Hurry up and wait...

It's been a frustrating few days. After rushing to get here to Uralsk, we've had nothing but dalays once here. We were finally able to meet with the representatives from the Department of Education and the Office of Guardianship on Friday evening, but of course, it was too late to go visit one of the baby houses. On the weekend, nothing happens, so now we just have to wait until Monday to go and meet our child. We've done some exploring in the area - it's a very nice area, and the buildings are quite pretty to look at.
Dave is practicing his Russian, and was very impressive at getting us a 5 litre bottle of water for our room. He's even taken to watching Russian war movies on tv -but I'm not sure how much he can really understand. We ordered in pizza last night for supper - not too different from at home, and it was only $5.00 for what looked to be a medium sized 4 topping thin crust pizza. In general, the food at the hotel has been really good - nothing too wierd for my tastes yet (surprising, I know!) Our travelling partners are now here at the hotel -right next door to us so we're planning on going to try and find the outdoor market this morning.
Uralsk has a population of about 250,000. We've figured out how to use the bank machine to get tenge (the local currency), and went to a large grocery store to pick up some food. It was a large store, but many of the shelves were empty. The only aisles that were stocked were the alcohol ones - no shortage of vodka there! The people here dress very nicely, and the cars are all newer, and there are also SUV's.
We're still not adjusted to the time change - it's taking longer than I expected. I'm usually tired by 7:30pm, then up by 4:00am. We got a call from my parents yesterday morning, and Dave's parents today - it's so nice to hear familiar voices when we're at the other end of the world!
I'll try and keep everyone posted on our progress as I am able to, based on the hotel's tempremental internet system!

The Pushkin Hotel

Here are some pictures of our new home for the next couple of months. We didn't get an apartment style suite because there were none available, but our travelling partners didn't even get a standard room here - they are in an apartment somewhere. We get free wireless internet (when it works), daily breakfast in the restaurant, and I don't have to make a bed or clean the bathroom! We were surprised to be able to connect with the web cam and see and talk to my mom and dad, then Derek, Rhiana, Livia and Brody. Way to go Derek, for getting it figured out (as of the day before we left, we couldn't get it to work)! We're now waiting to hear from our coordinator to find out the plans for today.

Photos of the Kaz-Zhol Hotel in Almaty

Here is the hotel we stayed at for 2 nights in Almaty - not the most spacious, but nothing is here! Notice the different languages on the different sides of the sign.

We've arrived!

