Check This Out

Not everyone likes Al Gore, but it's worth watching this movie. After living in a smog-filled city, I at least think it's worth revisiting what we can do to make things better.

Winter Pics.

A little Borsch (beet soup) mustache.
She loved the balls on the hood and toes of this suit.

Our school Christmas party.
Some of my gal pals, and peeking in the back is Jason, our PE teacher.

Moving On...

This was an eventful week. We had a white elephant party at our place Friday night and our school Christmas dinner at the Hyatt on Saturday. The biggest event, though, was finding out that we will be teaching in China next year. Joe and I put in a request to transfer within our school system if something was available. The only thing available for our positions was Shekou, China.

Here's what we know about it. Shekou is a city that was essentially built about 20 years ago. It's a shipping (I think industrial) city with lots of expatriates. We've been told it's very westernized. Hong Kong is 50 minutes away by ferry, so we will be on the coast. The lowest temperature in January is 60-something, so it will be a much warmer climate.

As for the school, it's a growing school like our school now, so it will have some growing pains as well I'm sure. I will teach secondary language arts and Joe will either teach the same or middle school cultural studies. The best part is that there is a 2-year-old program, so Sophia can go to school with us. Supposedly, we won't need a car and we will be a ten-minute walk from school.

It is hard parting with friends here, though. We see our students going through this too as they always are going in and out of our school. I don't think you get used to it. It's also hard parting with our teaching assignments since it's the first time we are actually teaching the subjects we set out to teach. It will be hard to part with our nanny too. We really like her a lot. It won't be so hard to leave Almaty. Things are getting expensive here. We've noticed that just the price of butter has increased from $3 to $4 in the last three months. That's just an example. We're hoping to save some extra money in China.

So, that's our big news. We had a very busy weekend with the two parties. Our white elephant party was pretty successful, and our school party was fun. It's a formal event, so it was fun getting all dolled up. The ladies went to a friend's house to get ready, and all the guys came over here to get ready. The school always has a nice buffet at the hotel, and one of our teachers did a good job DJing.

Sophia has been rambunctious lately. Yesterday when I was trying to do Pilates, she was trying to crawl all over me. She tripped and fell, landing smack onto a toy. Poor thing, her lip busted open and puffed up immediately. I felt bad for her, and now she has a big cut on her lip. She got over it pretty quickly, though, especially when we mentioned that she could watch Barney. She is obsessed with that stinking purple dinosaur! She grabs our hands and drags us over to where we keep the videos. "Barby, Barby" she asks. If she gets her way, then she starts to chant, "Barby, Barby" and hop up and down. She can even sing the Barney song, you know, "I love you, you love me" without any words of course. She likes to sub "Ma, ma, me, ma, ma, me." She has also learned the word "happy" from "If You're Happy and You Know It." She has stopped throwing a fit when I play piano, and now she wants me to play the songs she knows. Her favortie is probably "Heart and Soul." Her repertoire of words is growing fast too. We keep telling her just one week and she'll see all these people we've been pointing out in our pictures. We're looking forward to it.

Hopefully, Blogger will let me upload some photos since it froze the computer earlier. I have quite a bit to post.

It's a Small, Small World

This week has been busy. I had a joint birthday party with two other people from work whose birthdays are in the same week. We went out to a nice Mongolian restaurant, and had a really good time. Joe ate horse meat and said it was pretty good.

It's nice to have more teachers that are around our age this year. We had our first teenage babysitter, and that was fine. I just feel sorry for her because she had to watch the Barney video twice. Joe made me homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which were yummy. It's definitely the one candy I miss from home.

The reason I say it's a small world is because we got a new teacher this week. One guess as to where he is from . . . that's right, Iowa! Not only did he graduate from UNI, he graduated from Columbus. His last name is Cavanaugh. Apparently, Joe went to high school with his nephew. I'm telling you, Iowans are everywhere, at least in the teaching world. That makes a total of four Iowans at our school now. (Five if you count the one that married an Iowan and lives there during the summers :)

Not too much has been going on otherwise. We are in the countdown to winter break. 13 school days left. We will be on a plane to Iowa in no time.

