Thursday, September 4, 2008

My trip so far


Kostanai September 5, 1008: 1:00am (3:00 PM 9/4 EST)

Sorry I’ve been out of touch!!!

WOW. It’s been quite a trip so far. I’m still learning to blog, so if I can’t get some adequate pictures on here now, I’ll get them to you really soon. You have GOT to see some of them!!!

The flight out was just fine…no big delays & no real issues to speak of. In Frankfurt I met the other family traveling to Kostanai from the same agency. Doug & Kelly are from Freeport, ME…really nice couple!

We arrived in Almaty close to midnight (turning 9/3/08) & were greeted by Nickolai who brought us to the Hotel Kazakhstan for the evening. It was nearing 1:30 when we finally got checked in. The hotel lobby was beautiful! Marble & chandeliers everywhere! PLUS…(Ilse, this one’s for you) there was a “Guns N Roses Bar” in the Hotel…lol. Yep, who’d of thought? Although it had been well over 20 hours since I was in Boston and over 30 since my body had been on a bed, we decided to have a beer and toast this special event. I took some pictures and hope to add them soon.

The breakfast was delicious & then we were off for our mid-afternoon flight to Kostanai.

We took a prop plane from Almaty to Kostanai which should have only taken about 2 ½ hours…it took us about 4 ½ hours. The plane was a bit scary but made me laugh. For instance, the flight attendant didn’t care if you buckled up…there were no airbags or pre-flight safety demos…LOL…there wasn’t any overhead storage except for a shelf like that in buses…what a trip.

Zhanat & Dina met us at the airport. They are AWESOME!!!! Zhanat is about 50yo, lives in Kostanai with her husband (driver), speaks English very well (Sept 4 was her b-day) & will be with me throughout this process. Dina lives in Almaty & came over for a few days. They both are reps for our agency.

We went out our first night to the Knights Café. That was a long dinner, but really nice.
My apartment building is about a 10min walk to Kelly & Doug’s place & has a washing machine. I’m pretty happy about that. I had to do laundry my first night because it appeared that there was only one towel…and it desperately needed some soapy attention.

At that point it is about 1-2am the morning of September 4…earlier today I guess you would say. We were supposed to go to the ministry of education with Zhanat to get permission to visit the babyhome. This never happened.

Apparently, the director of the babyhome for 10 years abrubtly ‘retired’. No one knows what is going on. Zhanat has been at the ministry of ed all day & got no where. She is really upset about the whole thing…and really surprised.

I am at a loss & don’t know what to do right now. I even bought diabetic strips for the Dr. No one knew this was going to happen…even her.

She does live near my apt…I may have to track her down.

Nevertheless, we hung around all day waiting for Zhanat’s phone call…then Kelly, Doug & I went out for dinner & hung out the rest of the eve.

Zhanat will be picking me up (later) today. We will go to the Ministry of Education in hopes to put some pressure on them…I still don’t know what “them” means…the clerk behind the desk? Someone higher up? I am hoping that it will work so we can visit the babyhome tomorrow.

But as it stands now…no one is running the place.

I am praying & hope you do too…I plan to do whatever it takes.

I will write tomorrow. Hopefully adding some pictures.
Picture 1: Almaty Airport
Pocture 2: Hotel Kazakhstan Lobby
Picture 3: The view from my room...if you look closely there is snow on the mountains
Picture 4: The side of my plane to Kostanai...nice!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

What a great blog entry until the end!! That's really, really weird ... and unnerving! I'm glad your safe. And I'm glad you had a beer at the GNR Bar!

Unknown said...

(I'm so embarrassed about my misspelling--I'm glad "YOU'RE" safe!)

Tasch said...

Thanks...it just seems as though nothing is easy out here, so I'm keepin' the faith since that's all I have. Outside of that, this is a great place to be: the people are friendly & I'm glad to have Kelly & Doug around to chat with. I'll write more later.
-and don't worry about grammar or spelling...as you can see, I'm not :)

Flip said...

This is awesome! You on an adventure of a lifetime! It will ALL work out...and it's going to be incredible! I wish you had a film crew with you. This would make the greatest reality show ever!!!

Anonymous said...

Hang in there Tasch.It will all work out. We have people leave their jobs here too. Hope you have been to the Baby house by now. You have a natural balance, you will land on your feet ready to run. Papa

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