Good Bye, Kazakhstan!

Leaving Kazakhstan took some time and effort in times of pandemic. Our flights kept getting canceled, and we were never sure of the day of our departure. We were booked on Lufthansa flights on July 1st which was canceled and then rebooked for July 3rd. That flight was also canceled, and we were finally rebooked for Turkish Airlines flight leaving on July 2nd. And even then we weren't 100% sure the flight will happen. It was going to be the very first international flight out of Nur-Sultan (Astana) since they were stopped at the end of March due to closing the borders because of the pandemic. 

Our major problem was our dog Yuki. Turkish Airlines, as it turns out, was the only airline allowing pets in the cargo area during the pandemic, so we were very grateful when they announced that they would open the flights out of Kazakhstan and to America in July. To get Yuki ready, though, we had to get her travel passport (a bunch of paperwork stamped by certain government agencies allowing her to leave the country). It had to be done within 3 days of her leaving Kazakhstan. Thankfully the government agencies responsible for that paperwork opened up again just a couple of weeks earlier. It took us a few hours of running around spread over two days but we got it done! Yay! Our dog was legal to leave!

Another problem was to pack our 6 years of life in Kazakhstan into twelve 50 lb bags (two per person), we ended up with 13 bags after getting rid of a lot of things. Not too bad!

The night of our departure (which was around 2 am) we went to the mall across the street from our campus to have our last dinner in Kazakhstan. We all got different Kazakh dishes like plov, fried pelmeni and others that we came to love so much.

Then it was time to gather our stuff and to say good-bye to our apartment that was our home for the past 6 years.

This was our master bedroom. The biggest bedroom I have ever had!

Our master bedroom from the window.

This was the twins' bedroom. It was the smallest one of the three bedrooms in our apartment and the smallest one I had ever had!

This was Nika and Lina's bedroom.

Our living room and the smallest kitchen ever!

Getting ready to leave.

Our life packed into 13 bags!

We were quite a sight arriving at the airport with all of our luggage and a dog! Yuki was a celebrity as always, and a few Kazakhs wanted to take a picture with her. Even though she was a Shiba Inu and not an Akita, a lot of people in Kazakhstan thought she was like Hachiko and always wanted to pet her.

 

Spencer is at the counter in his red hat checking us in and us taking the entire space.

We checked in without any trouble, just had to pay extra for our dog. Then we took Yuki to the cargo area and went trough the passport control and to our gate where we met up with our friends, the Thomas family, who were also leaving Kazakhstan and onto their next assignment in Washington D.C. area.

Girls playing card games with April Thomas, entertaining themselves while waiting for the flight way past their bedtime!

With the Thomas family.

Flying with friends is fun!

Our plan was to fly to Istanbul and then after a short layover to fly to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles the kids and I would fly on Delta to Salt Lake City, and Spencer would rent a van and drive Yuki and our luggage to Utah (pets were still not allowed on domestic flights due to the pandemic). However, our plan came to a stop when we arrived to Istanbul and discovered that our flight to Los Angeles was CANCELED!  

We spent the next few hours figuring out our next move, mostly just waiting for the officials to decide what to do with us. They finally offered to put us on the flight to Washington D.C. the next day which we decided to take even though it would put us on the wrong end of the country. We did have to spend the night in Istanbul though. The airport arranged for us to stay at a hotel in Istanbul but we needed to get visas to exit the airport. After another hour of walking around we finally got our visas (they wouldn't take any cards just cash, so our kids came to the rescue and let us borrow cash from them. Of course, if they didn't let us, they would be spending a night at the airport instead of having an adventure!). 

Not happy! Ours was the only flight canceled that day.

We picked up our dog from the pet holding area (which also took an hour, and they almost gave us a cat instead of our dog due to some miscommunication) and then an airport shuttle took us to the Hampton Inn Istanbul Zeytinburno Hotel (very close to the Old Town) and paid for our stay there including our three very good meals. The hotel was pretty empty, just with a few customers from around the world, mostly stuck like us due to canceled flights. The staff was extremely nice and took good care of us.

Our 3 course lunch at the hotel.

Kids enjoying their meals.

After dinner we decided to walk around a bit to see the area. We were very close to the Sea of Marmara (part of the Mediterranean Sea) and we ran into some ancient fort. Not very many people were out, things were still pretty closed down all around us but the evening was very nice and it felt good to get out for a bit. Now we can add Turkey to the countries we visited even though it was not our plan at all. At least not at this time.

On a walk in Istanbul. Lina fell asleep at the hotel and missed our little adventure.

Ancient fort is behind us.

It looked like those wall were stretching for miles

Yuki zoned out at the hotel.

Yuki was a trooper. She was very happy to be with us and was acting like a world class traveler! That dog is a great travel companion!

The next morning an airport shuttle took us back to the airport where we had to go through some additional steps to check our dog back in but things went pretty smoothly. We were all checked in, booked our hotel in D.C., and on our way to America! Finally!

Istanbul International Airport was the busiest airport we've seen during our travel during pandemic, and as you can see there was plenty of space.

In D.C. it took forever to get though customs. Spencer was flagged and was interrogated about why he was coming back to America. Never mind that it is his country. We waited for him and when he was done, we were allowed to pick up our luggage and our dog. They didn't even check any of Yuki's paperwork. Spencer rented a van, loaded it with our luggage and Yuki, and took us to the Hyatt Place hotel nearby. He got up in the middle of the night to start his long drive to Utah which he made in just 2 days! That man rocks! The rest of us went to Ronald Reagan Airport in the morning and took a Delta flight to Utah. We got to Utah on the 4th of July, and it was good to be finally home.

Waiting with our luggage outside of Dulles Airport for Spencer to get back with the van.

