Canada-stan Wins: Almaty News Report.

My "World Geography" students and I created an interactive scoreboard for the two weeks of the Olympics. We have about 46 different nationalities attending our school here in Almaty. All but Indonesia, Ecuador, Palestine, Venezuala, Turkmenistan, and Parador were represented.

We updated the medal rankings every morning. I was getting a little nervous until the last 4 days when we (Canada) surged ahead.

Most of my students couldn't comprehend that I actually knew three of the torch bearers. But then I explained how few people live on Highway 16. That was even more puzzling for them.

Tubing at Ak Bulak!!

After 4 hours of skiing last Saturday, the kids still had some energy and they wanted to go Tubing! We watched a couple of times but today we tried it.
The attendant tried to stop Dave and tell him that we could not go on the tubes wearing ski boots but Dave said, "Come on kids; just walk past him." The funny part is that there was a mom going on the tube with her son, and this is not an exaggeration, she had 3 inch tapered heels--that would be more of a weapon than the kids' ski boots. So past the attendent they went. He finally gave up--thank goodness; it was a long way down to the car to get their regular boots. Cody is at the top of the hill and then this man and his kid are right behind Kyla--they just about hit each other a couple of times. Kyla was laughing so hard, we thought she might fall out.

They had to pull the tubes up from the bottom of the hill but there was a tow-rope at the top. It was a rough day at the hill! Dave helped them pull up the tubes.

Dave's Birthday Celebrations!

The player I am, the smoker I get. No, wait. The more immature I am, the better I understand. Maybe...the more I know, the less I undersatnd. No, really; this time I got it: the older I get, the more I refuse to mature.

The Mongol's Fort

Take a VERY close look at these images. This fort is located on the Ili River, about an hour and a half out of the city.

Believe 85% of what you hear, 75% of what you read, and 50% of what you see. This entire site is made of plastic and compressed cardboard. It's an abandoned movie set, out on the steppe. In 2004, one of my students' father built this set for the movie "Nomads." Filmed between here and Outer Mongolia, it's one of the first Kazakh films accepted by the industry.

С Днем Рождения' to me

"С Днем Рождения to me," means Happy Birthday in Russian.

My second favourite gift, after being woken up by my kids this morning, has been receiving the news that our leave-of-absence from School District #91 (Burns Lake) has been extended for another year! Thanks, Rick! We have a few more countries to visit, so we'll only be home for the summer, then back to Almaty for 2010-2011.
Oops!

Vancouver 2010

We watched the opening ceremony live on TV here at 8am, Saturday morning. It was a great show. I'm a little worried about facing my colleagues and students tomorrow and having to explain Ashley McIsaac's performance. What the heck was that? It was like Mad Max in 'The Road Warrior' meets River-dance! Last weekend we went looking for a hill to go sliding on. It's been -15 here for about ten days. Remember the Jamaican Bob-sledders in Calgary in 88? These Kazakhs probably didn't see the movie 'Cool Runnings,' but they could have starred in it. They're sitting on an inner tube wrapped in a shower curtain.

It was an extremely gray day. Overcast, foggy, and cold. But gravity compensated for the lack of colour.

Cody pulled his touque right down over his face, leaned back, and tried his own Olympic version of downhill. He should have been wearing a helmet. Seems like I say that a lot.