Beware of the draft…

…it may kill you. We arrived home last evening and were greeted by lovely 70-degree air. Our stay in Almaty, although wonderful, continued to be rather sweltering for the duration (highs in the mid- to upper 90s). Luckily, the main room in the house was cooled by two wall air conditioning units. Unluckily, Russians still believe a draft will cause one to fall ill. The compromise? Both units cooled the room when the main room was unoccupied and then one unit was turned off when the room was occupied. The foreigners sat near the operating unit, fanning themselves in the 80-degree clime; those that feared the draft wore sweaters and scarves on the other side of the room. An unfortunate clash of cultures, I suppose, but nobody died! Ironically, Finn caught a nasty cough that was quickly attributed to the draft (and his propensity to walk around barefoot on “cold” cement). Alas, maybe they know something we don’t?

I have never spent time in an outdoor culture, but it was really splendid. The dining tables and dishwashing station were set up outside, and all the cooking

was done in a summer kitchen (a shipping container with windows and doors and all the things needed for creating delicious meals). Even the coffee maker was outside, so every moment from the time we woke up until turning in for bed were spent in the great outdoors. For the first time in nearly a year we were able to go barefoot without worrying about stepping on broken glass! In the words of Lev, "I want to go bird foot, Mama!"

We really enjoyed our time in Almaty, but it is so nice to be home again! The boys were downright gleeful when they saw their bikes this morning and we had a long, lovely ride around and around the square before stopping by a few of our favorite playgrounds. The primary attractions in Almaty were the “outdoor bathtubs” and collecting various critters in water bottles. Many grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars suffered unfortunate deaths over the last few weeks. Finn, the social butterfly, loved having so many friends around to share stories with, and Lev came in and out of his shell but still managed to charm everyone, even when he had his serious face on. I'm not overly enthused to have to do our own cooking again, and the thrice daily coffee, cookies and watermelon breaks will also be sorely missed.

We were able to get up into the mountains on two different occasions; the crisp, cool mountain air that accompanied the breathtaking views was wonderfully refreshing. The first excursion was to Shymbulak Resort, a ski area in the winter, and a series of three scenic cable tram rides up the mountain in the summer. We had taken a taxi to the resort and thus had to figure out what to do with our two car seats when we arrived. When it comes to car seats, we are continually struggling with the challenge of doing what the locals do versus doing what we know is significantly safer. Its not like the roads are safer than back home; on the contrary! Even when we provide the car seats, often there aren’t working seatbelts to secure the seats and most belts also don’t have the locking feature that is required for proper car seat installation. This time was no exception; there were only two working seatbelts in the back seat. So, what is better? Keeping the children alive only to be raised without a mother? Or…? Such is life in a foreign country, it seems. Ugh.

Anyway, we survived the hair-raising transit through the city center to the base of the mountains with improperly installed car seats and an unsecured mother, and now we had to figure out what to do with the car seats. I had assumed we would be able to pay someone something to leave them somewhere, but Matt asked a few people and they all said we would have to carry them with us! Considering space on the cable trams was limited, you would think they would be motivated to help us not carry them up the mountain with us! But no.

The first ride up was uneventful as we had a capsule to ourselves. The next ride, however, there were quite a few people waiting so we were instructed to fill each capsule with eight people. So we did. And here we were, crammed into a capsule with none other than your typical Russian Babushka. "What do you think you're doing?!" she exclaimed. Matt explained our plight and soon her

indignation shifted focus from us to the resort employees. Upon exiting our capsule she marched us over to the lift attendant.

"Can they leave these here?"
"No, they'll have to carry them."
To which she responded, "they WILL leave them here."

And that was that; leave them, we did. It is frustrating we didn't push the issue more at the bottom, but at least we were able to ride the last leg up the mountain without the cumbersome car seats, and at the top there were some nice little hikes that wouldn't have been doable with car seats in tow. So it all worked out, thanks to a Russian Grandma.

Our second mountain excursion was with a dozen other friends. Arrangements were made for an 18-passenger minibus to take us up to The Big Lake, a glacier-fed reservoir that supplies Almaty with drinking water. The road up the mountain was the most treacherous I've ever experienced. It was mostly one lane wide with switchbacks that looked impossible to navigate in our minibus. Traffic flowed in both directions and downhill vehicles were to give way to the uphill vehicles. Surprisingly, the system worked fairly well except

when meeting at a switchback; then it was just luck that kept everyone safe. The treachery was worth it; the lake at the top was a gorgeous turquoise from glacial minerals. We had brought coffee, tea and bananas for our required afternoon tea which we enjoyed while lounging in the mountain wildflowers overlooking the lake. Then the energetic folks went on a rigorous hike higher up the mountain and we did our best to relax while the boys chased grasshoppers and butterflies. When the hikers returned we cut up and consumed a delicious watermelon before starting back down the mountain. The trip down would have been terrifying, but we managed to get in a minor fender bender while trying to maneuver around mostly parked cars; nice to get that out of the way! Once on the road, Lev proceeded to scream for the next 30 minutes while we tried singing songs and showing him pictures until he finally fell asleep. By then, the worst of the road was behind us.