Kazakh Chronicles #3
Not so warm welcomes from the Canadian Embassy or our flat.
We survived the summit. Truth be told, though, the lock-down didn't make an enormous difference: now that the cold weather has set in here, we still don't leave very often. When the wind howls, there is not much to stop it, so for the most part we've still been indoors.
That is not to say the weather has been much balmier inside, although there is noticeably less wind. Saturday morning we woke up to 11 degrees in our dining room! I'd like to chalk this up to another one of those things here in Kazakhstan, though some of you will remember our last day in Canada the heat got turned off in our temporary apartment without any warning. So it can happen anywhere. Ironically, we had been complaining about how incredibly hot it was in our apartment, and then boom! the cold weather arrived. Anyway, today is very nice: -5 and only 6km/hour winds, so it is back to overly toasty in our flat. We've done a bit of problem solving, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens with the next cold spell.
Speaking of wind, one of my favourite things here is that they use trees to hold up other trees. I imagine this is because of the strong winds, that the new trees would all just blow over. They have clearly made some efforts at planting trees here, and in another 10-15 years, I think it will look quite green, but for now we get these weak looking trees, with trees for crutches.
I am very much looking forward to my first great escape here since our arrival: Maya and I will be going to Vienna next week to get her two month vaccinations. Immunisations seem too complicated here, and it seems that no one here did any sort of medical research before our arrival. I did try to get vaccinations to bring along from Canada for about 6 months before we left, but ran into wild goose chases and dead ends. In Europe, however, you can just pick them up yourself from the pharmacy. They do have vaccines here, but it is not clear whether or not they have been kept at the right temperature, which just simply renders them ineffectual, plus Maya would have to get 6 different needles. So we will head to Vienna for the first round, and do Maya's well-baby check-up at the same time. It's a pretty expensive trip for piece of mind.
Meanwhile, this means lots of shopping and visiting friends. It's not really that one can't buy the things I want to buy in Astana, sometimes just at a premium price, it's that _I_ can't buy these things, as I can't really get around. So my list has some strange things: icing sugar, alarm clock, haircut...don't worry the second two items won't make it into my Christmas baking. I haven't thought a lot about visiting Vienna since we left there, but it will be a welcome break, knowing how to get around the city, speaking the language and being able to visit friends at the same time. It will likely be a place we head to often, as it is one of few places that is a direct flight from here. So far I've had an invitation to see my friend Donna sing at the Staatsoper, and another invitation to a house concert at Oliviera Miljakovic's place, a soprano who was very instrumental in getting me involved in the performance scene in Vienna.
Other than that, we set up the Christmas tree this past Sunday. It was lots of fun, Maya particularly liked the singing and dancing! And we felt very grateful to have her with us this Christmas. We obviously have been missing Finnegan a lot, and imagine how much he would enjoy this season.
And in other news, there is nothing like a warm welcome to make you feel at home. So in order to avoid that sensation, the embassy is excluding spouses from its Christmas party this year. I've decided to host my own Christmas party. Here is the invitation (btw, CBS means Canada based staff):
It will be a fairly small party, as there is only one other CBS spouse other than me, but perhaps she will bring her dog. The two other spouses live in Canada with their children. I'd invite you all, only it's not in the guidelines.
Time for your quiz:
1) a) When was the last OSCE Summit held (previous to the one in Kazakhstan)? and
b) In your opinion, was the OSCE Summit in Kazakhstan a success?
2) How many wild dogs does it take to make a "pack"?
If you answered "Destination: Paradise" for each of the above answers, you are correct!
Until next time,
Ms. Dueck (spouse of Peter Curtis)
PS: the MCO here still doesn't know my name: and I quote "who is 'Dueck'?"
PPS: Maya and I were invited to the Canadian Embassy Christmas party...in Vienna.
