Crazy Winter in Astana

We had a pretty crazy winter over here this year. It had been unusually warm for Kazakhstan (only about -4 F) but very snowy and blizzardy. They would shut down public schools including the first year of college (2-year colleges, not 4-year ones) every time there was a blizzard which came down to about 2 weeks of missed school total. Then there were lots of heavy-fog days and icy-road days during which elementary schools were canceled as well. Now the schools are shut down due to coronavirus. More than ever I am happy with our decision to homeschool though we will be going back to public school system once we are back in America this summer (hopefully!).

Anyway, I thought I would show you some Astana winter scenery from this season, so you can see for yourself what we've been dealing with! Here we go...

Here are our twins with their best friend, April. My mom knitted matching hat/scarf combos for all of my kids, and April fell in love with them. So, naturally my mom made a set for her too. The pom-poms are made from my old hat (a hare fur hat) that I wore when I was 4 years old! Sophie is not wearing her scarf here because ... well, because it was a warm winter. :) 

Going to the mall across the street in their heavy winter coats.

My favorite scenery is when the trees are all dressed in white after a foggy morning, just like here!

On our evening walks on campus with Yuki, our own little "fox".

Look at all that snow!

This is what happens to sidewalks after a blizzard the day before. It takes the city a few days to clear them all (this particular one stayed like this for about 2 weeks). This is on our way home from church one Sunday.

And this is our window on the morning after a blizzard. Side note: we live on the 7th floor!

Lina by the Children's Palace where kids go to all of their extracurricular activities. After every snowstorm the snow is plowed into these big mounds and left like that for weeks until the trucks become available to take it outside of the city. 

Here is Lina by one of these mounds.

And here are the mounds by our apartment on campus. On February 1st we went to a hockey game between our National team Barys and a Russian team Avangard that was played in a big hockey arena about 2 bus stops away from our campus. We usually walk there because it only takes about 20 minutes to walk. It took us a bit longer this time because we had to do it through high snow.

Walking to the hockey arena. The snow on these sidewalks was about 2 feet high.

Nika and Lina goofing around.

We are big fans of our Barys team (the name of the team means "snow leopard")

Us, the old folks.

Every time Barys scored, the fan section would unroll that huge blue jersey. It was a tough game but we won!

Here is the walkway in front of the university. It is a giant skating rink!

And here what the roads turn to after warmer temperatures and a blizzard. Ice!

Going to church on Sundays.

Going from church on Sundays (twins being twins).

Snow drifts on campus after a blizzard.

During one of the blizzards we went to take our dog out. She did not want to be out and neither did we! We are so grateful for that skywalk you see connecting our apartment building with the university. It makes winters bearable here.

The snow and ice on the sidewalk is so high that it makes this normal bench "ground level".

Love those pine trees!

Snow level in one of our outdoor basketball courts. Now even a 5-year old can make an easy basket (if he can make it to the hoop)!

Lina and snow on campus

Lina wanted me to take a lot of pictures of the snow this winter since we are moving to Texas this summer and the only snow we will see there will be when we look at our pictures from here!

Winter Wonderland!

Contests, festivals, tournaments

From November to April our girls had a lot of musical contests in which they participated. The twins were playing flutes with their group of girls and took second place in the international festival .

Here they are goofing around on the piano  in their classroom while waiting for the results.

With their group and their teacher, Bayan Beketovna.

On stage receiving the award.

 Veronika and Polina formed a duet which they called Americano and performed at a Russian Talent Festival where they also took second place in the string instruments category with a Sting's song "Shape of My Heart".

Showing off their certificate

 Later they played and sang the same song at the National Contest for young guitarists and won "Judges' Choice" award.

Polina and Sophia took a carving class for the last two years, and this spring their work ended up at some contest as well.

Polina's spoon in the shape of a parrot.

Sophie's spoon with a tree branch and a ladybug.

 At the beginning of March our figure skating coach texted me that all of our girls are urgently needed for the Opening Ceremony of the International Youth Hockey Tournament. So, our girls and a few others from their synchronized figure skating team went. Some girls were leading teams out on the ice, and others were carrying flags of the countries of the participating teams (there were teams from Belorussia, Slovakia, China, Kazakhstan, and two teams from Russia). The girls only had two practices (just like about everything in Kazakhstan, it was a last minute deal) but did very well.

Waiting for the practice to start.

Getting instructions from the tournament organizers in the biggest hockey areana in the country.

Before the Opening Ceremony. The girls in purple t-shirts were the ones leading the hockey teams on the ice (Sophie is second from the left, Lina is fith, and Lexa is last), and the ones in national costumes were carrying the flags.

Flag bearers. Nika is in the national Slovak costume.

The teams were coming out of this big snow lepard (a mascot for the national hockey team).  You can see Lexa there in a purple shirt who was the first one out with her team from Russia who ended up taking the first place in the tournament.

There is Sophie with her team from Slovakia (in blue) and Nika carrying their flag.

Nika

Lina with her team from Kazakhstan (also in blue)

In front of Barys Hockey Arena

Hockey Game: Astana Barys December 2016

Last December we went to a Hockey game.  This year we decided to go again.  Last year we had gotten free tickets from the university.  The seats were pretty good.  This year, we bought our own tickets, and the seats ended up being amazing.  We spent about $42 dollars for all of us (including Yulia's mom) to go and watch the Omsk Avangard.

The stadium is just about a mile from our house and the busses don't run on the street it's on, so we decided just to walk.  We walked there in nice weather, unlike last year when we arrived and left in a blizzard.

By the time we got to the stadium, through security, and gave our coats to the coat check, we were about 5 minutes into the first period.  Our seats were about 7 rows up on the corner behind the goal.  We had a great view of the action on both sides of the rink.  The stadium is very nice and has a huge jumbotron as well and so we were able to see replays of the best plays.

The girls came straight from their figure skating practice, so they are in their special attire.

Dropping the puck. Barys is in blue.

Amazing speed and agility!

Barys fan section. It looks like Ded Moroz and Snegurochka came to cheer for the team!

The game itself was great.  The Avangard team scored in the first period.  The second period was scoreless.  Barys scored at the beginning of the third period, and about five minutes scored again, gaining the lead.  The other team pulled their goalie with about 2 minutes left and attacked furiously.  Astana defended, got the puck out, and scored in the open net with about 25 seconds left in the game.  Everyone immediately through stuffed animals onto the ice (something that was supposed to happen at the end of the game) to be donated to orphanages around the country.  It took about five minutes to clean up all the animals - and it was lots of fun seeing the players, referees, and rink staff gathering them up.

Action!

This #43 (Dustin Boyd, a Canadian) is a local hero. 

Every time our team makes a goal, the fans fly this gigantic Barys shirt.

Third goal with 25 seconds to go. The crowd just blew up!

Players helping to clean the ice. There are 25 seconds still left in the game.

Final score 3:1. We won!

We all had a lot of fun.  One peculiarity of the stadium here is that food is not allowed inside - and so when we sent our kids for treats they had to eat them.  I think the emphasis is on keeping the stadium looking nice.  In the US, of course, the emphasis is on making obscene profits on concessions.

The other big adventure was that Yulia and I were on the kiss cam during a break in the third period.  We totally kissed!

Hockey wasn't a game that I'd ever really been into before seeing it live, but it is a great sport to watch live.  It has a lot of action and is very fast.  We are going to try to go see a basketball game during the winter break as well.