School update

It seems strange when I think that I’ve been here three weeks. Feels waaaaaay longer. This week I went back to work, and slowly but surely I’m starting to get a routine of sorts going. Work is still not sorted out, but that will be an ongoing thing. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but if the principals had their way, they’d be hiring at least four of me (limited by the management board). So, the problem is trying to figure out exactly what they need me to focus on because there’s so much for me to do. At the moment we’ve got a plan to work with until the end of the semester (January), which will buy us time to put together a better long-term plan that we can work with for the rest of my contract and beyond, whether I stay here or someone else comes in. It’s rather confusing on a lot of fronts. One example is not actually knowing exactly where I fit in the school. I’m part of the English department (I teach an IB English class and “English” is in my job title) but at the same time I’m not (I’m also supposed to work across all departments). Mostly I’ve been sorting stuff out with the school’s head of curriculum and secondary principal (who are a married couple). So far we’re working well together and I’m developing rapport with them (have found out they’re practising Christians who started out in the international teaching business as missionaries and have a lot of good Adventist friends).

So, this temporary plan won’t be implemented until we’ve had a chance to sit with the entire English department and tell them what I’ll be doing, which is due to happen Monday afternoon. As such, I had a lot of freedom with what to do over the past week. The international (American) middle school English teacher took advantage of having me there and for a number of periods I supervised her students while she took them out one at a time to do some reading tests (the results of which will actually be able to help me with my job further down the track). Another middle school English teacher is a few weeks out from starting her maternity leave and she’s been absent a few days, so I’ve done a couple of internal relief lessons as well. Both situations have given me a chance to get to know some of the kids a lot more. I was pretty horrified my first week at the general lack of discipline and order across the school, but things have improved this week. The kids are still typically noisy, but if I’m super strict they are manageable.

Not much else to report, but I’m slowly starting to get to know my colleagues. I have had a couple of chats with the IB Russian teacher, a local who has spent the past 20 years living in the US. In one of our conversations I asked her whether she’d be available to possibly tutor me in Russian and/or Azeri. We talked a bit about language acquisition etc., and today she sat with me at lunch, and as much as possible, we conversed in Russian (which is not that much considering her English is fluent and my Russian is very limited: “The soup is delicious” was about the extent that I got to).

Sorry there aren’t any photos with this post. I’m not really taking any at the moment. If things work out (i.e. the weather is nice and I’m not feeling really lazy) I’ll try to get some more over the weekend.

Love Annie

Two weeks in

So... I'm two weeks into about two years. I'm not sure how long I can get away with "first impressions" but so far I'm enjoying the city and I'm glad I made the decision to move here.

From Monday to Friday I went to work every day. The school is about 1.5-2 kilometres from my apartment. The weather was fairly miserable for my first few days, so I took the bus (a grand total of about AU$0.16 based on today's exchange rate) most of the time. However, when it wasn't raining I walked, and I'm planning to continue doing that as often as I can. Our work day is officially 8:05 to 4:05 (I have no idea why), with classes between 8:30 and 3:45. I spent most of the week observing other classes to get a feel for the school and to try to comprehend what I'll actually have to do. I'm currently the only "ESL" teacher at school — almost all students are learning English as a second (or third or fourth) language, but the English department is responsible for more literature-based studies. This is the first or second year that the students are being taught maths, science and history in English as well, and my job is to provide additional language support to help them cope with those classes. I'm still not certain how it's going to work. The head of curriculum told me on my first day that ideally they need at least four of me, so how they'll work out which students see me and how often is yet to be determined.

