"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away..."

Wednesday and Thursday have been HIGHLY productive. First of all, I went to one of the institutes to start working on what I thought would be a large, tedious dataset. But......I never even had to start working on it! Gulnara (one of the researchers working on data entry) had taken the data home with her over the past two days and entered all of the coordinates she could find. I guess she knew that I wasn't happy about the data not being ready on Monday. She did an excellent job and it was a pleasant surprise. There were still some formatting issues, but we worked through those and were able to produce a basic map of new sample locations before lunch time. Good stuff! So after finishing at that institute earlier than expected, I headed back to an office in the hotel to work on several other maps and make a "How To" powerpoint for another project.
Today (Thursday), I worked in the office again in the morning then met Bolat and Natalya (the interpreter) for lunch. We went to a really nice Kazakh/Chinese restaurant. We all ordered a delicious lamb, noodle, and pepper dish called Bishkun (sp?) and had a plate of peppered steak to go with it. I always have to readjust my food mentality here because normally I don't eat a huge lunch, but in Kazakhstan people generally eat a very small breakfast (if they even have one), then eat a large meal for lunch (they have a 2-hour lunch break here!), and then another large meal at night (usually later at night around 8pm or so). After a great lunch, we went to Bolat's institute and I worked with him and Vladimir on running GARP models that predict the ecological niche of specific species that they are studying. I let them run the model several times and gave them a powerpoint about it. They seemed to really be interested in producing maps that show where a species could exist because this could help them realize the spatial extent of specific disease-carrying species.
After a productive afternoon, I said goodbye to Bolat, Vladimir, and Natalya and told them that I hoped to see them again soon. Tomorrow I will be working in the office at the hotel finishing up some of the analysis on the new datasets then it's back to the States! Mmmmmm.....I can almost taste the hamburgers, pizzas, and chicken wings - haha.

Picture Descriptions: 1) A Kazakh Drama Theater that I passed while walking around this afternoon; 2) Who needs a truck to hall vegetables anyway?!?!; 3) Natalya and Bolat working on the laptop; 4) A cool statue with what appears to be a jaguar jumping through a hoop; 5) My bishkun (sp?) dish - would you like some??

The best-laid plans of mice and men...

Well everything seemed to go wrong yesterday. First, I went to one of the disease institutes where I was supposed to be working at Monday through Wednesday and they said that they weren't expecting me until Wednesday! Crazy stuff. So I packed up my book bag and set off for another institute across town where I had another project to work on. I was told the night before that my collaborators there were on vacation, but I crossed my fingers because I couldn't get through to them on the phone. Luckily, after about an hour long drove through the traffic-clogged streets of Almaty I made it to the other institute to find that one of my collaborators was in fact there and not on vacation (luckily)! So we discussed plans for the next day because the data was not ready.
This meant that the afternoon was free so I spent a little bit of time walking around the main strip near the hotel. I went up to the supermarket (or "Gros" as they call it) and bought some freshly-baked bread, pringles, water, and coke (because it cost almost $8.00 for a can of Coke at the hotel = ridiculous). A guy in the checkout line could speak a little English and asked if I was Irish to which I replied: "Aye, of course I'm Irish - was it the red beard?" He replied that indeed it was the red beard that tipped him off (i.e., I'm not actually Irish, I'm of Scandinavian descent and that was many a generation ago too, but it's pretty cool that someone actually thought that I was Irish). I spent the rest of the evening working on some of the KZ data, a paper, and some homework.
Today was much better as far as organization goes. I was able to get a lot of work done on one project in particular and I was also able to discuss the future of another project. It is always difficult to interpret other datasets and manipulate them into a format that is mappable in ArcGIS, but after working with these guys for awhile I think they're now understanding the correct spreadsheet formats - that means less Tylenol for all of us!
Anyway, the first picture above is a view of the mountains from my hotel balcony - they look beautiful in the morning, but after a full day of smog I can hardly see them in the afternoon. The second picture is actually a covered tent ice-skating rink! Pretty crazy - it's still 85F out here, but they were blasting some disco music in it when I walked by so somebody must be having fun in there. And the third picture is of Bolat and me to get some work done in the Center for GIS at his institute.

Back in KZ!

