June 11 (Kaz)

June 11

Today is Sunday, which means no visit, so I slept in, listened to my iPod for a while then took a shower and was out of the apaprtment by noon. No rush to leave the apartment since we have AC and it was supposed to be 80 or 100 degrees today- I am never sure how hot it will be, but when you wear pants all the time it's always hot. On my walk I took this picture of the really expensive apartment building. Note the cranes in the background in the 'new' or LEFT side of the city.They are quite proud of their new erections here. If you are snickering at what they call their new buildings, you are in good company. The postcards boasting the "New Erections"are sold out.

Half way along my walk is this statue of a horse. I am not sure who the guy on the horse is, but it has become a landmark for the American families here. Since we live at different places along the river, we all meet at the horse when we gout to dinner together, hopefully not to eat horse meat.






Also along my walk is the 'big' foodstore called the RamStore. It took me a while to realize that P's were pronounced like R's, C's like S's and H's are pronounced like N's. That would also explain the HOTAPNYC we would go to--- the Notary (Notarus).


















I took a leisurely hour walk to the President's museum. I was afraid to take pictures, but saw no signs that said I could not. But just to be safe I asked the lady at the doorway that collects the 90 tenge tickets (about 70 cents) and she said "but of course."So I headed back to the main exhibit and started taking pictures, without the flash. Then some lady from 4 stories up the atrium style museum starting hollaring. I figured if I did not turn around, then surely she was not speaking to me. Then 2 other Kazak ladies came rushing over just as I was about to snap a photo of the money exhibit. Busted. So I only got 1 picture of the jumbo key to the city. Once again I learned that "But of course" means "absolutely not".

We also learned another nuisance of Kazak culture. When they want you to pay the phone bill, which is by no means on a monthly schedule, they just turn off the phone service. We figured this out Saturday night when I went to call Robbie, so he will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, whenever the Phone Gods choose to allow us to pay and call again. As long as they don't turn off the AC I am fine.

For those who think living in Kazakhstan for 2 months is party where we only sleep in,play with Andrew (Not Andy as per Robbie), and eat diner out each night. Check out this fine meal we prepared the other night: Grilled Cheese on sesame seed bread with aside of pineapple, and a bottle of water. And youhave to love the colorful plates and table cloth....and microwave in the middle of the kitchen table.





For the past 6 weeks they have been digging these holes along the riverwalk on the walk to our apartment. They dig them by hand and they are almost perfectly round and are around 3 feet deep. We are guessing they are for planting trees, but at night the kids hide in them and scare the pee out of you when you walk by. There are now about 100 holes.





Here's some pictures of the brochure from the place where we gout our massage/beating. I thought my Russian was a bit rough, but this brochure,which they printed thousands of has some interesting translations.