I've also been given a Year 10 class with two students. The school offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program to senior students (Years 10-11 here), and students need to study a Language A (primary language with literature studies) and Language B (second language). Prior to my arrival, the school offered English B but only Azeri A and Russian A. However, there were two students taking Russian A who were struggling too much with the course, so admin decided to open a new class for them to do English A. Both kids are expats — the girl is from Turkey, and the boy is Bulgarian but has spent most of his life in Vietnam. The IB program is rather challenging, and neither of them currently has the English level they really need to cope with the assessment, so it's going to be a pretty massive job getting them to where they need to be. They're lovely kids, and I'm thrilled (albeit a little terrified) that I get to teach IB already. It's been a long-term career goal of mine, but it's one of those things that you need experience to get hired by an IB school but you can't get experience until they hire you blah blah blah. The English B teacher has previously taught this course, so he's going to help me out as I figure out what I'm doing :)

The school has a mix of Azeri and foreign staff. There are apparently a few more Aussies and Kiwis at the primary school, but at the upper school there are only a few of us who are not Americans. Everyone has been friendly and welcoming, but seeing as I arrived for the final week of the first term, they were also rather busy. The students in the younger grades (where I'll mostly be teaching) were a shock to the system after Kazakhstan (we had angels who were as far from stereotypical obnoxious teenagers as you could imagine). There doesn't seem to be a strict discipline system in place, and the students are very very very very very very very very talkative. In loud, echoey classrooms.

Anyway, I made it through the first week. My second week here just happened to be the term break, so I've had a week to explore and find my way around the city a little. I went to church on Saturday, after getting the address from a friend of a friend, and really enjoyed it. It's gigantic compared to Kyzylorda. There are a few people there who speak English, including an Indian guy who's been in the country for 15 years, and he's pretty much been given the job of translating for me. He, his wife and their two boys live not far from me, so they've also offered to pick me up, saving me from what would be about an hour on public transport each way. I was invited over to the home of a local family for lunch, and had a good time. It gave me a bit of insight into the culture (I get the talkativeness at school now!) and I feel like that I'm already starting to make friends.

For the next couple of days I checked out a couple of local malls. There were a few things I was chasing (including a waterproof/windproof jacket), but I've found that shopping here is a little stressful. Firstly, there is pretty much no written Russian (in Kazakhstan if it wasn't in Russian they had both languages), so I can't rely on that to find my way around. Secondly, in a number of shops I literally had staff following me around. Like, you start going through a rack of clothes to see what sizes they have, and they have to help you. Because you can't do something that simple and easy by yourself. Walk somewhere else in the shop... they're still behind you. I discovered yesterday (after getting cranky while I was in town) that the simple Azeri app I have on my phone has the translation for "I'm just looking" so that is going to be my first Azeri sentence (my first word was "respect" but it's used here to mean "bribe").

I've been sticking to buses rather than taking the metro as a way of familiarising myself with what's where (also, the closest metro is still a 10-15 minute bus ride away). Google maps is very helpful with that. If I take the bus in the opposite direction from school, it takes me a little further out of town for a few minutes before going down a crazy hill and ending up driving right along the coast. Today was the first properly sunny day since I arrived (correction: properly sunny couple of hours) so I took advantage of that and walked around a little between National Flag Square (second tallest flag pole in the world) and Crystal Hall (home of Eurovision 2012 or whenever Azerbaijan hosted it). If it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll go for a walk again in town near Fountains Square or Old Town.

Anyway, that's about it for now.

Love Annie

Let the Azerbaijani Adventures Begin!

I am hopeless at keeping any type of blog going, but I figured I'd at least try to start everything here again for now for those wanting to follow along with my new adventures in Baku.

I arrived at about 3pm local time and was driven across town to school and my apartment. I'm exhausted while writing this so sorry if I'm not coherent...

Reactions/observations so far:

• City is much greener than Kyzylorda. Like a million times greener. Apparently the government makes an effort to keep things looking fresh and pretty.
• Speaking of green, the school is next door the botanical gardens (except that the only entrance to the park is probably a good 500m walk around the block).
• Traffic (driving skills) is... well, worse than Australia, but compared with Moscow, Kyzylorda, Almaty etc., I DIDN'T THINK I WAS GOING TO DIE! 
• My apartment is on the 10th floor (there's a lift thankfully) and it's possibly the fanciest place I've ever lived in. It's also huge (one bedroom but all rooms are really big). Probably 15-20 minutes to walk to school. 
• I'm not sure about my shower. It's one of those ones that has the massage jet things but it doesn't work brilliantly. 
• There's a reasonable-sized supermarket on the ground floor (entrance around the other side). I had a few random things provided in the apartment, but toilet paper was not on that list, so I had to go down and check it out. I'll probably still have to shop around for a few things I'm after, but overall it's a decent range (I got rice bran oil! I never ever saw that in Kazakhstan and that included shopping at some of the fanciest supermarkets in Almaty.)
• Oh... I'm going to be picking up one IB class immediately, rather than having to wait a year or two so that makes me really happy. 

