KZBlog

Category archive for ‘Culture’

• Giving Birth in Kazakhstan

  Not another post about medical services but about traditions and superstitions about birth in Kazakhstan. I recently heard that pregnant women are not allowed to eat camel meat because it can make the pregnancy longer. I had never heard that before so I started asking about other beliefs about mothering and children. Of course, I [...]

  4/06/11 • (3)

• Gift Giving

  March is a crazy month in Kazakhstan for holidays, eating out and gift-giving. There’s the 8th of May, International Women’s Day. There’s Nauryz on the 22nd and 23rd. This year they gave us five days off so lots of chances to be invited and invite people to dinner. We’re coming off of the 23rd of [...]

  4/03/11 • (0)

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  Kazakhstan Fashion Week

  Apparently the big news in the upcoming Kazakhstan fashion week is that Extyn, an Italian brand, will be debuting it’s Nine to Ten, street-wise fashion line in Central Asia. I’m not really sure if this picture is the right line or not, but it’s all that came up looking for pics of Exytn in Kazakhstan. [...]

  3/25/11 • (0)

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  The Transition for Ordinary People

  Someone stole my idea. A documentary is coming out called My Perestroika, which follows five Russians who lived through the transition from socialism to capitalism. It seems like a really interesting film. I’m always interested to hear stories about what transition was like, not in terms of economic statistics but in personal stories. And also [...]

  3/25/11 • (1)

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  From Akmola to Astana

  Ran across a great series of photographs by Manuel Capurso called From Akmola to Astana, which documents Astana capturing both the old and the new. It’s an interesting set. Anyone who has lived in Astana for some time will have noticed the sharp contrasts between the two cities and the surrealism of new modern buildings [...]

  3/24/11 • (0)

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  Happy Nauryz

  Or Nowruz, if you prefer.

  3/22/11 • (0)

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  Kazakhstani Artist Nelly Bube

  You never hear a lot about Kazakhstani artists outside of Kazakhstan. There’s a handful of fashion designers that do some international shows and the writer Abai has been heard of throughout the Soviet Union. Even a few orchestras and traditional Kazakh musicians seem to make headlines in other countries occasionally. But painters and sculptors tend [...]

  3/16/11 • (1)

• Plov Recipe

  I’ve been working on my recipe for plov bit by bit and I thought I’d share it here. Of course there are a million different kinds of plov (or pilaf as the Western version is called) and it’s hard to pin down exactly what makes plov plov. I am fond of the Azerbaijani style where [...]

  2/27/11 • (5)

• Make of This What You Will

  A child born at the end of November was named Summit in honor of the OSCE summit. I had heard of a child named Summitkhan so I wonder if this is the same child or if there’s another one out there. Frankly, I would hate my parents (or in this case, my grandparents, since they’re [...]

  12/18/10 • (5)

• Kazakh Garage Rock

  Stumbled on a couple of videos on Youtube by a Kazakh garage band in Karaganda called Highway. The Youtube page hasn’t seen much activity in the past 6 months, nor has their Facebook page or blog but hopefully, they are still active and making music. To be honest, DIY and garage rock doesn’t get a [...]

  12/16/10 • (5)

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