13th November

13^th November

“I am not going to ride the magic carpet” he hissed, “I am afraid of grounds!”

“Don’t you mean heights?”

“I know what I mean! It’s the grounds that kill you!” Sorcery

Back from the big city, and as always, I will miss the place. Not only as it is a nice city in its own right, but just due to the contrast with my village. The creature comforts have been wonderful of course – indoor toilets and showers. And running water. And paved streets. And reliable electricity. And busses. But it is also things like the general level of English that makes life easier there. I went into a book shop looking for hiking maps, and, after asking in Kazakh where they might be, the 3 nearest staff members all then asked me questions about what I wanted, in fluent English. Which is just so different from my village, where the average person could not answer “What is your name?” Although all of this was in vain as they didn’t have the map I wanted.

I went to a classical Japanese music concert while I was in Almaty, and not only was it great, and my first experience seeing a koto and shakuhachi being used, but it was also FREE! It featured Ken Aiso on violin, Akikazu Nakamura on shakuhachi, Toshiko Kuto on kuto, and a Brit on piano, Alasdair Beatson. They all played separately, then in pairs, and finally as a group, and I really enjoyed it. The autumn theme was hard to detect with the piano and violin peaces, but it was a great concert.

I also went to see my first opera! Verdi’s Aida and I enjoyed it. Not that I had any idea what was going on, as my Italian isn’t up to much and the subtitles were all in Russian, but it was very impressive to hear it in person, and I still don’t know how they manage to sing so loudly! One of the Peace Corps office staff is very well connected within the artistic community of Almaty, and she managed to get our 400tenge (£2.10) tickets upgraded to the best in the house (1800tenge, £8), so I was only 5 rows from the front! Although at three hours, it was hard to stay away (I may have rested my eyes for a bit in the 3^rd act).

Not much else to report from Almaty really, other than my favourite Indian Restaurant has moved and its new location doesn’t seem to be known, but I made up for with Mexican(ish) food, and broccoli! There is such an abundance of restaurants in the city, offering almost everything you can imagine (even Fish and Chips), that it makes the village diet seem even more boring and limited. I eat 3 or 4 dishes here, on a random cycle, with little in the way of variation (and vegetables).