It's been six weeks since I've driven a car. That hasn't happened since I was age 15 .... 36 years ago. While I do like to plan my day, I do miss the spontanity of going out on the moment. If we could drive here, we'd do a lot more exploring via the car. A foreigner who owns a car has yellow license plates vs a national who has white. It is therefore easy to spot expats. We've heard first hand stories of expats being pulled over multiple times. The police officer wants a "facilitated traffic payment", otherwise known as a bribe. One individual who has been pulled over 20 times finally got tired of the facilitated payment and now says, "either give me a ticket or let me move on." Since giving a ticket results in no facilitated payment to fatten his wallet, this individual is asked to move on.
How do you spell frustration? NO INTERNET!!!! Our internet connection has been up and down like an elevator during Christmas time. It was down 12 hours on Wednesday, a few hours on Thursday, and 12+ hours Fri/Saturday AND STILL COUNTING. It came up for a few minutes ... saw the Rangers leading the Yankees 5-2 in the 8th inning ... the game should be over, yet my INTERNET IS DOWN. Somebody push the button for up. We rely on the internet for information, entertainment, phone, and email. It's no fun to be "blind". Update ... internet finally up at 13:35.
Yesterday (Oct 15), we traded our oven/stove (imported from Italy - Whirlpool) for a dryer. This house did not come with a dryer, but was negotiated as part of the lease. The first dryer that showed up last week was a laugh. It came in a box the size of 6 scott towel rolls! Never did open, but from the picture it appeared to be a heater unit that blows hot air into a bag. New one on me. I sent it back the next morning. Yesterday, the real mccoy arrived. Oven Story - the oven's temperature mechanism doesn't work properly. Sometimes she cooks with almost on heat - according to the dial. Sometimes the stuff just burns ... like bread she put in the oven at supposed 100 F and burned up in 5 minutes. yesterday, they came and took the oven/stove to fix it at the shop. It will be back, supposedly, in 4 days. Of course, we fly back to the states the next day.
Amaty is the least windy city I've ever lived.
Almaty airport is visual flight rules only. What this means is that they can't use instruments to land. In the winter when the smog is here, at times the planes have to go to Astana (1 hr flite time) to sit it out. Bummer ....Don't see many bikers nor joggers ... Sidewalks here are very nice - 8 to 10 ft wide. At lunch, I jog along a creek/bayou. This is the mechanism to control the flow of water down from the mountains. It's a nice area to walk, jog, ride bikes. Come to think of it, haven't seen ANY skateboarders. Almaty flows uphill from north to south - a constant gain in elevation. This makes jogging tough going uphill, not to mention an altitude starting at 3000 ft.
Homes here have individual ac units for rooms. There is the indoor unit tied to an outdoor unit. Nothing hangs out the window. There is no "central aircon". Heating is all done by radiators. Our floors are even heated - good thing as there is not one stitch of carpet. The tile floor on the first floor was imported from Italy.
I vote that KZ has the sweetest carrots .....
Left turns are difficult here as there are no left turn lanes. You simply get in the inside lane to turn left, or worse U turn. Kind of funny to watch buses and stretch limos do a U'ee, but this practice is very dangerous ...
White dashes in roads are guidelines. If the dashes create two lanes, but three cars can fit, then three it is. Reach out and touch someone ....
Weather here, so far, is great. Lots of sun. I've seen more sun in one month than I saw in an entire year in Aberdeen. The mountains are fun to stare at when the air is clear early in the morning ...
Went to the Green Bazar to buy veggies for the first time ... kinda fun, lots of choice, and not as expensive as the Ramstore. Meat section ... I don't recognize the cuts, but then I don't each cow tongue either (plenty to choose from) ...
Ramstore has the greatest Turkish baklava!
Local Marriage Traditions .... the bride/groom get married accompanied by some friends and family. The happy couple and young friends then go to several parks in the city taking pictures and videos. The happy couple is in a stretch white limo with lots of friends in rented white cars. Often, they will create a "white block" across all lanes of traffic so that traffic moves at glacial speed. Then, in evening, there is a big party at a restaurant. Did I mention a honeymoon? Nope, not their tradition .....
This Sunday, we went searching for the "holy grail". You know, those plastic plate like things that go under round plastic planters. We went to 4 retailers and none of them had them, sooooo, we ventured to the northern part of town known for it's small vendors ... about 1.5 miles worth!!! No joke. It is a famous area as you can supposedly find anything. We found what we were looking for after walking through a maze of vendors for 30 minutes ...
Our home group Bible study on Friday nites is like a taste of heaven as we have Kazaks, Americans, Brits, and Germans. Quite interesting when we pray ....
Our shipment is supposed to arrive today/tomorrow, then customs and finally our house - yipee!
The locals bundle up here quite a bit. It can be 60 F/15 C and they will have big coats and hats ...
There are a LOT of parks here. Many have fountains and lots of trees. We should do more of this in the US ....
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