Late again :D  But at least I'm doing it.  Now I have to remember to remind Pavlína to do hers.

…

They paint the trees here white from the ground to about... a metre or so up.  No one seems to know why, but the general thought is that it is to prevent the insects from destroying the trees, but this doesn't make so much sense to me.  They only paint the trees that are along the road, and they look like they've been painted well after they achieve maturity.  Perhaps its so that they look uniform when driving by?  It's a curiosity, for sure.

…

Haven't potty-trained your toddler yet?  No problem!  If you're out in public and your little one has to pee, just pull down their pants, lift up their legs so their bottom is at the bottom, and let it flow.  It seems much more open to natural functions of kids here than in the West.  For better or for worse.

…

Apparently there is a theatre in Almaty that regularly, once a week, shows movies in English.  We caught The Lady with Michelle Yeoh last week.  Good news: it was in English.  Bad news: 30% (or more) was in Burmese with Russian subtitles.  It was good, but I feel like I was missing some key parts spoken in Burmese.  Hopefully we can find more movies, but I was glad to catch this one while it was in town for a few days, as I doubt it even got a wide release back home.

…

I was finally able to cook for the first time last week, after two weeks here.  It's a small 'kitchen' with few facilities, but it was nice to cook some pasta, even if the sauce wasn't so great.  I hope we'll be able to expand our cooking area so I can make some curry and other great things.  Boiling pasta in a frying pan is not the most effective way.

…

Last weekend we went up to Medeo, the highest skating rink in the world, to see the view.  You cannot see Almaty from up there, but the view of the mountains is quite spectacular.  Up there, the air isn't so smoggy, and it was refreshing.  There were people riding horses, and one man even had a trained eagle with him.  It was pretty high up, but you can go even more past the dam to a ski resort that is also open in the summer.

For reference, here are some altitude (metres above sea level) comparisons of some places I've been.
4,979 m - Talgar Peak, the highest mountain in the Trans-Ili Alatau range, about 40 km from downtown
2,451 m - Sulphur Mountain, Banff (family vacation, summer 1997), about 125 km from Calgary
1,984 m - Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield (lower limit)
1,835 m - Medeo dam, approximately (where we were)
1,750 m - Lake Louise (shoreline)
1,691 m - Medeo skating rink
1,304 m - Mount Cindrel, Cisnădie, Romania (winter hiking, New Year's 2011)
1,049 m - Fiesch, Switzerland (Do It! 2010)
1,048 m - Calgary
   500 m - Almaty (lowest point)
     76 m - Toronto
       6 m - Montreal (lowest point)

In short, I thought that this weekend was the highest I'd ever been on Earth (flying excluded, naturally), but it appears that my trip up Sulphur Mountain when I was a kid is still the highest.  Maybe I'll beat it by going to Shymbulak, the ski resort south of Almaty, at an altitude of 2260 to 3200 depending on which lift you take, or maybe at a ski resort in Kyrgyzstan that my team is considering going to this winter.

The mountains here are quite close though, so even on a smoggy day, they still provide quite an impressive view.

Yesterday was a busy, crazy day full of attempted meetings and an official event, so I didn't get a chance to post.  This week's post will be quite disconnected, so be forewarned.

…

Yesterday was the Annual Report ... event, which was causing a lot of headaches and running around to do last-minute preparations.  I was trying to have a meeting with my team, but it kept getting delayed.  The most epic reason for a delay?  To help our elderly neighbour weed her garden.  She came over to ask us if we had a sickle or something to cut the weeds with, and it ended up with us pulling out all these four-foot weeds from her garden.  From what I understand, in Kazakh culture neighbours are very important, as is keeping good relations with them.  It was kind of fun/funny, but oh so random.

…

This week I had lukewarm showers on two occasions, and this afternoon I actually had a shower that could possibly qualify as hot.  Water temperature seems to be highest in the afternoon, so some tinkering with my schedule will need to be done to take advantage of this.

…

Last night, after the official event, we went out to a nearby bar/pub/club that the AIESECers here frequent.  They have two floors, reasonably priced drinks, and on this particular night, a live band.  The band was surprisingly good.  I don't know why it surprised me, but it did.  In between sets they were playing random music and showing short films on a projector screen.  We also met an American and a Brit there, and spent most of the night with them due to our English language connection.  Both seem like cool and interesting people (one travelling here on business, the other living here for the past decade).

…

To get around in Almaty, there are buses, streetcars, and a brand-new subway system.  But the most common method is to take a taxi.  But taking a taxi means flagging down a random car from the road, negotiating a price, and getting in.  The prices this way are cheaper than taking a proper taxi, but this isn't hitchhiking, so you do have to pay.  It was so strange for me at first, and I'm not sure if I'll be using it regularly, but it's quite useful at least, when you need to get around in a hurry.  Pretty much anyone will stop and see where you want to go and how much you are willing to pay.  But don't expect a seat belt in the back seat: they hide them or cover them, even though they are required by law.  I find that peculiar.

…

I might go to the mountains tomorrow, but I'm rather quite exhausted and there is still much work to do.  Rest assured, though, that if I don't go tomorrow, I will take a trip there at some point this year.  They are quite close, and quite spectacular, so I'd rather spend more time than just a half-day out in the open.

…

My latest pair of headphones that I bought in Croatia because I left my previous (decent) pair in Slovenia have a tendency to come apart.  Mainly, the rubber ear buds at the ends don't stay attached to the rest of the headphones, and stick in my ear when I try to take them out.  Good for nighttime earplugs, perhaps, but highly inconvenient otherwise.

…

Oh potable tap water, how I miss thee.