Cute Cat Pictures and a Bluegrass Concert

This bluegrass band came to Almaty. It was Sadie's first concert. They were really good! They tried to liven up the audience by asking them to hoot and holler if we heard something good. Some people tried it out. Towards the end the two traditionally dressed Kazakhs on the right joined them for a little jamming session.

Christmas 2012 in Almaty

 We celebrated early this year since we'll be in India on the 25th. We didn't bother explaining that it was early to Sadie and it didn't really matter. We talked about Santa Claus and left out cookies and after she went to bed we wrapped all the gifts. I was more excited that I've been for years, just to see her excitement. She woke up at 3 and then again at 5, wondering if it was time to get up yet. Then she let us sleep all the way to 8:30! She had half her presents unwrapped before I had coffee in my hand! It was great though. We sat amid the wrapping paper and ate chocolate and played with her toys and watched cartoons and ate our Christmas brunch.

 We don't have that many pictures of the day, but it was a snugly, wonderful Christmas.

Sadie's winter concert

I was never able to upload the videos. But I can say first hand that Sadie was a STAR! She knew all the words and had all the moves down and just had fun up there! She was awesome. Santa Claus came at the end of the show. Here is is called DeadMorose, but probably not spelled like that. He went back to their classrooms with them to pass out presents that the parents had pre-provided for the day. Sadie got a tea set. This is her friend Fuka who she loves fiercely. She is very protective of Fuka in a slightly controlling way. She tells us that if the class bully takes Fuka's things, she gets them back for her.

At night, the last thing she said as she was falling asleep "Who was that guy! It wasn't Santa!" And of course she was right. It was the PE teacher. Was it the cowboy boots that tipped her off?

Skiing in Kyrgyzstan and the exploding chick

 It snowed a lot the week before we were supposed to leave on our trip. The drive to Karakol was already long, about 8 hours, and with the snow it was going to be 10-12 hours. John kindly suggested that I go and offered to stay home with Sadie since we had decided the drive was just TOO long for her.

 I don't have any pictures of the drive, but it was really beautiful. We passed through many small villages. The huts and houses in Kyrgyzstan are typically painted white and have light green or sky blue shutters, often with carvings or designs. I wish I had more pictures of them. We drove along the north side of the lake. Lake Issyk Kol is surrounded by mountains on either side and is the second largest alpine lake in the world after lake Titicaca.

 My camera isn't the best and it's hard to tell from the photos, but the lake is visible from the lift and from the higher runs. It is really a beautiful resort.

This is a random picture. I meant to just show John and I ended up inserting it in the selected photos. My AP students were playing with some egg yolks and decided to paint with them. They ended up collaborating on this really creative exploding chick. There are even some feathers glued into the explosion. It's hard to tell, but the yellow stuff stuck in the red paint is the egg yolk.

Snow!

 It's been snowing for two days straight now! They are big, fat flakes and it piled up fast! Sadie was overjoyed. She is usually content to stay inside, but she couldn't get her snow gear on fast enough and once she was outside she kept squealing with joy and throwing herself into the snow. She also ate a lot of it so it was hard to get a shot of her without her hand in front of her face. This is just the first couple of hours of snow. There is much much more now! More pictures later.

This is my favorite eating method, just bringing the swing right to her mouth!

Kazakh Art Museam

 I took the AP art students to the oldest museum in Kazakhstan. These first pictures are wool rugs that are traditionally used to line the floors and walls of yurts.

 I really loved this artist. It's hard to see here, but the pictures are painted with thousands of tiny dots.

 These are more modern wool designs. I love how the edges are left ragged.