Sophia is talking and talking. Let's see, new words - cookie, Drew (from his picture), Barney, Freddie (a little frog from her Little People video), please, help, and a few more. They just keep popping out! She's become so demanding about her videos. The nanny lets her watch one while she cooks dinner, and then Sophia just wants to watch more and more. We usually don't let her, and she goes and tries to get the one she wants out of the case. She's a girl who knows exactly what she wants.

It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed these days as the mornings feel like night. It's been a bit gloomy around here lately. It's winter without too much snow. It's all melted away. A mixed blessing really. At least it snowed on the day of my birthday. It helped to make the scenery a little more pleasant.

So, that's about it. We'll have to try to go out and find something interesting in Almaty to blog about. Maybe Joe can try a new horse product.

It's Been Awhile...

Even though, I don't have much to say, I feel like it's been too long since I blogged. I guess the biggest news is that we are coming to Iowa for Christmas. Sophia will love it. I don't know if her mom and dad are going to enjoy the plane ride, but it will be worth it.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at school this past weekend, and tomorrow we're going to a friend's house to celebrate again. Maybe this time we'll get some Turkey since we were late to the school Thanksgiving. Too bad we have to teach tomorrow.

That's pretty much what has been going on. Sophia has completely mastered calling us mama and dada now. Last week she was calling Joe "mama." Paybacks, I guess, for her first words being "dada." She even told the nanny today, "Nana, poo-poo." Sure enough, there was poo-poo. Smart. "Nana" by the way is the Russian name for nanny.

We put up the Christmas tree this week; yes, before Thanksgiving! Joe figured that we should put it up early since we will only enjoy it until the 17th. I knew better than to try to fight him. It's fun having it up, although it doesn't feel wintery here without any snow. I think we'll get a big snowfall soon. It wouldn't be Almaty without that.

The Snow Came and Went

We had snow here last Friday, and it was gone by Monday. I'm secretly glad. I just wasn't ready for all that snow and dirty slush. Sophia got a big kick out of it, though.

We have to work next week on Thanksgiving, so we'll be celebrating this weekend with the other teachers at school. Here are some random photos and a video of Sophia having a little fun outside.



The market where we buy our fruits and vegetables every weekend. There are all sorts of different vendors. We have our favorite veggie guy and our favorite pickle stand.

Jack O' Lantern

Off to get some goodies.
Sophia is great at the Kazakh squat. Men sit like this in the streets a lot. Not too comfortable in our opinion.
Elka, Layla, and Sophia. The three girls. Apparently, Sophia should have been a fairy princess. Maybe next year...
Our little pumpkin.

Trick or Treat

We finally had trick-or-treating today, and we were able to relive our youth through Sophia. I think Joe was most excited to take Sophia up to the doors and get treats. She wore her pumpkin outfit (thanks to the Hafners :). She loved it and said "apple" when she put it on. She thinks everything is either an apple or a ball these days.

Newest Sophia antics - coloring big loopy circles in her Winnie the Pooh coloring book and saying "apple" or "ball," pulling her little toddler chair up the piano and banging away, being fascinated with zippers and undressing herself, choosing her own clothes, and my personal favorite - pooping in the bathtub. Even though it's gross, I have to include this here. No one told me that I would experience such joy as a parent and such disgust!! Sophia has now left a little surprise in the bathtub for me 4 times! I could handle once or twice, but four?? Last night she did it. I heard her in there saying, "No, no." She was standing in the opposite corner from her little deposit. I drained the tub, cleaned it out, ran fresh water, and put her back in. Five minutes later... I hear, "No, no." There she is, looking concerned, inching away from her second deposit to the opposite corner of the tub. "I love you," I say, through clenched teeth. What did I do? I drained the tub, cleaned it out, ran fresh water, and put her back in. The joys of parenthood!

I don't know if she understood much of the trick-or-treating today, but she had fun chasing her friends around. Well, she tries to chase them anyway. She is the youngest of the bunch and can't really run yet, so it puts her at a bit of a disadvantage. Her buddy, Layla, is two and a half. (She coincidentally wears the same size as Sophia. No wait, Sophia wears a bigger diaper. It's that Buddha belly.) Whenever we see her, Layla immediately pinches Sophia's cheeks. Then, she grabs Sophia's hand and drags her around. I got a great picture of them holding hands tonight. Pretty cute the way they give each other kisses, too.

