The Mystery of the Middle East. Part 1

I've always been inspired by all that is connected to the east.

 Yesterday I looked for the second time the film Alexander in 2004 which tells the story of Alexander the Great. I liked how the director managed to convey the culture and life of ancient oriental tribes. 

I also noticed that people in Western countries have no clear ideaabout the culture of my country. Therefore, I as a man who was born and grew up in a place where East meets West-Kazakhstan has decided to share my world with you.

First of all Kazakhstan situated exactly in the middle between the West and East. It is the 9th largest country in the World. And borders with Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. As you can notice all our neighbors are ethnicity different. Such location on the map allows Kazakhstan to be cross-cultural and culture of our neighbors strongly influence ours. For example the fact that it is a multinational state makes it possible to speak on two languages equally: Kazakh ( official language) and Russian ( because Kazakhstan was part of the soviet Union for a long time). Also it is multinational cause apart from kazakh there live such nationalities as russians, turks, chinese, korean, germans,  uzbeks, kyrgyz and jews. Our Eastern philosophy teaches us to be hospitable and peaceful, so we are happy to accept another culture. 

Our history has played an important role in the drafting of our culture. The conquests of the Arabs and the Mongols influenced our appearance, language, religion, traditions and art.

 Strolling through the streets of our cities you can notice one pattern everywhere: half of the buildings constructed in western style while another half in eastern style. Restaurants in Arabic style are close to business centers built on the western model. 

Kazakhstan is a Muslim country but not so strict as other arabic muslim countries. For instance, we deeply respect and accept muslim philosophy, but our western impact makes us more loyal in this issue. We have the right to perform Salaat at will (prayer 5 times in a day) and kazakh women don't must to wear hijab. However, they should cover their heads in mosques and other holly places. 

The food in Kazakhstan varies from traditional Kazakh cuisine to different types of cuisines like russian is very popular, uzbek, kyrgyz, turkish, arabic, chinese, italian, fast food. In other words everything.

At schools pupils study a lot of subjects (approximately 20 subjects each year) for 11 years. Another reason to like Kazakhstan are holidays!!!! We have more holidays than others because we celebrate muslim holidays,western holidays and eastern holidays.