Welcome to KAZAKHSTAN!

We are here and made it without a hitch.  We arrived at 3AM on Friday morning and were graciously picked up by our 3 administrators with a bus and a luggage van.  They were so gracious.  We got to our new home around 4:30 AM and got in bed at 5:00 AM.  When they left they said they were picking us up at 10 AM to go grocery shopping.  After being awake for over 30 hours, I thought they were joking, but they were not!  The grocery store was overwhelming.  We were exhausted, we couldn't read any labels, and weren't even sure what we needed.  We'd only been in our home 5 hours.  Rochelle Meylink, fellow teacher and tour guide, was so patient and helpful as we walked through each aisle.  The kids got whiny and after we paid we were waiting for one other person to check out so we told the kids to sit on the floor by the corner.  As SOON as they sat down, everybody's heads turned.  People walking by had shocked looks on their faces.  I realized we had done something wrong, but I had no idea what it was.  We quickly made our pitiful looking children stand up.  When Rochelle came over we told her what happened.  She laughed and said that they believe that if you sit on the floor you will be infertile.  So I guess I won't be having any grandchildren!

Happy family at Panfilov Park in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  :)

Lora got sick with a migraine, probably from exhaustion, on the way home from the store, so we let her go straight to sleep.  Then Adeline fell asleep on the couch.  So Keith and Henry went to dinner with the administrators and a few other teachers.  I think being vegetarian will be tricky here.  They went to a restaurant that serves shashlik, which is basically just chunks of marinated meat on a sword.  He said the duck one was pretty good.  They did have some veggies - greek salad and spicy onions - that he brought home for me.  We grilled up the onions for breakfast the next morning with some eggs and it was yummy!  By the way, we noticed that the eggs we bought at the store are not like the factory farm eggs found in American.  They have a fresher taste, but we knew they were fresh cause they still had chicken poop on the outside of them!  Wowsa!

Keith's shashlik (meat on a sword)

Day 2 was our first day at the bazaar - like an insanely large farmers market with everything you could imagine.  I got myself a hairdryer, cause I realized I didn't have the right converter for the one I brought.  We also got some amazing produce!  Raspberries, nectarines, potatoes, carrots, beets, lettuce, ripe red tomatoes, onions, etc.  We came home and made tomato sandwiches that were so good!

Keith tried his hand at driving and did very well!  It was crazy!  There are rules, but most are not enforced.  There are no turn lanes, so people just make up their own.  If the road is 2 lanes per way, and people have decided that they don't like the traffic, they literally make their own lane right down the middle of the road!  There is really no rhyme or reason, so you just have to stay on your toes and push your way in.  If you are not aggressive, you will not go anywhere! We had a great time navigating with Rochelle driving in front of us so we knew where we were going.  :)

Driving! There are really only two lanes going each way.  Notice the lane line underneath the white car in the middle.  Just push your way through!

Day 3 we had a tour of the city and got to meet most of the other new families.  They all arrived about 24 hours after we did.  Jet lag is a killer, and we all woke up at 4AM - so we were ready to go! We went to a beautiful Russian Orthodox church in Panilov Park.  The entire building is built without nails!  Isn't that crazy!  The park was gorgeous.  We could not believe all the roses that were everywhere.  The city has lots of trees and flowers and the parks are beautiful.  There was a large WWII memorial and even a music museum right in the park.

WWII Memorial

Outside the Russian Orthodox church with our new friend, Lana

Russian Orthodox church

Isn't the park gorgeous!  There are flowers everywhere and the parks are very well manicured.

Lora feeding the pigeons - or trying to....

Keith, Adeline and Henry feeding pigeons.

This awesome musician in the park was playing Gangnam Style on the accordian. We had to give him a few tenge (Kazakh money) for that!

We walked straight from the park over to the Green Bazaar - another farmers market on steroids.  We ate lagman for lunch - which is a noodle dish with meat and stir fry vegetables.  We tried to tell the lady that we wanted it without meat, but she just gave us a shocked look and laughed.  When it came out, it had meat on it.  I guess she thought we were joking!  We are learning here that meat is such a staple in their diet, that the thought of NOT having meat is absurd to them.  HAHA!  Rather than try to explain without knowing any Russian, we just ate the noodles and left the meat in the bowl.  The noodles are all handmade and were absolutely delicious!

Green Bazaar - this is the cheese and korean aisles.

Look at all the fresh produce! Yum!

Eating Lagnam at the Green Bazaar.

Slurp those noodles!

Look at those awesome ski jumps!