New and Improved! Now with Photos!

A shot of the Kazakh border from the Kyrgyz side, where it took us nearly 4 hours to work our way through. (Patience is a virtue!)


As you can see, I've finally trotted my booty to Cafe Dellia so I could upload some pics to this blog to break up the monotony of my posts. If you page down to previous posts, you'll see more photos I've added in. I hope you enjoy the scenery as much as I have.

I am sitting outside the cafe, watching (not a lot of) traffic go by, people walking by, and other cafe clients. Since it's got free wi-fi, there are always foreigners here. And of course, always present are the local elite that can afford a $3 cappucino and $5 Perrier.

Last night I visited my friends, Roman and Anara, bringing some Godiva chocolates, Jim Beam, and Pimm's I picked up in Heathrow at Duty-Free. I made them Pimm's Lemonade, which was yummy. Something very British. What else could I do during my 5.5 hours at Heathrow, other than learn to make new cocktails??? :)

They live across the hall from Roman's parents, who were watching their granddaughter (Roman's sister's little girl). Eventually Roman's sister (Alyona) and her husband (Vassily) came over so there were a lot of people asking me questions about America (what else?). Then they took me to Medeo, the world's highest-altitude skating rink built in the mountains near Almaty so I could look down upon Almaty at night. It was quite chilly up there, with crisp, clean air and Kazakh horses clip-clopping around. But absolutely lovely. We are definitely going to go back during the day. And I just may take myself out there for a hike one of these weekends, if time permits. This place is on the way to Chimbulak, their ski slope, which I cannot wait to hit this winter.

Then off to Alyona and Vasya's flat for some beers and conversation. They were shocked to hear about how expensive health care was in the states, and also how high our tax rates were. They also figured out pretty quickly I was a democrat, which wasn't too hard with all of the Bush-bashing that I was doing. At the end of the evening, based on questions I had answered for them. both women said that they would like to try living in America, whereas both men said they wouldn't mind a visit, but wouldn't want to live there for good. Interpret that as you wish.

Weather-wise, everyone is complaining about the heat but I am grateful for the temps only in the mid- to high-70s with zero humidity. I don't miss Bawlmer's 100+ heat index days in the least. Today is in fact cloudy and cool, and slightly drizzly. So I've moved under an awning and am tippy typing away in the cool summer air.

Across the street I spied a store my friends told me about, Interfood. It's a store that stocks exclusively foreign food. On the window in English it reads "weekly food deliveries by plane from Germany." It is supposed to be insanely expensive, but also a place where you can find uniquely American (and evidently German) goods. I think I'll pop in once I'm done here to see just what they have and see just how pricey it is. I'm happy buying fruits, veggies, and homemade bread and yogurt from the Green Bazaar, however. Yesterday I loaded up on stuff like bean sprouts, cilantro, green onion, peppers, tomato, etc. There are Korean women selling salads and spices, Turkish women selling cheese, yogurt and bread, Kazak women selling fermented mare's milk (mmmm!-NOT), Uzbek men selling dried fruit and nuts, Russian men and women selling clothing, shoes, and toiletries....truly a melange of ethnicities and goods. And 10 minutes into the shopping trip I started shoving people around and cutting in front of them just as much as they were shoving into/cutting in front of me. The Western notion of a personal space bubble has not caught on here yet. So when in Rome....shove back as the Romans do. ;>