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Another town trip, more impressions...
Nov. 30th, 2008 07:01 pmAn opportunity presented itself to go into town again this past afternoon, and seeing as how things are only going to get crazier over the next few days as the satellite, now wrapped inside a fairing along with the upper stage, is taken over and mated to the Proton launch vehicle, I decided to go along.
It didn't seem as cold as yesterday. There were young men playing in a dirt soccer field next to the building that houses the town's Department of Internal Affairs. They appeared to be playing a man short, and the missing individual appeared to be one of the goalies. I'm sure it all made sense to them, as did the pickup games of my youth, growing up in Queens, New York.
It's nice to know that some things are universal.
I made my way to the Ginza to ask about the "living noodles" and found out that it was not cheese, but cooked bifun noodles that have been dessicated until they are paper thin and then sprinkled on the hot dish to provide the wiggling effect.
One old lady with a mouth full of gold teeth suddenly turned to me as we waited for a light to change and said "Hello!" to me. I took of my Ray-Bans and returned the greeting, at which point the light changed and we went our separate ways. It would probably be interesting to meet some native Kazakhs.
Pretty much every time I've passed by this one place between the market and the train station, there have been individuals there plying the shoemaker's trade. Today, there was a fellow with a manually operated stitching machine working on a pair of sneakers; a colleague sat a few feet away and cut away at some leather hanging off of a handbag.
It is cold enough for some vendors to use the ambient temperature as refrigeration for their wares in the open air part of the market. A certain variety of mushroom has come into season and is now available, salted, along with the boletes that are my favorite. There are also a number of seaweed dishes on sale.
Young men sit on their haunches in the style I can only describe as Asian - knees almost in their armpits - comfortably playing nardy, which is either much like or exactly what we call backgammon.
There are no chess books for sale in the bookstore, nor are there any chess periodicals on sale at the kiosk that sells magazines like Cosmopolitan.
The post office here works on Sunday, but closes at 3 pm. I sent more mail, this time to the grandkids.
My favorite spice and nut seller is Uzbek, which I found out when I asked what 'garlic' was in Kazakh. We had to refer to a third party and it turns out the word is, indeed сарымсак (sarymsak).
Cheers...
It didn't seem as cold as yesterday. There were young men playing in a dirt soccer field next to the building that houses the town's Department of Internal Affairs. They appeared to be playing a man short, and the missing individual appeared to be one of the goalies. I'm sure it all made sense to them, as did the pickup games of my youth, growing up in Queens, New York.
It's nice to know that some things are universal.
I made my way to the Ginza to ask about the "living noodles" and found out that it was not cheese, but cooked bifun noodles that have been dessicated until they are paper thin and then sprinkled on the hot dish to provide the wiggling effect.
One old lady with a mouth full of gold teeth suddenly turned to me as we waited for a light to change and said "Hello!" to me. I took of my Ray-Bans and returned the greeting, at which point the light changed and we went our separate ways. It would probably be interesting to meet some native Kazakhs.
Pretty much every time I've passed by this one place between the market and the train station, there have been individuals there plying the shoemaker's trade. Today, there was a fellow with a manually operated stitching machine working on a pair of sneakers; a colleague sat a few feet away and cut away at some leather hanging off of a handbag.
It is cold enough for some vendors to use the ambient temperature as refrigeration for their wares in the open air part of the market. A certain variety of mushroom has come into season and is now available, salted, along with the boletes that are my favorite. There are also a number of seaweed dishes on sale.
Young men sit on their haunches in the style I can only describe as Asian - knees almost in their armpits - comfortably playing nardy, which is either much like or exactly what we call backgammon.
There are no chess books for sale in the bookstore, nor are there any chess periodicals on sale at the kiosk that sells magazines like Cosmopolitan.
The post office here works on Sunday, but closes at 3 pm. I sent more mail, this time to the grandkids.
My favorite spice and nut seller is Uzbek, which I found out when I asked what 'garlic' was in Kazakh. We had to refer to a third party and it turns out the word is, indeed сарымсак (sarymsak).
Cheers...
