Jessica on Tour in Kazakhstan

My time in KZ is quickly coming to an end. I must say, it has been a fun time. I’m gonna miss my new friends. We leave tomorrow for Astana. I wish we were gonna be there longer than 2 days, but at least we get to ride another train. Two more 20-hour trips! Yeah!!!

 Today we did a run-through with our new cast member, Kate. I am quite impressed by her- she picked everything up in 2 days! after 4 weeks, i was still forgetting cues (ie. the meow- finally got it though:)

 Before rehearsal, i got a chance to get my revenge on Zhandos. I don’t think I told the story of what he did to me on here……………………one late summer’s eve, in the humid city of Aktau, I was eager to learn the Russian alphabet. Zhandos so willingly sat with me and taught me like a teacher does a student. I was learning pretty quickly, until the end, when the sounds became increasingly difficult and strange. They were so weird that my semester of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) did not help with the transcription, so I resorted to writing small phrases that would help me remember the sound. One was “throw up”….. another was “hock a loogee”.  I went to bed with a great feeling of accomplishment and success in the Russian language.

 The next day i was excited to show my other Russian friends of what i had learned. When I got toward the end of the alphabet they started giving me strange looks and smirks. It turns out, Zhandos got a little bored teaching, and decided to have fun lying to me and teaching me the wrong things! Moral of the story: When Zhandos is bored, he LIES.

 So…..today was the day of revenge (although there may be more to come). We told everyone before rehearsal that we were going to blindfold everyone and do an exercise and when I tapped them, they were free to take off the blindfold and watch the fun. Everyone was tapped except for Zhandos. I tried to be as corny and melodramatic as possible with the imagination exercise. So, as i gave the instructions, everyone watched Zhandos make a fool of himself. He was definitely holding back though, but it was still funny. First I had “everyone” imagine they were helium balloons floating into the vastness of the clouds. Their heads full of air, and the rest of the body dangling as the string. Then a bird came and popped them, they started to deflate and whirl about in the atmosphere. Then they became part of the clouds themselves, and to imagine that the clouds were getting heavier and heavier and that a darkness was coming upon their souls. They tried to reach up, but the heaviness was too much. I think it was the funniest when i said let the weight go into your butt, but continue to reach up. Zhandos was squatting with his arms in the air. At the end I had “everyone” (just Zhandos) drop as a raindrop to the ground then evaporate into thin air, and as they come up “they” should not even feel their bodies. when i said to remove the blindfolds, we were all staring as Zhandos lifted his. We had a good laugh. Zhandos said it was actually relaxing….i should’ve gone further with getting him to do strange things, but it was still funny to us. But if he’s not satisfied with the revenge, I’m sure I could think of something on the train:)……………………………….

 Just now, we (Tabitha, Dias, Zhandos, & I) had our last meal at the THREE ORANGES. so sad. it became Tabitha and I’s “spot” here. We gave NY hats to the two waiters and got our pictures taken with them. People were staring.

 So, that’s about it for now. We leave tomorrow. Yeah! We have three more shows left. 2 in Astana, and one in Almaty where Gala will be back.

 I cannot believe this trip is practically over. Whew….time flies….when your…….sweating in Kazakhstan.

We arrived in Almaty early this morning around 5am. Lots of waiting at Atyrau airport. We tried passing the time by playing spoons (a card game), but a guard put a good stop to that. Apparently we were having fun and no one else was, so we had to stop:)

 The plane ride was a fun time…..We finally boarded the plane at 1:45am (the original flight time was 9:40pm). I sat by Zhondos  (I am sorry Arad….after pleading w/ Arad to ask his plane neighbor to switch places with me, for i was originally assigned a separate seat….I ended up asking the guy sitting next to Zhandos to switch. It seemed like a very easy switch for the guy to sit in my seat, so I just asked right away…….so PLEASE forgive me Arad). We had a cute little, old man sitting in the window seat next to us.  He asked the steward to refill his juice like three times! Well, no not asked, just gave it to Zhandos, who was forced to ask. Then Zhandos was being the guy’s personal steward by helping him several times with getting his headphones to work. The guy started talking to Zhandos, asking if I was his fiance. With the combination of feeling a little bored and not feeling like explaining the tour, etc… Zhandos answered w/ a simple “yes”. The guy didn’t stop there- wanted to know more about our engagement- my parent’s age, the wealth of my parent’s, whether or not my parent’s were going to give him a gift, where the wedding was being held, etc, etc, etc…. I think after the 2nd question was when Zhandos started feeling bad that he was lying to this cute little old man. Then we started playing cards with him. He was so adorable! In the meantime, around 2:20 am we were served a full meal. I was like, “Yes!”.  Not too bad…rice was good. So Zhandos and I were kept entertained throughout the flight.

