Привиет
Фсе (Hi All),
Happy Halloween! I know it’s a day late, but hey, its Halloween back in the states right now, so technically, I’m ok. They don’t celebrate Halloween over here as a rule, but my school does have an annual party, and it was pretty impressive. They had about 75 kids in a large assembly room, impressively decorated with scary stuff, carved pumpkins, the works. A couple teachers (my counterpart and my Russian tutor) were dressed as witches, and they had a few skits that some students put on. Afterwards, we went out to the basketball court to burn a scarecrow ghost. All good pagan stuff. Oh, and they had relay races that I told them about, one where you put on a bunch of clothes, run a bit, then a teammate has to put them on and run back, anyone remember that one? One scary game I taught them was “dizzy bat”. This is where you place your nose on the end of a bat and spin around ten times, then try to run to your teammates. If you’ve never done this, its freaky, your mind turns the world on a 90 degree angle, and you are clawing at the ground for fear of falling off the earth. When I saw they were going to play this game, I freaked, because the bonfire was still burning, right in the path of the game. Turns out they altered the game, only spinning around the bats once, so, whew. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for burning children, afraid of falling off the earth. Man, what a way to go, eh?
What an incredibly morbid thought, it must be Halloween…
So last night was the weekly Andrew and Megan Radio Show, and we had a surprise caller, Megan’s folks. It’s the second time her father called, but this time, both of her parents talked. Megan was pretty jazzed. Personally, I think they sounded pretty proud of her, which they should be, as she’s really mastered this place, and her Russian is almost perfect (I try to help her when I have time J )
My job at Pragma is finally up and running. The PC has never worked with a for-profit
company before, so this is a groundbreaking situation. I just performed my first assessment of a
client, a “customs broker”. Basically,
this company acts as a middleman to facilitate getting customs paperwork done
for import/export.
Speaking of corruption, I was just chatting with my friend
Jay, a
One last quick corruption story for this entry. There’s a guy here we call Big Eric (there are two Erics here, one small, one large). Big Eric came to Kaz about eight years ago as a missionary, then branched off into business. He started this Chamber of Commerce/411-ish services called “055”. Basically, you dial 055 and you get an information service to find local businesses who signed up to be listed. He also prints a guide as well. Anyway, Eric has had an ongoing battle with the local tax officials, which has, unfortunately, culminated in him being placed under house arrest last week. It’s a very long story, but basically, he refused to pay a small “stipend” to ensure he could travel at will, and he attempted to, well, make a run for the Russian border. Obviously, he was unsuccessful in that mission. At the moment, I understand he is hanging out at his house with his own personal policeman until this issue gets resolved. We’re not too concerned, though, as a couple nights ago, Eric and his new armed roommate apparently shared a bottle of vodka. Plus, he’s playing the “detainee” sympathy card, so Megan’s bringing him tons of snacks. I’m actually thinking of going the same route J.
Later,
Andrew