Spring Break Trip to Sri Lanka Part I - Getting from Astana to Unawatuna!

On March 23, we started off on our next adventure - a spring break trip to Sri Lanka.  We chose Sri Lanka since we had such a good time in Thailand last year.  We wanted another tropical beach vacation, but to try it somewhere new.  Vietnam and the Philippines didn't work out because of flights (we couldn't leave until March 23 because I was away at a conference in Atlanta until late Monday night - March 21). We thought about going back to Thailand, but the prices for hotels were double what they were last year - a consequence of Russia's bad relations with Turkey and the closing down of Egypt as a Russian tourist destination.

We booked flights on Etihad airlines, and our hotels in Unawatuna and Colombo online and were ready to go. We took a taxi to the airport at 3:00 p.m. and had plenty of time to check in and wait before we boarded the airplane at 4:30.  The airline was nice, but we didn't feel like it was really any better than most other airlines we fly - even though we were prepared to be wowed since Etihad has a very good reputation.  We landed in Abu Dhabi and taxied to a parking lot.  We took a bus from there to the terminal, and then had to run back through the terminal, pass through additional security, and then check into our flight.  We had to take a bus from the terminal back out to the plane.  We missed the first bus, and had to wait until all the stragglers checked in.  It was a very tight connection, but we made it.

When we arrived at Colombo, we were not sure where to go.  We had applied for e-visas before landing, but weren't sure if we were to pass straight through customs, or whether we had to stop at the counter for e-visas.  After using the restroom, we waited at the e-visa counter.  After 15 minutes we were at the front of the line and were told to just go to the immigration line.

We waited in that line for about 10 minutes before we got to the counter.  Yulia had put our email confirmation of visas into the passports and handed them to the immigration official.  He threw them back at us and asked us where our immigration cards (that we filled out on the plane) were.  We told him we had them.  He told us to put those in instead.  Yulia and I did that while he helped the next lady.  He then took our passports, gave us a dirty look, and proceeded to stamp them and throw them back at us.  It was not exactly a welcoming experience at the airport!

We had only checked one bag, and it didn't arrive.  We had to go and fill out paperwork at the counter.  I got sucked into helping a Russian couple translate.  I don't know how they determined that I spoke Russian, but it worked out. We were told that our bag would be delivered to us at our hotel in Unawatuna probably the next day. We exited the baggage area and changed some money.  Then we saw our driver holding a sign - we had asked that he be ready by 6:30 and it was only 5:30, but we went to his van and he drove us to Unawatuna and to our hotel - the Hotel Flower Garden, where we arrived by 8:00 a.m.

We were early, but they gave us a cool drink and they prepared our rooms for us and we checked in by 8:30.  We had arrived!

Sophie enjoying her complimentary cold cinnamon drink at the hotel

Finally in Sri Lanka. Don't be fulled by our kids' looks, we just escaped winter.  It is 90F outside and very humid.

A view from our hotel room

Nauryz 2016

The last three day all Kazakh people are celebration Nauryz (Kazakh new year). Last year I wrote a post about it here. We were going to Thailand then. This year we are going to Sri Lanka. I guess we are making it a tradition! :)

On Monday we got together with some friends and went to aul (ethnic village that was set up specifically for the celebration of Nauryz just down the road from Nazarbayev University). It was a sunny day, but was only 32F. The main celebration was happening the next day but we had packing to do for our trip, so we opted for the earlier time.

We met our friends and went into the village. We were surprised with all of the security around, we had to go through a check point and a body search. There were a lot of police around the perimeter of the village and inside. We didn't think much of it. We looked around the village. There were vendors selling different crafts and art. There were yurts set up as little dining places. There was a big outdoor stage with a lot of different performers. There was a wrestling rink, and also places where kids could play a tug-of-war games. There were also traditional Kazakh swings.

Lots of people dressed in the national costumes.

