WE'RE HERE!!

Hello everybody,

We are finally here after a very long flight. It was tough. I think we are about 7000 miles away from home and let me tell you it feels like it. We connected in Germany and it was a very long layover. We tried to sleep in the airport but we couldn't. The language barrier was not as bad as I thought it would be because many people know English there which was good for us.

After the long wait we flew to Almaty which was another 6,5 hrs. I was delirious from lack of sleep that I went to sleep and don't even remember taking off. I only slept 3 hrs. though. The plane was nice but as good as it gets on a plane. First class would've been a lot better.

When we got to Almaty, we got there at 1 am their time. It was a culture shock. Not as many people know english but they know some and they try. They were helpful in the airport and the workers are very serious. There was a soldier at the door when we got off the plane. Their uniforms kind of scare me because they look so different from the U.S. and they stare at you so we were feeling a bit paranoid. Anyway, we met a driver and the translator in the Almaty airport.

The driver and translator were there to meet us and help us for this layover. They said they could take us to an apartment to sleep a little before the next flight instead of waiting in the airport for hours again. The cab drivers swarmed us when we were leaving trying to get our business. Thank god for the translator and driver. We went to an apartment twenty minutes from the airport and the building was not the Hyatt not even Mary's Motor Lodge. It was a scarey looking highrise and it looked like what you see in the middle east. TOTAL culture shock but we coped.

Hours later they came back to get us and we went back to the airport with NO time to spare. Our luggage was too heavy and we had to pay 14000 tenge (104.00 U.S. dollars) which we had to get exchanged quickly in the airport. Again, thank god for the translator.

We then took a 2 hour flight on a smaller plane ('puddle jumper' as john calls it) and we got to this area. It's colder here then the other places we went to. The airport was very small. The last one we were at in Almaty was the size of the old TF Green. This one was smaller.

We met another translator and driver at the airport and they took us to the grocery store and to get an internet card. We still need a phone card but the store isn't open so we'll get it tomorrow after we meet OSCAR!!!!!!
Well, don't want to bore you with more details right now. I will tell you about the apartment we're in tomorrow. I will post pictures of the area too so you can get a feeling of what it's like around here. Bye for now, we miss you all!!! Especially Haley!! love you Haley, talk to you soon...