Quiet on the Blogging Front

In a few short hours we will be leaving Kazakhstan on a jet plane... the past few days have been busy and the next few weeks will be even more so.

For now, things will be kind of quiet on our blog.

Non-Verbal Communication

Shortly after arriving in Almaty, I began to notice "yield" shaped stickers on the back of vehicles. The image inside the yield sign varies, but each sends a specific message to other drivers. It took a few months to have someone explain them to me, but here they are.

The symbol below signifies "beginner driver":
This one indicates studded tires because the car is more likely to have a shorter braking distance, particularly on wintery roads:
We're not sure what this one means (maybe a quick temper?), but it's kind of funny:
Any guesses on this one? It says "Respect Me," but most of these I've seen have just the shoe, no wording underneath.
And in a country where women drivers were uncommon and practically unheard of until ten years ago (or less), it actually is a yield, or warning sign that the driver is a woman.

Birthday-Palooza

Birthday-Palooza is what happens when husband and wife celebrate their birthdays two days in a row. Since Chris' birthday was on Sunday, most of our celebrating was done on my birthday, which was Saturday.

The day began wonderfully as we were able to talk to family on Skype and then read a post dedicated to us. We went to an Iranian place for lunch and then stopped at this place with my name on it (which we've seen for months on end but never checked out) and took a picture. In case you wondered, it's a medical center (We aren't sure why a medical center is named after a woman... our bets would've been on a cafe, jewelry shop, or something of that kind).

(HELLO Powder! Although I do actually have a few light "tan" lines, I apparently still glow in the daytime!)

We went to one of the nice grocery stores in the city looking for a specific kind of chocolate mousse souffle we discovered a few months ago. Unfortunately, it had been made--and sold out--the day before, so we shared one of these:
We walked along the streets of Almaty and noticed things like the five pigeons hanging out in someone's open window--with a sixth on the ledge.
We stopped at TsUM for a few pieces of locally made jewelry I'd had my eyes on, picked up tickets for the "Puss in Boots" puppet show that's in town, and then returned for a quiet dinner and night at home.

The next day after church, I delighted Chris with a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough made (and then frozen) when he was at his Friday night meeting, and then we enjoyed a quiet and relaxing evening at home, receiving birthday wishes and Skype calls from family.

Although not one of our birthday days, on Monday afternoon we went to the "Puss In Boots" puppet show! Our camera was left at home, so these pictures are from Chris' phone.

This is the puppet stage before the show started:
A man and woman puppet with a donkey puppet. On the left is a stone water pump that poured real water!
It's difficult to see, but the black mass is the cat and all the gray masses along the bottom of the "stage" are mice!
One of the cool things about the stage was that it was round and could show motion. During a journey through a few different areas, the outside part (where the trees are) moved and changed...
Into a bridge! There are a few scenes missing, during which the puppets acquired the horses seen below.
There was a scene with a giant, which was pretty cool in and of itself, but he held up a magic cloth three times and turned himself into a lion, and then turned himself into a mouse. It was really neat to see the transition on the stage.
The puppets dancing in couples... It's hard to show, but it was really neat.
The puppets take their bow!
Addie was amazing! She wasn't amused the whole time, but she did really well at sitting through the performance with the aid of crackers, water, the show itself, and the toys of the little girls sitting next to us. We were delighted that she lasted the whole hour!

A few days later I managed to make it back to the grocery store to inquire after that chocolate mousse souffle, and left with two:

During the last two years, our time together on our birthdays has been brief. Two years ago, Chris was working exhausting hours and I was preparing for our wedding, and then last year we were apart as Chris worked in Maryland and I stayed behind recovering and taking care of Addie. It has been nice to reflect on our past birthdays as we celebrated this year. While we were able to do much more this year than before, the best part of our birthdays wasn't anything we did, it was that we were actually able to spend them together.

Stroller Ramps

Along the sidewalks in Almaty you will find these:
They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some are built with wide wheel ramps, others have narrow wheel ramps, and some are simply sloped walkways rather than steps.
Upscale stores often build nice stroller ramps that are a little more comfortable to maneuver.
Because not all stroller ramps are created equal, they do sometimes offer their own set of quandaries:

Future Post?

While doing the dishes I began to wonder, if I publish a post when it is early in the morning does that post appear to be in the "future" to those friends who are ten+ hours "behind" in the United States? And will comments post with the time of the person who commented at their time zone, or mine?

I admit I should probably know this already. Maybe I do, but have stared at the sponge and soap bubbles for too long??

I am publishing this post at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, June 30th.

What day, time, and time zone is it where you are, while you read this? If it's still Monday where you are, does the post reflect that it was published on Tuesday, the 30th?

Don't worry, now I'm going to bed (and it isn't actually midnight yet, but that's because you can post date your post's date. =D)

Picking Favorites

I have never had an easy time picking one favorite of anything: food, color, music, friend, etc. I remember describing my difficulty picking favorites to a friend my freshman year of college. It went something like this: If I were to say that my favorite color were yellow, to me it means that I am saying I like hunter green, red, blue... less. If I say that Indian food is my favorite, then it must mean I am saying I like Mexican, Italian, Chinese, sushi… less. Part of my dilemma is that I don't really think I like the other options less (or at least, not all of them), and any preference is often due to external circumstances (who wants hot cocoa when it's 97 degrees?). The other part is that somewhere inside of me I am afraid of hurting the other colors', foods'… feelings. (I know... I know...)

