In which we encounter pleasant surprises.
After a month in a country, you get a little jaded. You think you've seen it all. You think there are no surprises.
If that's you, you ain't in Kazakhstan.
The Big Day started with a little of the traditional Kazakh worry. Our flight was scheduled for 11:10 a.m. and our pick-up was planned for 9:40 a.m. As 9:45 approached, we began to fidget. Gulmira showed up for the post Amerikanyetc visit. No ride, but she did have a nice going away gift-- a little camel for Owen. You can see Robin posing with it below. (It's superior to the one we bought. This camel's hump opens to hide little surprises.) After a while, Oleg showed up with a barrage of Russian. There was some tossing of hands from Lyuba and Gulmira, but still nothing for the Amerikanyetc. Eventually we got the short version: "Inna sleep."
What?!?!
A little after ten, in strolls Inna. "Are you ready?" Well, yeah. "Don't worry, guys. The airport is small and the flights are always late."
Okay.
As always, we should've trusted reliable Inna. I don't know what the tardiness was all about, but we made it to the airport in plenty of time. Inna was right. The airport is tiny. You can see a picture of it above and, in the background, sturdy Oleg helping us haul our heavier-than-forty-pound bags. There was the typical "I don't get it" experience: Somehow our luggage overweight charge was more leaving Kokshetau than it was coming. This was despite the fact that we had a third person and one fewer bags.
What the heck. They're only tenge.
We made some quick but affectionate.good-byes. Hugs from Oleg for Robin and from Inna for me. Oleg gave me one of the warm, two-handed handshakes they do here and we said farewell.
So now for the surprises. First, Owen was a trooper. Rest assured, he HATES his snow suit. It took Robin, Gulmira, Lyuba and Lisa McCall all four to convince him to get into it this morning. Once packaged, however, he took it like a man. For the whole drive to the airport he wore his best Ghandi long suffering political prisoner face, but he didn't make a peep. Once aboard the Soviet Luxury Flying Oven, he very cooperatively went to sleep.
There was one brief melt-down when he woke up and realized that he was not only still in the accursed snowsuit, but he also had a wet diaper. You can see the aftermath of that calamity in the picture of the three of us above. Yes, his parents heartlessly photographed his suffering.
Anyway, pleasant surprise number two was the Flying Oven. No oven today. Instead it was nicely cool. Robin, who sat by the window, couldn't feel her toes. I rode in perfect comfort.
The flight ended right on time and we had a perfect landing in the Almaty airport at two in the afternoon. You can see a picture of the mountains outside the city that Robin snapped from the plane window at left.
Dilnosa, our translator from the last visit to the city, greeted us at the airport with a new driver, Vitali. Inna has spoiled us for interpreters and Dilnosa, while very sweet, said virtually nothing. We were shepherded to the van and whisked away with nary another word until we reached our new apartment.
There was one exchange when I asked her about an impressive monument:
"Dilnosa, what's that statue?"
"There?"
"Yes."
"That's a statue."
"Oh, thank you. Very interesting."
That small disappointment however was more than worth our next surprise. The apartment in Almaty is AWESOME. You can see a few pictures at left. Huge, nicely furnished with fancy schmancy electrical appliances and toilets that you can flush toilet paper in! There's even cable t.v. You can see a picture of Owen watching The Flintstones in English.
I may be becoming addicted to Russian MTV.
At this point, Dilnosa tried to give us the slip. She handed us a scrap of paper with some phone numbers and said "Good-bye." Hold it, we told her. Call us crazy, but we'd like some food. Any place nearby where we could shop?
"No."
Any chance somebody could take us?
"I guess."
So, leaving Robin behind with Owen, I went with Dilnosa and Vitali to the RamStore (which is spelled like PAMCTOP in Russian). Dilnosa ditched us on the way-- something about Vitali feeling more comfortable if just two of us went to the store. My lips said, "sure" but my eyes said "whatever."
This does, however, bring us to our next pleasant surprise-- driver Vitali. In short, he rocks. He speaks just enough English to be fun. He gave me an impromptu tour of the city and a whirlwind tour of the grocery store. He was great fun to shop with. If I picked the expensive Americanized brands he would say "Nyet" and take whatever it was out of my hands to replace it with the more economical Russian brand.
I didn't mind when he did that with the beer and the bottled water. I flinched a little when he took my toilet paper away, though. Fortunately, so many Amerikanyetc have stayed in this apartment before us that we have enough stockpiled t.p. to dry every heinie for a mile radius.
While we were shopping, I had to send a tribute and message of hope to terrific Kokshetau roommates, the McCalls. You'll be thrilled to know, Mike and Lisa, that you can get all the fixings for nachos at the Pamctop. And, yes, that's me with our nacho-licious dinner from tonight. Robin and I thought of you while we ate it and were very thankful for how fortunate we'd been on the roommate front in Kokshetau.
So what's next on the agenda? We have no idea. We asked Dilnosa about our schedule and she couldn't help us. Hopefully we'll get a call tomorrow with some more information.
Until then, we have Diet Coke, Kracks (the Kazakhstan version of Pringles which are just as addictive as their namesake) and Russian MTV.
No complaints here, my friends.