Can't think of anything else. Have internet but not local sim yet, so can still be reached on my Aussie number via whatsapp, viber, facetime etc. It's just after 6pm now so I think I'll eat something and then crash. Photos in the next few days. 

Is chaos the new normal?

In the past two weeks, there has been a lot happening here. I finished my annual medical checkup, which may have included a few local people yelling at me for "cutting in line" (I'd actually been in the line, been sent off to do something else, and then returned), and has left me with the determination to take as few sick days as possible, simply because sick day = going back to the clinic.

We also had to make our final decisions about whether we wanted to renew our contracts. This chat happened for me the same day as the yelling situation, and I had decided firmly in the taxi on my way back to school that staying for another year in Kyzylorda was simply not an option unless I either wanted to go completely insane. I wanted to keep some options open, so I said that I wanted to transfer to a different school in Kazakhstan.

That all happened two Tuesdays ago. On the following Monday, meetings were set for all staff staying to sign their contract renewals. Until two of my colleagues (including my closest friend here) were told that, even though they had requested to stay, their contracts weren't being renewed. The official reasons given to both were practically identical and frankly rather suspicious seeing as no concerns had been raised prior to this meeting. Our interpretation (which was hinted at by our international vice principal) was that the director was very unhappy with these colleagues for signing a letter regarding the holiday pay dispute. Only six of us ended up signing that (I was one). Three of us had asked for transfers. Two wanted to stay. The other's position was being made redundant, but he was wanting to stay/transfer into a different department (he's been teaching art but is also qualified for English). This guy was fed the same complaints as the two being fired at the end of the year, but was told that unless he fixed the problems in three weeks, he's going home then. Needless to say, it all came as quite a shock.

In the wake of this, I and the other two requesting transfers were expecting the worst for ourselves, but I was surprised to get an email on Wednesday from HR in Astana asking for my updated CV, to be forwarded on to a school in Almaty for a vacancy there. I actually interviewed with their international VP this morning, and it went well. I really like this IVP's attitude, but it seems like the management problems I struggle with in Kyzylorda are practically the same there. So, if I'm offered the job, I have a lot of praying and thinking to do about whether or not it's worth staying for another year.

The other "excitement" for this week happened on Wednesday morning, when I was getting ready for school. I picked my glasses up off my dresser after doing my makeup, and one of the wings just fell off. Broken hinge. I messaged my aunt in Australia, and she's ordered a replacement part for my glasses. I got a friend to help me tape them back up, but on Thursday I went into what is considered one of the two best opticians in town, to see if I could order a temporary backup pair. My prescription is rather complicated (I have progressives amongst other things), and getting the exact prescription wasn't an option, but I have something that's kinda close enough, which set me back a grand total of 84AUD. My real glasses cost close to a grand, and I've realised that I'm a complete and utter diva when it comes to glasses. This new pair feels cheap and tacky. They don't fit properly, and even without wearing mascara, they constantly get smudged from my eyelashes. I'm actually wondering whether it'd be better to walk around with a pair of taped-up broken glasses instead of these. I'll stick it out for a few days still before I make a final decision on these, but I can't wait for this replacement part to arrive from Australia. (Lesson learned - have a backup pair of glasses. In the 20 years I've worn them, I've never had a pair break, but I've always had my last pair of glasses accessible in the event that this happened. I just forgot to pack them to bring to Kazakhstan.)

Can this month be over already?

