Monday, May 24, 2010

Fading Inspiration and the Tiny “Big” Lake

5-18-2010

So I’m trying not to lose inspiration to write, but after nearly a month without being able to post these blogs, my motivation is almost gone. It is crazy to think that I am down to 5 and a half weeks before taking off and restarting my life back home. Emily only has one more week teaching after this and then some serious changes are going to start in our centers. We have no new volunteers coming, at least not for a while. I feel like June is going to be incredibly busy and slip right from under my feet. So with only 10 days being left in May I feel like I should start packing my bags.

This weekend we took another extraordinary hike into the mountains. On Saturday night we stayed at the girls’ apartment because we had to wake up really early and they live much closer to the bus stop. So after waking up at 6:30am we got ready, ran up the street because they were repairing the roads, got on a bus, realized it was going the wrong way, got off the bus, ran back up the street, got on the right bus and met our group incredibly late. We took another bus up into the mountains and then began our hike towards Big Almaty Lake. Everyone I talked to said that Big Almaty Lake is a beautiful area so I was excited. We began trekking up a long dirt road for hours and then came to a big mountain with a large pipe running up it. We began up the mountain and walked along the pipe until we reached the lake. It took about 9 hours and was quite intense. When we finally reached the lake, the guard stopped us and told us we couldn’t go near it. That was quite disappointing seeing as we just spent 9 hours working our butts off to get there. But, with a little Kazakh persuasion/corruption skills we got to go on the dam and look at the lake. Big Almaty Lake should probably be called Tiny Almaty Lake. I guess I had put up my expectations to high, but this lake was really small and you were only allowed to view it from a distance. We did however find a nice area to picnic and the surrounding area truly was beautiful. We were in the midst of the warmth of Spring, lying in the lush grass, but right in front of us were majestic mountain peaks still covered with loads of snow. Even though the lake was slightly disappointing, the hike was well worth it and my sore butt muscles the next day were a small price to pay for the large amount of fun we had.

The city right now is in full bloom. You can’t look around without filling your eyes with a healthy dose of greenery. Tulips line the roads, the delicious aromas of different flowers fill the air, and the once trash-filled, ice covered, mud fields are now covered in lush grass. Since I am from the desert I have never really experienced all 4 seasons in their full glory. Going from winter to Spring is nice.

2 comments:

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  2. 'Friggin loser pond' it's been called. I'm sure Emily told you of our experience there last summer :D

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