Our spring university life.

One-third of the summer is gone, and I was sure we just barely stepped into it. Trying to catch up on our blogging is a bit overwhelming, so in this post I will try to hit some highlights from our spring 2018 at NU campus (I decided to do a separate post on our spring as a family).

In March and April, we attended end of the year concerts for the NU Orchestra and NU Choir. Somehow, we got on their VIP lists, so we had very nice seats reserved for us. Yay! Both events are always very well-attended, and it is almost impossible to get the tickets. Both Orchestra and the Choir did an amazing job as always. Spencer and I were talking about how it would be great for them to do a tour in America, showing Kazakh culture. One of my favorite pieces from orchestra was the Believer (Imagine Dragons) played on national Kazakh instruments. The choir did songs from famous musicals which was a lot of fun!

Waiting for the show to start (NU Orchestra)

NU Orchestra (some of the national instruments they play are very cool)

They even had a base guitar! If you want to see some of their pieces, just search on YouTube for NU Orchestra) 

NU Choir had in my opinion their best performance in all of the years we've been here!

Spencer was nominated for Professor of the Year Award (in total only 5 professors from the entire university were nominated), so we went to that fancy Award Ceremony where the students, clubs, and one professor get an award for being awesome. I mean they even rolled out the red carpet, how fancy is that?! And even though Spencer didn’t win the award, the students cheered the loudest for him when his name was read! Another positive outcome of this event was that I got myself a new dress and new shoes! 😊

 

Who are these two handsome people?

At the ceremony we had a front row seats!

We also had our annual award ceremony for our basketball team. As always it was held at our house with a lunch, laughter, and some tears (tears from saying goodbye to our two graduating basketball players). We love our basketball family!

Some of our second year girls

Aigerym  and Ayim, our two graduates this year.

Our basketball family minus Nika who is taking this picture.

NU does a year book (kind of like in any US high school), but this is the first year Spencer decided to get one. Maybe it was because this year was the first year his students that he led from the very first year, graduated. I don’t know, I should ask. But we made it into this year book (besides his picture on the list of the faculty). I think students like him!

Spring Concerts

NU Orchestra Concert (April 2017)

For the past three years, the highlight of the spring season has been the end of year choir concert.  This year, we had an additional treat - the first ever concert by the NU orchestra.  The NU orchestra is a combination of folk instruments and traditional instruments and they play a combination of classic Kazakh music and songs from music and television.  Their biggest hit is playing the theme song form the BBC drama "Sherlock" and the theme song from game of thrones.

Traditional flutes

Traditional Kazakh song with guest singer from musical university.

The group formed from students sitting around in the evenings playing together and now they have an adviser who is a leading ethno-musicologist who helps them learn how to play some traditional instruments that have not been used for a long time (like a little oblong flute).

This year I have one of the girls on the basketball team who is also in the orchestra.  She plays the dombra, a two-stringed instrument (see it here).  She asked me if Yulia and I would like to come to the inaugeral concert.  Of course we couldn't turn down such an invitation, so we went.  We were lucky to be given VIP seats next to the university president and other "real VIPs" and to have a great seat in the new student theater that opened this spring in the student dormitory complex.

Game of Thrones Theme Song (Blindfolded)

The concert was fantastic.  They played very well, and the music itself was lively.  They had a few student hosts, one of whom is my student, and they were genuinely funny and very charming.

Orchestra playing blindfolded to demonstrate proficiency

The highlight of the concert was a traditional battle of dombras when four of the boys spent about 8 minutes doing various things to show that they were the best players.  It was very cool.

Sherlock Theme

Traditional Kazakh Song

We also attended the spring choir concert (the next day) and our whole family was given the VIP treatment.  The girls' participation with the choir has made us a VIP family with the choir.  The concert this year was one of their best.  They had good group numbers and fun individual numbers.  The students went a bit overboard with the dramatic story that they tried to tell to put the whole concert together, but it was a lot of fun. Leaving the concerts we had the feeling that when we do decide to leave NU and Kazakhstan, it will be a very hard day.  For as many small (and sometimes large) frustrations that crop up, we genuinely love the students and the interactions that we have with them.  They are great kids.

NU Choir

NU choir voted Nika to receive their Best Soloist of the Year Award for her performance in their Winter Concert

Valentine's Day 2017

Valentine's Day is an interesting holiday for our family.  The 8th of March is the bigger holiday and it comes right before our wedding anniversary.  There are a lot of expectations for thoughtful gifts over a very short period of time.

This year I came through on Valentine's Day okay.  I bought some chocolates for the girls and Yulia, and made a nice card for Yulia as well.  I had those out on the table for when the girls woke up.

