House Hunters: International

3/14/2009 We wait in anticipation for when we can visit the baby house on Monday but today we enjoyed doing some sight seeing and looked for an apartment to stay in for the remainder of the trip. Almost everyone lives in apartments here and they are much cheaper than staying at the hotel. We found one that we like and will probably be moving in tomorrow. We felt like we were on the House Hunters show where couples view three properties and then pick which one they like best. All the apartments here come fully furnished and most of them still had the tenant living there when we visited. America is not the only country struggling right now…people are trying to rent out their places while they move in with family members to save money. Apartments are only about 600-900 square feet inside and are nothing special but they are roomier than the hotel, cheaper than the hotel, and will allow us to cook our own food rather than having to eat out every night. We’ve already gotten sick of eating out and have resorted to Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches once or twice for dinner already. We may even have internet in our place! I asked Sveta if these apartments would be safe for us and she looked at me and said, “Do they not look safe?” In America these apartments would probably not be in a great neighborhood and wouldn’t be somewhere that we would normally find ourselves living, but in Kazakhstan, this is how all people live. It is rare for people to live in homes. Only the very rich live in free standing homes. In her 10 years of working with American families she hasn’t had a problem yet and we feel very safe staying there.

Our tour of Pavlodar began with visiting the Russian Orthodox Church. Sveta told us that it was built about 4 years ago but took 10 years of fundraising before it was built. Next we visited the Eternal Flame, which was built in memory of those who died in World War II. They also have a statue of a real tank that was used in the war. They keep these memorials as a reminder that they don’t ever want to be involved in anything like this again in the future. We saw many weddings taking place in Pavlodar today and it seemed that everywhere we visited, the same wedding party was there. It is tradition for the wedding party to visit the church and the eternal flame after their ceremony. Lastly, we visited the Mosque, which was also built within the last 4 years. Sveta and I had to cover our heads when we went inside, but when the women are not in the church, the do not cover their head like we see in the states. It was fun to get out today and see the city and spend time with Sveta and Iliya. We will post pictures of our apartment once we get settled there. Hugs and Kisses…we miss everyone and hope you are well.

We have taken some beautiful pictures of our tour around the city but the internet cafe that we are at wont let us post them for some reason. We should have internet at our apartment by the middle of the week and we'll upload them at that time.

Fun Kazakh Fact of the Day: All the coffee here is decaf unless you special order it caffeinated. Opposite of America…we love our caffeine in the states!