We are in full swing Nauryz (Nowruz) holiday weekend here in Kazakhstan. Three of the working days are recognized holidays, and this year it falls over the weekend. So 5 days of holidays! That is something we have had to get used to a bit here. Holidays are not stand alone like in the States, Read more about Happy Nauryz! 💐[…]
Did you know this holiday, March 8, is celebrated in over 100 countries and is an official holiday in 27 countries (including Kazakhstan 😉)? (It took me awhile to post this blog because of a crazy week.. more on that later) Last year was our first one here and we hadn’t a clue that the Read more about International Women’s Day[…]
So last week was the first time I actually had a dream about thinking and communicating (that I remember) in Russian. It was such a funny dream about visiting other Americans for a party (in none other than our PJ’s 😂), then I left with Eloise in the stroller to pick up an online order Read more about Dreaming in Russian 😴[…]
So the “banya” is the bath house. We went to the above bath house (Arasan means “pure water hole” in the Kazakh language) This one was built between 1979-1982. It’s actually considered a sight-seeing location in Almaty! I was invited by my two friends and they knew all the things. It is a former Soviet Read more about My First “Banya” Experience 😍[…]
This year we invited friends over to our place for New Year’s. Andrew and I made some food and our friends made food, too! One was a dish from Uzbekistan called “plov” with rice and beef and the other one was “samsa”, which are actually all across Central Asia but are made differently in each Read more about New Year’s At Our Place[…]
Let me preface this blog by saying that we thoroughly enjoy living in Kazakhstan and wouldn’t trade it for anything! Also, hands down, the “thing” we miss the most is not things at all but people…. Family and friends and thankfully because of technology we are able to keep up with a lot of you Read more about What Do We Miss?[…]
So one interesting thing to note is the bedding situation. (Our bed pictured above on the left) Not terribly different than what we are used to but it seems duvets are popular here, you use the top sheet underneath and the duvet is stuffed in a sheet type cover, then there is a top blanket Read more about The Bedding Things[…]
Well we just passed the 1 year anniversary of getting our amazing Land Cruiser which inspired this post! Andrew is actually jumping in to help me with this one. First of all, I don’t drive!!! “No way, Jose!” Now, that’s not to say in a few years maybe I will but no thanks for now. Read more about Traffic In Almaty 😏[…]
So it’s always interesting in other countries when it comes to bugs and Andrew and I have both had our fair share of crazy bugs in various countries. I am happy to report that in Almaty specifically (I can’t say the same for the rest of Kazakhstan) that we don’t have any crazy large or Read more about Little Silverfish[…]
Isn’t Eloise just adorable? I set her next to one of four heaters in our apartment for this blog hah. So a fascinating thing here is in the winter when the heat is “turned on.” In the cities (in City limits), mostly in former Soviet countries, the heat is literally switched on October 15th and Read more about How Do We Stay Warm?[…]