On Wednesday I told you about Nia’s new school schedule, so today I’ll focus on the new routines Nick and I have been developing. Nick has been going into work for two weeks now. Thankfully, work is just a 10-15 minute walk from our home, so it’s relatively painless to go back and forth. His days are quite long right now and packed with meetings to get him up to speed on all the new areas he’s supervising.
For this tour, Nick will be the head of the Consulate’s Public Diplomacy section. The team has five Americans and about a dozen local Kazakh staff. Previously, in Mumbai, he managed the press and digital media team, but now he’s overseeing the whole Public Diplomacy operation, which includes exchange programs, grants to civil society, cultural programming, English-language programs, American Spaces programming, as well as the traditional press and digital media teams.
Given how intense the learning is for him at work, I’m taking on most of the house stuff, though he is excited to work on our adorable little backyard. This will be the first time any of us have cared for a yard before (we don’t count Malawi because we had a full-time gardener), and we each have different visions for what we want it to be. Nia has big dreams about a garden, so we’ll see how it all comes together once spring comes. For now, we’re just leaving it as is.
As for my routine, things are still a bit unknown. I always feel a bit of jealousy in the early weeks of a tour when Nick and Nia go off for entire days for their nice, structured activities and I’m left at home to figure out what the heck I’m going to do with myself this time around. I like to remind myself that “it’s always worked out fine before,” but then I think “what if this is the time that it doesn’t?” What if I can’t find work? Or good friends? Sigh. It’s always a gamble. Send me good vibes please that this tour will unfold as well as all the past ones have.
I’ve been jumping in per my usual pattern. I’ve been attending all the Consulate events and have joined the local expat women’s club. I attended my first gathering with them on Wednesday and found it to be a very warm, fun crowd. They also coordinate a lot of activities, so plugging in there will help fill my schedule until I can figure out the work thing. Speaking of that, things are looking a bit grim on the job front. I’d really like to do the type of work I did in Mumbai but that job won’t potentially open up until next summer. And that’s an if, not a guarantee. In the meantime, I’m watching for other Consulate gigs that look like a good fit. If nothing works out, then I’ll expand to look at local employment or extensive volunteering. I’m craving people interaction, so my only real caveat is that I can do the work in person. No telework for this girl. I’ve had enough alone time in the last three years to last me a lifetime. Bring on the people!! :)
In the meantime, I’m going to continue working on my Russian. Despite 7 months of daily study, I can’t seem to make basic sentences (I know a lot of words, but I struggle with word order in sentences and which endings to use thanks to the complicated case system). So I’m admitting my shortcomings and heading back to daily language classes. I found an in-person language institute in town and will be starting classes on Monday. I’ll be going every weekday for three hours for the next sixteen weeks. Hopefully that will do the trick and get me to a level where I can do basic interactions better. I will say that hearing the language daily and being forced to use it when ordering at shops and restaurants has helped a lot. Stay tuned for more on language class!
In closing, I wanted to share a few fun finds that I’m stumbled upon! I’m a big ketchup lover and was so excited to find Heinz here. The package works even better than bottles in my opinion and uses less plastic and the taste is exactly the same.
And though I’m not big on sugar, I do enjoy a good donut from time to time. I discovered these at my favorite coffee shop and was very impressed with the dough consistency and frosting taste. Very similar to an American donut. It’s the little things y’all. Especially on hard days, a good donut goes a long way.