This place and my health are not good friends. I'm at the point where I'm swinging between anxiety and fury at the thought of having to deal with our medical clinic.
I was supposed to go in each evening this week for a 20-30 minute massage, followed by a 250ml glucose drip. I only did one evening of the glucose drip (I know that all the carbs we eat turn to glucose in the body, but when I eat little to no sugar, that much straight into my system is a bit too much). I gave up on the massages after three days, when the young male masseuse became a little too flirty and familiar for my comfort. Along with this additional "treatment", I was supposed to complete my annual medical check. Kazakh labour code requires a yearly check which includes blood and urine tests, a chest x-ray and ECG. I did the tests and x-ray last week when I was home sick and already heading into the clinic to get my sick leave papers organised. I had forgotten about the ECG, so on Monday when I was in for the massage, I asked about that. I had to wait to Friday: the ECG technician apparently only operated until 5pm, and I'd need to see a doctor afterwards for the final results, and Friday was the only day that they had appointments available and when I could get away from work early.
Friday afternoon rolled around, and I collected my x-ray on the way to the clinic. Once I'm there, I sat around for almost an hour, as the English-speaking receptionist had asked if I could wait while she filed some paperwork (off premises, it turned out). At about three minutes before 5, I used Google Translate to ask another receptionist if I could just do the ECG already, so she took me up. I got the ECG and went back down to the ground floor, presumably to wait to see the doctor to get the final stamp of clearance. But no, apparently I also need to see a "woman doctor" (pap smear, maybe?), which I couldn't do then. I simply do not understand the logic (or incredible lack of logic) of the people in this city/country. Why couldn't they have told me that I needed this extra step LAST WEEK when I was in there 3 or 4 times? I now need to go back yet again on Tuesday morning (no free time on Monday), and risk having to skip half a class to do so. This time of year is insanely busy for me and I have very few consecutive spare lessons; it takes 15-20 minutes by taxi each way from home/work, not to mention the cost (which is actually dirt cheap if I convert into dollars, but still an inconvenience).

February 4

So... I just posted the last of my entries from my European trip... I wrote the posts about 3 weeks ago and basically left them as they were,  just adding photos after I sorted through the 1000+ that I took. One reason I think it took me a while to get them all done was that I have needed to not remember the holiday for a bit. Confusing I know, but I've been rather miserable and looking back at the photos would have depressed me more about being back here.

I've mentioned some problems at work - we have a pay dispute going on at the moment that is creating some unpleasant tension among the international team. I've done my best to keep my personal and professional lives separate, so I don't think anyone from work has any knowledge of this blog nor knows details to search for it, but just in case, I won't explain what's going on, except to say that this has pretty much been the final straw for my decision to leave here as soon as I possibly can.

The school year will finish May 25th, but we'll be expected to stay for 4 weeks of summer school after that, meaning I'll be free from the end of June. I'm in the process of job hunting, but that usually requires me finding some really interesting jobs, bookmarking them, writing about 5 sentences of a cover letter and then taking a break and watching a TV episode or 17 and not coming back to them. I've always hated job hunting (apparently, that's human) and my current state of mind is not exactly conducive to selling myself. What I really want to write is: "Dear __________, I really really really really really want to work at your school because I hate where I am now and please give me the job!" Not quite what HR people are after :(

At any rate, my goal, which has always been the long-term plan, is to get a job in Europe somewhere, ideally Germany, Switzerland or Austria. However, EU jobs are not easy to come by for non-EU citizens due to the pesky process of obtaining work permits. If nothing pans out over here or anywhere else, I'll come back to Australia and find a job there again. I hadn't thought I wanted to work in Australia again, but you have no idea how enticing and wonderful it is to have legal rights and avenues of mediation and dispute resolution.

So, apart from the staff tension, work has been so-so. My application to attend a TESOL event in the UK in April was rejected by administration, partly because the international teachers are not allowed to do any type of external professional development, which really annoyed me. The curriculum is as weird as ever. Our 12th-graders have just finished a unit on "Psychology and Observation" and we're now moving on to "Carbon Dating". No joke. I'm an English teacher and I'm supposed to teach carbon dating. Then something I can't remember and then a unit on maths. Another factor influencing my decision to leave. The one joy has been my 12th-grade Critical Thinking classes. I've got half a dozen or so students preparing to take Critical Thinking exams for university entrance, so I actually get to use my brain for a couple of hours a week. I should mention that I like all my kids, but the subject matter is not always appealing which dampens my joy for teaching.

