I AM GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY!!!!!
Nurlan's family came with the kuda on Sunday, the sep is ready, mama is crying every day, Talgat came from Almaty, Jyldyz is doing my nails. The toi is at the toikana on the river. 400 people. I am so nervous I can't eat.
I will write after the wedding with ALL the photos, I promise!!! ♥♥♥
We wrote 400 invitations. Four hundred! By hand, with a gold pen, because mama says printed ones are "like a bank letter". My hand now looks like a claw.
Aika addressed 80 of them with her left hand because she had hurt her right in the college lab. Her letters look like a medieval manuscript. I love them.
Who knew a toi needs someone to talk for five hours? A tamada! We've seen four. The first was too loud, the second wanted a lot of money, the third read from a paper, and the fourth — silver hair, a calm voice — said "I won't talk too much, I'll just make sure nobody is bored and nobody is hungry." Papa said "him."
400 people. A hall on the river. A man to keep the hall alive. I am a bit terrified, a bit happy.
I cleaned the flat twice. Mama baked. Papa put on his good shirt. Nurlan's mother came with a box of sweets and sat on the sofa with her hands on her knees, looking at everything. She asked me three questions: "Do you cook?" (yes), "Do you read?" (yes, a lot), "What do you listen to?" (Kök Bel!! I said Kök Bel. I did not say tüntolk.)
Nurlan looked at me from the doorway as if I'd said the right thing. I had said a half-true thing. Same effect.
Tulips from Nurlan. That is all I will say. ♥♥♥
OK one more thing: he likes Kök Bel and not tüntolk. Nobody is perfect.
It snowed all weekend. On Sunday Nurlan came to our building with a bag of walnuts and a thermos, stood under the window and shouted "Meerim!" until Bars ran to the glass. Mama looked out and said "this one is polite". I said "mama!". She said "I'm just saying".
We walked around the block 6 times. At the end he asked for my number. I gave him the number. I gave him also the old one, in case. He said "why two?" I said "in case you're lost".
At Asel's cousin's birthday, there was a boy who plays the komuz (badly, he says, I agree) and knows all the words of "Talas Sunrise". All of them. Even the bit nobody knows. His name is Nurlan, he studies geography at TSU (third year), he is shy, and he is not tall.
I did not tell him about tüntolk. I'll wait.
Aika started at the medical college. She wears a white coat and looks like a doctor who has seen too much. She has stopped wearing black except on Fridays, "for the soul".
I asked if she still listens to tüntolk. She said "all the time. Quieter." That sounded like growing up. I'm not ready.
Today was Old Iradi lit and I think I passed. The question was about the farewell in Akyrky Ashuu. I wrote four pages. At the end I started to cry (on paper, not really). The teacher who read it will think I'm strange.
Don't tell anyone, but this is the first time at university that I forgot I was afraid.
The winter stairwell kitchen turned into a birthday party! Auntie Raisa from floor 3 is 60 and the whole stairwell brought her something: a scarf, pelmeni (of course), a bottle of jam from 2004, and six candles on a cake that ran out of candles.
She said "I'm only celebrating because the building cooked together for six weeks and survived". Cheers to the building!!!
No light, no heat, but our building has GAS so all the neighbours cook together on the stairwell on two plates, it is almost a party. Auntie Raisa from floor 3 makes the best pelmeni. We play cards by candles. I am writing from the university computer centre (the warm one). See you in the light ★
Long time no write, sorry dear readers (all 4 of you). University is hard. Old Iradi literature is SO long. Our teacher reads Akyrky Ashuu to us like it is a thriller and actually... it is good?? Don't tell anyone.
Talgat moved to Almaty to work. The house is quiet. Bars sleeps in his bed.
Talgat is going to Almaty on Thursday for a job. At home: a big table, mama's plov (I stirred), papa's toast (long), and Talgat saying "I'll come at New Year, don't cry" while his eyes were red.
He gave me his headphones. The good ones. I said "you'll want them". He said "I'll buy new in Almaty". I know he won't. I'll keep them for him.
Kündölük changed (2.0) and my stars disappeared from the titles and the dashed lines around the comments vanished and I thought: my blog is dead!!!! I wrote to Bekzhan, who looked at my CSS and found ONE LINE (one quotation mark that was the wrong kind). He fixed it by e-mail in an hour.
He says he is "an engineer, not a hero". He IS a hero. Thank you Bekzhan!!! ★★★ The stars are back.
The dollar costs 8.40 now. Mama has a jar with dollars (for the sep, "for a rainy day", she says, and every day is rainy). She counted them in the evening, twice. Then she looked at the jar as if it had grown. Then she said "so we are richer" and then "so everything costs more" and then, tired, "so we are the same".
Papa said a smart thing: "A rate is a number, a family is a family." I wrote it on a sticker.
This year was long. I'm writing it down because we should remember: we are all here. Mama, papa, Talgat, me, Bars (fat), Jyldyz, Aika, Asel, Bekzhan and the 10 or so readers.
A wish: that next year is boring.
Everyone is smart and everyone is hungry. We have 5 lectures a day, a break of 20 minutes, and one canteen with a queue that goes round the building. I bought a pie for 2 som and ate it standing.
