Life as normal (as it's going to get)

Life is starting to feel normal here in Almaty. All our stuff has arrived and we are finished unpacking. Got some more organizing and putting-away to do but we've made real progress. Olivia says now it finally feels like we really live here. Activities are well underway with Sat soccer, Sun rugby, twice a month Girl Scouts, ice skating and soon hockey and dance class. I've been trying to keep up the exercise to stay busy but have also added JV (0-1) and Varsity (2-0) girls soccer coach, Sat soccer coach, library volunteer (with a possible part-time job available) and Russian lessons. And Frank of course is working hard. So, everything feel like status quo until you go to the grocery store and you see this wrapped in cellophane in the meat section.....

It could be ours, teeth, eyeballs and all, for just over $6! And the eyeballs are a delicacy and only presented to the guest of honor. Remind me never to sit at the head of the table at a party here.

Girl Scouts Almaty

We had our first GS meeting last weekend. Marcy is in Brownie Troop #1 and Emily is in Junior Troop #2 (since we are the only Girl Scouts in Kazakhstan, I think.) There are 10 Brownies and 10 Juniors which is a great small number and easy to handle. Once again, I may be sick of GS but it is a great activity that we can do anywhere. Among all the girls we have now been Daisies in Manila and Singapore, Bluebirds in Thailand, Brownies in Dallas, Singapore, Calgary and Almaty, Sparks in Calgary, Guides in Calgary, Juniors in Dallas and Almaty, and Cadettes in Dallas. That's alot of Scouting!

Here are Emily and Marcy in their new uniforms.
And the Junior group which I lead for the first meeting:

I think the girls will have fun and what's great is that there are about 3-4 sister combinations in the two troops - built-in friends for Emily and Marcy!

Thanksgiving in September

FYI: A 6 lb frozen solid turkey breast packed in a lunch cooler and transported in the cargo hold of a plane will not stay frozen for 24 hours. In fact, it's likely to defrost and then leak it's juices all over until it seaps out of the cooler seams and all over your clothes and the precious stores of goods that are also being transported in that luggage. I will never transport frozen meat in my luggage again....probably.

Given the above information, I decided not to just cook the turkey (it was still slightly frozen and very cold for those concerned about food poisoning) but the whole Thanksgiving dinner. Last year we had Thanksgiving in October in celebration on Canadian Thanksgiving so this year we had Thanksgiving dinner in September in celebration of imported goods.

We had turkey, stuffing (with no celery as it's hard to find), mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. Here are some photos of our feast:

Frank even wore his Turkey Trot shirt in celebration of the occasion:

And here's my Sarah-style artistic photo of pumpkin pie:

We were all stuffed, as should be the case, and Frank swears he was all tried after and that it must be the turkey. I was tired as well but I'm still jet-lagged so I don't think I can blame it on the turkey. Not sure we'll have another Thanksgiving dinner in November but at the very least they serve a big spread at the Intercontinental!

Bonus visit

Yesterday my flight from Dallas to Frankfurt ended up being cancelled. Some mechanical problem with a flap on the wing that required a part to be flown in from Frankfurt. Probably best that we didn't fly out! So, I got a bonus day in Dallas. I went for a run, put the net on the pool, emptied and loaded the dishwasher, emptied all the trash cans in the house and best of all, got to take Madeline out for lunch. This year for the first time I didn't get to take a first day of school photo of her - how sad is that? I didn't want to miss out on the school photo in the school uniform so I took her photo today. She was not too happy about it but she put up with me!

Now I'll head off to the airport and try this again. This time I have to fly to Denver first but I felt lucky that I got flight out today. I don't think everyone on the cancelled flight did.

Turkey Update: For those concerned about my frozen turkey - I put it back in the freezer last night and even after 6 hours at the airport it hadn't defrosted at all. I adjusted the weight in my bags so that it can go in the checked luggage this time and I won't have to have contraband meat on my person!

How to smuggle a turkey (aka Thanksgiving dinner to go)

Ever since we started living overseas I've broken all kinds of "I will never..." rules - I will never live apart from my husband for an extended period of time; I will never live in one country while my husband works in another; I will never have a live-in helper who does all the cooking in addition to cleaning; I will never send my child to boarding school - all broken. Last fall I met a Calgarian woman who was living in Almaty. She routinely brought frozen meat back with her in her luggage. I thought - how desperate is that? I will never carry frozen meat in my luggage. Once again an "I will never..." rule broken.

When I was out shopping for supplies to pack in the luggage I purchased can green beans, french-fried onions, cream of mushroom soup, stuffing mix, gravy packets (because I can't make gravy), etc - all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner that we can't buy in Almaty. But what's Thanksgiving without turkey? So, when I saw that Target had turkey breasts on sale I succumbed once again to an "I will never..." Here's what I have with me for my flight to Almaty:

That's a 6 lb frozen solid turkey breast packed in a soft-sided lunch cooler (I have a frozen ice pack that goes on top.) I had intended it to be in my checked luggage but I packed for business class weight limits and forgot it is less in economy. So, the frozen turkey was a logical thing to move to my carry on. Nobody questioned me going through security about what was packed in there. I keep waiting for someone to track me down and arrest me for transporting frozen turkey over international borders. I only hope that it's frozen solid enough to make it 24 hours to Almaty and back into the freezer until we can enjoy it on Thanksgiving day!

Best wishes from Kazakhstan

Happy Birthday Chris!!

We toasted Chris' 40th birthday with shots of Kazakhstan vodka that I brought back with me especially for the big event. Sarah pulled the bottle out of the freezer at a point in the party when Chris was in a particularly "happy" place. There were 3 matching shot glasses in the box so Chris, Sarah, and I filled them the up....
and drained them down (while Mimi posed with the bottle.)

We were all coughing and gagging and wheezing. Little did Chris know, Sarah and I were totally faking it since we had just done a shot of water while his was the real thing. Not sure when Chris will read this blog and learn the truth but just about everyone at the party was aware and were loving the fact that he was not. We did sip a bit of the vodka after just to taste it and it did burn going down. Not sure how Chris managed that big shot. Later the bottle made it back out of the freezer and guys were passing it around for a taste and they all thought it was good. But, I'm pretty sure all their senses were numb by then. It was a great party - well done Chris and Sarah!

Long lost friends

I lucked out this weekend. Not only did I get to see Madeline's pep rally and football game but I also get to attend Chris' 40th birthday and as an added bonus, Krista Kett was in town this weekend. We debated when the last time we saw each other was. She says she was here in 2006 but I didn't remember that, but maybe I wasn't here. I'm thinking it's been at least 5-6 years. I invited all the Dallas friends to our house this afternoon. Amy D was too busy with kid stuff to make it over (are you *%$@! kidding me!) but Amy E, Cathy, Stephanie and Krista all hung out for a couple hours while various kids swam and played. It was great to see everyone. We still swear we are going to do a girls trip someday.....maybe someday.