Sunday, August 28, 2011

Sunday Story: Almaty Buses

Last Saturday was my “public transit day.”  It was actually my “figure out how to get to work without a car” day.  The buses here are wild.  They run often (as often as one every 3-6 minutes) and are usually driven by a middle aged man who uses one hand to hold his cell phone and the other to steer, honk, and  make rude gestures at other drivers.

In general, the buses are in bad shape.  Brakes howl like a tortured beast as the buses stop at traffic lights.  One bus I rode yesterday had a disintegrating floorboard and I could see the wheels turning through a large crack in the floor under my seat.  One route I sometimes ride isn't a bus at all, but a cargo van with bench seats with thirty people crammed inside.  Most of the buses have no heating or air conditioning, so the drivers will drive with the doors open when it gets warm in the afternoons.



There are no maps for the bus system and different private operators run different routes.  While this might seem to be a recipe for transit chaos, it actually works pretty well.  Each bus has a route number issued by the city and posted on the front and side of the bus along with the destination and intervening points for each direction.  There are no overlaps (bus 118 follows route 118 and there is only one route 118), and to put the icing on the cake, the fare is only 50 Tenge per ride (about 33 cents) collected by a conductor as you exit through the back door.  In addition to collecting the fares, the conductor is also responsible shouting out the route direction at stops, for announcing the next stop, and for making sure that he or she is back inside the bus before it takes off after a stop.

On one bus, the teenager who was our conductor was helping an old lady off the bus with her cart of groceries.  Just as they reached the curb, the driver takes off leaving the conductor behind. The conductor sprints down the street after the bus and finally manages to leap in.  In general, the Kazakh people are pretty stoic.  Smiles are rare – even in everyday conversation.  This kid, though, was grinning when he got back on the bus – clearly he enjoyed the joke.

While the picture I painted above is true of most of the buses in Almaty, I should note that there is a fleet of brand new European style buses (made in china, of course) operating within this system. Unfortunately, I never get to take those routes.




Friday, August 26, 2011

Friday Photo: City Center Fountain

Last weekend I accidentally took a long walk.  I say accidentally because I had intended to take the tram home from the green bazaar only to discover that the tram wasn't taking me home, but itself home.  As a result I had to walk the remaining three miles home from the tram barn.  Anyways, on the way, I came across the city center grocery complex (store isn't the right word for any thing with amusement rides in front) which happens to have a very nice fountain.

So today's Friday Photo is of the City Center Fountain.  According to one source, there are more than 120 fountains in Almaty, so don't be surprised if the Almaty fountains become a common theme on photo Friday!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

First Impressions of Almaty

 This is the view from ALL of the windows in my flat!

For those of you who have not yet heard,  I arrived safely in Almaty almost two weeks ago and have spent the time just trying to get my bearings enough to survive.  Here are some of my first impressions:

Kids:
There are playgrounds everywhere here.  I don't believe I am exaggerating when I say that there is at least one playground for every apartment complex, which means there are multiple playgrounds per block.  My apartment complex has two playgrounds at the entrance, and we are less than a block away from a long narrow park that boasts two playgrounds per block (it runs for about 5 blocks).  Around 5:00 pm, the children come out to play.  On an average night there are 30-50 kids on the playgrounds in our building all playing.  Kids as young as three and as old as 15 play.  Many parents, both moms, dads, and nanny's watch from the benches.  It is truly astonishing.

The View:
I live on the 9th floor of an 18 floor apartment tower in a very comfortable one bedroom flat.  My windows look southwest to the mountains and I often watch the early light spread across them as I eat breakfast in the morning.  Of course, if I look to the right (north) I see a distant chimney stack billowing orange smoke into the morning sky.  On an especially smoggy day, the mountains will be enveloped in the brown cloud by noon, making the view nonexistent for almost anyone.

The Apartment:
The apartment is just right.  I don't know how else to describe it.  I have an enclosed balcony off my bedroom, windows that cover the entire wall of my living room, and a kitchen as big as any I've ever been in.  I'm not sure I could ever settle for a stateside apartment after living in this one.  I am spoiled for life.

At any rate, I should go.  I will post again soon (I promise)

Friday, August 12, 2011

Friday Photo: Contribution from Cathy Scott

I am traveling to Almaty today, so the theme of my "Friday Photo" post this week is actually a contribution from my mother, Cathy Scott.

This is a water color mom did rather quickly this summer and entered in the county fair (or Fayre - if you're from the other side of the pond) in Baker City, Oregon.  As you can see, it was well received winning "Best in Show."


Happy Friday everyone!  I'll post an "arrived safely" as soon as I can get to an internet connection in Almaty.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tidbit Tuesday: Packing

Short one today - and this is for Ray - happy Tuesday Ray!

For me, packing and writing have a lot in common.  First, there is the "pre-write".  This is the mental organization where you go through everything you want and everything you need to take in your mind and sometimes even on paper.

Then there comes the rough draft or as my Uni. Puget Sound writing prof. said: "vomit on a page."  For me this stage involves dumping everything on the bed or in suitcase.

That is all the easy part.  Then come the revisions.  This stage involves multiple drafts.  You edit your work - prioritizing, discarding, re-packing,  weighing, re-packing, discarding some more, re-packing, and then repacking again as last minute items find their way into the mix.

Finally, at some point ridiculously near the deadline (or in this case - travel date), you decide to be finished.  It isn't that you are finished - that the work has met some abstract standard you hold for yourself - rather, it is that you choose to be done because there is no time for anything more.  So you zip everything up, weigh it one last time put on the packing straps and labels and breathe a sigh of relief.

Happy Travels!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Movie Monday and Final Trip log - Summer Road Trip

This summer we drove over 2,000 miles (when you count all of the back tracks and side trips) beginning in Reno, Nevada and ending up in Baker City, Oregon.  We saw five national parks (even if we only went into three of them (Great Basin, Zion, the Grand Canyon, Canyon lands, and Arches) and drove through sunshine and storm.  For 'Movie Monday'  I present a short movie to sum up the trip.  Enjoy.




Friday, August 5, 2011

Friday Photo - Dustin's backyard garden

My image of a backyard veggie garden is anything but beautiful.  Check this out though!  Squash, tomatoes, pumpkin, melons, cabbage, and a whole host of other yummy stuff arranged with great taste (pun absolutely intentional).  Go Dustin!



I am back in Durango now putting the finishing touches on my packing for Kazakhstan.  The only real challenge is to pack all of my clothes and still have something to wear for the next seven days: quite a paradox.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Friday Photo (on Movie Monday)...apologies and Arches National Park

First let me apologize for missing Friday photo.  I don't have any excuse except that I was having such a great time hanging out at Gma's place that I simply forgot.

Now that the apology is out of the way, please allow me to apologize for neglecting today's "Movie Monday" in order to make up for last week's Friday Photo.  I really have no excuse at all for this dreadful neglect of my blog.  Then again, seeing as this is my blog...I hereby retract all apologies and print this notice:

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! 
(and don't get on my case for posting a Friday Photo or two on a Movie Monday)!

...and now for the main attraction (fanfare George [imagine your own fanfare here]...thank you)


FRIDAY PHOTO - Arches

Last Monday we began our drive from Durango, CO to Twin Falls, ID.  Our first day of travel ended with a short drive into Arches national park where I took the following pictures.







The really creepy (or really lazy) blackbird that wouldn't fly away until we were almost close enough to reach out and grab it.  Poe never seemed closer.


Oh and if you harbor any ill will because I am doing Friday Photo instead of movie monday, you can go shove your head in a


 (Just kidding - happy Monday everyone).