Ust at last

Steve again. This morning 007 picked us up at our apartment at 6:30AM for our 8AM flight to Ust. I do not believe Terri and I got any sleep last night in anticipation of the next leg of our journey. 007 helped us through everything at the airport and as we headed to the gate I felt bad that we had to leave as he made every effort to make us feel comfortable and welcome in Almaty. We went through security and ticketing with no problem. As anticipated we had to pay a little extra because our baggage was over the weight limit. Apparently our cost was nothing compared to what we have read about others, some paying a couple of hundred dollars and we only had to pay the equivalent of $27. All those pop tarts and cheese crackers don’t weigh as much as we thought.

‘Boarding’ our flight was amusing. We exited the gate to an awaiting bus that drove out across the tarmac to an Air Astana 50 passenger, dual prop Fokker F-50. We loaded like the good old days, climbing up the aircraft’s gangway, two seats on either side of the aisle. Here in Kaz, you push your way through and cut line as often as possible, all the things that in the states that would make someone call you some unpleasant names. So stowing our bags in the overhead bins and getting back to my seat was a real treat. But I can play this game too so all was well. Surprisingly, this flight was not the nightmare that we envisioned it could be. There was minimal turbulence and no need for the air sickness bag. As we lifted off we saw the awesome sight of the mountains around Almaty. As we were flying we watched the ground progress from brown desert to brown fields—after awhile the brown fields became fields sprinkled with a little white, and eventually to white as far as the eye could see. All of this was in a two hour time span. Landing was uneventful but the real fun was exiting the gangway to a really nice burst of cold air. We (quickly) moved inside and met our coordinator, Albina, our translator, Anya and our driver, Bulat. We grabbed our bags and it was off to our apartment. We were told that we were not going to be able to go to the baby house today (which we were later told was because there was a Ministry of Education meeting that was occupying the time of adoption personnel). At the time we were only told that we wouldn’t go to the baby house today and maybe not tomorrow—with no explanation. We called our agency for clarification, and were later told we would go to the baby house tomorrow. A little explanation early on would have helped us manage our expectations.

We were taken to the supermarket to grab some items and went back to the apartment to email home. It turns out that we need a different internet card in Ust. Our translator and driver came back right away and took us to get a card. Our translator also became our internet support as the instructions were all in Russian. We did make some small talk with her, feeling bad that our earlier mood was not her fault, showed her pictures of the family and our dogs back home.

Once reconnected to the outside world we watched some episodes of 24 but we were so exhausted that even the suspense of the show was not enough. I worked a little bit and then went to bed early—this time, no trouble sleeping.

Here are a couple of quick shots of a view from our window and the living room of the apartment.