In spare time I've been catching up with church friends or hanging out with colleagues and partners, but mostly just relaxing at home. I mentioned on Facebook that I loved watching "Mozart in the Jungle", and this week I've finally gotten around to watching "Sherlock", and kicking myself for not watching it sooner.

Anyway, I'll leave this here.

Lots of love,
Annie. 

Tallinn

I have wanted to visit Tallinn for years. When I first lived in Russia 13 or so years ago, I was told by numerous people that Tallinn (and Estonia) was the most beautiful of the three Baltic capitals, and I'd have to say now that I agree.

Old Town in Riga is basically just a section of the city with older buildings and cobblestoned streets, but in Tallinn, there's actually a wall around a large chunk of it (kind of like a kremlin, I suppose). And it felt more ancient, as well. The apartment we stayed in almost felt like it was a medieval building converted for modern use. We also had fresh snow there, and again it was freezing (-15C before including the windchill factor). We only ventured from Old Town once, to eat at Estonian Lido (not as good as the original in Latvia, but we were much wiser this time round), so I can't speak for the rest of the city, but Old Town is very tourist-oriented along with housing the government building and numerous embassies. It seems that Estonians have wool, felt, linen, amber and wood products. Vlada and I went a little crazy after discovering the knitted Moomin scarves and mittens, but didn't end up getting any. It was a very pretty town, but it was so cold out (and Vlada's knee was really painful by this stage as soon as it hit the cold) so we stayed in a lot more in restaurants (blinchiki!!!) and museums.

Idyot Sneg! (Russian for "It's snowing!" - one of my favourite sentences in this language)
Also, I had an absolute blast travelling with these two.
I realised that I don't think I've spent this much time with Pete in one place since he finished school. 

Also, my favourite part was that our apartment had a sauna. It meant that I've been able to finish the holiday on a very relaxed note, and am as ready as I can be to head back into the chaos that is work at the moment.

Moomin knitwear for kids! 

(I've written the bulk of all these posts during a 10-hour layover at the airport in Moscow, with the plan to add photos as I download them from my camera. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was really happy to escape Kazakhstan for a while, and to be honest, there were a few moments in the first half of the trip when the thought of going back in 2-3 weeks' time was putting a dampener on the actual holiday. I'm definitely more at peace about returning now, but I'm still not thrilled about the prospect. There were some actions and decisions made by certain people/departments that a number of us were unhappy about, including one of my favourite colleagues being fired two days before the end of term. In addition to that, I found out from another friend on staff that I had offended most of my department after one person read and shared a joke/comment on Instagram about my being excited about returning to "civilisation, aka a place where non-dairy milks are an option". And it's not the first time my Aussie humour/sarcasm has been taken literally. So basically, there have been a ton of small things that on their own would have been fine, but when they add up together, it becomes a bit overwhelming, depressing and frustrating when living and working there.)

Riga

This is one of the few cities I've ever revisited in all my years of travel, so it was pretty cool. (And, apart from moving to Moscow to live, Riga was the first international city I ever visited.)

We had rented an apartment in Old Town, which turned out to be about 100m from the main shopping centre. That was handy, as we had gone from Berlin with no snow, to SNOW! EVERYWHERE! in Riga, and Vlada's shoes weren't up to the task of surviving the ice, especially with her knee post-surgery. After getting her new shoes, we headed off to Lido, based on the recommendation of a Latvian friend and my fuzzy memories of the place.

What is Lido? you ask. "Is it like Sizzler?" asked Peter and Vlada. Well, yes, if Sizzler charged per dish (rather than a buffet) and is on steroids with all the wonderful Russian/Baltic dishes you can think of (at least 180 to choose from) and has been attacked by Christmas decorations and probably has mini-golf outside during the summer. We spent about 15 euros each, including drinks, and had So. Much. Food. It was fun for me watching Vlada get excited about seeing all these dishes that she grew up with (Herring under fur coat! Blinchiki!) and both of us introducing Pete to the wonder that is Russian cuisine.

Excited for food! (And snow...)

The following morning I took some time out and had my hair done at an eco spa. The Baltics have so many natural/organic cosmetics and skincare lines, it's fabulous. Otherwise we just wandered around and overate yet again.

