Hello Readers – Look what finally came our way last night!
Our very first snow here in Almaty (and about a month late, from what everyone tells me). Nia was beyond excited, but I only let her go out in it for 10 minutes because she’s battling a nasty cold. We’ve been blessed with a mild fall, with highs in the 50s or 60 for most of October and November. While it’s true that I’m keen to enjoy winter (especially a white Christmas!), the reality is that I’m grossly out of practice with cold weather and this gradual easing (versus an overnight flip) has made it much more tolerable. Here’s to hoping I can hack it when the real cold sets in…
We had so many good things happen this last month. We took in our fourth shipment from Minnesota which contained a mix of food (salsa! Spaghetti sauce! pumpkin for Thanksgiving!), as well as some fun new décor and kitchen items. I liked receiving our shipments in small batches this time around. It was a lot less overwhelming than getting 6,000 pounds of stuff dumped in your living room all in one go. The only downside was when you needed a specific item and would go looking for it, only to realize that it was in a shipment that hadn’t come yet…
We also received our 5th and final shipment, our beloved 2009 Kia Rondo that’s been with us longer than Nia has. Turns out the registration process is glacially slow here, so it’ll likely be another few weeks before we’ve jumped through enough bureaucratic hoops to get to drive it but we’re managing fine for now, so it doesn’t seem like much of an inconvenience. It will come in handy, however, for getting to and from the mountains as ski season kicks into high gear.
With all the household goods finally here, Nick and I spent the last half of November setting up house. I’ve written before how odd the layout of this house is and that I was lacking a clear vision for how to make it feel like home. Well, I’m pleased to say, that after much furniture arranging, it’s feeling rather cozy. I’ve made peace with the wallpaper and am not going to have it removed for now. I’m also holding off on painting (first time ever in our overseas houses), because I’m not feeling it yet. The wall art helped immensely. Turns out we picked up a lot in India + my Mom gave me five more hand-me-downs when I was in Minnesota. It took three carpenters a day and a half to hang all our artwork. I thought we had a normal amount but they said it was BY FAR the most they’d ever hung in a Consulate house. Whoops.
The Christmas tree is up in its place of glory after a year off. And yes, I know you want to see final pictures of how the house came together. Just give me a few more weeks to get everything in place and then I’ll have some for you (pinkie swear!). Here’s a little preview of the tree though!
We took advantage of the atypical November weather by enjoying lots of fun outdoor activities throughout November. Nia tried out horseback riding lessons,
and we took a Mom/Daughter trail ride in the mountains with some of her new friends.
We also ventured up to Medeu, the world’s largest high-mountain skating rink, located at an altitude of 5,500 feet. It originally opened in 1951 as a training place for USSR speed skaters. During its lifetime it has hosted over 20 different major hockey or speed skating competitions. It is primarily used for recreation now and man oh man were there a lot of people using it to recreate when we went!
Nia was a bit rusty on her skates, but had a good friend who helped her ease back in. I decided to observe my first time, as I wasn’t really sure what we were getting into . I’ll definitely give it a go next visit, though the large number of falls I witnessed makes me a wee bit nervous . . . can’t fault the setting though, that was absolutely spectacular!
Our next outdoor activity to try is skiing, which is a BIG deal here. Nick already knows how to ski from his time growing up in the Austrian Alps, but Nia and I will definitely be taking some lessons. I’m looking forward to it though, just praying that I don’t break anything. Nia has also joined ski club at school. What that means is that for 6 weeks we bring her to school at 7:30 AM on a Tuesday and the kids pile on a bus to go to the mountains for lessons and a few hours of skiing before being dropped back at noon to attend their last two classes of the day. I love that the school integrates things like hiking and skiing into the school day. It offers yet another way to get to know the local culture here. More to come on how that goes!