 I have to say I have really liked all the traveling. I could tour for very long periods of time, I feel. I like the actual travel itself- riding in trains, planes, and automoblies (no pun intended). Especially trains. We took a 20 hour train ride from Aktau to Atyrau, and I LOVED it. So cozy. I felt like I was in “Little House on the Prairie”….except in the desert. I think i could live on a train actually. Except I’d probably die of constipation (provided the bathrooms were as nasty as they were on this train). It was also quite hot. But all in all, I was so content. Especially at night. Gala and I had a really nice talk in our little bunks. So dark, but we each had little night- lights. I loved it!!!

 We stayed at Nathan’s sister-in-law’s apt. in Atyrau. The girl’s got to sleep in the AC’ed room! There was the cutest little kitten we found in the house. I named her Keisha. One day Gala said she was “kisa”- russian word meaning cute, small, something like that, and I heard Keisha and started calling her that. No one except Gala and I would call her that. Guess it wasn’t completely appropriate since the cat’s name was  Simba and was a he, not a she. But in my reality, SHE was KEISHA and was soo cute and CRAZY. She was like a miniature horse- leaping all over the place.

  Our performances went very well in Atyaru. At the 1st one, I saw my first real, live tarantuala. It was fascinatingly terrifying. I wanted to get as close as I could before I started to cry. After the show, everyone was coming up to us wanting our autographs. It was cute. Our 2nd performance in Atyrau was unanimously the best. We performed for a large froup of oil workers. 90% men. Watching Cinderella. In masks. But they LOVED it. I honestly don’t think I have performed for a better audience. They bellowed, clapped, and shouted throughout the whole thing. They absolutely loved Zhandos. Tabitha even got whistled at. They completely bought our fight scene- probably because Tabitha actually clocked me across my jaw. They broke out into a rhythmic clapping at the end. It was great fun. I think what was also great about it- and great about this whole tour so far, is that we are performing for people who have most likely never been to a play. They just don’t have the opportunties- there’s nothing like it (what we are doing) being done. They are so grateful and thankful that we have come to perform for them. One woman was just repeating “Thank you, thank you. It was perfect.”  And the show is definitely not perfect. But it is perfect to them. It’s taught me not to sweat the little stuff and get all anxious over things that aren’t perfect. Sometimes it’s better for the group and for your individual sanity to be content with where things are at- to let go of achieving perfection.

  I also had another nice talk with Gala and a good conversation with Arad. Dias continues to add to his repetoire of faces that are supposed to be mimicries of me. I cannot believe this summer is almost over. As I say with the passing of every summer, “It has gone so fast.”

 Well we’ve been in Aktau for three days and it is….not so beautiful. All desert. I did see some camels on the way and that was really cool! Even though it’s no paradise here, it’s still been fun. We had a performance yesterday for an audience that by in large did not speak English. I had a blast. I loved it! It forced me to make stronger choices than previously- it did not matter at all what I said. What mattered was the intent, the actions, and the physicality. It was all about using your body as specifically and largely as possible. The words could not tell the story, so the physicality had to. It was a good challenge. I think we all had alot of fun. Our natives said a bunch of Russian words here and there, which the audience really responded to. Even I decided to throw in a little Russian….they loved the ol’ “shushka” (pig, for those of you who don’t know Russian). Also, Gala sang before we started the show- her voice is stunning!!! They gave us all an array of Green Peace clothing and accesories. Hopefully my dad will fit into it all:)

 We’ve been doing alot of two things here: 1) going to the beach. problem though is you cannot swim. Apparently the water is very warm in June and very warm in August, but freezing in July, and none of the natives have ever been able to figure it out. The beach is also covered with shards of glass and other trash. so not the most pleasant beach, but it’s still a beach! 2) Playing cards– mostly spades and blitz. We’ve taught everyone blitz now, and some strange things come out of people during this game. Arad plays the drums as he flips over his cards. You cannot concentrate because he slaps EVERY card down with life or death force! Dias just cheats…shuffles his deck in the middle of the game, takes out a card and puts it to the side till he can use it, and secretly organizes his deck so that all the aces come up! hahaha, it was quite funny.