Sunrise while walking to my hair appointment. 

Apart from two days in Vilnius in August a few years ago, I've only ever visited the Baltics during winter, but I absolutely love that region. Yet another place I want to live at some time! 

Berlin

The part of the trip everything else had to revolve around. Kinda. Like I said in my first post in this series, I decided to travel across Europe during my winter break because Pete and Vlada were coming across to visit her family in St. Petersburg. Because it's rather expensive to fly directly to St. Pete's, Vlada had decided to first go to Berlin, then travel through some of the Baltics before heading across to Russia, and I was up for that, so decided to join them. We left Pete out of most of the planning because of course. (This is a guy whose sisters remind him of any birthdays in the family: Pete, it's Mum's/Dad's/Scott's/Grandma's/etc. birthday today... and here is the number in case you forgot/lost it.) But the itinerary was pretty much what they had organised, which turned out quite nicely. I had assumed that Vlada had been to these places before, but apparently she hadn't. Pete had spent a grand total of about 15 hours in Berlin on a band tour a year or so ago, and I'd visited Riga 13 years ago.

I honestly spent a lot more time in Berlin just relaxing in the Airbnb apartment we'd rented, because I hadn't had any proper down time in the entire trip thus far, so it was nice to be able to do that. Pete and Vlada therefore saw a few more places than I did, but I was cool with that.

I saw: Holocaust Memorial.

This is what you see when you approach the memorial from the street. I was not expecting...

... this. We didn't want to take any selfies or anything at the memorial, but I did get this photo of Pete, who's 6'3" or something, just to give some perspective to how "deep" it gets.

Checkpoint Charlie.

Well placed there, McDonald's. Well placed.

Eastside Gallery (a part of the Berlin Wall that has been converted into an outdoor gallery. A large chunk of it has been graffitied, hence the fences. Most pictures have something to do with the division of Berlin, the Cold War or the reunification.)

New Year's Eve involved buying and setting off our own fireworks, but we didn't go into the city centre because the other two were still very jet lagged and none of us felt like dealing with the crowds.

I also spent a day shopping, and another at church. This was probably one of my favourite days of the whole trip. I have made a few new friends, and moving to Berlin in the future is an attractive idea now.

Amsterdam

This leg of the trip was basically just to fill in time between Paris and Berlin, but I'm glad I went. I have learned over the years that being near water (excluding floods) is something that helps me feel calmer, more at peace, so the canals of Amsterdam meant that I loved the city. I didn't do much here, because I wanted to give myself a chance to rest and recuperate from the nonstop schedule in Paris.

On my first full day I set a goal of seeing the flower markets, which were not so amazing, considering it was the middle of winter (it has been an unseasonably warm winter, but winter, nonetheless). I really wanted to buy and ship some bulbs to Mum for her garden, especially after seeing signs that read "We send bulbs to anywhere in the world". Turns out that's anywhere but Australia (and I'm assuming NZ), due to our super-strict customs regulations. So Mum doesn't get to have special flowers that no one else has. Sorry, Mum.

In addition to making my way to the markets, I wandered around some more of Centraal. Amsterdam was crazy when it came to crowds, especially in shops. I assume they had post-Christmas sales happening, but you could barely move in some stores. I found an English bookshop and picked up a couple of David Crystal books. I love David Crystal books.

My only other day in Amsterdam was the Monday, which was not a good day for my brain/med withdrawals (I've been fine since that day, though). But I powered through, and visited the Van Gogh Museum, which had a special exhibit comparing his work with that of Munch. I had no idea that Van Gogh had painted such diverse topics and styles, and it was cool to see one of my all-time favourite paintings in person (Almond Blossoms, btw.). And, the Munch exhibit was interesting. I can honestly say, that apart from The Scream, I had no knowledge of anything he'd ever painted. I liked some of his stuff more than others, and to be honest, it seemed a bit of a stretch to create an entire exhibit comparing the two artists (Look! They both painted something that has a bedroom, or the inside of a house!). My biggest shock came from actually seeing The Scream. I went home and read up about it, because I was a little surprised by what I saw: "Crayon on Cardboard". Isn't this the painting that broke records when it sold for US$19M or something like that a few years ago? AND IT'S CRAYON? ON CARDBOARD? Turns out that Munch did about four versions of the same painting, and the word "crayon" can be interchanged with "pastel", which sounds much more arty and grownup, and if he wanted to paint on a piece of cardboard, so be it.

