Almaty or Alma-Ata

Because of translations to english, most places seem to have multiple spellings. The name Almaty or Alma-Ata comes from "rich with apples" or "grandfather of apples" as it has the largest variety of apples anywhere. It was the capital of kazakhstan until they changed it to Astana in the 1990's, but it remains the business center of Kazakhstan. Most international flights land here so it makes travel so much easier. This is a picture of the airport.

There are about 1,200,000 people who live in Almaty. Most speak Russian or Kazah, but many people in the hotels and some in restaurants speak English. It is relatively expensive to stay in Almaty. Hotels run from $100 to over $500/night. I haven't decided if I am staying in an apartment or a hotel, but it won't be the $500/night 5 star ones!


You can't talk about Kazakhstan without talking about the traffic. Traffic lanes are more like guidelines so if you need 5 or 6 lanes on a 4 lane road, then go for it. If one of those lanes is half on the sidewalk, that is ok also. When you think of a pedestrian trying to cross the road, think of the video game Frogger except you are the frog. Horns are installed in cars so use them- constantly. There are no seatbelt laws since most of the cars do not have seatbelts. No one would use them if they did. I will have a driver to get me where I need to go so I will not be driving here. I'm pretty happy about that.



This is a picture of the Tsum store. It has a little of everything in it. Almaty has everything from the small shop in the front of someone's home to designer clothing stores. In some regions, you have to bring many items with you, but you can find almost anything you need in Almaty, although it may be very expensive. Think $30-40 for a baby outfit.

There are a lot of places for tourists to go visit. I don't know which ones I'll be able to get to, but here are some of the ones I hope to see:


Zenkov Cathedral is surrounded by Panfilov Park, a pleasant rectangle of greenery. The Park was named after the heroes of World War II. The Cathedral is one of the few tzarist-era buildings to survive the 1911 earthquake, despite the fact it is built entirely of wood and constructed without nails. It is also one of the eight most unique wooden buildings in the world. After the revolution it was used as historical museum, cultural center, and just in 1990 again it was given a status of a Russian Orthodox cathedral.(copied from the Kaz Tourism site)



A cable car takes you to the top of Kok-Tobe(I've seen many spellings). At the top, there is a great view of the city, restaurants, along with an amusement park. It is one of the standard tourist places, but also sounds like a nice trip. The second picture is the view from the top.


This is the ice skating rink at Medeo outside Almaty. It is a very popular place in the winter. Once you get out of the city, there is some very beautiful and different landscapes. There are mountains and steppes. Some of it reminds me of the American Southwest.

Region- Round Two!

I think I may have set the record for shortest time in a region! Thanks to another adoptive family, I found out about some potential issues in Esik. They may or may not have affected me, but my dossier is going to be registered in the Almaty region which contains Almaty City, Karakastek, and Esik(rather than just in Esik). This way if the issue in Esik does turn out to be a problem like I think it will, then I can go to one of the other baby houses without having to move my paper work. It is most likely to be Karakastek, but I will not know for a while. I am very glad my agency is willing to be flexible. The facts haven't changed much. I will stay in Almaty City no matter which baby house I go to. The Karakastek baby house is a 2 hour drive so I will spend more time on the road. I may still end up in Esik, but I think that is not likely. I will still be making 3 trips. I'll post more about the region once a day or two has gone by and I know it is not going to change again!

For those not familiar with international adoption, there will probably be many more surprises along the way! There is no set path or set timeline and things happen when they happen. They say international adoption is like a roller coaster with many ups and downs. So I think it is time to buckle up and try to enjoy the ride.

Region!

I got a call at work today and found out I am going to go to Esik. This means that I will be living in Almaty and traveling each day for about an hour to Esik for the visits to the baby house. Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan so it is a major modern city. Esik is one of the regions that requires 3 shorter trips. The bonding/visiting process and the court process happen in 2 different trips unlike many other regions. So the first trip will be slightly less than 3 weeks. The second trip should be just for court and be about a week. The third trip will be 10 days or she can be escorted home by one of the coordinators in Kazakhstan that I will be working with for the first 2 trips. I'll post more later on the region and the process.

More decorating

It is a little hard to see in the picture, but this is a growth chart and the little birds can be moved to mark the latest height. It is made from wood and goes well with the rest of the room.

My Latest Natural Disaster episode

Sunday night around 10pm, a severe wind storm blew through the neighborhood. It knocked down the tree in my front yard and all the electrical lines in the field across from my house. I could feel the whole house shaking. Downed power lines blocked off the road for several hours and there was no power until 3am. At one point the next day, there were 14 trucks in the field across from my house resetting the power poles.

On April 18, there was a 5.2 earthquake followed by a 4.5 after shock the next day. So in the last 2 months, I have survived an earthquake and a wind storm. If this is all to prepare me for the challenges of traveling to Kaz, then I am ready!

This is the view from my front yard of the trucks repairing the railroad crossing lights and resetting one of the poles. While it wasn't a tornado (straight line winds is the term they used), you could follow the path of destruction that was about an 1/8 of a mile wide as it came from across the field, past my house and through the neighborhood.

My Latest Purchase

After extensive research on the internet and in store testing, I finally decided on what diaper pail to buy. I went with the Diaper Champ. This is the new pink model that I had to drive 45 miles to Springfield to get since they only had the older blue version in town. Spending so much time on deciding what diaper pail to buy probably means that I have been waiting a long time and I am running out of things to do to keep sane during this wait. :) I've tried it with a clean diaper and it works pretty good. I hope I have the opportunity to try it with a dirty one soon!

Matt Damon and Scott Backula are in town!

The big news around here is that Matt Damon and Scott Bakula are in town to film the movie "The Informant". The movie is about ADM! This was all before I went to work for them, but they got caught price fixing the price of lysine(This is one of the products I work on). The Informant was informing on ADM at the same time he was embezzelling millions from ADM. Probably why it is not called "The Genius". Anyway, he got ADM in trouble, but he also ended up in jail himself.

I have not seen any of the filming, but a lot of people have. One thing that is nice is that everyone who has seen the filming has said how great they are at signing autographs, taking photos etc. No security teams surrounding them or anything. The limos have been seen going through McDonalds and Taco Bell. Plus they have gone out to eat at local restaurants and bars. The film takes place around Christmas time so they have decorated the mall for Christmas and made snow for the streets downtown.

Notice the McDonalds Cup!

Snow made from huge blocks of ice in a nearby truck.