I was born in San Francisco and then raised across the bridge in Marin County. Summer nights were spent either lounging on the dock of my neighbor’s house while sipping on ice cold orange juice, or hiking through towering redwood trees. Sometimes the weather climbed to 27 °C and I’d complain about the unfairness of it all. How dare the weather make me sweat? Now that I am in Almaty, I truly believe that I am receiving punishment for all those times I was ungrateful and complained. The predicted average temperature for this upcoming week is an unbearable 33 °C. When I exit any air-conditioned building, the heat slaps me in the face and there’s nothing I can do about it (being mad at the weather is equivalent to an old man yelling at the sky). However, I have channeled my anger into a productive cause: a city-wide scavenger hunt to locate the best air-conditioned study spots.
One such place is a popular shopping center located in the southeast part of the city called Dostyk Plaza. A friend and I went there to study in the sixth week of RLASP program. We sat together and worked through our daily grammar homework, stopping every so often to discuss difficult questions in English. On one particularly difficult example, a man sitting at the table adjacent to us leaned over and asked if we needed some help. That help evolved into a two hour long conversation. While my Russian is still in its early stages, we talked about topics ranging from “where are you from and why are you in Almaty” to “what happens when you are detained as a result of participating in an unsanctioned protest.” He was scandalized when I told him that I had yet to try horse meat so I should not have been surprised when a bag of jerky materialized in front of me. It wasn’t the best. I do not have a moral objection to eating horse, but I genuinely do not understand the point of jerky. However, if there is one thing I learned during my time in this country, it is how to smile and say that whatever I am eating is delicious. He was eager to exchange information about our respective homes and was especially interested in the abundance of opportunities available to us. I have barely experienced the frustration of being limited in my career path - if I tried hard enough, I could find work at a leading biotechnical laboratory, a multinational accounting firm, or even at Google’s headquarters. In spite of this, he was not angry, and it was fascinating to listen to his overwhelming desire to be an entrepreneur and help develop Almaty’s economy.
While I am still offended by the audacity of the extreme weather, without it I would never have had this conversation (or many others like it). However, let me be clear - I will not miss the feeling of sweat immediately materializing on my body the minute I step outside. I will thoroughly enjoy my iced drinks and the feeling of the bay lapping on the shore as I remember the thought-provoking conversations I experienced in Almaty.
Program: Advanced Russian Language & Area Studies Program, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Term: Summer 2019