Our Return

Amy: So we're back in KZ and back into school. Trying to fit back into old rhythms in the midst of new students and increased traffic is proving difficult. I have such a great group of students and parents this year, but I didn't realize how used I had gotten to last year's group and how unprepared I was for a transition to a new class. It just takes some readjusting, and I feel it coming. It's going to be a good year. But the traffic...maybe I just got used to Indiana traffic over the summer, but it seems worse this year...probably because of all the construction on the roads around the school...rumor has it that the local golf course is holding a European PGA tournament. That's why all the road maintenance. One night we left the school at 8pm and normally a drive home that takes us only 10-15 minutes took us two hours. We were detoured South towards the mountains, however when you're detoured in Almaty, there are no bright orange and black signs telling you which way to go every few feet. You just have to follow the traffic and hope everyone else knows where they are going. It just so happened that we were in front this time, and by the number of cars that were following us, we gathered that nobody really knew where they were going. So we wound through dirty, heavily cratered roads for the next two hours, frantically trying to use the type and size of the potholes as landmarks for the roads we already went down. For the first 15 minutes or so it was funny, we actually led a few locals into a deadend, I'm not sure why they all decided to follow the foreigners. But after awhile, it just wasn't funny anymore. We finally ended up back at the school, and found our way home by a different route. Travis, my hero, seems to have taken to the spirit of the roads here rather quickly. Me, I've driven maybe twice since we've been back. I'm in no rush. Anyway, we're settling in, enjoying the neighbor kids again (they often help us carry our things up to our apartment some evenings when we come home in exchange for cookies) and making progress with our Russian. And here it is only September.

On Saturday we went hiking to a waterfall at a place called Butakovka. It was so good to get away from the city and into fresher air for the day. I do believe we'll live longer for it.
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A traditional yurt on the way to the waterfall with Bigfoot in the foreground.
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The leaves are starting to change.
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At the waterfall.
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Bride and her entourage making their way to some photo-op location. On the wedding day, the wedding party and many of the guests drive all over the city to get their picture taken at many different monuments and quintessential Almaty destinations.
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First week of school, Travis' class: Bonding and getting to know one another.
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First week of school, Amy's class: I have to admit, this one was staged.
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Today is Victory Day here in Kazakhstan. It's a major holiday, which gave us the day off and a long 3-day weekend. So we headed to the canyons of eastern Kazakhstan, about four hours outside of Almaty. This is Travis' Victory Day monument he made on a stop outside of the canyon.
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A village on the way to the canyon.
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The road to Charyn Canyon
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This is Charyn Canyon, beautiful but extremely touristy. It's not to be missed though.
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Because of the amount of people at Charyn, we chose to camp a little ways down the road at a less populated spot. This is overlooking our campsite from the road. From this perspective, we settled down and to the left of the river.
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At the campsite, damming up a refridgerator to get our drinks cold in the freezing river.
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Amy, Mick, Patty and Cassie making dinner.
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Travis' mud castle on the shores of the canyon river.
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Our hike through the canyon
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Russ and Travis at Murphy's
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On Wednesday we went with Russ and Cassie to Mad Murphy's Irish Pub, a local expat favorite. All of my (Amy) nine-year olds were shocked to learn I had not been there, and strongly urged me to go. So we did. A bit pricey, but we actually got thick-crusted pizza, rather than the dry, paper-thin stuff everywhere else in town that we've been to.
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Cassie and I at the spa.
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Travis and I at Thomi's coffee shop downtown.
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Three large apartment buildings in the city.
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On Tuesday we spent more time in the city and then went up into the mountains to a spa/sauna. Bath houses/saunas are commonly frequented by the locals here. The spa was incredible, boasting Finnish, Russian and Turkish baths, complete with two salt water pools, indoor/outdoor hot tubs, steam room, sauna and ice pool. I got a massage (Amy) and then Travis and I and friends soaked in the pools, ate a fine dinner, and then soaked some more for the rest of the night.

Today we walked along a street named Zhibek Zholy (I think) where there were many vendors selling art and food. Today was a national holiday, so they were having a big program on the street. Lots of people were out. We had a great day...walking and watching people, eating, and spending time together.

My favorite local dish so far (Amy) is called Plov. They sell it in big bowls like this on the street or in local restaurants. It's a rice dish with meat and carrots and, unfortunately, lots of oil. It's still so good though.
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Zhibek Zholy
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This is a typcial Shashlik stand (traditional Kazakh cuisine, a meat kebab). You see these stands all over the city, at almost all of the local restaurants.
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Last weekend I went with some friends to the Big Almaty Lake up in the mountains while Travis had time with the boys. We drove up the mountain to about 10,000 feet. It's a popular get-away spot, but as with any developing country, the mountain roads are the last to be cared for. The road up was treacherous and snowy, with no guard rails, and I spent most of the ride praying that I would see Travis again. And people follow the same rules of the road up in the mountains as they do in the city. It's no matter that you both meet on a narrow bridge that drops off on either side into icy waters below, you must play chicken in order to beat him to the bridge and across, and naturally he will do the same. Here are some pictures (not of chicken on the bridge unfortunately, just of other stuff).

A weather station at 10,000 feet.
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Around 9,000 feet sits an observatory complex. This is where we used the bathroom.
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Me lounging in the sun at 10,000 feet.
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Big Almaty Lake. This picture doesn't even capture its true color...it was the brightest turquoise water I had ever seen. The lake is created by run-off from a glacier.
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Friends from school. The kid doesn't belong to any of us. But he's a friend.
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Finally, this is a shot of Travis coaching girls' football. Of course, it's what we Americans call soccer. In fact, most of the staff at school call it that too, but I'm trying to get us to be more international.
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This is our bathroom. An old shot of the first night we arrived. Thus the empty shelves.
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This is a view of the bedroom. I'm realizing that none of these shots will give a very good idea of what it feels like to be here.
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Here's the livingroom the first night we moved in. The picture is taken from where the tv and window is.
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Many of you wanted to see more pictures of our apartment. Let's start with the kitchen.
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