After an eleven week hiatus I am back in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The plane ride over wasn't too long and I was able to get a little bit of sleep because I had 2 seats to sprawl out in! I probably won't be so lucky on my way back. I arrived last night around midnight and I spent most of the day just relaxing in the hotel, walking around the "Fantasy World" theme park, and getting a little work done. I just got back from eating out at the Tau Samal Cafe in front of the hotel. It's a neat little outdoor restaurant with a covered bar shaped like a yurt. For those of you who don't know...a yurt is a "portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia" (Wikipedia 2008). I ordered some excellent lamb shashlik - a perfect way to start my week off here in Almaty. In one of the pictures above, you can see the wood-burning oven where they cook the shashlik.

Getting to know Almaty

We had a great day of work Friday – partly because we didn’t start until 11am…and I love to sleep in – haha. Anyway, we (Bolat, Talgat, and myself) finished our project around 4:30pm then decided to go out for a nice meal with our interpreter (Antelina). Bolat took us to a nice place on the western edge of town called Petrov (sp?). It was a mixture of Chinese and Kazakh foods. We all ordered a delicious dish of peppered steak with noodles that had a really awesome spice in it. Talgat told me what kind of spice it was, but I can’t begin to spell it – it come from western China (about 100 miles to the east). We also ordered fried beef and lamb ribs that were also very good. And no evening meal in Kazakhstan would be complete without some vodka, so we ordered enough vodka for four shots a piece so that we could each make a toast.
On Saturday, Bolat agreed to meet me at the hotel around 11am to take me sight-seeing in downtown Almaty. I had read about a Russian Orthodox Cathedral that I wanted to see, so we decided to go there first. We rode on the bus from the street next to the hotel all the way into downtown. The bus was very similar to buses in the US and it cost us 50 Tengy for each bus ride (about 45 cents). We got off at Panfilov Park where the church was located. It was a beautiful park with trees, flowers, and sculptures all around. The church is actually called Ascension Church, but the park around it is named for General Panfilov who led a group of Kazakh soldiers against the Nazis in Moscow during WWII. The sculptures/plaques in the park are to honor fallen soldiers during WWII and there is a massive sculpture at the entrance of General Panfilov leading his men into battle (first picture above). The church itself was very interesting (second picture). It is the only multi-story building that survived the 1911 Earthquake here in Almaty because it has rounded pilings instead of square, so it can actually move with the Earth – genius architecture. It is also made entirely of wood with no nails or steel – Bolat called it “dovetail” construction.
After we left Panfilov Park, we headed over to the Art and Music Museum where we checked out hundreds of native Kazakh instruments. There was a map in the front of the museum that showed what part of Kazakhstan each instrument originated from. It was so cool – I never realized that music was such a huge part of life for the Central Asian Nomads that created so many of these instruments. There was one particularly interesting instrument called a Dombra that was similar to a guitar, but had a very deep body with a small hole under the strings – Bolat said that he could play it, but I told him that I wouldn’t believe it until I see it.
Next, we got on the bus again and traveled about 8 blocks down to Gorkey Park, which was named for a famous Kazakh artist. The park contained several walking paths, horse rides, and snack stands along with an amusement park, a water park, and a zoo! This park really did have everything. Bolat and I went straight for the zoo where we spotted some pretty cool animals – most of which you would see in a normal zoo, but some that you wouldn’t (i.e., a Kazakh pheasant with bright red and gold feathers). The funniest thing that happened occurred while we were watching one of the ladies who work for the zoo feed a monkey, she left the gate open one second too long. The monkey bolted out of its pen and began to dance around a bunch of kids in the pathway before it ran into the bushes and swung from a tree top to a roof top and back into its pen. Needless to say, the kids were pretty excited about the experience.
We spent about an hour in the park, then boarded the bus again and headed for the Almaty Bizarre. The bizarre included a huge indoor farmers-market area with fruits, vegetables, meats, and flowers all around. We strolled through the area, checking out some of the locally-grown produce before we came to the back, which opened out into an area similar to a flea market. It was still part of the Bizarre, but it included all kinds of tools, trinkets, cookware, clothes, etc. This is where I bought some of my souvenirs for my friends and family back home. Bolat also bought a gift for me at the Bizarre – it was some kind of whip that he said I could use on my wife when I get married…I think he was joking – or at least I hope he was – haha. Anyway, we walked through another small park and shopping mall area on our way back to the bus stop. I found some of the exact same things for sale in the mall as I did in the Bizarre, but usually at 5 times the cost of what it was in the Bizarre.
We rode back to the hotel and I waved goodbye to Bolat, but I told him that I should be back in September (I don’t leave until Monday night, but I’ll be working with a different group on Monday). I really enjoyed spending the day in downtown Almaty and checking out many of the cool parks that Almaty has to offer. It was great to be able to see a side of Almaty that I had never seen before and Saturday was a great day to do it – it was sunny and there were families everywhere. What a great Saturday!