So that was pretty much Amsterdam. Apart from the crowds, I really liked it.

Strasbourg

When planning the trip to Europe, one of the things I really wanted to do was go to the Christmas markets, because the concept sounded so lovely and romantic and Christmassy to me. From reading, it seems like Switzerland and Germany are the places to go, but Strasbourg is the French "Capital of Christmas", so I decided to go there instead. I was also influenced by photos of "Old Strasbourg" on my jigsaw puzzle app. Originally I'd looked at actually staying there for a night or two, but in the end I opted for a day trip (two-hour train from Paris).

It wasn't quite what I expected, but still pleasant. The stalls seemed to fall into four categories: Food (mostly mulled wine with crepes and occasionally bretzels); Christmas decorations; generic gifts/souvenirs (by this I mean that I saw stalls selling the same things at numerous locations in Strasbourg as well as in Paris); and artisans selling their own work. I bought a couple of things, but had to say no to others, primarily due to the fact that I still had four cities/two and a half weeks of travel left and these things were of the breakable nature.

My feet still hurt. And the tram stops at the two main Christmas markets were closed for "security reasons", meaning I had to walk even further. I also had some pretty intense vertigo/dizziness as a result of stopping my meds a week earlier (it was a problem in a few places, but Strasbourg was one of the worst days).

Other random bits and pieces:

• Strasbourgians have the most beautiful dogs (a few people had their dogs while walking around the markets). 
• Being sugar-free and not drinking alcohol severely limits beverage options at Christmas markets. Same goes for sugar-free / kosher with food. (Gluten-sensitive/intolerant people, just don't even think about it. Take ALL your own snacks.)
• The French inter-city train was my favourite re comfy seat, but no wifi. (The train to Amsterdam had wifi, but seats were not as "convenient", and to Berlin was completely different, with the six-seat compartments you see in many movies.)
• The clouds. Were. Amazing. - as a kid I had learned about many of the different cloud types, but I don't recall ever seeing so many different varieties at one time. 

-Annie.

Paris

After London, it was off to Paris for about a week. I did go to Strasbourg for one day to see the Christmas markets, but I'll write a separate post about that.

About a month or so prior to leaving for the trip, I was chatting on Whatsapp to an American friend in Almaty, Daniela, who is there doing the same thing I did in Moscow, with the biggest difference being that she's the only volunteer. We were talking about Christmas, and how she was going to be on her own in a place where no one else celebrates December 24-25. I had just booked my accommodation a day or so earlier at an "aparthotel", which was technically for two people, so I told her that if she could get a ticket to Paris, she could stay with me for free, so we'd both have company for Christmas rather than being alone and miserable. I'm really glad I invited her, as it made it much more enjoyable to see the place with someone.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon/evening (her flight was delayed by 3 hours, and I couldn't contact her directly, so we were messaging through her roommate in Kazakhstan) and didn't actually do anything that day. I'll try not to overload this post with pictures, so here are the highlights of what we did each day.

Monday: Croissants! The outside of the Louvre (neither of us felt we had researched enough to make the most of a day inside, and it was a glorious sunny day of about +14C). Ferris Wheel. Macarons (my first was a savoury one, tomato and basil, a rather interesting flavour. I also broke my no-sugar thing to try a lychee-rose one. It took me at least half an hour to eat it because it was so sweet. The others were for Daniela). Sacre Couer / Montmartre. Arc de Triomphe. Champs de Elysées Christmas markets.

Tuesday: Versailles. Due to the attacks about a month prior, there was extra security at major attractions, so we ended up standing in a line for an hour before we actually got in, but again, it was glorious weather. The grounds are so immense, it would be impossible to see everything in one day. Our feet were still rather sore from the previous day (and standing in line for an hour), so we decided that we would explore the grounds and Marie Antoinette's palace next time we're in France, during Spring or Summer.

