Lake Borovoe!

It's been two months in Central Asia. I have had the opportunity to expose myself to new things that I never imagined I will experience before. A few weeks ago, we went to the Lake Borovoe in the north of Astana. This place is stunning, a jewel in the country! It is a huge forest with several lakes surrounded by beautiful mountains. We stayed in this place for the weekend, and it was such an Adventure, literally! During the day, we were swimming in the cold water, still nice; and at night, we were looking for places to eat. I always go for the Shislak, which is a "kebab" or well known in my beautiful Puerto Rico as a "pincho". Other ingredients in the principal plates in the Kazakh food will be: cabbage, potatoes, beef, horsemeat, and bread. Going back to the topic, everything was going well in the lake, after dinner, we decided it was time to go to bed. We rent the second floor of a house with multiple rooms. Mark and I stayed in a room and decided to lock the door just because the front door of the second floor was always open. Around 1:00 am, someone was trying very hard to open our door, and those who know me well, can imagine that I was freaking out! I was telling Mark to stay quiet. The people who were trying to open all the doors were speaking in Russian, so we didn't know what they were saying. A half an hour after that, I heard shootings! Yes, right in front of the house, but then I realized they were fireworks! So, the story doesn't end there. You can imagine, I didn't sleep that night. Around 5:00 am, the same thing happened, someone trying to open my door! I tried not to be judgmental, but imagine someone trying to get into your room, you will think that they want to rob you or something like that. Finally, when I felt brave enough to get out, at 8:00 am (haha), we discovered that no one was trying to hurt us. Some people that went to a wedding and of course were really drunk, didn't have enough room in the first floor, and were looking for a place to sleep. Let me tell you something, there are cultural differences everywhere, to which you need to get used to. If you are a person that really needs that personal space and hates when someone invades it, DO NOT COME TO KAZAKHSTAN! People here are really nice, but they don't understand that privacy we have in U.S., for example. From getting in and out of the bus pushing everyone, to open the door to others, trying to be nice, without hearing a thank you; that's normal here and don't get offended!

But since everyone does it here, you get used to it (necessary to survive), and next time you are in the bus and need to get out, you don't say "excuse me" because no one is going to move, you push people; and it's ok! :-)

I almost forget to mention, that one of the reason why I haven't post anything recently is because after the craziness in Lake Borovoe, I got super sick! I was sick for three weeks, needed to visit the doctor twice, and take antibiotics twice! But I tried to take it with a good attitude, because I knew it was going to happen at some point. 

I hope you liked the story, and feel free to comment! 

Besos, 

Nat

You want to know more? Quieres saber más?

Сәлем! Hola! Hello!

First, sorry for being missing for so many days. I have been doing interviews and deciding what fits with my education, professional background and what job is going to contribute for my personal growth. I am going to start calling myself the Mrs. Interview (ha ha)!

In the meantime, I have had more time to explore the city, and get to know more about the Kazakhs. This city is divided by the river in two, right and left bank, the old and the new part of the city.  The old part I would describe it by saying that it is a rich and cultural place ; where you can see many ethnic faces, bazaars, local restaurants and old structures. The right bank, I would describe as the National Geographic did, "the tomorrowland", very modern, futuristic, like I never seen before; and where you don't see magnificent structures, you see cranes! I prefer the old part, the right bank, I just feel more comfortable and feels like a real town! On the weekend, Mark and I decided to go to the bazaar to get more fresh vegetables and fruits, and we got lost! But the persons here are so amazingly friendly, that with signs helped us to get the right bus that will take us there. Although, sometimes people might seem a little bit serious and if you are a smiley person (just like me) who likes to smile while walking in public, they might not respond with another smile and probably will think that you are crazy. Going back to the topic, we were exhausted when we finally got to the bazaar, so we decided to eat before doing the grocery shopping. The bazaar is like a huge warehouse "mercado" and in each floor you find different products and articles. In the 5th floor they have the food court, we went to an Italian restaurant, and not surprisingly, the menu was in Russian and Kazakh! We ordered what looked more familiar, it was like Italian or Primavera Pizza. The food here it just different, delicious, but different. Our stomachs have been adjusting to it. When we got our pizza it was one with a huge fried egg on top! We have been just laughing about differences and embracing them. On our way back we took a gipsy taxi, in other words, some people here to make some money offer to take you to your destination for less than a real taxi. The driver was a very nice young male and he was trying to speak to us in English! From what we understood, he said that he has just started being a taxi driver to support his two sons and wife, and that he usually works from 8 am until midnight. Also, he mentioned living in the right bank, but said that his dream was to life in the left bank. This statement left me wondering that we always dream about living on the other side of the river. Wether it is to cross the ocean to get from PR to US, or just cross the Caribbean Sea to get from DR to PR or maybe just dreaming about moving from your "barrio" to this really nice neighborhood. Sometimes, it is good to think and achieve greater things, but also, sometimes we loose sight of the great things we have thinking about the ones we don't. I was thinking that he (taxi driver) lives in the best part. The left bank feels like walking from one nice building to the other, but nothing in between; because it is a developing part of the country. He added, that his future plans will be to live in the United States, Mexico, or South America; it seems that Kazakhs also have the "American Dream"! Anyways, it is always super cool to get to talk to the people, Kazakhs, and learn from them instead of learning from reading a book. He also taught us some greeting words in Kazakh!

Did I mention that we didn't have hot water for the first two weeks? Now, we do! This makes the adjusting process a little more easier :-). In the apartment, things have been great, well...Mark and I have been "arguing" because he thinks that the AC makes the bedroom really cold, and I feel like suffocating with the temperature he prefers; but that's cool, we have been negotiating :-). On the other side, not having the grocery items I used to have in US have helped me to become more creative in the kitchen. I start laughing every time I speak with my mom via Skype because all she says is "bendito, quieres que te envie algo?

Overall our experience living in Kazakhstan has been such an adventure, and this is just the beginning. Stay tune!

Enjoy the pictures and please feel free to comment!

Besos,

Nat