Our week of vacation is over. Was it a vacation? We spent two and a half days working and planning at the school. It took away from our break, but I am sure I will appreciate it later. There's so much still to be done! Joe went to a Halloween party at a friend's apartment across the street tonight. (I went last week.) I'll have to ask him what interesting costumes there were.

Tomorrow, we'll go the big, and supposedly fabulous, brunch at the Hyatt hotel. A mother at our school got some teachers half-price tickets, so we lucked out. I hope it's half as good as they say it is.

Almay is just as crowded as ever and just as polluted as ever. The air has been getting worse as it gets colder. Almost everyday the weather forecast online says "smoke." Seriously, that's not a weather condition. I've been trying to beat a slight cold, but it just won't go away. Hmm...wonder if that thick Almaty air has anything to do with it. Not to mention our apartment is so dry, I wake up in the morning feeling like beef jerky. There's not an ounce of moisture in the air.

They have finally opened up the new underpass/road near our house. I told Joe it would open this week, and he so dubiously said, "No way, four more months." It's bad, but it's not as slow as Egypt could be. It opened! Our time to school is greatly diminished. No more chicken fighting our way through an alley on the way to school. However, Almaty in its great wisdom has a serious problem with left turn signals. A serious problem meaning, there are none. Now they have a new road, but if you have to turn left, you're screwed. You have to wait until the light turns red and then try to speed through the intersection before you get hit by the oncoming traffic which of course goes before their light turns green. Great system. Just great. Regardless, we are still getting there faster. Yippee!

It seems there was some strange happening to report, but for the life of me, I can't think of it. I will write it down when I remember!

One Week 'Til Fall Break

We had parent conferences this week, so the work load was easier. Joe and I had easy conferences too, which is always nice. We have just four days this week because Thursday is a Kazakh holiday, Republic Day, I think. We go to school on Friday and then we have a week long fall break. We can't wait. This is when it pays to teach overseas, the long vacations.

I'm going to try to get caught up with some pictures and videos I've been meaning to post. You'll enjoy the difference between how I dress Sophia for the outdoors and how the nanny dresses her.

Riding in the laundry basket is so much fun!

This is the way the nanny bundles her up. I don't think any other kids are going to play with her dressed like this.
This is the way we bundle her up.
Sophia's nanny Ira is on the left. Her daughter Dasha who is 15 came to meet Sophia yesterday.

Tremors

The other night after we had just gotten into bed, we were lying there, and pretty soon I was wondering why Joe was shaking the bed. Then, I realized he wasn't shaking the bed, the whole room was shaking. The whole building was shaking. The decorative coins hanging from the candle on our dresser began to clink and shake. Everything was vibrating beneath us, and we sat there frozen, amazed at our first earthquake.

Lots of people here have asked us if we've felt the earthquakes before, but we never have. I guess it was only a little 3.2 that lastest about 5 seconds, but it was weird! The next day at school it was the big topic of conversation. One guy said that it felt like his couch turned into a water bed and his TV was banging against the wall. Another couple was at school and all the computers began to rattle around. Some people who were already asleep didn't even notice. It was definitely a surreal experience. Not something you experience in the flatlands of Iowa. I can't say that Joe and I ever want to feel anything stronger. I can only imagine.

Need I Say More?

I kid you not, this is the weather forecast in Almaty right this moment on Yahoo. Notice, it's not sunny or cloudy. It just says "smoke." Yep, that about sums it up.

Smoke

Feels Like:
36°
Barometer:
30.45 in and steady
Humidity:
75%
Visibility:
0.87 mi
Dewpoint:
32°
Wind:
ESE 4 mph
Sunrise:
6:52 am
Sunset:
6:29 pm
39°
High: 52° Low: 27°

Fellow Nomads

I've never linked any other sites to ours, but the entertainment provided by our good friends' blog has inspired me. Tom and Betsy were with us in Egypt, and their site always proves to be a great read. If you ever have the time, you should check it out.
http://tomandbetsy.blogspot.com/

Have you had your horse milk today?

Her first merry-go-round.

Yummy mare's milk.
The vast expanse of meat.
Look closely for the links of horse sausage hanging up.
More meat.
Sophia asking to go on the rides.

