Lyalya and Kukimoto
On the second day in Almaty we did a lot. I met Lyalya, the student who want to have my supervision at Kyushu University and Kikumoto san who is teaching Japanese at Kazakh National University. Lyalya, 23 years old, Kazakh, who thinks herself too old to go to disco has excellent languages skills (She can speak Russian and Kazakh, English, Mongolian and Japanese) and very much motivated to study in Japan. She is living with her grandmother in Almaty. She has studied in UB, Mongolia for one year after graduation of high school and that makes us more closer. We talked about our experiences about places and foods in Mongolia.
Kazakhstan delights
Lyalya seems to have surveyed so many things before we arrive and one of her serious research tasks was about how to make our mouth happy with foods, say, Kazakhstan foods. After several minutes we met, she looked at me seriously and said that she surveyed restaurants where they served best Kazakhstan foods in Almaty and would like to go one of those restaurants for lunch. I was a bit nervous thinking about my experience in the foods of Mongolia, full of juice of OIL and tried to recollect all the information on the Kazakhstan foods that I read from internet website. And I said yes with a big smile.
We met Kukimoto san at her school and went to buy SIM card for our mobile. Clicked on the SIM card our mobiles were making sounds and working. We met Mr Roman, big ethnic German who is the director of the institute of insects and he made documents for our travel in Aralsk. We were told by Askarof who would help us to do field research in Aralsk that the security was recently getting tighter in Aralsk and we might need documents unless we want to have long and endless conversation with the police.
And then lunch….
It was a big restaurant with grandious interior design and the waiters in unidentified national cultured uniforms and cute hats. We don:t know anything about Kazakhstan foods and cannot speak a word of Russian or Kazakhstan. What do you expect for your lunch when you cannot order even a cup of water by yourself? The answer is `Omakase` of anybody who can speak the language of waiters (the special of anybody who can speak the language of waiters)!!
The Lyalya`s Omakase was foods made of mainly meats and meats….and meats. The good thing was Kazakhstan do not seem to have the idea that `Grass for animal, meats for humankind` with which I was brainwashed by Mongolians in Mongolia. There were veges and dimsums were much better than those I had in Mongolia. I thank god to have allowed the freedom of thinking to the nomads. Those meats were mainly horse meats and I felt that I had eaten all the horses that I was supposed to eat in all my life. I was born in the year of horse in Chinese zodiac and I felt guilty. Lyalya looked very much satisfied to see that I ate a lot of horse meat and I was happy to see her big smile which was one of the best ingredients of the foods.
Korean Language Education Centre
In Almaty was Korean Language Education Centre, an institution affiliated to Ambassy. Before we visited the Centre, Kukimoto san said it was far better than Japanese Language Education Centre, and I could see the envy on her face. Alas.. as I was told, the Centre was far greater than what I imagined. Big second story building which was used as a theatre was the centre and they had several seminar rooms, big theatre and even gyms for Taekwondo. The head of the centre was Mr Im Young Gil, who once stayed in London when Dr Park Jin was studying at Oxford. I am frequently asked by Koreans and some other native speakers when I said very short and simple expressions in English whether I have brought up in English speaking countries. Of course, I am in long conversation, anybody instantly notice that I am not native speaker. Somebody said that I had a slight American English accent and others that I had a British accent. And I think that my English has a strong Korean accent and I don:t have any shame on that. Anyway he noticed that my English was a bit different from others and asked me whether I was brought up abroad. I told him that I studied at Oxford and he instantly reminded Mr Park Jin`s name. It is very common that Koreans tried to relate the person whom they meet with some mutual acquaintance. If they don:t they tried to find anything they know in common. Birthplace, schools their friends attended, and even the places where they once travelled around, of course in different times. Having a mutual acquaintance is a big karma for strangers and Mr Park Jin help us a lot to make this meeting smoother. I have not met Mr Park Jin once but since I studied at Oxford where he had studied and Mr Im became much kinder to me. Thank Mr Park Jin and of course, Oxford.
After looking around Korean Language Education Centre, we came back to Hanuri. The power was still off, and we, having tried to skip the dinner, were strongly invited to the dinner table. A glass of vodka and Korean meals.. The Day Two was over.
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