More costumes

Some of our crew

Lina and Lexa

Kazakh wrestling match

Weight lifting competition

Kazakh swings

Our kids really wanted to get on one of those, so we stood around waiting for our turn. Apparently there is no line, the kids just stay around the swing set and as soon as the swing stops, they rush to it trying to be the first one to jump on, cutting each other off and even wrestling. Anyway, our kids were way too polite to do that, so finally we, the parents just had to take a matter into our own hands.

Some of our kids finally managed to get on the swing.

While on the swings, Taraz (the daughter of one of our friends) was up in the air and yelled that she thinks that someone famous is coming. When she was up again the next time, she frantically screamed: “It's the President!”. 

Here is Taraz up in the air when she spoted the President!

We looked around and saw a huge crowd moving just 20 feet from us. It turns out

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of the country was visiting the village! The crowd was so big, so we couldn't see him but I managed to snap a photo of him by lifting up my camera as high as I could.

Can you spot the President? He is the white haired guy you can see right off the left shoulder of the girl dressed on the left who is dressed in white.

These girls really had a good view!

He went into the golden yurt, so we decided to stick around to see him when he will be leaving. We waited, and waited, and waited. The kids were getting restless. I just knew that as soon as we left our spot, he would come out. So we waited, and waited, and waited again. Finally we decided to go eat some food, and as soon as we left, he came out from the yurt. We missed him once again. After that the village emptied until only half as many people were there. I was wondering if the people came there just to see the president, or if half of the people in the village were the security agents, because we did spot quite a few of them running around in normal clothes but with ear pieces in their ears.

The President went into that second yurt from the right. 

Loaded on cotton candy

Overall we had a good time, but now we are ready to go to a sunny and warm Sri Lanka for a week to thaw! We love Kazakhstan but the winter is a bit too long for my liking!

Happy bunch!

Track and Field

Nika has being doing track. At the beginning of the school year I asked the girls what they wanted to do for their extra curricular activities. They all wanted to try different things but since there are only 24 hours in a day, I told them that the oldest two can pick two activities, and the twins can pick one (and if they can keep up with their school work, then the next year they can pick a second activity). I wanted all girls to do some sort of sport, and they all picked figure skating. It has been really good for them. They have a great coach and they improved dramatically in their skating skills in the last few months.

Then Nika and Lina picked guitar classes as their second activity (the twins really wanted to do violin but we decided to wait until the next year). Those have been awesome! Again they ended up with a great teacher, and they love it!

All of the activities are done in the Children's Palace which is kind of like a huge rec center with all kinds of sports, art, science, music, linguistic, craft and many, many more activities. And here is how Nika ended up with the third one, absolutely by accident. She and Lina were at their figure skating class which consists of one hour on the ice and a half an hour in the gym every time they come to practice. During their first gym practice their coach had them run a couple of laps on the indoor track. Then all of a sudden Nika shows up in the waiting room and says that the coach wants to talk to me. It turns out that it was the track and field coach who wanted to talk to me. She saw Veronika running on the track and went to beg her figure skating coach to let her go, so she could come and do track with her team. She is a 7-time national champion for Kazakhstan in track and said that Nika was born to run. Nika decided to give it a try and after the first day she fell in love with it. But she didn't want to give up figure skating, so she is doing all three now. Her track coach is super excited to train her, which is nice.

Nika is a little too young to go to track meets, but her coach wanted her to get a feel for it, so she sent her to a couple of meets already. The second time Nika took 6^th place in a 300 meters event, which is great! She is really enjoying it, and we are proud of her for not being afraid of trying new things in a foreign country.

The following pictures are from the two track meets that Nika participated in.

Getting ready to run in her very first meet

Getting ready to start

Running 300 meters (Nika is on the left, in blue)

All the kids that participated in the meet

8 March

March 8 was International Women's Day which is a federal holiday and a big deal here. I wrote a post about it last year which you can see here: http://kazakhstandingtall.blogspot.com/2015/03/international-womens-day.html. This year our girls' classes put together concerts for moms, and of course our kids participated. I think the twins volunteered to do every single number there was to do! They were so excited! All three classes had their concerts on the same day but at different times, so I ended up spending all day at the school.

