Observations...(written a few days ago)

The land, the people, my apartment…

The land is flat & dry…we’re in the city of Kostanai which is quite nice.

It’s a little odd because there are some new and modern buildings, then old Russian architecture…but most of the buildings almost look dilapidated.

The weather was hot when I left Almaty, but the moment we got off the plane (which was about 90 degrees the whole way…I was half-way expecting chickens to come out from the back in a Romancing-The-Stone kind of way) in Kostanai it was as though a cold front hit us.

It is very Slovakian out here. Despite how the buildings look, the people are gorgeous! The women and men dress very modern & are attached to their cell phones. Teen aged girls travel in packs with their music MP3 players on speaker (not much has changed since the boombox days).

I was a little surprised at how up to date their TV shows were. You have the same types of reality shows and funny sitcoms put together about as well as ours, but in Russian (no voice overs)…it was nice to see. I guess technology is that far advanced, anyone can make a quality production. The people in these shows are just like us.

Both men & women wear clothes that fit…the Avril/Pink look is in, but the Eminem look isn’t. Ed Hardy would be a hit. Sloppiness & obesity is definitely OUT.

I would say that here in Kostanai, there is a 50/50 mix of Russian/Asian looking people. Quite frankly, both are striking…it is as though the strongest genes were the only ones that survived. I don’t care what our son looks like.

Restaurants are reasonably priced & they always add 10% tip to the bill.

For the most part, I feel like I’m in Europe, however it is not Americanized like Europe is. There aren’t any ‘kitschy’ tourist shops…the stores are for the people who live and work here.

My apartment building doesn’t have outside lights (thank you Stas for giving me that little flash light). The courtyard is an overgrown playground. I sing Madonna’s “this used to be my playground…” when I walk through...maybe to keep me from thinking -scary movie- "lalala". There are a bunch of cats and community dogs that hang around.

I laugh when I look at the buildings and some of the cars these people come out of…because they are so put together!

I’ll post more observations another time…