To the Zoo

We finally found a time to visit the zoo and went with our friend Meiram and his daughter Ayolim. We went in the morning to take advantage of the cool weather, but it's been so hot here that it was still pretty warm. Most of the animals were still trying to find some relief from the sun. However, the lion was one of the first animals we saw and was quite active. He even charged at us (which was a little scary, despite the fence and the big trench between us) and then turned and shot some urine at us. There were quite a few kinds of big cats: tigers, leopards, black jaguars, cheetahs, ocelots, as well as lots of other big animals such as rhinos, elephants, crocodiles, zebras, giraffes. The enclosures aren't quite as nice as the ones back home, but there was a bigger variety of animals.

The kids really liked the monkeys, especially the baby ones. Will was a little concerned with the size of the enclosures (the polar bear pen was quite small) and how often the pens were cleaned, but the animals seemed in good health (although I don't think I saw any zoo staff except for food vendors). Meiram, as usual, was quick to buy treats for the kids and even bought a $5 picture of Kate holding a rabbit that a vendor snapped as we passed by. I tried to convince him we didn't need it but he loves buying things for the kids. My favourite part was watching Thomas walk hand-in-hand with Ayolim down the paths!

Weekly Sports

For a while now I've been meaning to take a picture of the field where I've been playing soccer and rugby with "the guys". The photo isn't great but it gives some sense of the beautiful mountains in the background. (The field is at AIS - Almaty International School.) I'm often amazed at the simple fact that I'm playing soccer or rugby on the opposite side of the world. There's a great mix of guys who come to play: Kazakhs, Americans, Brits, South Africans, Australians, Koreans. I think professional sports league have given many of us a sour view of sports, but it's great to see how sports can still bring people together even when the language or culture is different. And we're always in need of more players, so feel free to drop by anytime!

Lazy Summer Days

We are sure enjoying some down time on our summer holidays, although Karla and I need to start thinking about school again one of these days. But we have had more time for getting together with friends, sleeping in (as much as the kids let us) and having afternoon naps, setting up sleepovers and playdates for the kids, and getting some errands done in between. The school library is open for a few hours every Wednesday so that we can get new books throughout the summer and enjoy them in our new hammock (bought with anniversary money sent from my parents!), although it took us all a little bit to learn how to get into it!

But (no surprise) the kids have also been spending more time watching movies and playing video games. It's always a bit of a challenge getting them to do a variety of things, especially when it's 35 degrees outside and so nice and cool in the house (on the main floor, anyways), although Kate is still very good at coming up with crafts to keep herself entertained. Lego is still a periodic pasttime and we bought some jigsaw puzzles at the market as well (one of Thomas' favourite things). Hope all you who are reading this are having a relaxing and enjoyable summer as well!

The Boys of Summer

Baseball has kept us busy this summer and given us a bit of a routine with practices on Monday morning and games on Thursday evening and Saturday morning. This is Will's first time playing on a team and he is doing very well. In the very first game, he hit a homerun! Most runs occur because of errors, but the kids are improving. There are only three teams in Will's age category. His team is all foreigners (mostly Americans), another team is all Kazakh kids, and the third team is half foreigners and half Kazakhs. Will's team (the Pirates) doesn't have much experience, but so far we are consistent in beating one team and losing to the other.

I am helping coach (I seem to get hooked into coaching every time) and the rest of the family comes to watch. The field is a bit rough and the games are hot and dusty, but we are having fun. We managed to find a couple of Korean-made gloves at the big market (what an adventure that was!) and practicing in the lane has drawn quite a crowd from the neighbourhood kids. Everyone wants to try out the bat! Hopefully we can meet more of our neighbours through baseball!

Top 10 List of "Things We Miss About Canada"

(in no particular order except for number 1)
10. Slurpees
9. Sharing the road with people who have had driver training
8. Grass
7. Customer service people who actually want to serve customers
6. Big Macs (actually all McDonald's food except the "Filet-o-Fish")
5. Bacon
4. Reliable utilities (specifically, enough water pressure to have a decent shower)
3. English-speakers
2. Public washrooms that have a toilet, not a squatty-potty
1. Family and friends (although we have met many wonderful friends here, we still miss all of you at home)

Baking Blooper

Well, it had to happen sometime. Karla had baked a chocolate cake for a visit from some friends and started making the icing. Everything seemed to go well: the cake looked great and the kids were begging to lick off the beaters. Karla sent them to the table to lick them off but soon heard complaints from the kids, "Yuck!! This is gross!" Karla tried some of the icing and, for some reason, it was very bitter. She tried adding more icing sugar, but it still tasted awful! Just then, I walked in the door (having picked up Will from a friend's house) to a very frustrated wife. After examining each of the icing ingredients, we found the problem. Karla had accidentally bought potato starch instead of icing sugar! And the mistake was easily made -- these two packages are sold side-by-side in the bakery goods aisle.

We ended up scraping and cutting off all the potato icing and reapplying some real icing. And when our friends arrived, we all had a good laugh: apparently, we're not the only ones to make this mistake. But I was able to use the potato starch in the stirfry sauce -- it makes an excellent thickener!

Up to Chymbulak

We finally made a second attempt at going up to Chymbulak, the big ski resort near the city that is popular tourist spot. (The first time we were turned back because the road was closed.) We went with our good friends, Dake and Amy. However, halfway up our car overheated (it's a very steep climb) and we had to stop. Fortunately, we were all able to squish into Dake and Amy's van and made it to the top where the resort is.

We then took two chair lifts up to where there was still large patches of snow and had a bit of a walkabout and some snowball-throwing. It was amazing how much the temperature changed from the city (around 1500 meters) to the top of the second lift (around 2600 meters). The kids didn't hesitate at all getting on the chair lifts and really enjoyed them. And when we got back down to our car, it had cooled off enough to drive home (although we had to get a gasket and a hose replaced).