All other countries have inferior Potassium: German, Glühwein, and Grand Gatherings

The holidays have come and gone, another season spent in a foreign country without my closest friends and family. But it is behind me and the next round will be spent at home. I really look forward to that.

Christmas was spent in a nice way, though. Thursday, the 25^th, a few of the local volunteers in the city sang in a Christmas concert hosted by one of the local universities, ИнЭУ (Innovative Eurasian University). We sang 3 songs: O Christmas Tree, Winter Wonderland, and O Come all ye Faithful. After the concert, 6 different departments had set up tables for a competition and the Americans were selected to judge based on the categories of best cookies, best cake, best design, etc. The Goethe Institute, a German-language organization, won the best drink because they served up Glühwein, the equivalent of our mulled wine. Delicious!

The following Saturday, all the volunteers came into the city and we had a potluck at my place. I tried my hand at grandma’s Swedish coffee cakes and while they aren’t perfect, they are pretty good! It’s a bit difficult to bake something at 350F when your oven settings are 1, 2, 3, and 4 and you can’t find an over thermometer anywhere. The bottoms got a little blackened, but cut off, it tastes about right.

And New Year’s celebrations were a bit more disappointing. Olga and I wanted to double-date and go ice skating at this outdoor rink that was constructed in front of the capitol building, but decided against it as it was really cold and windy outside. So we cooked dinner, ate, chit-chatted, and watched TV until midnight. I was quite bored. I would have rather gone to a club, but others were against that idea. The one impressive thing, though, were the number of fireworks people were setting off outside! I tried to take pictures, but there is no way to describe it. We turned the lights out and watched out the window as hundreds of people set off fireworks in every direction. As far as the eye could see and far as the city limits, you could see dozens and dozens of explosions in the sky. Open the window and you could hear what I would imagine Iraq in 2005 sounded like. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’ve been back-logged on work and I have little motivation. I analyzed why I’ve been feeling so out of things and I think it has to do with the amount of result I see for all of the work I do. I design posters and booklets, I translate and re-write projects, I try to pass on skills where I can, but it all seems in vain. The posters and booklets never get printed, the translations only reveal a poorly written project in Russian because grant guidelines weren’t followed; if they had been read, there would have been no need to write the project or the grant, as it would reveal how many requirements we can’t meet. The skills transfer only seems to build more reliance on me. I’m trying to focus my energy, but I’m finding that difficult to do. Now-a-days, the more Russian I understand, the more problems I find at work. Perhaps a New Year will bring me back to where I need to be.

Svenska kaffe brod - Swedish Coffeecake. My grandma passed the recipe to me and I put it to use.

Volunteers and Olga for Christmas at my place. Party hats? Not my idea...

Jeff Whitehill reading his annual Kazakhstani version of "'Twas the Night before Christmas."

Christmas Concert at the University.

Ryan and I singing a verse of O Tannenbaum in German.

Christmas Party at ОФ Challenge with some of their volunteers.

"Samal's" volunteers working to make a banner.

"The Volunteer's Corner" - the first step to having a volunteer club is having a place to call yours.

One of our employees at "Samal" had her birthday on December 31 so we combined it with the New Year's party for a huge bash.

Me, many of the ladies I work with, and Yuri in the back, the other male.

New Year's dinner at my house.

Maher and his friend, Victoria.

Me and Olga.

Nazarbaev giving an enlightening and uplifting speech for New Year. Thank the Lord; he talked about the crisis... (I've had it with the stupid crisis)