Up is down and down is up!

(For sonme reason this wasn't published, sorry) Ask directions in Botswana and you were typically directed to “that side”. Here it is “up” or “down”. The difficulty I have is that my aged brain thinks in terms of “up”= north while “down”= south. Here up is toward the mountain range which is south. The street maps are oriented with north at the bottom of the page so needless to say I truly am upside down! Thankfully the streets slant in up or down so I generally get it.

One of the purposes of my blogs is to record what I see/do so I can refer to it later and recall an experience out of my demented fog so if this seems somewhat superficial I apologize.

Some first impressions:

• The people here are beautiful, a blend of ethnic Asian and Caucasian. Unlike other places I have been about 10% of the folks here look like me so most people I encounter assume that I know the language. I’ll learn it enough to embarrass myself only slightly less.
• Much of the home construction here is from the Soviet era and is crumbling, except the statuary which is all very solid and dramatic. They really were bastards.
• Ask people here what they think of their president Nazarbayev and they shrug stating that he is something of a corrupt administrator but given that the nation is 23 years old, with changes he has affected not the least of which was moving the capital, he is accepted. Admittedly this only a small sample of the professional world. Bribery thrives and the police are more like peacocks. They aren’t armed as they generally don’t need to be. I am as safe or safer here than in downtown Louisville after dark.
• They despise Putin. Much of the north of this country is ethnic Russian and the happenings in Ukraine preoccupy many here.

I have made a friend with the husband of one of my colleagues. Kainar helped me move in yesterday then took me to the mountains all of 25min away. We took a tram from about 1500m to 3000m and were at saddle in beautiful cascade like mountain range, way above the tree line. You could see Almaty in the distance but is was obscured by the smog. Kainar loves to ski and does so in the evenings three nights a week and kept insisting that I join him. The slope is shallow and looks tame so what the heck. Come late November…...

• I saw my first wild apple tree yesterday. The apples are a little bigger than crab apples and taste surprisingly good.
• I was trying to sleep last night as the 10hr time difference still has me in its ever loosening grasp. There was some loud music and singing up (south) the street. I went up there and was impressed to see a western style concert with a huge screen in one of the large open spaces in the city. This is the weekend where they celebrate the writing of the constitution. Kids dancing and others watching.
• Go to YouTube and search Kazakhstan dombra music or folk music. It is amazing the sound one can get from a two stringed instrument. This link should work. The music has really emerged since independence in 1991.              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyfVwWvkBSg

Do svidaniya!