Wednesday: I went to Strasbourg.

Thursday (Christmas Eve): River cruise. Hot chocolate at Angelina's. Last minute shopping. Christmas mass at Notre Dame Cathedral.

Friday (Christmas Day): Eiffel Tower.

Saturday: Quick trip to St. Chapelle before heading to train station/airport.

Overall summary:

• If I lived in Paris my diet would consist predominantly of croissants, bread and cheese. And crepes. And bretzels. 
• Lovely city. French were much nicer than I had expected. 
• Must train in preparation for next trip there, because feet hurt too much at the end of each day. 
• Did I mention the food? Will take a French baking course next time, to learn how to make bread and croissants. 

-Annie.

London

For my winter break, I opted not to go home to Australia, but rather, travel across Europe, partly because my little bro and his girlfriend were going to be coming across and I planned to meet them. It took quite a while to decide exactly where I wanted to go in the 12 or so days I had before they arrived, partly because I wanted to see ALL the places :)

I finally settled on London, Paris and Amsterdam, before meeting Pete and Vlada in Berlin, and then visiting Riga and Tallinn. I chose to stick to cities, as I figured the countryside of these places would be best enjoyed during less dreary seasons.

Selfie outside Buckingham Palace 

So, London was first. I arrived rather exhausted and sleep-deprived, but very, very, very glad to be away from Kazakhstan for a while (there were some major issues happening at work during my final day or two before the break). I had a couple of hours after arriving before I was due to check into my accommodation, so I explored the main street near Queensway/Bayswater (the area I was staying) while pushing around my giant suitcase. My favourite discovery was a place called Pret-a-Manger, which is basically just a British chain with similarities to Starbucks, Coffee Club, etc., but it advertises itself as being natural and fresh. Turns out they are EVERYWHERE, and I think I ate/got coffee here more than anywhere else.

I stayed in a hotel that is apparently converted from old student lodging (a colleague actually lived in this place when he first moved to the UK years ago), and the rooms were ... "cosy" is probably the word used in Real Estate speech, but I feel I need a stronger word. I actually couldn't open my suitcase on the floor. Nevertheless, it was comfortable enough, with the only hassle being no wifi in the room.

Crowds. Too many people for the Changing of the Guard

Fuzzy hats!

Sightseeing-wise, I went to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (the marching band played the Star Wars Theme and Thriller, among others), and I saw Big Ben, Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street. I also went to the Christmas Wonderland markets at Hyde Park and wandered around there. And shopped (ENGLISH BOOKS! NATURAL SKINCARE SHOPS!).

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Pretty lights on Oxford Street

 Church was ok: I ran into a couple of Aussies I have known for ages but hadn't seen for about 7 or 8 years and had lunch with them.

Otherwise I tried to adjust to the time zone difference (6 hours from Kazakhstan, but the weirdest thing was the sun setting at about 4 p.m., which threw me off the most, as it was only going down at about 6 in Kyzylorda), so I didn't do too much. Three and a half days was a good introduction to the city. Next time I'll try to venture a little further afield, and maybe include some of the museums etc.

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Kitty at Trafalgar Square (at least I think it was Trafalgar)

 Miscellaneous comments:     

• Most of what I know about London locations apparently comes from a Monopoly board.
• London Underground is boring and ugly. Moscow stations were so much more interesting, and even Munich was nicer with a cleaner, more modern feel.
•      I definitely prefer buses, just because I can see where they’re going, but it’s a pain trying to figure out which one to take and where, and then finding the right stop. Top floor is super fun (good view) but one must be careful when coming down the stairs if the bus isn't at a complete stop, or one might end up with massive bruises where one fell into the railing.
• London vs. Kyzylorda pro: multicultural. Food varieties, people from different countries everywhere. Con: People. Waaaaay too crowded. Oxford Street was absolutely overwhelming, as was Changing of the Guard. And almost every shop I went into. 

20 seconds earlier, when I decided to dig my camera out of my bag, there were NO spaces in the crowds. I took this from the top floor of a bus, and I think it was just outside Oxford Circus station.

-Annie.