to study my Russian vocabulary or help someone else with their work.

I did get to go out with some co-workers last Tuesday, yeah Tuesday for some reason. It was a pretty good time. It was a dinner with drinks and then everyone went dancing in the downstairs bar. But I'm quite averse to dancing, and stayed with two others at the table eating and drinking.

I'm going to try and make it to a ballet or opera one of these days, as I've been told the opera house is very beautiful and the ballet house is brand new. Also working on planning a trip to Spain in July with my sister. We're just in the theoretical stages right now, but I've been looking into trains and destinations. It will be a nice change of pace from work, and my first visit to Europe. I think we'll end up in Portugal, after visiting maybe Barcelona, Madrid, and possibly this coastal town called San Sebastian. We're only gonna have a week so I'm not trying to pack too much into each day and get burnt out just travelling all the time. I'll have an update as soon as the plans solidify. Until then, here's more random pictures for ya!

-Nick

Not sure what this place it, but I approve.

Some roasted chicken, veggies, and quinoa I made at home. Yum

Saw this at the bar. Beer-connecting people, my kind of networking.

Shot of the city at night. I was actually trying to find a couchsurfing meet-up, but never did...

Lil'big ben.

Always on the menu, coffee. This cafe, "Espresso Bar" was very good.

Horses that used to stand out front of a mall, displaying different countries' flags, sorta.

Banana bread before...

...After.

Panoramic view of the city from atop one of the job site buildings. Not sure how this one is gonna turn out on the blog. 

The old "What were you born in a barn?" saying gets translated to this I guess?

The following are a few pictures I took from the top of the work site. The weather is usually clear and sunny like this, but the wind can still be brutally cold!

Back from NYC. Back to work.

Arrived at the Astana International Airport at around 4:00 am on Tuesday, where I went smoothly through customs, picked up my bag, and got a ride back to my apartment from the hired driver. Pretty normal, except that now I was in my apartment at 5 in the morning, somewhat rested, waiting to go to work at 8:00 am. So I waited, and showered, and unpacked, and ate, and went to work, feeling mostly normal. Around 3:00 pm that day, it hit me. The nefarious jet-lag. Yup. It was a real bitch. All of a sudden I was tired. Really tired. So I pushed through the workday until about 6:00 pm, an hour before I'm supposed to get off, and left for home. I slept and slept and slept, until about 5:30 am the next day. But over the next few days, my condition worsened, from jet-lag to flu-like sickness. It got bad enough where I took some time off from work, got some medicine from the doctor, and had to sleep and just drink water and eat soup for two days. It was actually really hard to just lay in bed, as I get restless and there's not much to do at home. But I'm feeling somewhat better now, still not 100%.

You can tell I'm pretty healthy lookin'...

 

Through the peephole.

w/ my sis @ 30 rock

I did have a great time in New York with my sister, eating great food, having some delicious libations, and buying some stuff that isn't available in Kazakhstan, like Mexican hot sauce. I also got myself a new skateboard deck so that I can start skating once the snow melts here! Really stoked about that. The trip was short lived, but a fulfilling getaway from the mundane work days. I also got to see my friends Hope and Bill, whom I make an effort to see whenever I can. So that was also great.

w/ sis and Bill at the bar

my sentiments

The snow is melting, turning roadways and sidewalks into muddy horror scenes of shoe print patterns, like a dirty third world Pollock painting. You'll be lucky to get back to your house with only ankle high mud caked on your boots.

I'll be meeting with the main site mechanic on Monday to start working with him on maintaining some of the heavy equipment, so that's a development at work I'm somewhat excited about. Other than that, I've just been trying to get back into a healthy sleeping and eating schedule after being sick. 

EWOK!

I feel ya...

Found this just stuck in a newspaper dispenser. Evidence of some debaucherous night life.

People are people, they eat all the food.