She thinks she's so big turning the lights on and off.
A favorite activity, getting into mommy's closet.
She won't let me play. She always wants to get up there herself.
The mountains from our window.
It's getting snowy up there.

We had an enjoyable weekend with some new adventures. We didn't do anything except spend time together, so it was nice in that sense. On Saturday, at the grocery store, Joe thought he'd be a little adventurous and finally find out what all those bottles of white liquid with horse pictures were. He bought a bottle and opened it up at home. He gave a yell as it began to fizz over. Fizzy milk?

Now, I had my suspicions. I've heard that they drink fermented mare's milk here. The clues were leaning in that direction - a bottle of white, milky-looking liquid with a picture of a horse and a colt on it. It surely wasn't cola. It had to be the national drink of kumiss. A horrible sour milk smell was eminating from the bottle. "Should we even try this?" he asked.

"Try it," I urged him. He took a small sip and immediately began grasping around for some other beverage. There was no water, nothing. "Get some juice! Get some juice!" I chanted.

"Why do they drink that?" were the first words out of his mouth.

You'd think I'd learn my lesson, but no. I had to try it too. Only I was prepared with some juice to chase it down with. Disgusting! How do they drink that? It's like a sour, rotten tasting milk. Only it's not just that, it has natural aeration, so there are bubbles and fizz like a carbonated drink. Nasty. We can say we've tried it now!

The only problem is that the smell got to me, and after that I kept thinking I smelled it all day. It didn't help that we went to the Green Bazaar, the big open bazaar downtown. As we were walking along, we actually came to the kumiss section. Rows and rows of that stuff, the smell twisting my stomach.

We finally took some pictures of the market. Joe had to go up to the second floor to get a better view. I'm sure everyone wondered why he would take pictures of such a normal place. Whenever we go there, I feel like I'm in The Jungle. Here are some images that assaulted me within a couple of minutes as I was waiting for Joe to take the picture. A man was hacking and hacking away at a large, bony piece of meat with a huge axe. A sheep's skull was staring at me with its blackened teeth jutting out of its jawbone. A woman was working in a small room with a white tub. What was she doing? Rinsing out intestines, ropes and ropes of it. A woman was slicing into a gigantic slab of liver. A man was calling out to me to buy a slab of meat. I recommit to vegetarianism every time I go there. There's a stench of blood and animal that hangs in the air. Ironically, we had actually gone there for tofu. The funny thing is that it is all so organized. There are sections for chicken, sheep, cattle, and our favorite, horse.

After the Green Market, we headed to the central park. Sophia got to ride on her first rides. She was so excited even though the rides were very 1970's Soviet. She stood in the middle of the sidewalk pointing and calling out, "Ugh!" Finally, we decided to take her on some of them. We started on the merry-go-round which she loved. She sat on her horse and peacefully watched the world go around. When the ride ended and we took her off...woah...look out...she had a fit. When we put her down to walk, she would immediately walk away from us toward the ride. When we called her back, she would squat down in the sidewalk and yell out in frustration.

We took her on a train ride through the park too. I don't know what these people are thinking, seriously. We thought it was just going to be a nice, quiet jaunt through the park. We were going through the trees. We passed some young lovers hugging. We passed a few houses on the edges of the park. And then, we entered some tunnel. There was a scary, poorly made witch cackling. There were what we think were supposed to be the seven dwarfs, only they weren't so kind or kid-friendly. An ominous voice-over was threatening us and one dwarf looked like it was drowning a dwarf or performing some kind of sexual act on another dwarf in a pond. We weren't sure which. The little animated creatures were old and roughly made. They looked like scary old puppets. They got Disneyland all wrong! We inched through this tunnel, Joe and I both thanking God that we never saw this display when we were children.

One more trip to the merry-g0-round and our day was done. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Apple of Our Eye

Sophia has decided that she wants to talk! The other day I was cutting up her apple, and low and behold, she said, "apple!" Then, today when we came home, she pointed to my eye and said, "eye." She is trying to say a lot of words like "book" and "nose." Nose comes out more like "no." It's so much fun to hear these words come out of her mouth.

It's cold now! It know it makes since, seeing how it's the end of September, but I'm just not sure I'm ready for it. I just keep thinking of all the snow that's going to come. We watch as the snow grows heavier on the mountains and the days shorten.