I invited Yulia to eat lunch with me at the La Tartine cafe at the university.  It's pricier than the cafeteria where I eat lunch most days, but they have some nice food and a nice atmosphere.  She came and met me at noon after I taught class and conducted office hours.  We had a nice meal. I had gotten an email from the choir that they were conducting an impromptu concert in the atrium at 1:00 p.m. so I took Yulia there on her way back to the house.

The first group starting.  Not much of a crowd yet.

The choir had three groups of students who each sang 3 different songs.  They did a good job of singing, as always, and we had a fun time with the crowd admiring them.

Yulia and I taking a selfie to prove we belong! :)

More and more people gathered to watch.

For dinner Yulia made a lovely meal of stuffed peppers.  We ended the day by watching an episode of Chuck (the show our family is watching together a few episodes a week).  All in all it was a lovely day, and a reminder that there is usually something nice happening in Astana if you just look for it.

Stevie Wonder; I just Called to Say I Love You

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The accoustics weren't the best, but up close it sounded nice.

NU Choir Winter Concert 2016

Every year since we moved to Astana, we look forward to attending NU Choir concerts. They do two each school year, one in the winter and one in the spring. In the past two years they asked kids to sing a couple of songs during their winter concert. This time the choir director wrote to us and asked if one of our girls could sing a solo a capella part with the choir. We volunteered Veronika, though she was happy to do it anyway. The song she was supposed to sing is called “Hoist the Colours” from the Pirates of the Caribbean. She memorized her part and join the choir for the last couple of practices before the concert.

The concert was on November 18 this year. It was a bit earlier than the in the previous years because the semester this year was ending earlier. They gave our family VIP seats (the front row) because Nika was in the concert. Unfortunately, Spencer had to miss it because he had a conference in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Filling up the Hall

Our front row seats. Awesome!

The opening song - Can't Stop the Feeling

Every year they get better and better!

This next video is an acapella tribute to Leonard Cohen who died two weeks earlier.

Nika's solo part

She isn't used to all of the public attention

The choir as always did an amazing job, and so did Nika! One of my favorite parts of the concert was the performance by the student orchestra. They played two pieces, one from the Games of Thrones and the other from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Performed with mostly Kazakh folk instruments those pieces sounded very unique.

The student orchestra did an amazing job!

Pirates of the Caribbean 

We love being a part of the NU community!

NU Student Christmas Concert

Back at the beginning of November all of the professors with kids received an email from the director of the NU Choir asking if their kids would like to participate in the Choir’s Christmas program on December 5^th. Three of our four girls were very eager to do it and they talked their unwilling sister into joining them. There were total of 12 kids who ended up singing in the program, our family represented 33% of them! They were given 2 songs to learn in the upcoming weeks: “Frosty, the Snowman” and “Rudolf, the Red Nosed Reindeer”. Together as a group they only had 2 short practices, one of which was just right before the concert. I wasn’t sure how it would all turn out but it turned out AWESOME!

The concert was on Friday night. Our Polina had school that night but thanks to a blizzard it was canceled, so we didn’t have to get her out of school early. We had our friends, the Craigs, over for dinner that night (2 of their kids were also singing in the program) and when the time came, we dressed the kids in their pretty clothes and marched through the blizzard to the NU building where the program was taking place.

The kids were given red Santa hats, ran through the songs a couple of times, and sat down in the first 2 rows that were designated for them. There were just a few people there in the audience with 15 minutes left before the concert. I was wondering if anybody is going to make it there with the blizzard going outside. But … they did! The room filled up completely with people standing in the back!

Kids are waiting for the concert to start

The room starts to fill up

NU Student Choir with their director Jason Lewis (in the Ded Moroz -Grandfather Frost- costume)

The Choir opened the concert with “Silent Night” that they sang in German, English, and Russian, and it was just beautiful. The true spirit of Christmas was so strong there! Then after another song the time was given to the children. They did an awesome job and got the biggest applause!

The cutest bunch ever!

Then it was back to the student choir. They sang a lot of famous Christmas and New Years pieces, and they did a wonderful job! I was really impressed with them! Their director was Jason Lewis, who was a professional musician and a husband of one of our NU professors. When the students found out that he knows a thing or two about music, the begged him to organize a choir. They’ve had the choir for a couple of years now and they have a lot to be proud of!

NU Student Choir

Feliz Navidad

We had a wonderful time at the concert and we’re so proud of our kids stepping up and becoming part of the community! It was a nice way to get into a Christmas spirit!

Merry Christmas to all of you and a Happy New Year!

Here are some video clips from the concert