the last days
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.
