Seven meals left

Sat, 26 June - Mike here.

1:21 PM

This morning we had Vitali meet us at 10 AM to drive us partway up the mountain to some little picnic areas we saw on the way up yesterday. We figured we'd walk around on the trails a bit. It was nice, though the "trails" turned out to be a few paths between the creek and the road. The creek might have actually been a small river. Not more than 30 feet wide at any point we saw, but all of it quite fast-flowing with lots of rocks. Really quite the fun kayak ride, I imagine. I wouldn't want to tackle it in an inner tube, anyway.

There were a lot of people there, mostly folks in their 60's having picnics. Half a dozen of the oldest folks were in swimsuits (very skimpy ones -- and proud of it), and were actually braving the water, which was very cold. At one point we saw on older man in a speedo doing calisthenics by repeatedly lifting a basketball-sized boulder over his head.

I was a bit disappointed in the mess. It seems that people camp all around, and the idea of "low impact camping" has not yet reached this part of the world. It's strange. I've been writing about waste and misuse, and it seems that today the tables were turned. I saw piles of vodka bottles and other garbage in firepits, scattered toilet paper "flowers" indicating roving no-pit latrines, and other man-made debris. Sure, I see this in the States, too. But I was sorry to see it at what seemed like a national park area.

Anyway, we had a nice walk. We then stopped at the "ram store" (spelled "PAMCTOP" Russian). It's a big deal here. It's a real shopping mall, with all the trimmings: several levels of shops (real shops -- not the "booths" we saw in Kokshetau), a food court complete with "American Burgers" and Pizza, rides for kids, and a skating rink. We bought 6000 Tenge worth of groceries at the grocery store. It's a wonderful place to shop for Americans coming from Kokshetau, because it's like a real grocery store -- everything is out in the open so that you can just pick it up and put it in your cart. It is such a welcome change to not have to point at what you want and ask someone to get it for you.

We just finished a frozen "Texas Style Pizza" for lunch. It was OK, though: a) I didn't know Texas was known for its pizza, and b) everything on the box except for the words "Texas Style Pizza" was in German. Also, the gas oven in our apartment has no thermostat or thermometer, so cooking anything is total guesswork. Not to mention lighting it (with a match), since there were no instructions. Hard to mess up a frozen pizza, though, so we were safe.

Linda's now putting the kids down for a nap, and I'm going to see if the internet cafe is open. Then I'm down for a nap, too.

6:43 PM

The internet cafe was not open. I even tried another one a little further up the street, but found out after sitting down at the machine that it was an internet "club", not and internet "cafe", which meant everyone was online playing games. Email nyet, google nyet.

I bought a bunch more groceries on the way home -- especially fresh vegetables for a salad tonight. Got some beets for Linda to experiment, too. She loves beets. I guess you just boil them, right?

I had a great nap, though.

I retreated to the porch for a while to read my book. It's a small porch, almost like a closet. But it's secluded enough that the kids couldn't find me for a while, and weren't allowed out there anyway. I read about seven chapters of "Life of Pi", drank mineral water, and had some awful Kazakh chocolate.

"Life of Pi", incidentally, is a book I highly recommend. You see, I believe that the people you hang around rub off on you. Whether they're enlightened or miserable, they rub off. Of course, it's therefore better to surround yourself with people who make you a better person. But it's not always possible. So, I find that if I read a book that's full of enlightened characters, whether real or not, they rub off on me, too. I see the world differently -- walk through it differently. The main character in this book is such a character. And the author (Yann Martel) writes in a very poetic, yet conversational way. And I like short chapters, since I seldom get to read for very long at a time.

We're getting ourselves together now for a stroller excursion in the big city. Who knows where we'll end up. But we need the walk. Dinner tonight will be at home, and simple.

I'm measuring the remaining length of our trip now in meals. We have three dinners, two breakfasts, and two lunches to go. Two full days and nights (as today is almost over).