Working and eating

Monday and Tuesday were very productive days at the lab. I’m very impressed with how quickly the project collaborators are picking up on how to use a GIS and the various analysis tools. On Tuesday, we reviewed in the morning and then I gave them their practical exam. I was pleased with the progress and decided to go out for lunch with everyone.  We went to a local restaurant that was in a really cool setting. It was an open air restaurant with tables scattered amongst trees and two waterfalls flowing through the middle. We ordered several different types of soups, but I don’t know how to spell them. My soup was a creamy mixture (similar to potato soup) that included tomatoes, parsley, and corn.
We finished at the lab around 4:30ish, then I went back to the hotel to prepare the workflow for the next day. In between all of that, I walked down one of the streets near the hotel to the supermarket. Supermarkets in foreign countries are always fun to explore. It’s fun to see all of the different breads, meats, snacks, drinks, and other local food items. One of the oddest things that I discovered in this particular supermarket was the lack of peanut butter – oh well, I guess no PB&J snacks for me.
Wednesday and Thursday were filled with setting up databases with Bolat and Talgat, but tonight I decided to walk back to the supermarket I had visited a few days ago. I was going to just stay in the hotel because it has been raining off and on, but it cleared up before dark. Anyway, the supermarket is actually located at the front of a mall called the Promenade so I explored the mall. It’s similar to a small mall built in the ‘80s that you would find in the US. I went to the food court and there were 5 restaurants – all owned by a “chain” called King Burger – seems interestingly similar to Burger King, but after checking out the menus at each food stand I decided that this was definitely not Burger King. One stand had pizza…..topped with horse sausage and another had a hamburger that looked like a normal burger king hamburger in the picture, but after looking at the burger I’m not too sure that it was made entirely of beef (but likewise, the US version probably isn’t made entirely of beef either). I finally decided on Manty (fast food style). It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best I had ever eaten either. On the way back to the hotel, I spotted a restaurant across the street called “Happy Burger” – hmm – maybe the Kazakh version of McDonalds. Anyway, I’m back in my hotel room now after my night of discovering Kazakh fast food.

Catching up with the first week

I am a little behind in blogging about this particular trip, but I'll try to remember everything that has happened since I got here Tuesday night (June 17).

