This year, I turned 25 years old. I was not expecting much of a celebration seeing that I was in Almaty, Kazakhstan, thousands of miles away from all that was familiar.
I had landed in Almaty a few weeks earlier. One of my biggest anxieties before the program was living with a host family. Not only had I lived alone for the past year, but I was also an only child! Suddenly, I was being placed into a family of four. I was unsure if I would fit into their family dynamic.
Before my arrival, I spoke with friends and colleagues who had studied in Kazakhstan before and who assured me of Kazakh hospitality. Everyone advised me to ask my host family questions when I first arrived. However, I didn't even know what to ask. Although I had been studying Russian for three years before coming here, suddenly being immersed in a Russian-speaking city was overwhelming.
In one of the first conversations that I had with my host mother, she assured me that I would be treated as a member of the family. While I appreciated the sentiment, I did not believe it. I sounded too nice to be true. As she described the family dynamics, I learned that my host sister Dana’s birthday was the day after mine. When I told my host mother, she mentioned having a celebration, but I took it as a comment in passing. Why would these people I just met care about celebrating my birthday?
The day of my birthday, I got up and reported to classes like any other day. I had avoided telling anyone else it was the week of my birthday as I only thought it would make me sad. Coincidentally for homework, we read a text, “Только раз в году” (Only Once a Year), about a young boy celebrating his birthday. For the grammar portion of the class, we discussed the different verbs for “to celebrate” (праздновать/ отпраздновать) and “to observe a holiday” (отмечать/отметить).
That evening we went on an RLASP excursion to Alatau Theater where we watched a Kazakh-language play about Chinggis Khan. I had an American-style dinner - a cheeseburger, fries, and soda - with some of my classmates and got home late. I thought that would be the end of my birthday festivities. And so, I did my regular night routine and got in bed.
When the clock struck midnight, I was surprisingly awakened by knocks on my door from my host sister, Dana, and my host brother, Yerasyl. I was so confused at first, but quickly realized they wanted to celebrate my birthday. They even had a birthday cake for me!
My host sister made tea and cut the cake, which was cookies and cream flavor. My host family all gave me long birthday wishes regarding my health, my studies, and even my love life. And that evening they prepared manti, big Kazakh dumplings, for a birthday dinner.
At that moment I realized my host family was treating me as a member of the family. It was so kind and thoughtful. I will never forget my twenty-fifth birthday in Kazakhstan.
Title VIII Fellowship for Overseas Language Study and Research Recipient
Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP)
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU)
Almaty, Kazakhstan, Summer 2024