Some recent events and highlights:
Last week the torch for the Asian Olympic Games came to the city of Ust. Yes, I promise there is such a thing, just google it. It arrived by airplane from another city in Kaz and then was run from the airport with cars and vans surrounding the torch holer to the town hall. There are some photos in the photo gallery.
My university has opened again. It was closed from Jan 8-Jan 24. But the first week of January isn’t really a working time and the university just had exams. So basically after 3 weeks without constant work, I’m back at it.
And since my last blog post I have survived -40F for 3 days and several others that were -30F. The last few days it has been incredibly warm and I love it. And yesterday IT WAS 37F. NO JOKE. It was awesome. And today it was 20F.
On Sunday it was 37F and a free day. (You work Monday-Saturday here). I convinced my brother that we should go outside and do something…this was like pulling teeth. After all, why would you want to go walk in the park? We head out in his car with no destination in mind and he says we should go climb up to the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign overlooking Ust. So we did. But this was no easy feat. We climbed up on the best surface we could find, which consisted of hard snow, ice, mushy snow, and some patches of earth. The wind here has been insane the last few days, so the higher you go, the more intense it gets. We didn’t have a camera since hiking to the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign wasn’t at all in our original intentions for the day. At the top of the mountain, I climbed a little bit further than the giant sign to the flag pole and felt the strongest winds I have ever felt in my whole life. We then went back down the mountain and I got to slide on my butt and ski jacket for a good 25 feet. It is worth a mention that I think the hike could have been a North Face jacket commercial.
This is the Kazakhstan Hollywood sign from Ust-Kamenogorsk! (photo taken in November before snow)
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