 Yesterday we also had fun singing Amazing Grace and some other gospel songs at the kitchen table. Gala, Tabitha, and Nathan harmonize pretty well together. Zhandos isn’t bad either. We won’t talk about me.

  We leave for Attarau (sp?) tonight- a 20-hour trip! Woo hoo. never been on a train that long. Come to think of it, I’ve never even been on a train at all. Should be….an experience.

 I hope I see some camels on the way out of here too!

 Thursday we find out that we can’t take the boat from Baku and cannot take the train back to Almaty from Atturau (sp??) So more MONEY buying plane tix (money that we don’t have, of course). Friday we found that Arad may not be able to join us on the tour because his Visa won’t allow him to get into Baku. But Saturday comes, and Arad is able to join us, we have the plane tickets, we packed everything, and we were finally off on this tour that seemed like would never happen.

 Beside the plane being insanely HOT, a few flies buzzing over our heads,babies crying, old men smelling, and a family in front of us eating a bag of meat, the flight was great. Successful.

  We stood in line for our Visa’s, filled out the apps like we were told, then look over our shoulders to see Arad being taken away by a lady. Turns out, he was unable to get the Visa in the airport- should have gotten it in Almaty.

   Tabitha, Nathan, and I proceeded to get ourselves into the country and stood by as Galina conversed with some men in Russian trying to figure out what to do about Arad. We had no clue what was going on.

  About…..oh 2 hours later, we finally got our whole group back. Zhandos and Galina had gone off to try to take care of things. Meanwhile, we’re in a waiting area with Dias pacing back and forth with worry for Arad and Tabitha attracting almost 40 pairs of staring eyes as she listens to her Ipod, “hip-hop dancing”. I was having fun watching the ’starers’. Nathan’s ear was being talked off by an airport employee (in Russian).

 Then, out of nowhere, a guy comes up to us and says he wants to talk to Galina. We had no idea who he was, where he came from, and how he knew Gala’s name.

  Dias tried asking him questions, but got no answers, he said the guy was extremely secretive. For the next hour, we saw this man come and go, always on his cell phone. Apparently, he was a friend of a friend of a friend, and had been called to “free Arad”.  After another hour, apparently his mission was a success, because he told us Arad would be arriving shortly. And he did. When we all left the airport, we were accompanied by a slew of men. One of them started running off with our stuff to his car, but the rest of our group was going in the opposite direction with the other men. I guess they were fighting over who was going to drive us. Before that though, Gala was talking privately to the man who “saved Arad”. Not sure how much to disclose on here, there may be spies. But let’s say, we are pretty sure some illegal operations were carried out last night,unbeknowst to us.

 So we end up taking two separate card to where we were staying, but none of us knew exactly where we were staying. we were dropped off in the general location. We couldn’t find the rest of our group. Arad, Nathan, Zhandos, and I waited for about a half hour (I was preparing to stay out on that sidewalk all night). But then Zhandos came to the rescue and found them. The lady came to give us the keys to the place. We had to walk there in separate groups so as to not make much noise….something with the KGB…

But too make this already long story come to an end, everything turned out just fine. we are staying at a really nice place, we (almost) all have beds, and a really nice shower.

 One bad thing, there’s lots of stray cats here, and I am still traumatized by my cat attack a month ago, so whenever i see a suspicious- looking cat, my heart throbs, and I get petrified.  But no more cat attacks yet.

 Whew today is even hotter than last I wrote. Today the conditions of our rehearsal was without our director, choppy, hot, and actors were getting very sleepy…..but…..we got alot accomplished. We discovered some very funny bits- added an entrance/ exit lazzi and a chase lazzi. It was a disjointed, but fun day. Nathan could not be there b/c he had to pick his wife and daughter up from the 52-hour train ride! (A trip we will be partaking in shortly). We found some new characteristics for Ruffiana- she has discovered quite an obnoxious laugh, as well as brought out her addiction to chocolate.

 Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we’re celebrating with all Nathan’s people at a river (how elegantly put:) It should be fun. Maybe I’ll get a bit of a tan finally:)

 OK, gotta go babysit some cute kids with Tabitha:)