It is the craziest thing-- I'm in Kazakhstan!

Sorry it took so long to post-- this is the first time I have gotten anywhere I could use my computer.

I have finally arrived in Karaganda!! It is Wednesday night here as I write this (probably won’t post until tomorrow though), and we have just come from the airport, with a quick stop off at the grocery store. There is a couple from Albany who I traveled with from JFK, and today in Almaty, we met up with another family from Chicago. Tomorrow morning I will go to the babyhouse for the first time and hope to have details about the baby for all of you in a day or two. I know that’s all you are interested in at this point, but for the heck of it, I’ll tell you a few of the highlights of my trip.

The flights were not too bad. I got about 4 hours combined each “night” on the planes. The leg between JFK and Amsterdam was very crowded and I was pretty well squished into my seat with my big puffy jacket and all my junk. I had taken soooo much in my carryon and purse and pockets, that I was literally weighed down, and keeping it all in check was a losing battle. Luckily, once I got to Amsterdam, I was able to stow it all in a locker while I took a canal tour of the city. Amsterdam was pretty cool—the architecture is beautiful and all of the buildings have these big windows that allow you to look right in. The homes looked like museums or art galleries! And seeing it all by boat allowed me to see a lot I wouldn’t have by simply walking up the street, so I was glad I decided to do it. Speaking of which, does everyone but me know that Amsterdam is surrounded by canals, like Venice? There are traffic signs and everything on the canal walls. And houseboats! Lined up and down the canals are approximately 2500 houseboats-- some ramshackle, some with all of the grandeur of the QE2. Many of the houseboats were also covered in plants and flowers—I have no doubt in the spring/summer, they are gorgeous. Oh,yeah—and when I got to the train station, it was as if I had been dropped into an episode of the Amazing Race. There was an episode a couple of weeks ago where the teams had to find 2 matching bikes in a sea of bicycles. Let me tell you, that episode did not do justice to exactly how many bikes there are in Amsterdam, particularly around the train station. It was staggering—and a little dangerous if you forgot to watch out for bike traffic J

The trip from Amsterdam was uneventful. I had more room, but ended up getting less sleep than the night before. We hit Almaty about 7am this morning and went straight to the hotel and I crashed. I can’t tell you too much about the city— I only saw what was between the airport and the hotel, and it was dark and foggy when we arrived. What is amazing about Almaty is the mountain range that overlooks the city. It was so hazy that the mountains did not look real—they looked like they were a painted backdrop.

I only have a couple of pictures so far—nothing worth posting. They don’t allow pictures to be taken at the airport, where we were looking at the mountains from. And in Amsterdam, I left the camera in the locker by accident, so none from there either. Ha! So far, there’s no real proof that I am here, is there? J Better get those pics of a the baby soon!
I’ll post again as soon as I can