Here is the randomness that is Kazakhstan - on Friday, Joe was out with the guys from school. I was home alone and a lightbulb blew out. Suddenly, the lights were out in the kitchen and living room. I blew a fuse, right? Simple, just flip the circuit breaker. Hmm...I went on a search for that box with all the switches. Nope, no box. Then, it dawned on me that the box might be in the hall. I waited all night until Joe got home (not wanting to go out in the pitch black hall by myself). When he got there, we looked inside the big box. Only two switches. We flipped them. Nothing. We went to bed. The next day, no electricity. The refrigerator thaws. We can't buy groceries. We can't watch TV. Then, we went out in the afternoon, and came back to find, electricity. How did it go back on? How do you flip the switch? Where is it? No idea. Thank goodness Kazakhstan decided we could have electricity again.

A woman at school was asking the other morning, "How long will I be without cold water?" My response, "Oh, just a couple of days. But, when the hot water goes out, then you'll be sorry. That won't come back for at least a week." She said later, "You were joking, right?" Nope, sorry. That's the way it is. Later this week, the same woman asked, "What about when the gas goes out?" We haven't had that one yet, but this is our first apartment here with gas, so all in due time.

Why is it, that in a city full of modern conveniences, these things still happen? Why does the electricity suddenly cut out? Why can't they figure out that you can't dig up a street and redirect all that traffic down an alley with a huge hole in it.

Ah, the delights of being overseas. At least it gives us a reason to develop our curiosity and ask, "Why?"

The Delights of Russian Cuisine

We are definitely into the school year now. Summer is forgotten. The weather is starting to get that cool, fall-ish feel. My child is the only one still wearing sandals. All the other kids are starting to be bundled up. We're hanging on, though. Who wants to give up on the warm weather already? It is nice at school, though, because we were burning up last week.

Sophia's been really good lately. She's been trying to talk. It doesn't really make sense, but she thinks she is speaking in sentences. She'll imitate words and get the beginning sounds right. Today I said "light," and she repeated "ligh". Pretty good. The other day I was saying "turtle" and she was repeating me. She understands so much. She's been really into cleaning. After I wipe her face and hands, she always wants to have the washcloth. Then, she goes around the house wiping things down. She loves to sweep and pick up dirt with the dustpan. (She really just spreads it around.) The other day I accidentally left the bathroom door open and found her in there cleaning the toilet with the toilet brush. She amused me this morning by frosting her pieces of bread with yogurt. Then, she would take the bread and paint her face with yogurt. It seemed like a logical system at the time, I'm sure.

We've been enjoying having our nanny. She's great. She's getting into the swing of cooking for us. She's most comfortable with Russian food, so we have to get used to that. It's good, but as I've probably mentioned before, it's all the same. Somehow, dill finds its way into every dish. Some examples of what we've eaten this week - potato pancakes with sour cream; cabbage, beet, carrot and pomegranate "coleslaw"; eggplant sauteed in a great deal of oil with this white, really salty cheese; stuffed peppers; chicken with carrots and tomatoes. We never know what it will be. Last week, she made me eggplant fried in a batter, spread with mayonaise and dill. It was good, but there was so much garlic, you could smell it from a mile away. She makes a lot of blinis which are really thin pancakes, like crepes. Last week we had them with mushrooms and some with a white cheese like cottage cheese. While I like her cooking and I'm so grateful to have it prepared for me, I still get tired of the same taste. Everything tastes like oil and dill. Everything has either cabbage or potatoes in it. So, that's Russian/Kazakh cuisine, I guess.

Our plans for the weekend are to hang out, plan, and play with Sophia. The usual!

Spice of Life

This weekend was pretty relaxing. We had a great dinner on Friday night with another couple from school. We went to an Indian restaurant, and despite Sophia's grumpiness, had a pretty good time. She's not all to blame. We ordered an appetizer, and I asked Joe if it was spicy. He answered no, so I gave Sophia some. She started screaming! I tasted it and realized that the heat built after a couple of seconds. She did not trust me after that. She cried every time I tried to feed her. Imagine, Sophia not eating what is offered her.





