Today marks six months in Almaty! In some ways I feel quite settled (favorite coffee shops identified, house set up to my liking, public transport mastered), but on the flip side, there’s a whole lotta things I thought I’d have by now, but don’t—namely, a close group of friends, a job (or the prospect of one at least), and a better command of the Russian language.
Granted, I know from experience that it always takes me six to nine months to truly start liking a place and having it feel like home. For each tour, I can point back to a specific turning point when things finally clicked and I felt both a sense of belonging in the community and a level of comfort with my host country. I’m not there yet in Almaty, but if history proves correct, things should start syncing up in the next few months here.
In January I made a decision to stop my 3-hour-a-day Russian classes to experience the myriad of other activities I was itching to try, most of which were run by the International Women’s Club of Almaty. Each city I’ve lived in has provided an international club and I’ve participated in them to varying degrees. Some were more focused on service and fundraising, others more about social connections and providing community.
This club is the most active I’ve ever seen—by far. Every Monday to Friday—and occasionally on weekends—there are multiple activities to choose from and members are welcome to do as many as they have time and interest for. The activities I was most eager to try were: ski club, coffee Wednesdays, Russian speaking club, yoga meet-up, hiking group, and cooking club. I’ve tried four of the six thus far and have been very impressed with the time and thoughtfulness the leaders put into each club. It makes me wants to use my talents to add something to the mix. Perhaps a board-gaming club or a city walking group??
As soon as Nia was back to school January 8th, I dove into my new pursuits. It was a bit more nerve-wracking and exhausting than I’d anticipated. While it’s true that I am an extrovert, meeting dozens of new people and interacting with them for multiple hours—and then repeating that several days of the week—takes a toll. I noticed myself getting nervous before events and overwhelmed by noise levels when there were lots of different conversations going on.
In addition, while I typically love learning, I noticed that learning fatigue started to hit hard when I layered interpersonal learning (names, background stories) with Russian (new vocab for the activities I was doing) and entire new activities that were way out of my comfort zone (I’m looking at you, skiing!). It was all fun stuff, so it didn’t make sense that it should be too much, until suddenly it was. Perhaps getting COVID was a blessing, because I needed a respite from all the energy I’d been pouring into these new things. The problem now is that after 3 weeks at home, it feels very daunting to get going again . . . wish me luck!