The girls in philology do have good boots. I have my school boots. Mama says "buy in winter, with the first stipend". I will.
My neighbour at the lectures is a boy from Iyık Janyl who knows Old Iradi by heart. He writes poems and hides them. I found one by accident. It was good. Don't tell anyone.
The lists went up at the university today and my name is on it!!! PHILOLOGY!!!! Number 31 on the list (a good number, 31 is the school and the bus!). I stood in the crowd in front of the board and shouted so loud that a stranger gave me his hand and said "congratulations, daughter".
Mama sat down on the step and laughed. Papa said "now you can translate tüntolk". Papa listens. ★
Still here. All of us. Jyldyz, Aika, Asel, Talgat, mama, papa, Bars. All alive.
Our school has the windows broken, they say it will be repaired for September. They say the Synak will be later this year. I don't care. Everybody is alive.
I listened to Jolchu all the time in the corridor on my Walkman with the last batteries. Jolchu is about the road, and somebody who keeps going. I will not say more. ★
we are ok. we sit in the corridor in the night, mama says away from the windows. school is closed. i write from the neighbours computer. i am scared. please pray for talas.
We have a new girl in class, her name is Aijamal. She came from one of the villages in Kara-Buura in February, with her mother, and they live with an aunt in a flat with eight people. She doesn't talk. The teacher said "be kind", and then said it again. We didn't need to be told.
Today at the break I gave her half of my bun. She looked at it like it was a present. I felt stupid for having half a bun. Tomorrow I'll bring a whole one.
We had a trial for the Synak (not the real one). Three hours. It was like an exam in a dream: I knew everything but my hand was too slow. In the maths part I wrote one answer and then looked at the clock and it was 40 minutes later.
Result: 74 points from 100. Mama said "good". I said "it's a lie, the real one will be harder". Mama said "you can't please everyone". I said that is exactly what a test does.
On TV they said today is the day. Asel's father drives a car for a contractor at the base, he said at supper "they told us the base stays", and he repeated it three times, so we all knew he wasn't sure. Asel brought me a chocolate with an English wrapper "for the memory".
I don't have an opinion. I have Kara Suu on in the corridor and I'm drawing little stars on my hand.
The last year of school!!! The big one. New teacher for literature, young, with glasses, who said on the first lesson "forget everything you think you know about Akyrky Ashuu". I think I love her.
Asel is already sad because everything is "the last". The last bell, the last autumn, the last dictation. I told her to calm down, it's only September.
One year of the blog!!! Counter says 2,900 (it is mostly me, refreshing). Things I learned:
Went to the TSU open day with Talgat's friend Bekzhan (thank you Bekzhan!!). The university is SO BIG. I think I will go to philology, English and Iradi. Then I can translate tüntolk songs for the whole world :)
The girls in the philology faculty have very good boots.
Fireworks!!! We watched from the balcony with the neighbours. Auntie Raisa from floor 3 brought the pelmeni on a tray (the best pelmeni) and we ate them in coats. Every colour was reflected in the window of the building opposite, so we saw every firework twice.
Mama said "the first one was for the country, the second one is for us". She is sometimes poetic.
Bars saw snow for the first time (he is 2 and a half). He walked onto the balcony, put one paw in it, and looked at me as if I had done it. Then he went back and sat by the stove for four hours with his back to the window. Offended.
It's 23:50 and I'm writing from the kitchen. Mama has made olivier and a roast, papa has opened a lemonade bottle (we have only lemonade), Talgat is lying under the tree with the TV remote. I wish everyone in Irad a good 2006. I wish Bars a lot of fish. I wish tüntolk a new album, a big one, with a hundred songs.
See you in the future!!! ★★★
One year since Kündölük started! There was a notice at the top of my page. A cake picture. I am a blogger for three months so I get a quarter of a piece.
Jyldyz STILL does not have a blog. She promised in August. She says she doesn't have time. She has time to dye her hair. ;)
Welcome to my room!!! Here is the wall: tüntolk (4 posters, 2 hand-drawn), Kök Bel (the cassette cover, taped up), a calendar with horses, and a photo of me and Aika when we were 6, both of us with no front teeth.
Bars lives on the bed and has opinions about the posters. He sits on Mor-Wave only.
First day of the 11th class!!! New bag (black), old friends. Jyldyz has dyed one strand of hair purple and the teacher pretended not to see it for three lessons and then said "Jyldyz, please." Good teacher.
Everyone is talking about the test, the NEW national one, the Synak. I am not talking about it. I am pretending it is next century. ★
My first post!!! Talgat (my brother) has his friend with a blog and he says I am too small for a blog. I am 15! So here is my blog, Talgat. :P
About me: I love tüntolk. I have Jolchu (copied cassette from Jyldyz's cousin) and Kara Suu (real CD! from Almaty! my uncle!). Everyone in my class says Kara Suu is boring and dark. They don't understand anything. It is about Nurzhan, about the black water from the refinery, about how a city is sad. It is genius.
OK it is late. Mama is shouting. Bye bye ♥