Shishibar

My friend Amelia took the GRE exam on Monday, scoring a perfect 1600. What is one to do afterwards but celebrate??? That evening, Sarah and I took her out to our first Kazakh discothèque. Wow! What can I say??? Mere words cannot describe the experience.

We went to a club near my house—about ¾ mile away. It is called the “Shishibar” and—according to our source—was 20% off on Monday nights (not true, but that is what the ads all said). The décor was rather unusual—a mix of Egyptian and Indian motifs. However, the bathrooms were labeled “Women” and “Men” in English, against the background of the Harley Davidson logo. Drinks were on par with clubs in the US, if not a little more expensive. One cosmo was 1300 tenge, or just over $10. Ouch! The music made it all worth it, though. We arrived around 10pm, which is very early by Kazakh standards. The music started at midnight, and was an amazing mix of incredibly obscure 80s music. I’m sad to report that I was the only person who knew all of the songs and their lyrics—including that classic by Laura Branigan, “Self Control”. It really didn’t seem to matter, though. As long as you could keep up with the drum machine, you were fine.

As to the dancing—let’s just say that American men all dance like Fred Astaire in comparison with Kazakh men. They dance in groups, in a rather homoerotic fashion. You would never see two straight men dancing together in quite the same fashion at home. Women dance separately—also in groups, but they essentially stand on the dance floor swaying ever so slightly and giggling. They don’t appear to have the first idea of how to move their hips when ‘dancing’—Sarah, Amelia, and I all attracted a few stares because we were actually dancing. Apparently we must have confirmed some stereotypes of American women. We had a great time, though. We stayed until about 2am (early by Kazakh standards), then headed home. I wouldn’t want to stay out so late on a regular basis, but it was well worth it.