Apartment

Here is a picture from our apartment building and the living room of our apartment. There is a mountain range nearby that you can see. Gas is about .50 to .60 cents here, cigarettes are a dollar or a little less, milk comes in a box (different than milk cartons), food portions at restaurants are A LOT smaller than in the U.S. We overeat so much in America. A pizza is the size of a dinner plate that we use for supper. I bought crepes yesterday and they were on the medium/small size dinner plate that we would use at home. Streets are half concrete and dirt (currently mud because of the rain and melting snow). We were told the government is not putting any money into the roads this year. A lot of the population smokes. Most live in apartment buidlings like the one we're in. There are various types of cars but mainly small little boxy cars. There are about 200,000-300,000 people in this city and many people walk to their destinations. Most of the people dress nice. The ethnicities are mainly a mix of Kazaks, Russians and German along with a few other ethnicities. We are planning to sight-see on the weekend or next week. There are museums and other things we want to see. The driver and interpreter will bring us.