First Day

Part 1: English Camp
Today was my first day teaching English at the summer camp. The project leaders were fairly surprised that I was capable to go to work, having only slept 4 hours since my arrival. Still, I pushed myself, with Marko & Bretislav's encouragement, out of my bed and into the shower.

Joined by the intern I did not wake up at 3:30 in the morning, Ming Jia, we took a taxi to the school campus, arriving two hours early. Before the kids even arrived, I noticed many references anyone from the USA would get quickly.

Left without further comment 

While waiting for the classes we got to know each other, and one of the teachers brought us some mare's milk to try. I was unaware that the milk was fermented, however the taste quickly made me aware of the fact.

Photo of my facial expression after taking a sip not included.

 Many that know me know that I've never had alcohol before. I've always known that eventually I would have something alcoholic, however I don't think I expected my first drink would be fermented mare's milk. It wasn't disgusting, but it was so bitter and strong that I couldn't take another sip beyond what I had. A fun experience, but not something I expect to touch again.

Marko, Ming Jia, Bretislav, and one of the teachers at the English camp

We talked with the teachers over how we were going to work as they gave us suggestions on structure and working materials. At 10 am, we were each sent to a separate class group to work with students.

The level of respect I have for language teachers is enormous. It was incredibly difficult just to keep their attention, let alone get them to talk in full sentences. They knew vocabulary well, and it was clear they knew enough to make sentences, but it was almost impossible to keep their attention off of their own smartphones and stop talking to each other in Russian.
Still, here were some of the most interesting aspects I learned from the first day:

1. They share many media ties with kids from the West. When I asked the kids what their favorite game was, three responded with "Minecraft." (One of the 12 year olds responded with Outlast, a brutal horror game, much to my surprise). When I had them playing charades for English concepts, when one of the girls was trying to act out "Lazy," two of the students at the same time shouted "HAKUNA MATATA!"  
2. They had a larger scope of global experience than most kids I've met in the USA. When I asked the question "Where have you been?" and had them pass a ball to answer, not one student hadn't been to Europe.  The most common responses were Turkey, Italy, and Russia. Many had been to the Americas, though more commonly the smaller nations in the Caribbean than the USA.

After an exhausting time of looking for ways to keep their interest, jumping question passing, Jeopardy, hangman (Which they spent ages arguing over whether you first draw the man and then add the structure hanging him, or the other way around), I finally found them most interested in charades to practice their English, adding in the clause that they could give hints if they said them in English.

With just one day, I honestly believe that my Russian will improve significantly with this job. There were very few times that I DIDN'T understand exactly what the students were saying to each other in Russian, much to their dismay. When we set the chairs in a circle to play charades, one of the girls laughed and said "Здравствойте. Меня зовут [her name] и я алкологик!" After I replied, in English "This is not Alcoholics Anonymous," her face drained and she tarted muttering to her friends and the rest of the class "Он понимает русский язык!" ("He understands Russian!") The amount they talked to each other in Russian after that dropped significantly.

Still, as part of the camp I won't speak to them in Russian at all, so if I want to practice speaking in Russian I will need to find other means.

Part 2: Almaty Trek & Beauty Contest

After an exhausting first day of work,  we decided that, rather than wait for the confusing bus system, we would see the city and walk through Almaty back to our dormitory. While I was tired and exhausted (I had hardly gotten more than 2 hours of sleep yesterday due to my late arrival at the airport), this was still a fantastic choice as we were able to see much of the everyday city. Unfortunately, due to my tiredness I don't have any photos from this journey. When we were reasonably close to the dormitory, the other interns decided to buy a watermelon from a vendor on the street who was selling them. What followed was one of the most amusing experiences of our stay as multiple Kazakhs on the sidewalk would come up to us as we walked and try to explain that it is not watermelon season, and that those melons were not good. With the language barrier, these conversations were comically confusing, but the message still came across. Despite this, from what I heard after we finally reached the dormitory,the watermelon was still good.

After relaxing for a few hours in the dormitory, a new intern joined us from the airport: Grace, from Hong Kong. We talked with her for some time before learning that one of the organizing members of AIESEC Almaty was competing in a beauty contest (University Lady), the winner of which would be given a slot in competition for Miss Kazakhstan. What followed was over an hour of attempting to get a taxi for our trip across the city, with the added frustration of people coming visibly in front of us in the street to signal taxis before they reached us. While this was frustrating, we did finally get a Taxi which took us to the center hosting the event. Arriving to a girl on stage performing Pharrel Williams's "Happy," we stayed to watch the competition till its conclusion.

I don't know if you've ever watched a beauty competition in a foreign language before, but frankly it is one of the most confusing things I have ever seen. Every time we thought it was over and the winner was chosen, it would turn out that was some for of secondary prize that actually eliminated them from being a finalist. Finally, with a former Miss Kazakhstan reading the final announcement, the AIESECer (Number 4) came first in the competition.

Part 3: A Kazakh Dinner

After cheering her and taking pictures, our group proceeded to a restaurant where we had reservations. Here, we would get a traditional Kazakh experience. We all started laughing from the start when we found ourselves at a table with no chairs but instead cushions to sit on.

The meal started with tea mixed with milk, served in bowls for us.

Please disregard the Estonian

We were also served Baursaks to compliment the tea, while waiting for our main dish. We took this time constantly shifting seats and taking various pictures of the setup. Finally, our main dish was served: Besbarmak. This dish consists of boiled horse meat with pasta, and is called "five fingers" as it is traditionally eaten with your hands.

I tried eating it by hand for about 2 bites before switching to a fork like everyone else

After finishing our meal, we crammed into a single car (stored Marko in the trunk, in all seriousness) and drove back to our dormitories where all of us immediately collapsed into sleep.

Grace, Bretislav, Ming Jia, Myself, Marko, and Marko's AIESEC Buddy

In conclusion, this was an excellent first day to what I expect is going to continue to be a fantastic experience.