After the Indian restaurant I went out with some women from work. We've started a girls' night/guys' night routine. We can't decide if we like it or not. It means that one of us has to stay home, but it also means that one of us can go out, carefree. As you can imagine, it's great to be the one going out. Not so cool to be the one staying home.





The rest of the weekend, we planned for school and hung out with Sophia. We've located a great little playground just a short walk away. Most of the playgrounds around here look like they were deserted after a nuclear strike. There's nothing but dirt and broken bottles all around. We run around after Sophia saying, "Put that down! Icky! Garbage! Don't put that in your mouth!" The park we found today was clean. Not only that, it actually had sand in the sandbox. Usually you just find a few dried up leaves and a small crust of hard dart mixed with bits of garbage. There was even some playground equipment that did not fit the standard Soviet-style equipment. She had a great time, especially playing in the sandbox.





Sophia seemed to have a great week with her new nanny, so all is good.
Nevermind that bit of drool. It was fun playing in the sand.

Another One Bites the Dust

On to ...... nanny number 4! We decided last week to let our recently hired nanny go, and hire a new one. We feel much better. Nanny number 4 is sweet, nice, and friendly. She seems interested in Sophia. She tells me about the day and what Sophia does. She commented that she didn't want to clean if it meant not paying attention to Sophia. I can live with that. I told her, "I just want to know that Sophia played, read books, and had a good time. " I just want her happy when I get home, so that I can go to school with peace-of-mind. The other nanny didn't seem very caring and we had that bad intuitive feeling. She was a good cook, but definitely not a stellar cleaner. It's hard to leave your child in someone elses hands for 10 hours a day! Again, no one told me that being a parent was going to be so hard!

The new nanny, on her first day, told us (through our rough dictionary translation) that Sophia was "well-brought-up," "a miracle" and a "magnet." The last one, we think she was saying that she is magnatized to her hippo toy. We're not quite sure if that translated correctly. Hmm...

This weekend, Sophia had her first sleepover, since Joe and I both had to supervise the lock-in at our school. I got to go late at least, after Sophia went to bed at our friend's house. The lock-in wasn't so bad. You'd imagine that highschoolers would be trying to sneak off and do drugs or make-out, but no, our kids are so darn innocent! They just hung out and get this, played hide-and-seek. The best thing about teaching here - the kids! Seriously, what seniors in America play hide-and-seek as their most exciting activity.

We went to the international brunch at our school today also. Lots of food from all over the world. This year it was picnic style. Pretty nice, but we were beat so we didn't stay long.

An observation from Joe today - I sent him off to the market to get some plant fertilizer and soil. (Our nanny is going to rescue our newly-bought plants from our killer hands.) Anyway, he comes back and says, "We are so spoiled."

"What do you mean?" I ask. He was walking through a market area near our house. There are tons of individual shops. Each shop carries one type of product. There's the cookie shop. The fruit and vegetable market. The school supply shop. The toy shop. The home cleaning supply shop. The tool shop. You get the picture. He realizes that he's in a foreign country, shopping in a market completely different from any we've experienced in the U.S., and he realizes that it's completely normal to him. We don't even realize how different our lives are these days. It's funny how being in a foreign culture becomes your norm. We're spoiled because we don't even realize our surroundings any more. Whether it's good or bad, I don't know.

Videos of the Little One

Last Saturday, Sophia thought it would be fun to find a hat in the kitchen and play a little electronic Soduko. She still has time to do some dancing. The second video is of Sophia watching her Baby Einstein animal video.

Back to School

One and a half days under our belts. Our school was off to a somewhat chaotic start, but never-the-less we've started. Thursday and Friday were holidays in Kazakhstan, but we had school anyway. I think we will see a lot more students next week. I'd forgotten what it was like to teach secondary students. Unlike nine-year-olds, they are not excited to learn just at a promise of a sticker. They stare blankly at you while you drone on about your syllabus. At least a couple of my students from last year came to give me hugs.

It's been really hot. Yesterday at school we were broiling. It was 35 C when we got out of school. That's in the 100's, I think. We are all really wishing we had air conditioning at school. Today was nice, though. It was warm, but it felt like the weather was about to change, that end of the summer heat.

