Freedom! Getting out of lockdown!

It has been many months since I last posted and almost a year since these pictures have been taken. A lot has changed in that year including our location (we are no longer in Kazakhstan), and I think I was avoiding to write about it because that would mean that one of the biggest chapters in our life came to an end. But it did come to an end (though we started another exciting chapter), and so I need to write about our last couple of months in Kazakhstan, a country that we called home for six years.

Twins on a walk with Yuki. During the lock down we took every opportunity to walk our dog because that is the only time we were allowed to be outside besides grocery shopping. Later our campus allowed families to be outside for 30 minutes at a time.

On May 11th Kazakhstan ended its first lockdown due to the pandemic. The lockdown had lasted for nearly 2 months. Now people were allowed to be outside and restaurants, stores, malls were opened though at 50% capacity. People took it to heart and it felt like the entire city was out that day. It was also a very warm and beautiful day outside, so we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens that were walking distance from our campus. We'd been inside for too long! This was the first day our kids got to leave campus in two months! 

Walking to the Botanical Gardens through Expo Plaza.

At the Botanical Gardens we rented bikes and spent an hour riding around. It was a beautiful day and it felt nice to be outside all together doing something that we loved!

 

Afterwards we went back to the Expo Plaza, to the Mall that just reopened and had a lunch at one of the cafes there. All the things we took for granted before!

The following pictures show some other things we did in May and June of 2020.

Over the course of 6 years I have taken a lot of pictures of Astana night skies, mostly sunsets (they are just gorgeous!). And here is another one: night sky after a storm. Love the light reflections off the wet roads and the separation of the sky! There is light after each storm, and that doesn't change!

In June we started playing basketball outside as a family and were grateful that our campus had some outdoor basketball courts! The kids got to be pretty good shots and even took their Papa out a couple of times!

On June 28th we had our last branch party because all three expat families (us, the Thomas family, and the Calder family) were leaving Kazakhstan in July. We gathered at the Thomas's home and had a little picnic as well as a Court of Honor for Ben Calder who was receiving his Eagle Scout Award. It was nice to see everyone one last time (we were leaving for Texas,  the Thomas family was moving to Washington D.C. area for their next assignment, and the Calder family was going back to Utah though Steve Calder was staying in Astana for another year).

Eagle Scout Award Ceremony for Ben Calder.

Our little branch: the three expat families plus our two of the local members, Kamshat and Zhana.

We decided to eat at our favorite Georgian Restaurant one last time. The food was delicious as always but now I have to learn to cook it myself to get my Georgian "fix"!

 

Steppe grasses on our way to the SMART Supermarket. I admired them every time we went grocery shopping to that store and wanted to take a picture before city mowed them down. Kazakhstan is a beautiful country!

Our fall in pictures

I had some interesting experiences with the medicine here in Kazakhstan. We have great medical insurance here but the quality of medical treatments is really hit and miss; everything depends on the doctors you get. When Nika had her surgery last year, we got to a good doctor. When Spencer had his ordeal with cancer, we went through a few doctors before we finally got to a good one. I wasn't so lucky. I have been having an unexplained pain for the last 4 years, and I went to a number of doctors here a few times, every time to no avail as far as my concerns would go. But every time they wanted to treat something else. Last time they thought I had some inflammation in the rib cage, so they prescribed 5 days of IV treatment. IV treatment is something they freely use here to treat just about anything. That and shots. This is how they administer most drugs. You need antibiotics? Sure, here is your shot, or even better ... here are your 10 shots! I had to choose between shots and IV, and since I had to endure IV for only 5 days (vs. 10 days of shots), I went with it. Here is me enjoying my choice at our health clinic on campus. There was no gain but no loss either, so I guess all is well.

Sophie is our absolute animal lover! She loves all animals but especially our dog Yuki. Yuki usually doesn't like cuddling (like in the picture bellow) with anyone, but she lets Sophie do it. This is how I often find the two of them.

We had our friends, the Thomas family, over for dinner and Halloween celebration here on campus. The kids were very excited to do real trick-or-treating among our four apartment buildings. While the kids went on a candy hunt by themselves, the adults had a great time visiting.

Our combined crew of trick-or-treaters.

Getting ready to go out for the candy loot!

As usual, our girls were very creative Halloween artists!

Our entrance door from outside.

I was very proud of myself for creating this Pinterest worthy dessert: witch fingers! (shortbread cookies with jam and almonds)

In November Spencer had his 41st birthday. Contrary to what he may have thought as a child, he didn't die at such an old age! Just got a bit wiser, that's all!

