18 - 4th June

18- 4^th June

Was able to get into town yesterday morning, to Steven’s house (another volunteer in the nearest town, 20mins away by car), who has internet. Not much to report from that, but the taxi ride home was interesting.

Well, ‘taxi’ is a strong term, basically it is paid hitchhiking, just sticking out one’s arm by the side of the road will get an offer of a lift rather quickly (during the day at least), and the going rate is 200Tenge for the 20minute ride from Ushiral to Beskol. That’s $1.30, or about £0.80. I think its expensive, but the locals don’t seem to mind. And in the absence of a bus, it’s the only option other than walking (which, if you remember, Jason and I did last week, but that took 2 hours). There are bus stops all along the road though, so I guess that when the factory was open, and the population twice the size in the 1970’s and 1980’s, there must have been a wonderfully cheap bus.

Anyway, back to the ‘taxi’. We were picked up by a lovely old Russian couple, who didn’t speak a word of English, Kazakh or German unfortunately, which made negotiation of the price a bit hard. I at least, can count to 10 in Russian, so 2 0 0 (dvar null null) got us the desired result. Oh, I almost forgot the most important bit. The car was a battered old red Lada! It was such a Soviet experience, all it was lacking was pickles and vodka and I would have thought I was in Soviet Russia.

It rained last night for the first time in 2 weeks, which, while the vegetables would have loved it, and there is less dust now, has made the air humid, which is something that is thankfully lacking normally. I don’t miss the Japanese summer! The thermometer on my alarm clock says its currently 24degrees in my room, which given the fact I only have a little window, is certainly possible. But its probably 60/70% humidity as well today, which is rubbish!

A lazy day of lesson planning and reading, due primarily to the weather (humid and showers all day), and of course, to the fact that I need to plan lessons! I am currently teaching two classes a week, a High-Level student spoken grammar class (in that, there are dialogues involving the grammar structure), and an Introduction to English lesson for the teachers at school. Both are firsts for me, as I was spared most of the grammar teaching in Japan, likewise having to teach the beginner adults. Its proving fun though, and the lessons are being enjoyed, which is also great. There is also the added advantage of teaching the adult class, and that is to show off my teaching techniques. They are certainly different from a lot of the teaching here (and in Asia in general. Lots of rote learning), and as by giving fun, interesting lessons, hopefully it will not only garner respect among my fellow teachers, but also allow me to do some teacher-training sessions in the future.