What a long journey this has been, and we're only just beginning! We left Winnipeg on Sunday, delayed by an hour due to the weather (what was that? freezing rain, blowing snow?) I was feelng sick with nerves - saying goodbye to our families was so hard. I kept it together until we were leaving for security, and was felling better by the time we were boarding the first plane.
Once we arrived in Montreal, we grabbed a bite to eat, and had a chance to get to know our traveling partners better. The flight from Montreal to Frankfurt was long -neither of us could get any sleep. Our layover in the Frankfurt airport was almost 5hours long. We then took a Lufthansa plane to Kazakhstan - what a nice plane that was - we had a bag with water, socks, ear plugs and an eye mask to help sleep (if you could). Unfortunately it wasn't a direct flight. We first landed in Astana, stayed on the plane for an hour while they refueled, then went on to Almaty. The flight from Frankfurt to Almaty took 8.5 hours - longer than flying overseas to Germany! Needless to say, I am so sick of planes!
We stayed in Almaty for 2 days. Flying in we saw beautiful mountains (even though it was 2:30 am, the moonlight was bright). We were driven to the Kaz-Zohl hotel. Along the way, I ws surprised to see all of the fancy car dealerships, and along the main street, all of the "working ladies" holding our signs (advertising, I guess). Almaty has a population of 2 million people. We were staying downtown, and first thing in the morning, we were able to see the mountains from our window. By mid morning, however, the smog was so bad they disappeared from sight. We walked around a bit, but the air pollution was really bothering me. Traffic was also unreal - to cross the streets, people just walk in front of the cars, and hope the drivers stop -usually there are a lot of horns blowing, and brakes squeelng. The drivers don't adhere to lanes, they weave in and out, drive in the middle, into on-coming traffic, and sometimes onto what I thought were sidewalks. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed - I'm not as adventerous as Dave.
On Thursday February 20 (I'm so mixed up on dates and times it's not funny any more), we went back to the Almaty airport to catch our flight to Uralsk. We didn't have to pay any overweight luggage fees (I'm giving myself a hugh pat on the back for being so organized and efficient with the packing - I'd only been planning it for how many months?) Boarding planes here is different - they don't call you up by row, or any any order - they announce the flight, and you are herded into a group like cattle, and it's very man and woman for themselves. We were crammed into a bus, where we stood squished like sardines for 20 minutes, then driven out to the plane, where we boarded from outdoors. Astana Air has really nice planes - much biger than the Air Canada flight we took to Montreal! It was a 3 hour flight from Almaty to Uralsk. With the time change, we are now 11 hours ahead of home. We landed at the airport, which looked like it was in the middle of an open field. We exited the plane outdoors, and had to walk acros the icy tarmak to the airport building, in the dark, with blowing snow - it wsa fun. The airport itself looks like something out of the 1950's - a small pretty empty building with dim lighting, and no heat - we were freezing. The luggage came into the room on a small belt - the room was so small you could only fit 3 people deep in the room - not good when you're trying to manouver 4 bags and 3 carry ons. We met our translator Katerina, and were driven about 40 minutes into town to our hotel.
Geographically, Uralsk is in continental Europe, and there was a boarder guard checking vehicles as we approached the bridge that separates the country. I'm impressed with how pretty this city is - all of the bridges are lit up with differnt colored lights, and many buildings have colored spotlights illuminating them at night.
We checked into the Pushkin Hotel, our home for the next couple of months. I'll give more details when I get a chance. For now, please know that we are safe, tired, but excited for the next phase of our journey to begin.

One for the road...

Well, this is the last post I'll make before we leave. Our parents will be by early in the morning to take us to the airport. We'll fly to Montreal, Frankfurt, and arrive in Almaty Kazakhstan at 2:15 am on February 19. We've been told we'll be spending the night in a hotel in Almaty, and leaving for Uralsk the following day. That means we won't be able to settle in to our new place until Thursday. I sure hope I'll be able to sleep on the plane - I haven't been doing much of that this past week. I worked my last day at the hospital on Friday Feb 8, but didn't know that was my last day until Thursday (when our flights were confirmed). I have the best group of co-workers anyone could ask for - they gave me a bon voyage lunch, and supplied me with everything I'll need in my Kazakhstan Survival Kit and Meal Replacement Kit. It was so touching - I still can't believe they went to all of that work - it was so creative! We've also appreciated all of the phone calls and messages from our family and friends. It's overwhelming to realize just how many people are supporting us, and wishing us well in this life changing event. Thank you all for your encouraging words - this has been such a long, and often emotionally draining process to get to this point in our lives - we appreciate your support more than you know. I've done pretty well with my maintaining my composure so far, let's hope the waterworks don't start too early tomorrow! Please keep leaving comments and emailing us - we'll see you later!

We have a travel date!!!

What a week this has been! Our passports arrived with the visa's on Feb 5 - that's less than a week after they were sent in - unbelievable. So we were able to move up our departure date, and today we found out we are starting the real adventure on February 17. I'm still in a bit of disbelief - it's hard to believe that after all of the planning and work involved, we're leaving in just over a week, and our lives will never be the same!

Things are moving along...

We received our confirmation number last week, and even though we had been waiting for it for two weeks, it still caught me off guard. I was racing around the house, making sure I had all of the paperwork and applications filled in correctly, and could hardly think straight. I went to the station to get Dave to sign his application instead of waiting for him to finish his shift. I made it to the UPS store just as the guy was making the last pick up of the day, and he was nice enough to wait for me - so our visa applications arrived at the Kazakhstan Consulate January 31. Now we have to cross our fingers that we get our passports back with the approved visa's before we leave. The agency is booking the flights for us, but we're hoping to be in Kazakhstan by February 23.