Day 7: First Day in Class

As per usual, I wake up before my alarm clock wakes up. This morning, I was greeted with an awful pain, everywhere on my body. My legs and arms were especially painful and I had trouble getting out of bed. The cross-fit from yesterday showed me who's really boss. Well, I guess I'll have to spend today in constant agony! While getting myself awoke, I head from out the window pouring rain and thunder.

Yesterday Assel told me that a pipe broke somewhere and the whole building is cut off from its hot water supply, which means that I had to take a shower with cold water only. It wasn't too bad: after the first couple of seconds, you get used to the bone-chilling coldness, and when I lived in the Philippines we did not have hot water either. After showering, Assel and I rushed over to work and school. The rain by this point had stopped and the sun was out, promising heat and humidity for the rest of the day.

Assel's friend came to drive us again today, just like yesterday and his European car still just doesn't make sense to me: how in one country can there be cars with a steering wheel on the left, and other cars with the steering wheel on the right! 

School was alright, we had two 1 hour sessions of grammar, followed by two 1 hour sessions of reading. Since it was the first day and just review, it was very easy. However, being in a class with different people and in a foreign country is a bit nerve wracking, because there are certain mannerisms to follow and the relationship between teacher and student is much different than what it is in America. I'm sure that things will smooth out over the course of the week.

My class got out an hour early because the culture class doesn't start until next week. After class ended, I had a classmate show me how to fill my transportation card at a machine that didn't break. While looking at the machine, however, my water bottle fell out of my hand and broke! Water was everywhere! Afterwards, I returned to the school and waited on my other friends, who didn't get out of class early.

While waiting, I spoke with a student who didn't attend school yesterday due to food poisoning that he believed to have gotten from burger king. He was going to join me and Monika to do cross-fit today, but then I realized that, because it's my second day at the gym, I would have to pay for a membership. I didn't have enough money with me and I was in too much pain to go to the gym, so, even though I had brought my gym bag with me, I decided that I would probably take today off. I also realized that I had accidentally left my snacks bag at home, which my host mother graciously gave to me to eat during the breaks between classes. What a shame!

After my friends finished their class, we all went to eat lunch together. I got basically chicken noodle soup, two of my friends got Alfredo, and my other two friends shared a pizza. We talked about events happening around town and plans for the future.

When we finished paying and exited the restaurant, we split up. I didn't go to cross-fit, so Janna, Will, and I instead headed up north from the school for about 15 minutes to a large mall to buy some school supplies. In the mall, a Kazakh schoolboy ran up to Will and began to talk to him. He started to talk to us about how excited he was to see foreigners and proceeded to hug us all. We told him that we were looking to find school supplies, and he showed us where to buy them. While we purchased our things, he invited us to coffee, but Janna and Will had to leave, so I said that I would go hang out with him for a bit.

We walked around town and talked about various things, he would say some things in English and I would respond in Russian. We went to a park with some huge statues and an eternal flame, and walked around some more. I felt so dehydrated and yearned for my water bottle. After the park, he treated me to some local food: a very sour milk that tasted similar to kumis called airan (айран), and a panini called donar (донар). The taste of airan was quite unexpected, but tolerable, and donar was decent.

Afterwards, we went our separate ways and I took the bus home. This bus was super crowded, and I was stuck in an awkward position for 20 minutes. Then, as soon as we began to get further away from the city center, I had enough space to breathe. I made it back home and felt extremely tired from all of the walking, being sore from cross-fit, and dehydration all at once. I immediately drank three glasses of water and some kampot and finished my blog post for yesterday while waiting for dinner.

Dinner was filling, consisting of meat on a bone and soup. Adilbek explained to me that the in Kazakh culture, each bone of a cow had a designated person to give to. For instance, the arm would be given to guests to eat, while the upper spine would be given to enemies. The lower leg would be given to elders and the bone I was given, a back piece of a rib-cage, could be given to anybody. I ate dinner happily, trying to get as much meat off of the bone as I possibly could and then drinking some kefer.

I am so exhausted and drained, physically and mentally. I am finishing up this blog post now, but I still have some homework to finish and other businesses to attend to before. However, I also am struggling to stay awake and am trying to see how much I can get done before my body calls it quits. I'm really looking to rest sometime soon.