Almaty

Going green!

Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

Last week was filled with both positive and negative news. I won’t let you get bogged down in negative energy today and want to tell my opinion about some optimistic events in our country. Since environmental awareness is becoming a very popular topic, I am very pleased with the amount of mindfulness people have about this matter. 

The newspaper «Evening Almaty» broadcasts to us that last week such a green campaign as the «Jasyl Almaty» took the start in Apple City. The action is aimed at landscaping and called upon the prosperity of the “lungs” of our hometown. Hundreds of residents took the initiative in planting seedlings.

This news article was published by Vasily Shupeyken and Irina Vasilievna (authors in the newspaper) on the 17th of October, made me very happy. In a stream of hard news, I am always looking for a ray of bright light, just like this one!

Photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash

Concern for ecology and the struggle for its purification goes, not only from the outside but also from the “inside”. Elena Sokolova, a journalist for the «Evening Almaty» newspaper, spoke on the 15th of October, with the director of the upcoming Kazakhstan Fashion Week – Alexei Zhen.

Alexey Zhen spoke about the problems of the national fashion industry and its goals for the future development of eco-friendly materials for clothing lines. The goal for the designers for the spring/summer season was to use environmentally friendly materials in the development of their ideas.

Comparing the writing style and presentation of these two articles, I express my position to seek positive in the world and people around us. I don’t want to live in a bubble of pink dreams, but I am not going to put up with cruelty either.

I am very amazed and proud of the turnover of environmental movements in our country. More and more, Kazakhstan is entering an open dialogue on how to make our living environment cleaner. Ordinary residents of Almaty support such a column in the newspaper “Evening Almaty” as “City duty officer” pointing out and fixing problems together.

Pearl of Kazakh culture

Almaty is the “southern capital” of our immense Republic. Citizens of Kazakhstan love Almaty not only for the beauty of this metropolis, but also for its cultural life. Many seek to see the sights of our city. One of these cultural and educational attractions is State Museum of Art. A. Kasteev of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

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State Museum of Art. A. Kasteev by Natalya Pilipenko

For me personally, as a native resident of Almaty, the museum plays a huge role in my life. I grew up next to this museum and as a result I began to join the art precisely there as I studied at an art school at this museum. The museum eventually became a part of me like any other Almaty citizen.

Speaking a little about the history of the museum is worth mentioning the date of its organization – 1976. In 1935, the exhibition under the title “15th anniversary of the formation of the Kazakh Autonomy” was organized by the Kazakh State Art Gallery. The gallery conducted work on the collection of works by Kazakh, Russian and foreign artists.

Abylkhan Kasteev State Museum of Art. The history of its creation.

Compared with Western collections, the stocks of our museum are small, but they are charming and valuable in their own way as they reflect the history of our people. The museum has a large collection of fine and applied arts in Kazakhstan. A large collection of felt, pile carpets, leather and wood products. The museum is the largest collection of paintings, sculptures and graphics of Kazakh masters.

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Hall representing works of artists 30s-40s
By Marina Karpykova

In the museum fund them. A. Kasteev has about 23,000 exhibits. Many people mistakenly think that there is nothing here except permanent expositions. In fact, the museum is a whole research center with workshops in it, series of lectures and numerous interactive classes.

Excursions in the museum are held in Kazakh, Russian and English. The museum has two types of excursions: sightseeing – only for adults, and the hall – for schoolchildren and for all comers. Sightseeing – 5000 tenge for 1.5 hours. A detailed tour of one hall – 2500 tenge for schoolchildren and students, for adults – 3000. Admission to the museum for adults costs 500 tenge, for schoolchildren and students enrolled in art schools – 200 tenge.

I always ask my friends and acquaintances the reason behind not visiting the museum? Reply was that they had never visited the museum due to the fact that it was simply not interesting enough for visiting and that it lacks interactivity. But if you search carefully (or not so carefully), then you can find many interesting events taking place in our museum.

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Photo by Vladimir Proskurin

So I boldly declare my love for this museum. It is necessary to teach yourself and your children to be culturally educated, especially to the culture of our homeland. A lot of interesting things can be found here, just visit the Museum of Kasteev. Have a great time in our city!

Infomatrix – Asia 2019

The time today is transient as well as the process of technology development around the world. Sure people, literally, let’s say, forty years ago could not imagine such huge advances in technology. Now we have almost everything: technology with its own intelligence, drones capable of shooting the Earth from the craziest angles, robots helping in all spheres of life, etc. These human achievements so far may not be available to all the inhabitants of our planet, but they already exist. They are waiting for their use by us.