Breakfast at the Ronald Reagan Airport at the only place that was open and serving food.

Empty airport, nice but so strange. 

After a crazy 2 days of travel Spencer made it to Payson, Utah. And Yuki made it with him!

We certainly felt blessed making it across the world in the midst of a pandemic. We made it on one of the only flights that went out of Kazakhstan, we were able to get our dog out with us (a lot of others didn't get their pets out), and even though we had some extra adventures (kind of our thing at this point in our lives) we made it safely. NU was great to re-book our flights, and Turkish offered great service. We will always remember moving across the world at the height of COVID-19!

Random Stuff

For my birthday our kids gave me a selfie stick, so I could also be in the pictures. I am the photographer behind most of our pictures and rarely get into them, so they thought they could change it. I took it on our trip to Greece and as a consequence, I appeared in more pictures there than in any of our other trips. However, since that trip I forgot to take the stick with thus less of me for the world to see. Maybe it's not a bad thing after all! Either way, a mental note to myself: find my stick! The picture below was the first family photo taken with my selfie stick on my birthday!

And then some more pictures followed... my birthday dinner that Spencer cooked for me!

At the bus stop waiting for a bus to go to church, also on my birthday.

In October Spencer decided that he will shave off his beared for good. He would usually go beardless for the summer and then will grow one for the winter. I actually loved his winter bearded look and went through a complete grieving process when he announced his decision. I asked him to take a last picture with his beard, so here it is (he might reconsider in the future because shaving is hard on his skin).

And here he is - a new man on his birthday!

For Spencer's birthday, I took him on his lunch break to one of our favorite restaurants in town (and we only had to walk across the street from the university) - the Korean House. I can't remember what we had there, but it was yummy!

Completely unrelated to anything I posted earlier in this post (thus the name "Random stuff"), our dog Yuki is a cutie and I think she knows it!

She is very much loved especially by Sophie who can't pass by her without hugging her!

She is even cute when she is not so happy about the boots she has to wear in the -30C weather. She would walk in the door after being outside in those boots and stop and wait right there at the door until somebody would come to take them off.

She is even cute when she is doing something she is not supposed to (like laying on our bed) and trying to look like she is not even there! A side note: Spencer (who you partially see in this picture) was completely unaware of her presence! Good job, pup!

And this is when you put some pillows on the couch so your dog wouldn't make herself at home in your absence... Yeah, nice try, Mom!

This is one of my favorite pictures when Lina was practicing her song on the guitar. She needed a very grateful audience and she found one!

All five sisters together!

Sophie has took on learning different crafts. Here, she is learning how to crochet from her babushka, and she is very good at it. She also learned how to make some jewelry, and told us that she is going to open up her business!

Nika turned 14 in February, and we all seem to be still alive! In fact, we are doing pretty well, thank you for asking!

The girls had been asking all winter to try hot chocolate at Starbucks, so on one cold day in the early spring I took them on a date (first, Nika and Lina, and later the twins)  to have this glorious drink with our favorite German waffles. I have to admit, it was pretty good though judging by the price you would think you were having a hot chocolate only royals would be allowed to drink...

In March, one of the young volunteers (Haley Critchfield) who lived in Astana for almost a year and who we got to know very well was picked up from her mission by her parents and brother. She was finishing her service in Russia but came down to Astana for a day, so we met at the mall for a half an hour.

Spencer and I got to go to the annual NU Orchestra Concert which is our favorite event on campus (the kids were at the figure skating class). Our family also went to the NU Choir concert. To both events we get VIP tickets because one of the orchestra members is also a basketball player on Spencer's team, and the choir just likes us I think. It's good to know people!

Spencer and I at the Orchestra concert. Brandon (next to Spencer) is his assistent coach, so he and his wife also got VIP tickets!

The twins turned 11 at the end of April, and we had a quiet birthday for them. We tried not to buy big psresents this year because we thought we were moving this summer (we are not!). They asked for cinnamon rolls for breakfast with cream cheese frosting. Done!

In May winter decided it wasn't done with us, so we had a big blizzard. Not cool, Winter, not cool at all!

In May we also got a visit from Andee Waldie (now Soza), her husband and her parents. Andee was a young volunteer in Astana some 4 years ago (I realize we've been living here for a long time!), and now she took her family to revisit the areas she served in Kazakhstan. We had fun time going down the memory lane!

Andee and her husband Eric with our family.

Yuki the Dog

Our dog Yuki is a world-class traveler! She has now spent half of her life in a foreign country half way around the world from the place she was born in (which was the state of Iowa). She is one of the two shiba-inu dogs in Astana, so you can imagine she is quite a celebrity wherever she goes. Our vets here love her. Girl-students on campus go crazy when they see her, always wanting to pet her. Boy-students are more reserved but she can squeeze a smile even out of them. Some of our basketball girls squeal with delight whenever they see us outside with her. What can I say, life is great for her! Especially when Babushka comes to town. That lady just spoils her rotten!!! So, here is Yuki's life in pictures.

This soul-piercing look! By the way our dog matches our interior! Or is it the other way around? 

"When it is -30 C outside, I like to lay under the radiator!"

Family movie night? Sure!

"I need my beauty sleep every single day! No, make it every single hour!"

Awe, those tired paws... they've gotten her into a mischief so many times!

"OK, boss, show me where it's written that popcorn is not for dogs!"

"May be if I lay here quietly, she won't notice that I am on the couch..."

"Hey, you, down there! That is MY territory!"

"Oh, you want to take a picture of me?"

"I don't think I am ready...I didn't have time to put myself together this morning."

"Nope, not going to look at you!"

"Still taking pictures? I am out of here!"

And the first prize goes to ... The Lion Queen!!!