When its time for a celebration in Kazakhstan there is really only one way to do it. Invite all your friends and family, and all of their friends and family, and maybe a Canadian guy, and have a Toi. The previous Toi I attended was for a wedding, but this time the Toi was to celebrate a circumcision, evidently an important milestone in Kazakh culture.
The celebration began exactly as you would expect; the circumcisee rode into the restaurant on a horse.
This horse is wearing boots
The Toi continued with the first course of food, and the speeches began.
Every table will get their chance to give a speech. It can be seen as good luck, or a status thing to have a foreigner at your Toi so amidst the emcee's words when I heard "..kazkh kazakh kazakh...Nazarbayev Intellectual School.....kazakh kazakh kazakh.. Canada....." I knew it was my turn to give a speech. Mixed throughout the speeches is a lot of dancing, both by the guests, and by performers wearing increasingly colourful attire.
It may not look like anyone is dancing but trust me everyone in this photo is busting moves
No Toi would be complete without the national Kazakh dish of Beshbarmak, always brought out ceremoniously and cut and served by one of the men at each table.
Out of the several hundred people at the Toi only 3 others spoke English. My friend Balnur who invited me, her niece who happens to be a student at my school, and one English professor at the local university who introduced herself to me after my speech.
With Balnur and Ayazhan
Three little munchkins wanted to say hello and practice their English. "Hello, I am from Canada." to which the first one said "Hello, I am from Kazakhstan." and the second "Hello, I am from Kazakhstan." and the third "Hello, I am from Kaz" ok ok I get it.
At some point during every Toi everyone tries to look like its the year 1985 and poses for a photo where no one is smiling.
Except for me, I smile because Tois are very happy and fun
Now, in Kazakhstan when you're sitting at a table where most people don't speak English, in a room where most people don't speak English, things could get awkward pretty quickly. The quickest way to show that you are friend and not foe is to participate in drinking vodka together, despite how horrible that is. After a few, one of the Kazakh men impressed me with his English ability blurting out "I love you".
"I am moving to Kazakhstan"
What my family thinks I am doing:
What my friends think I am doing:
What I am actually doing:
As fun as it is to join these Kazakh celebrations, and my goal is to join as many as possible, I do actually work sometimes. Here are a few updates of what's going on in my school life and personal life when I am not furthering my social life.
Still slowly calibrating for Kazakh punctuality
You can see the times of the messages but essentially I've deduced that "will be there at 5:00" means you should expect a knock on your door at 9:15
The events that began at 9:15 that evening can only be described as the battle of temperature in Trevor's apartment. Three gentlemen arrived to deliver and install the air conditioner. At exactly the same time two gentlemen arrived to turn on the radiators for winter heating.
In this corner, team make it cold
And in this corner, team make it hot
At the end of this entire ordeal the temperature in my apartment was exactly the same as before. Who could have predicted that?
I walked past this store the other day and nearly soiled myself.
I sent the photo to a friend and he asked what the store sells. Obviously they sell nightmares
At my previous school I was very involved with guiding and organizing the student leaders so it was a very happy moment to attend the ceremony where last year's Student Council passed the torch to this years Student Council team. (Special shoutout to all of this year's Student Council and Prefect members at my previous school in Indonesia who had their leadership camp this weekend)
Seasoned veterans sharing words of wisdoms for the new recruits
The new team of Student Leaders ready for action
One particularly thoughtful teacher from Portugal bought a good luck cake for the group of students she was preparing to take their SAT exams on Saturday. Knowing that I teach biology she thought I'd be a good person to ask if she could give the cake to me to keep in a fridge.
I drew her a helpful map so she could find the cake.
Asia has the most respectful, thoughtful students in the world. One day I will open a school in Canada called the Canadian School for Friendly Asian Students. Currently hiring for all positions. I was summoned to the library where this group of grade 12s was busy preparing a birthday gift basket for their beloved teacher, complete with chocolates, handmade crafts, and a big collection of birthday wishes from students and teachers. They really know how to make their teachers feel appreciated and loved.
The student on the bottom left smiled literally non-stop for hours while preparing the special surprise.
Happy birthday Ms. Kamilla :)
Astana
In 1997 president Nazarbayev decided the nation needed a new, modern capital and so a city called Akmola was renamed Astana, which in Kazakh means "the capital city". The first thing you need to know about Astana is it gets very cold in the winter. And by winter I mean September.
It's October 4th and the "real feel" is -7
Unfortunately I didn't check the forecast before booking flights so off I flew to Astana
As a side note, based on the "people also ask" questions, it seems my efforts to educate the world about Kazakhstan are much needed
If you were to visit Mars after humans colonize it (probably my friend Cole will have been involved in this), you would get a very similar sensation as the first time you visit Astana. The buildings all look futuristic. The city is a perfect grid of very wide rows, dozens of identical, massive apartment complexes, and eerily few people. With a current population of under a million people, it appears someone has finally built a capital city with anticipation of a massive population increase and has designed it in a way that traffic won't become an overwhelming issue. I would like to take a moment to suggest to Justin Trudeau to please relocate Toronto a few hundred kms away and build it from scratch with anticipation of sustaining a growing population without growing traffic jams.
Astana is the most rapidly developing city in Kazakhstan:
It is home to one of the nation's leading universities founded in 2010
The city features several mega malls
It took Starbucks until 2016 to open in Kazakhstan but hipsters finally have a place to drink coffee in Kz
Eating at Ocean Basket, a South African restaurant chain
Astana was host to Expo 2017, with the theme of Future Energy where over 100 countries participated to present solutions tackling social, economic and environmental challenges. Each country that participated got a cool person holding the world stature built and painted in a way to represent their country.
Unfortunately, Canada did not join Expo 2017 so I had to find another country that I consider home.
Remember Kurt? The rock hard dried salty cheese snack? Look at all the different shapes you can break your teeth with while enjoying salty cheese rocks.
The Bayterek Tower monument. With my South African colleague Allison, and her visiting son Kiyon
Unfortunately there aren't any Indian restaurants in my city of Taraz so I was eager to take advantage while visiting Astana.
I knew the food would be authentic when I saw the owner streaming the India vs Pakistan cricket match
Well met, Astana. Until next time!