It is hard for us to imagine life without smartphones and various software programs that help and make life easier for us every single day. But it was not created in one day. It is necessary to thank the minds that provided us with such opportunities. Such minds grow and develop to this day with rapid speed. As some people may say, now is the time of the “first” and brave who are ready to work with all their efforts and strengths. The living proofs of these words are the young minds that were collected by Infomatrix – Asia 2019!

Infomatrix – Asia 2019 is a widescale and ambitious event created to bring together the best minds of the IT industry. This competition is designed to collect projects that could interest the world community. The very same competition, as far as I know, was justified in the Romanian city – Bucharest. The competition between representatives of the IT industry this year was held at our favorite University of Suleyman Demirel.

It is worth knowing that the organizers of Infomatrix wanted us to see in this event not only a simple competition in pursuit of success and acceptance, but also in a way of open dialogue between different nations and cultures. Competitions of this kind are created and call upon their participants to unite into a single whole despite the difference in a nation, race or gender. In such a precarious time, it is very valuable and pleasant to know that young people are interested not only in victory, but also in international and global dialogue.

Infomatrix is ​​a platform for the exchange of information and new ideas for the benefit of future applications.

Our university has hosted guests not only from all of Kazakhstan but also from the nearest Asian states and countries neighboring with our republic. As I have already said, this event was organized not only for the purpose of evaluating projects, but also for the purpose of bringing different people together. It is pleasant to see how just yesterday strangers from different points of the world today dined together and discussed the goals and essence of their projects, sharing innovative ideas and helping each other by giving advice in a particular area of ​​their work. For almost a week, all the contestants lived and worked side by side.

I was pleasantly surprised that the authors of many projects were not only young guys, but also girls. As a person who does not have a penchant for exact sciences, I always say that I am a little jealous of people who understand science. A couple of centuries ago, girls were not allowed to study in higher educational institutions and today they are building robots and developing computer programs that can change the world. This is what I call progress, and I was proud of the female participants.

I hope each of the participants enjoyed their stay at our university, saw the sights of the city and realized their plans, gained invaluable experience. Experience is a victory, and ahead of them will be an endless amount!

My experience as a volunteer

In 2017, the 29th Winter Universiade has held in my hometown Almaty city, which ran from January 29 to February 8. It was a very significant event in the history of our city. Students from different countries came together for the competition in winter sports, which by the way are very popular in our country. I was lucky to become a part of this event – I worked as a volunteer!

Happy me after the openening ceremony

At that time I was in school in 10th grade. I was very glad and happy that I would have an official exemption from classes for the duration of the competition. I didn’t have any volunteering experience at that time. I had a rough idea of what kind of work it was, but I had no idea how difficult it could be.

I still remember the day when we were given our volunteer form: jacket, hat, scarf and all other winter clothes we needed. I have kept this outfit to this day. I liked the way we (volunteers) differed and stood out from the crowd. We walked around the city, as people were calling us then, “green minions”.

The whole atmosphere from beginning to end was saturated with student and youth spirit! All young people stood together in order to show and conduct this event at the highest level. I liked the mood of our volunteers. We were happy to see each other on the street, although we did not know each other at all.

Happy lil green minion

I was in the team of people responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Universiade. Later we were based in the Almaty arena and held figure skating competitions. I was very lucky with such work, rather than the guys who worked, for example, on springboards. But this does not mean that it was easiest for us to work.

Our team! We’ve worked so hard to keep the show going on

It was hard because of the hard work schedule. We finished work at 3 am and the next shift could begin in 3-4 hours. That winter was very cold and it was difficult to cope with the weather conditions. I remember with horror how cold it was in my winter boots while looking for a source of heat while I was hungry and sleepy.

BTS of rehearsals for the opening ceremony

But everything was not so bad, do not think anything! All of the hard labor was compensated by pleasant and warm communication with my colleagues. I met incredible, lovely, clever and incredibly cheerful people who warmed me in the coldest days. I was the youngest in my group since everyone else was either university students or adults. At first, many were surprised and embarrassed by the fact that I was a schoolgirl, but then everyone got used to it and treated me with care and sweet concern.

Diana and Moldir – sweethearts that cared the most about me! ^^
Other sweeties – Inkar, Diana and Erkin ^^

It was very interesting to watch and be close to see how such major sporting events are held. It’s hard but worth it! I think that I gained invaluable experience and understood that, as with everything in life, there are negative and positive sides to volunteering. But this is a lesson and a lifelong experience of which I will not cease to think and thank for receiving this opportunity.

The proudest moment – started playing Hymn
I must confess, I started crying at that moment
Closing ceremony

I always say that 2017 was the best year of my life so far. This is all because that year was opened by the Universiade and laid in me the vital qualities, that I try to develop to this day.