After a few glitches due to the language barrier, we finally got our luggage checked, our overweight fees paid and said good bye to Oleg. We didn't have to wait long for our flight, which was actually easy to see when it was boarding as the info came up in English as well ! (We weren't expecting that) As we walked down the ramp, we got a nice view of the mountains!
Jennifer boarding plane from Almaty with mountains in background
Shortly after take off we were treated to an episode of "Just For Laughs Gags"! During one gag, I looked around to see blank looks on everyone else's face while Michael and I were roaring with laughter. The gag was about a "police officer" who is joined by people dressed as the rest of the "Village People" and they began dancing to "YMCA"!
We were served a very nice hot lunch which included a mystery meat on a bed of lettuce topped with something like a bean salad. Michael decided to try it first. At first he said it wasn't bad, but before long, his eyes were bugging out and he was spitting it into his cup! As I carefully set mine back and re-covered it, Michael began to belly laugh and eat what he had just spat out. Apparently it was actually very good and he had been inspired by the gag show we had just watched!
After arriving in Astana (1 1/2 hrs later), we collected our luggage and went to find our translator and coordinator. Just after we started looking for them, they came rushing up saying "Sorry we are late"! (We had just got there ourselves and knew they would be there sooner or later). Our coordinator is Bayan and our translator is Aliya. Both are really nice and made us feel very welcome. Aliya is a couple of years younger than me and loves to laugh. Her English is quite impressive. They helped us load everything and then we were driven to our temporary apartment. Astana has unique and beautiful architecture, and lots of trees. Our temporary apartment was huge - two bedrooms, kitchen, big livingroom/dinningroom, laundry room, shower room and toilet room. (Here they have separate rooms for the toilet and shower). We were very excited to learn that Jila was still here (woman from Winnipeg who adopted a little girl and who had sent us tips and let us read her blog!) She, her daughter and mother were leaving at 6:30pm that evening for Moscow in preparation to come home! She is even nicer than she seemed from her blog and her daughter is even more beautiful than in her pictures! (Ha Ha Sarah, I got to meet Kiana!). It was quite an emotional meeting as Jila got to meet this mystery couple from Canada and we told her we had been following her blog closely, and we somehow seemed to know each other without ever meeting before. Oh, yes her little girl Kiana is usually quite serious and sees mostly woman, but after careful studying she cracked a couple quick smirks from the attention Michael was giving her. We are hoping to get together with Jila after we are home so our Kaz will have a Kaz friend! When we got back to the apartment we decided to sit for a minute which turned into a two hour nap! Then we decided to walk to the Ram store which literally took one minute! Picture a minature Super Store! We bought a few groceries and an Icard (for internet) and walked back. That night we watched a movie and Michael figured out the internet. The next day we were going to the Astana Ministry of Education and if everything went well there, on to the Orphanage!
1 comment:
Hi, guys! Are you learning a new language yet? Sounds like a very interesting adventure so far. Sounds like you are enjoying the food! Keep smilin'! Luv from the Payettes!
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