I'm not a huge fan of flying long distances and Almaty, Kazakhstan is probably about as far away from California as I can get - in fact it's on the complete opposite side of the world, but that just makes it easier to know when to call back home (just replace the PM with AM). However, the 27 hour flight (including connections and layovers in Denver and Frankfurt) becomes a distant memory of the past when I get off the plane in Almaty. This is my second trip to Almaty and I love this city. It is one of the most cosmopolitan and eclectic cities I have ever traveled to. The Soviet Union controlled this part of the world until its dissolution in 1991 and you can still see signs of the former Soviet Union with the unique architecture, statues, and Russian language written on almost everything. Russian is the main spoken language here, but Kazakh, German, and English are also very common languages to hear. That is part of what makes Almaty such a cosmopolitan epicenter. It is also a city where the West (Europe and the Americas) collides with the East (China, India, and Russia) in an incredibly synergistic fashion. This is not the Central Asia that Americans typically think about. Most consider any country that ends with the letters "S-T-A-N" to be dangerous and full of hateful, religious nuts, but that's just shear ignorance. The people of Almaty are not all that different than the people of America - they wear jeans and t-shirts, they get stressed out at work, they take summer vacations, they play with their kids in the local parks, and they get stuck in rush hour traffic every day.
Anyway, let me get on with telling you about my week thus far here in Almaty before I get too carried away. I traveled here with Jason (my professor) and on Wednesday we both found out that it is always always always better to fly in on Saturday and have Sunday off before going to work. It was a very tiring day of teaching and training, but the upside was being able to meet the 9 new people that came to take the GIS course. This group of ecologists and epidemiologists was excited and ready to work - they actually asked several questions after 7 hours of training and they were good, in-depth questions. We also went out for lunch at a nearby restaurant where we had some awesome chicken and lamb shashlik (shash-leak), which is basically a shish-kabob. The meat is cooked on skewers that closely resemble small swords at first glance. I had eaten shashlik the first time I came over here in 2006 and it was still just as good as I had remembered. We didn't do too much Wednesday night when we got back to the hotel because we were both beyond ready to go to sleep.
We woke up rested on Thursday morning and had breakfast before being picked up and taken to the GIS lab. I can't continue without telling you how incredible the breakfast is at the hotel - every morning there are fresh fruits everywhere, a made-to-order omelet and waffle section, fresh breads and local pastries, as well as the best apple juice I have ever tasted. Almaty (also known as Alma-Ata) actually means "Grandfather of Apples" and is named so because of the enormous apples that the area has been known to produce. Needless to say, the breakfast is what helps me wake up early every morning. Anyway, Thursday and Friday were quite similar in the lab. I began to teach the different tools and applications of a GIS (Geographic Information System) to the group while Jason took notes about supplemental training that we need to provide. After work on each day, we went out to a great local restaurant near the hotel. On Thursday night we ordered Tandyr (large, round freshly-baked bread), mutton shashlik, and manty (large, steamed dumplings with meat, onions, and spices in them). We also ordered a delicious pot of black tea that nearly made us fall asleep. On Friday night we ordered the bread and shashlik again and we also ordered Uzbek pilaf (Uzbek rice with lamb on top....at least I think it was lamb). I am beginning to learn that the people of Kazakhstan love meat in their diets - I don' think they could be by without it and I don't think that's a bad thing.
There is no GIS training over the weekends, so we decided to do a little sight-seeing. Our van driver, Ginardi, picked us up around noon and took us up into the mountains, which are just to the south of the city. The mountains are named the Zailiisky Alatau and are part of the Tyan Shan mountain range. The snow-capped peaks are easily visible from every part of the city and I have always wanted to walk up to the top to see the snow and glaciers up close. We took a winding road that lead us out of the city and up towards Chymbulak (the ski resort near the top). On our way, we went through a valley known as Medeo where we could see the beautiful and diverse flora and fauna that changed rapidly as we climbed higher up into the mountains. Large conifer trees began to take over the landscape about halfway to Chymbulak where we also passed the worlds largest outdoor skating rink (named Medea) and we drove over a monstrous earthen dam that was built to protect Almaty from potential mudslides and avalanches. Finally we reached the top and decided to take the ski lift up as high as it would go, then walk the rest of the way to the top of this particular mountain. The ski lift was the easy part - all we had to do was sit there and ride - then came the hard part of hiking the rest of the way up. At first glance, it doesn't look like much of a hill to walk up, but after a lot of heavy breathing and near falls on the loose gravel, we made it to the top. It was a lot cooler at this altitude, but luckily we came prepared with light jackets. It was an amazing view that I can't really describe - I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, but I will post them on here once I do. We could see the snow on the peak to our right and the jagged peaks to our left. An immense valley separated us from the even larger peaks in front of us - I think that these peaks create the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (if Google Earth is correct). We took pictures and walked around for awhile, but then the sky began to darken and the wind started to pick up so we decided to carefully (and I emphasize carefully) make our way down the steep slope to the ski lift to avoid being soaked in the rain. We arrived at the bottom after the 15-20 minute ski lift ride and decided to grab something to eat at the ski resort. However, a drunk Siberian guy started holding my hand and asking me questions in broken English that I didn't understand so we decided that we weren't that hungry after all and met Ginardi back at the van. We rode back down through Medeo towards Almaty and I think that every couple in Almaty must get married in Medeo because we counted at least six different brides walking around and taking pictures (while the groom stood off to the side and waited patiently for the honeymoon to begin - universally the mans favorite part of the wedding). Later in the evening, we were invited to eat dinner with a friend of Jason's named Yerlin. We had a great meal with bishparmak (I think that it was dumplings with beef and lamb meat on top) being the main dish as well as horse sausage for one of the sides. We also had ample amounts of vodka and I don't remember too much after that..... haha. Yerlin's wife and youngest son also ate with us and the little boy was very funny. He's about 2.5 years old and liked bringing his toys into the dining room - I didn't want him to have all of the fun, so I played with the toys too.
Well that brings us to today - Sunday, June 22nd. Jason left this morning to fly to Baku to work on another project, but I will be in Almaty for another week teaching GIS courses and helping to organize datasets. I have spent most of the day relaxing here at the hotel, but I think that I'm going to get out and find a restaurant soon. I will try to write more often this week, but hopefully my blogs will be shorter - sorry about the length by the way.

Dasvidania! (that means goodbye in Russian)