With that said, I must include a very important "However,". You see, I do have one favorite. I recognized that I had this favorite pretty early on, and because of my long history of non-favorites, it was pretty significant.

Chris is my favorite. I've been telling him that for some time now. He's my favorite person, friend, boyfriend, fiancé, husband, baby-daddy… I think you get the picture.

Chris IS my favorite. And today is his birthday.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

We, Addie and I, love and adore you.

Fun With Svyeta

Have you ever heard of the color code for personalities? I became familiar with it my freshman year of college and some of the members of our branch have become familiar with it in the last year. Our friend Svyeta is mostly a yellow personality, which means she likes to have fun. We have taken to teasing Svyeta about her "yellow-ness" as she's always coming up with ideas of fun things to do. The day after Addie's birthday Svyeta took us to a falcon farm in the mountains for a "Birds of Prey" show (because it is cool and would be a lot of... fun).
When we got to the falcon farm we were surprised to see it rather empty. We talked to the owners and they decided they would still do the show even though the audience would be small (we got a private show!). Before the show started we took a walk around the farm and saw a few interesting things.

Here are two horses roaming the property, the falconers are definitely animal people, and they also have horse-riding sessions available:
These are Kazakh hounds. They are a breed that was almost lost, but people like the falconers have helped to rebuild the population:
This is a wolf:
This is a shepherding dog. His ears and tail are clipped because this sucker is the tough boy that fights wolves and those ears and tail just get in the way.
To prove how tough he is he took this stance (and I slowly walked away):
And a donkey:
Falcons and other birds of prey have to eat and they can't eat just anything. Their food has to be meaty and it has to be fresh.

That's why there's a barn full of these guys... (prepare to be grossed out)
Those are rats. There were lots of them. Climbing high up the chain link "walls," hanging out on rafters, and eating things you probably don't want to know about (like donkey heads).
After getting grossed out by the rats we went and checked out the birds of prey which are kept on display. Hehe. First up were these owls (later on you will see a video with the owl progeny of these birdies):
Some more birdies:
That is a little lamb and a baby deer. The deer was brought to the farm owners because they know animals. If you look close enough you can actually see it's little antler studs (is that what they're called??)
Check out these birds. It made my heart beat a teensy bit faster to walk on the path by these birds. They are chained to a rope and could easily fly rather close to us on the path if they wanted (luckily they didn't want to).
The vultures in the next two pictures make me think of the movie The Dark Crystal:
Next up--the SHOW!!

First we learned a little bit about owls. In order to see in the dark they have to have huge pupils, which means their eyes have to be so huge they aren't circular. Since their eyes aren't circular they don't give peripheral vision--so their head turns all the way around. With the owl perched on his arm, the trainer circled around with the owl's head turned away from us the entire time (the body of the owl was moving, but the head wasn't!).
When the owl did this, the trainer told him, "Hey, this isn't part of our agreement."

One of the first things the falconers teach the birds is to return to them:

Munching on it's reward.
I'm not sure why, but I think the little head covering's for the birds are cute.
We decided the guy in the background was dressed up in the Kazakh clothes because someone had to be...
We were shown how the falcon's hunt and how they eat while they are on a hunt (they eat small birds and insects while in flight).

Feeding the falcon:

With the hawk we were shown how it hops from treetop to treetop until the falconer gives the signal and then it goes after the prey. The hawk:
We were also shown how the eagle watches water and "hunts" for fish.
Galina, Svyeta's mom, stayed with Addie while we watched the show. We made sure to ask her to keep Addie close so the birds didn't mistake Addie for food. ;D
The falcon farm is host to a hotel and restaurant, and there are three yurts set up outside for use by the restaurant.

We decided to go in one of the yurts, dress up, and take some pictures. Some of these are doubles except for facial expressions. (Disclaimer: These poses were Svyeta's idea and are in no way representative of our relationship.)

The husband with a whip (normally used for horses) and cowering wife:
Addie was totally interested...
The subservient wife washes her husband's feet...
And his hands!
Here's a traditional Kazakh baby rocking cradle, complete with hole for "bathroom" drainage:
It caught Addie's eye...
And she thought it was pretty funny to lay in it too!
This is a close-up of the yurt "walls":
After visiting the falcon farm we headed up into a restaurant in the mountains. The restaurant is actually something of a compound, there are a number of smaller restaurants inside the "compound" catering to various food preferences (Russian, Kazakh, Georgian, etc.), and there is a little waterpark and zoo as well.

Svyeta with Addie
The day before her birthday Chris gave Addie an "early birthday present"... a Chupa chup lollipop. This trip was just two days after that so we thought we should get a picture with a gigantic version of that much loved lollipop.

In case you ever wanted proof that nature intended for the female to pick her mate--
Male:
Female:
This is a second male peacock in the area... he happened to be near the female and decided to show his beauty when he spotted her... Her reaction? She kept just walkin' (away, as a matter-of-fact).
This chicken is a little like Johnny Cash, she likes to "walk the line"...
Ducks!!
You don't usually see bunnies and chicken hanging out together, do you?
Loving the bronze hunter and dog
First there were two...
Then three...
Then four!
Mmmm... now it's time for some dinner!