My First Week in Kazakhstan

It's Thursday, and I'm going to keep to my schedule.  I found out that blogger and most other blog websites are blocked here in Kazakhstan due to a previous case where two blogs on livejournal and another site were deemed to be a threat to national security (or something to that effect), and so they blocked all such ilk.  I can edit and publish my blog, but I cannot see my blog (yay irony!), though hopefully by next week I can acquire a program that allows me to see it again.

It's been almost one week in Kazakhstan, and things are going okay so far.  No major shocks (well, not too major), but a lot of randomness and a lot of work to do for transition to try and make up for the first three weeks of June that didn't go quite as planned.  It's nice to see my team, all together, and I truly am looking forward to working with them this term.

Minor culture shocks so far:

• The flat has no hot water at all.  Apparently this only happened right before I arrived, but it's still somewhat strange.  For me, I view KZ as a mid-developed country, but it's a bit less developed than I had thought.  So far I'm able the manage the cold showers (which is huge for me, especially with my poor circulation), but I really hope the hot water comes back in the wintertime.
• There is absolutely no recycling here.  And they use plastic bags for everything.  It's a strange dichotomy for me, in that it's developed enough to have a proliferation of plastic bags, but not developed enough to recycle.  I remember (I think) in Kenya, where there also isn't really recycling, there were people who would go around and collect the trash to reuse it in some manner.
• When I first arrived, it was 4 am, my favourite time of day, and dark.  By 4h30am, when we were in the taxi to the flat, it was already light out.  I can't remember the last time I was awake this early when it was light out, and it was quite nice.  But I know then the winter will be that much darker too.  The view of the mountains is quite spectacular.
• Someone thought I was French. :p

The air quality is not that great, but so far I haven't had much of a problem breathing.  It gets quite warm during the day (high 20s-low 30s) and cooler at night (mid-high teens), but it's manageable and quite comparable to Madrid or Toronto, actually.  Winter should be more Calgaryish, I believe, due to the mountains that are really close by.  Their altitudes are somewhat similar (~1000m), but the nearby mountains are much closer and higher here in Almaty, so they seem much more majestic, if that's even possible.  I hope I get the chance to go hiking up in the mountains, because I really do miss the Rockies.

I'm still tired all of the time, possibly still due to jetlag?  I can't sleep in though, which is a good thing, because the MC office and flat are the same place, so when people are coming I have to wake up.

New favourite expression (that still doesn't really make sense to me... something about being quick): "Let's be short and pregnant!"

Until next Thursday!

I've decided I will be updating this every Thursday.  Why?  Because I like Thursdays, and I think that trying to schedule a blog update will actually motivate me to get it done.

Right now I'm at the airport in Barcelona, waiting for my flight to Almaty via Kiev.  I took the overnight bus from Madrid, so I didn't sleep much, and carrying all of my luggage across town made me so ridiculously sweaty that I'm glad I brought an extra shirt to change in to.

My adventure in Kazakhstan is about to start.  Somewhat scary, yes, but also exciting.  It hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm moving halfway across the world for another year; maybe once I get there it will.

It's been a great two weeks in Spain, but I'm glad to finally have my visa and soon a place to call my own.

As a side note, I really need to learn how to properly gauge the weight of my luggage, and/or start getting rid of more things.

Until next week!