August 19

Friday night the 17th we went to dinner with Steve and Gail Errickson for our anniversaries at a Yurt.  The diameter was about 30 feet. After much sign language and charades we finally ordered several new foods to try. In the picture you will see fries, tomatoes and cucumbers with a seasoned oil, and kabobs of lamb, beef, and chicken. This was by far the best meal I've had.

Saturday was an adventure at the car market. We drove about 45 minutes toward Kyrgyzstan to an open market full of cars. It was extremely hot. Did I say hot? YES! We walked around looking for a car to buy. Our directors went with us along with two mechanics and two translators. We would look for the type of car we wanted and the mechanics would check them out. All of us came home empty handed. The cars were old, in bad shape, and overpriced. I guess, about three years ago the car prices in Almaty took a terrific jump in price. Most of the ones we found looked great but really had a lot of rust and were just painted over. We're glad the mechanics were there. The men decided that they will search for cars for each of us, bring them to the school to be examined, and then suggest we purchase them if they meet their standards. We saw some nice cars...Porsche Cayenne for $40 K! We didn't look at the year. Many of the small SUVs we looked at were from the 90s and were $11-$14K. We're hoping to get a Russian SUV called a Niva for $5K. I guess it's bare bones...crank windows, no ac, just a box that will get us to the mountains. I think the price is right!

After our car excursion we spent the afternoon at Mega Mall...our home away from home with Jaclyn and Josh Smalley from Arlington, Washington. Using the WiFi there has been the only thing to save us from insanity while waiting for our internet to be hooked up. Well, we decide to take the old East GermanTrolley to the mall. It passes right in front of our apartment. You can see from the pictures that all the old wording inside is in German! It was quite a trip. We thought that it would make a regular stop near the mall, but not so. After traveling two miles further than we wanted to, we got off and took a gypsy cab back. So far our gypsy cab experience has been great...however, this guy's car kept overheating and he would stop periodically to let it cool off, but we made it.

Sunday, today, we went to the Metro, a supermarket like a Sam's Club or mini Costco. We bought meat, vegetables, tuna, mayo etc. and these two awesome red cups! I really liked it. Now if I just knew what I was looking at! I would have to say the two most difficult things for us are the street locations and purchasing food (or any household items). One of the other teachers, Jaclyn and I were looking for a Woolite type product...couldn't figure it out and a girl speaking Russian went on and on about how this laundry soap would do what Jaclyn wanted...sorry not so, it was laundry machine detergent. While we were at the Metro we found these familiar brands! French Fries from Lamb Weston and McCains! We do see Colgate, Dove soap, lots of beauty products, Lays, Kit Kat, Snickers, Pepsi, Coke...but we didn't expect to see two company names from the Basin. 

What kind of mistakes have we made? We purchased paper towels instead of toilet paper, bought a $12 milkshake at Baskin Robbins, mousse instead of hairspray, "handiwipe" type towels instead of paper towels, if you sit with a group at a table-the bill comes on one ticket with 10% added for a tip. I know there's more...just can't remember them all.

One unique cultural habit is in the observance of the past. When we take our garbage to the trash we see bags of bread hanging from nails around the enclosure. Apparently it is offensive to throw away bread. This is from the difficult days of communism when they were short on food and starving. When the garbage men come they throw it away. I kind of like the respect they are showing for the peril of their ancestors.