Integration into the country

My feelings about integration are quite positive. Nobody called me names and I haven't ever felt like the "odd one out". Perhaps even the opposite, I remember when I first came to Australia I was pregnant and people were always interested in asking me about my due date and what I wanted. It was so kind. In Kazakhstan nobody ever asks these questions!

Then when my daughter was born I got a lot of compliments about her. I was very surprised how open people are here.

My personal experience tells me that in my everyday life my only language difficulties are with expressing myself in English, but maybe it might be different when I have to try to find a job. Maybe in the future I will face some language problems.

My weekend

It was quite busy weekend. I tried to do a million things around the house. I had an unsuccessful shopping trip. I had to think about and organise my daughter's birthday because she is turning 3 in two weeks time and I'm a little bit nervous about it because it's her first party and some things may not go as I planned.

But still we had a good weekend. On Saturday morning we went to one of our friends for a kind of lesson for kids and it was a lot of fun. Then later in the evening we had a dinner with our good friends that we haven't seen for a long time because they were overseas and have just come back.

Language-learning tips

Here are my ten language-learning tips:

1. Go on holiday to English-speaking countries;
2. Talk to native English speakers and your neighbours;
3. Watch TV, movies, cartoons and news in English;
4. Listen to the radio;
5. Listen to English songs;
6. Read newspapers, magazines and English books;
7. Use computer programmes;
8. Use a bilingual dictionary;
9. Write down words on stickers and put them on the wall where you can see them often;
10. Make your own blog and practice writing there ;))

Festival in Kazakhstan

The biggest festival around the country is for Nauryz. It is the spring festival on 22 March which simbolise the beginning of New Year. There are a lot of competitions during the day, for example horse riding or playing Dombra (Kazakh traditional music instrument) and singing songs made up on the spot. On this day family get togethers and people do traditional sports, dance, eat food and drink. It's very positive and kind celebration.

My lovely city

I really like my home city which is Almaty. It's the biggest city of Kazakhstan and very nice place to live. The people are very friendly and open. The city is surrounded by one of the highest beautiful range of Tien-Shan mountains. You can skiing, hiking, cycling, climbing and everything you like. There ia a good weather and bright shining sun most of the year.