Little Things About Kaz

We started writing this entry when we first got here on May 27. It somehow got forgotten, but we decided now would be a good time to post it since we are leaving in a few short hours.

So, we’ve only been in Kazakhstan for a short time, but we are already starting to feel like this place is home. It’s hard to believe that we will be here for a month. It’s great though, because we have the opportunity to learn about Izaak’s country and culture. We still haven’t really tried Kazakh food (and never did), but I’m sure we will once we are feeling settled. So far these are the things we’ve noticed:

• It doesn’t get completely dark in Uralsk until after 10:30pm. We’ve been quite confused about bedtime at night!
• Lines painted on the road mean nothing! A two-lane road can easily become a 3-4 lane road in a matter of minutes.
• Potholes dictate the speed and direction of traffic.
• A 30-minute drive is “far.” A 20-minute walk is even further (we enjoy walking, so this is odd to us).
• It’s at least 75-80 degrees and so far we’ve not seen shorts or flip-flops. Right now, most men wear long sleeves and pants and women wear very short skirts/dresses and extremely high heels. The fashion seems to be this strange 80’s thing. There’s definitely no way we are fitting in with fashion! (Towards the end of our stay we did see more shorts and flip-flops).
• Bugs are pretty bad in Uralsk, especially early in the morning and after 7pm.
• Children and older women sit on the street corners selling cups of sunflower seeds (Uralsk only, haven’t seen this in Almaty. The Kazakh’s also use sunflower oil as their main cooking oil.
• Kazakh women marry by 20. According to Aliya, 25 years old is an “old maid.”
• Uralsk is one of the oldest cities in the Kazakhstan and is on the line of Asia and Europe. The airport is in Asia, you cross a bridge to Uralsk and you are in Europe.
• As noted in an earlier post, the women here are gorgeous. The men look very aged and rugged. The men do not look as rugged in Almaty.
• There’s no Blacks, Hispanics, Middle Eastern – only Caucasian, Asian and a wide mix of both. Correction: We met Nadeer at the MacJohn’s, “one of the only 6 Arabs in Uralsk.”
• Just because it looks like a hotdog, doesn’t mean it tastes like a hotdog. We never did find a true hotdog.
• Mayonnaise is served with everything, much like ketchup is in the US.
• Most of the little girls wear big, puffy bows in their hair.
• They have tiny napkins here, almost what we would consider as a beverage napkin but they are used for dinner. You wouldn’t believe how many napkins we’d go through at the restaurants – quite embarrassing.
• No one sits on steps or the ground. Everyone squats if they want to take a break and there are no benches to sit on. We looked out at the casino last night and 8 men were squatting in a circle and looked to be playing games. Even the children at Zhas Dauren squatted when they were tired instead of sitting on the ground.
• The younger women and men are very fashionable. Nice (sometimes really tight) dresses, high heels for women and nice pants and shirt with pointy leather shoes for the men. We’ve seen women do everything in these high heels – walk block after block, move furniture, carry their 2-3 year old children, hike mountains – you name it. I'd kill myself in heels just walking into a restaurant for dinner!
• According to Aliya, women wear skirts, dresses or shorts to stay cool in the summer. It is not common to see men wearing shorts in Kazakhstan. They “suffer” through it.
• Aliya taught me that men should carry the ladies shopping bags. Mike was not thrilled about this new idea. We’ve been insisting that he carry our bags ever since!
• You have to check you personal bags when going to the grocery store. Handbags and backpacks are not allowed.
• Most stores are not get it yourself stores. Each salesperson has a specialty item (say the only sell children’s clothes) that they sell and everything is behind a counter. We did a lot of pointing and asking “how much” by handing them a calculator to get what we needed.
• Everyone uses bottle or boiled watered – even the restaurants.
• Children really are covered up when there is even slightly a cool breeze in the air. Small children must wear a hat at all times.
• Don’t be surprised if it takes 6 people to run your credit card. We decided to give up on the card and only used tenge.
• We got far more looks from the locals in Uralsk than we did in Almaty. There seems to be more diversity in Almaty – much bigger city.
• Roses seem to be the flower of choice, they are everywhere and are gorgeous!

So that’s our list for now. We had a great time in Kazakhstan and really enjoyed exploring the differences between our countries. ~ A