First it was Lina's class. Here are some pictures from their concert. Lina recited a poem in Russian, and every mom was amazed at her Russian! She came a long way since last year!

The hosts

Lina reciting her poem

These two girls sang a beautiful Kazakh song about grandma's. I'll try to add a video clip later.

There were lots of games for moms. This one was when blindfolded mothers tried to figure out which was their kid.

Walts

Cute girls!

The next celebration was in Nika's class. There it was the boys who prepared a little program, and then they had a tea party afterwards.

Boys will always be boys

Nika with her friends

And then it was the twin's class. Their class put up a great program! They also had a tea party afterwards.

First each mom got a heart with a her child's hand print, made out of napkins (I got two!)

Waiting for the program to start.

Little hosts!

A song for moms

These girls are just so cute!

A skit about a daughter, a mother, and a grandmother.

Tea party

Twins with their "8 of March" gifts.

Here are some videos from the parties. The first one is of the two girls from Lina's class singing a Kazakh song about grandmothers. The second one is of the kids in the twins' class dancing.

Miss Ocharovashka Contests 2016

Life has been super busy here and I just realized that we haven't posted in over two months. A lot has happened since then, so we'll try to catch up as much as we can.

Our family is doomed! Just like their parents, all of our kids volunteer and get involved in everything, big or small! February was full of activities at the kids' school, including “Miss Ocharovashka” (Miss Enchantment) contest for the Elementary School grades, the same one they did last year. This year our youngest three decided to participate in a true Kazakh manner (meaning with only three days notice!). They had to do a little presentation about themselves in a poem style, make a dress out of whatever they find around the house, and show a talent. For a mother of three cute little contestants it was a no easy task. Fortunately we saved Nika's dress from last year's contest, so I only had to make one more dress for the other twin, and Lina's contest was on a different day, so she shared the dress.

The only reason our twins wanted to participate is because they really wanted to sing a famous Russian song that they learned earlier in the month and were enthusiastically singing just about every night on their way home from school. And the only reason Lina wanted to participate is because she really wanted to play her guitar. These were the classroom competitions, and whoever won would go on to the school competition. I was really hoping that we would somehow avoid it remembering all the hassle with it last year when Nika won her classroom contest. Well, this year Lina won. I guess it just runs in the family. All the girls had the blast though, and we were really proud of them.

Lexa and Sophie, ready to start!

Twins with their best friend, Dariya.

They are just so cute!

Lina is waiting for the contest to start.

Their teacher really went above and beyond in organizing this contest.

Lina is playing Lizginka (a Georgian folk dance) on her guitar.

Fashion show

Coronation!

The three contestants with their awesome teacher!

Afterwards they had a tea party

Lina's class

Here is the video of Lina playing her guitar.

Polina's Miss Ocharovashka - School Contest 2016

Lina won her classroom Miss Ocharovashka (Miss Enchanting) contest and went on to the school one which they did in honor of the International Women's Day. It is a pretty big deal because it is turned into a big show, and so they spent two hours at school after their classes ended every day for the next two weeks just practicing for the event. It was really crazy at times but Lina did it, and we were very proud of her. It was amazing to me how much talent the kids have. We had singers, dancers, gymnastics, a guitar player, a flute player, magic show, puppet show. It was fun! Lina didn't win the contest but she got the title “Miss Elegance”, which is the exact title Nika got last year! Sisters!

Lina waiting for her turn to go on stage.

On stage

All of the contestants did a little dance together.

Doing her introductions.

She was pretty pleased that high school kids were serving her!

Playing her piece on the guitar

Getting ready for the talent show.

Happy Kid

About to go on a stage again

Doing the fashion run

These are some of the costumes that other contestants made. These two are out of crepe paper and plastic cups.

Wrapping paper and foil

More crepe paper

Garbage bags and napkins on the left and groceries bags and napkins on the right 

Lina had the loudest cheering group! Those are her classmates that came to cheer for her.

She got her title of Miss Elegance

A few of the contestants.