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.
The Expo has begun in Astana. Besides the actual site with all of the pavilions, the city is geared up for visitors to come and experience Kazakhstan. Yulia was looking at the different events and found some tickets to go and see the Tlendiyev Kazakhstan National Ethnic Folk Orchestra. The orchestra plays traditional instruments (like the ones our university orchestra plays) and plays both Kazakh traditional music as well as classical music.
Yulia got tickets for us and told our friend, Ramona, who got tickets for herself and her girls as well as a few friends. The concert was held at the new ballet theater, which is only about a mile from our house - within walking distance easily - and which we hadn't yet been to. We dressed up and took the bus two stops and then had to walk about the same distance up the road. The theater is beautiful on the inside and out. It is a modern style, but since the opera theater is classical, it is a nice contrast.
Some "plant" sculptures on our walk to the theater
On our walk to the theater. Behind us is a row of flags of all of the countries participating in EXPO
A view of the main EXPO building from the theater
Ladies
Our crew at the Ballet Theater
We didn't realize that the twins dressed this way until we got here. If you are wondering what's up, here is the deal: they are wearing Indian shirts (Native American) and Indian skirts (from India)
The chandeliers were incredibly beautiful.
Yulia and I waiting for the concert to begin.
Girls and Babushka before the concert.
We had bought our seats online. We sat down (about fifteen minutes early, so VERY early in Kazakh time) and had two groups of people come and try to sit in our seats. They had hand-written tickets from the expo. We guess that they had reserved blocks of ticket for there, but that the reservation system wasn't quite synced. The ushers told us to stay and put the other groups in seats around us. When the concert started, the theater was only about 2/3 full, which was a shame because it was a very nice concert.
The repertoire consisted of traditional songs with guests vocalists, classical operas, and classical instrumental music. There were a few songs where they had different instruments doing solos and that was really neat. We love the round clay flute especially.
Solo number with a violin-like instrument that is held between the knees. This was probably the most beautiful song overall.
The final bow with all the conductors and singers.
We had a wonderful time. When the concert was over we walked to the new mall and had McFlurry ice cream at McDonalds and then walked the rest of the way home. It was a lovely evening and a lovely concert.
On our walk to the Mega Mall we passed some EXPO buildings. They were still doing some work in places even though EXPO opened the day before.
A week after we got
back from our trip to Barcelona, we went to Almaty for the country
conference for our church (LDS church- we're Mormons). Normally just about
everywhere else in the world they have stake or district conferences
but here we have neither stake nor district, so the leadership
improvised and did a country conference instead. :) For the first
time the members from the entire country of Kazakhstan got together.
We had people from Astana, Almaty, Atarau, Aktau and even from
Bishkek, Kyrgystan. Spencer and I were both translating there as well
as giving talks. Our girls were doing two musical numbers for the
talent show there, so we all had important parts in the conference
and needed to be there however we had quite an adventure getting
there.
Every single time we
come to Kazakhstan from anywhere outside of the country, we need to
register with the police department. We have at least 2 weeks to do
it but we usually register as soon as we get in. It is a simple
process: we just submit our passports and in about 5 business days we
get them back with the registration. We submitted our passports after
coming back from our trip to Spain forgetting that we'll need them in
5 days to travel to Almaty. We turned our passports in on Monday and
were leaving on Friday night. Thankfully we got them back on
Thursday.
We were taking an
overnight business train. Normally it takes anywhere between 17 and
24 hours to get to Almaty from Astana if traveling by train. It just
depends on how many stops that train makes in between. Flying our
whole family plus my mom who was visiting us was out of the question:
too expensive for a two-day trip. So we decided to take a business
train that is more expensive than a regular train but a lot cheaper
than a plane. It makes only a couple of stops on the way and so it
only takes 12 hours over night. Very handy!
We ordered two taxis
to the train station. It normally takes 15-20 minutes to get there, I
planned an hour. Well, that night we had a snowstorm, and so the
traffic was unusually slow. One taxi was late. When the first taxi
showed up, my mom, the twins and I took it leaving Spencer and the
older girls wait for the second taxi. Their taxi was 20 minutes late.
Traffic was impossible. We were in a real pickle. Spencer had all of
our tickets, and I had all of our passports. We told our driver the
time our train was supposed to leave. He said he will try to get
there on time through the back roads. But even if we got there just
in time, we couldn't leave without the second half of our crew. The
kids and I prayed so hard! We arrived at the train station with 10
minutes to spare and ran to the platform. The train was supposed to
leave in 5 minutes. And there it was … our miracle: the business
train that's never late didn't even get to the platform yet. It
arrived 20 minutes late, and so Spencer and the girls were able to
get there just in time. It was really a miracle! He also said that
their driver drove like a maniac breaking all of the rules.
Our train ride was
very unadventurous the rest of the way. We had nice 2-people
compartments with bunk beds and personal sinks in each one of them.
The girls love traveling by trains, and we've been on a lot of trains
before, and this one was the nicest of them all.
On the train
Nika and Lina were in the compartment next to ours that was connected through this door.
Babushka and Sophie were roommates for the ride.
We booked three
rooms at a hotel near the church building. The other expat families
that came there for the conference were staying at the same hotel as
well. So we got together with our friends, the Stices and the
Hessenauers and went out to a little Korean restaurant for lunch. We
had a great time visiting there. Then we broke up: some of us had to
go to the leadership meeting, and some went up to the mountains with
the youth.
Lunch at the Korean restaurant. It is fun visiting with friends!
Later that evening
all members got together for a dinner and a talent show. The dinner
was catered from somewhere. It was fine but a bit greasy for my
taste. The talent show was great. There was poetry, dances, singing,
guitar, dombra and piano playing. It was fun! Our girls performed two musical
numbers on a guitar, one of which was a song by a very popular Russian rock star from the 80s who was killed in a car wreck in 1990.
Apparently, he was very famous in Kazakhstan because a movie staring
him was filmed right there in Almaty. So, needless to say that the
girls got a standing ovation when they performed that song.
People arriving before the talent show
These girls from Almaty are performing Kazakh folk dance.
Our girls getting ready to sing a song by Viktor Tsoy.
It was a great day
that was dampened a little by the fact that just about everybody got food
poisoning from the dinner. At least we got our systems cleared! :)
Playing in the snow with Mimi and Taraz Stice on our way back to the hotel.
The next day was the
actual conference. It was a wonderful conference, most talks were
concentrated on building unity. And then it was time to say our
goodbyes and go home.
With the Andersons from Ephraim. Spencer went to school with their daughter.
We were taking the same business train
overnight back to Astana. On our way to the train station we stopped
to eat at KFC (we didn't want to risk eating anywhere unknown after
the previous night's adventures). Our train ride back home was
uneventful which is the way we like it! It is always nice to get
home!