Today, I saw somebody lying in the road who I presume had been hit by a car. There was a group of people and a policeman there. I was completely relieved to see an ambulance come up and take the person away. Sometimes I wonder how easy it is to get an ambulance or have an ambulance make it through traffic. I guess today proved that it can happen.

A friend of ours told us an interesting story the other day. He was walking home from the grocery store, carrying all his bags of groceries when he saw something that made him stop. A man was on the sidewalk with two women who looked like his mom and sister or wife. There was also a big, black SUV and two guys were standing outside of it. One of the guys was on the phone. The women were crying and carrying on. The guy on the phone was answering "Yes, okay." Then, he got off the phone and gestured to the guy, come on. The ladies were begging and trying to hold the guy back. I guess he was brave and just got in the car and went off with these two guys. Who were these two guys, you might ask? Most likely, part of the mafia. Who knows what this guy did or who he crossed, but apparently, he knew he was going to get his. Apparently, his family knew it too. It's really weird to be living in an area where there is mafia.

Another interesting note, we now have the president's grandson attending our school. Don't ask me why he's not attending his aunt's big school near us. The family didn't register at our school or anything. They just walked in and walked him to class. They basically told the school, he is going to be in this class because he likes it best. The teacher of that class told them there might be some rearranging, but the mom said, "No, he will be in this class." Then, she went downstairs to the office and preceded to tell the office staff to hurry up and fetch the principal because she was the president's daughter. Joe and I didn't know all of this, but we were wondering whose big, black, bulletproof-looking, siren-topped SUV was in the parking lot after school. I guess they registered about twelve different cars and drivers who might pick up this little five-year-old boy. Very interesting. I'm glad I don't have the kid in my class. There's nothing worse then being told what to do by someone whose power you don't even understand. We tend to think we should treat all of our students equally. I guess the president and his relatives might not agree with us!

More Pics

Sophia finally got to meet Maddie!
Learning to ride the Sit-N-Spin.

S'mores are so yummy.



So Cool.

A true Iowa girl. She chows down on corn and rides tractors.

I can't get pigtails in for more than a few seconds.
How can strollers could be so interesting?

Sophia loved her time with all her grandparents.

She's still obsessed with keys.
First haircut courtesy of Grandma Mumm.
It was a cute cast.

Time at Grandpa Mumm and Jane's house.

O Happy Day!

Sturgis Falls parade.

Don't try to take this baby off a swing. She'll squeal.
"Hello."

We have internet at home!!!! Not only that, but it's 512 kb/s. I almost cried when I saw how fast it is. On top of that, Blogger has added video capabilities. Soon, you will all be tired of videos of our daughter. Maybe I can even capture some choice Almaty sites, like the two guys we saw working underneath a car propped on its side or the guy I saw doing repair work while hanging onto the window frame on the outside of the building on the 6th floor. Why don't I ever have my camera when I need it?

For some reason, Joe and I have had a very rough start over here. Nanny trouble. No internet. Our phone isn't working now. Our director hurt his back so our school is suffering while he's out. And, the infernal construction. Curses. We moved closer to school in order to avoid a lot of construction. What did they decide to do? Tear up the major intersection where we live! We were almost 2 minutes from home on Saturday, and then we realized they closed our road. No joke, we were in traffic for 2 hours. Not only that, but Sophia was having a melt-down. We got out and parked the car because walking home would be faster. As we walked home, it started to downpour. Just not our luck.

This morning, the teacher we gave a ride to work told us that her bath tub is in the middle of her room. She asked the landlord to fix that, so he pushed it against the wall, put a plastic piece along the edge and basically Scotch-taped it there. Needless to say, it still leaks. She said, "Why don't they just come to America or Canada and we'll show them how to do it! These things are possible!" I know it's an ethnocentric comment, but seriously people! There are better ways to do things!

Boy, I used a lot of exclamation points there, but maybe you can sense my exasperation. As we begin our school year, there is still furniture to be built for our classrooms. All of our school supplies, books, and furniture is being held by the Kazakh government over some customs issue. Who knows when they'll get through all that red tape. I feel bad for the people who are new to international teaching. They don't realize that you just have to go with the flow. Thank you, Egypt, for giving us the hard and fast lesson on riding the waves of international teaching.

Without much more complaining, I will now proceed to upload those summer pictures!