Tropicana... thank God in America it is only an oragne juice!

The girls... and really good food!
Dont worry; no liquor in those glasses. If you look hard you can see the feathers in the background!
For Christmas my team went to the Big City. We all arrived at different times, and after everyone got in, we decided to meet for a fun "night out". We tried to be as Kazak as possible; so we decided that we would not go until after 8:00 that night. We tried to decide where to go, and two of us named a place called Tropicana, which both of us had heard was fun. Now, I had been there once; for an early evening dinner, and knew that there was a show that came with the meal, but I was not prepared for the "entertainment" that we got.

We were greeted at the door by a man who looked strangely like Lionel Richie. This is strange for two reasons; first, there are only about 4 black people in this entire country; and two, that one of the four would look like Lionel... Anyway, as soon as we checked our coats we knew we were in for WAY more than we bargained for. Everyone else in the restaurant was dressed to the nines, suits for the men and cocktail dresses for the women. There was one guy in a sweater...Thats about it! Of course, we were seated at the table in the front, so we had to parade through the restaurant in our jeans and tennis shoes and oversized sweaters. We sat down and our personal waiter seemed quite anxious for us to order. We tried to order several different things; but of course, as a reminder that we were still in KZ, they were out of chicken and beef. We were quite confused as to why there was such a rush for us to order, but as the band took the stage we understood that we had arrived right at the start of the show, and they were ready to start.

I'm not sure that there was anyone among us who was prepared for what happened next. From women who were wearing scarcely more than feathers, that kept falling off, to the queen of Sheba who perched on stage with her shirtless "bodyguards" (who couldnt have weighed more than 100 lbs); each act provided more laughter, embarassment and frankly, jsut sheer confusion. The crowning glory of the night came in the middle of the show, when Santa Claus showed up.

Several things were remarkable about him. First, he was black, which is rare because we dont see black people here (that makes two for the night if you are counting), and second, after about 5 minutes of playing Santa Claus, he stripped off his clothes to reveal traditional African dancing costumes. He and the woman who had previously been an elf, began dancing around the room in what they called, "the Dances of Africa". Their goal was simple; people in the room were supposed to get up and dance with them... and guess what? It worked. Old people, in very expensive clothes, who had been enjoying their "dining and drinking experience" for the past 5 hours, began to parade themselves around the room.

I've got to be honest here- it was hysterical. We ate our food and left early, something no good Kazak would do. But man oh man, it was a night that I, or anyone else who went, will EVER forget!