In November we also went to a Korean Cultural Night that was held at the Ballet Theater. That theater was built two years ago and is very modern looking. Before the night started, the Korean ambassador gave a speech  about different projects that South Korea and Kazakhstan have together. The cultural event had dancers and melodies performed on traditional Korean instruments. The dances were very unique.  They were the complete opposite to the energetic Russian dances I am used to. In a way they reminded me of shaman dances of Siberian tribes. Very interesting!

Spencer's childhood friend, Jon Peterson, came to Astana in November to teach a 2-week course at Nazarbayev University. Jon and his family lived here a few years ago, and became our family overseas. It was really nice to have him here and to remember the "good ol' times".

Our Thanksgiving dinner with Jon.

Our church branch had a Thanksgiving get together at the Thomas's house. We had super yummy potluck dinner and then played a fun charades game with a Thanksgiving theme. It was a fun evening.

Here is Sophie showing whatever it was she was showing for all of us to guess.

Our Christmas Program at the church was much earlier this year because all three families (all three happen to be American families) were leaving in the first part of December to various vacation destinations. One went to Dubai, another one went to India, and we went to visit our family in America. Here are our Primary children singing a Christmas song during the meeting. This was the last time all of them were in the same class together because the three girls in the back (two of them are ours) have moved up to the youth class with the ringing of the New Year.

It is 2020 and the University went above and beyond in preparing for the New Year Celebrations! When I took the two pictures below, they didn't have all of the decorations up yet but it was very festive already!

Babushka and Sophie are in the background. 

We had a long fall this year and a pretty mild winter so far but winter nonetheless. My favorite time is when we have a fog in the night and early morning and then the sun comes out, and we have a Winter Wonderland! Of course, we will have this Winter Wonderland for 5-6 months, and by the end of the season we will all be fed up with it but for now it is a pure joy!

The front of the university.

I am just loving all of it!

 Well, as I mentioned earlier, for Christmas we went to America to visit our family and so our next post will be about our adventures there.

Trip to Athens, Greece - Day 2

Our second day in Athens was a Sunday.  Normally we have been traveling or arriving at our destination on Sunday or in areas where there isn't a congregation of our church nearby.  In Athens, however, we were not traveling and there is an English-speaking branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so we planned on attending.  We didn't pack regular church clothes, but figured that people wouldn't mind if we showed up - and we were right!

We took the subway (after purchasing a five-day pass for each of us) and were able to find the church building without too much problem.  There was a bit of an adventure because the walk from the metro station to the church building took us through a Roma encampment.  We walked through without causing any problems or having any sort of confrontations.  

The church building was recognizable and when we entered we were met by a couple of missionaries - they need to keep someone in the lobby because there have been some issues of theft because of the neighborhood.  We did introductions and then met the branch president.  He and his wife are from England and were on a mission in Greece.  The church service was nice - it was fast and testimony meeting - so there were a number of testimonies.  One was by a young woman who was traveling around Europe with a friend - so they were in the same visitation boat as us.  The best part of the meeting was a baby blessing for a family where the husband was African (I think from Ghana) and the wife was Greek.  The blessing was beautiful and sincere and the little girl was darling!

It was General Conference in Utah so everyone was buzzing about the announcement that church will change from 3 hours to 2 hours.  We were happy that the rest of the church would finally be doing what we've been doing here in Kazakhstan for the past 4.5 years!  We only needed to change the days when we have Sunday School.  After the meeting there was a little linger longer with the English branch and the Greek branch that also meets in the building.  We were given a few cookies and had a nice visit.  We met some people who knew some of our members here in Astana - they are both defense Attaches!  

Walking from our apartment to the metro station in Dafni. Beautiful citrus trees lined our quiet street.

Outside the church.

After church we got off at the Syntagma station and walked around the botanical gardens.  We loved the quiet walks.  Some places reminded us of the parks we visited in Barcelona.  It was a bit shabby - but just enough that it had a charm to it.  Our favorite part was seeing the large nests of parrots who were busy stealing nest materials from each other, the tortoise we found on the path, the pond full of turtles, and just the beautiful quiet, shady peaceful feeling.

Palm trees in the botanical gardens.

More beautiful trees in the garden.

In the park.

We always do a lot of walking on our vacations.

Parrot nests hanging from the trees.

Parrots everywhere!

This bowery was a nice touch!

A pond full of turtles!

Turtles just don't care how they get their sun!

Enjoying looking at the turtles.

Our wandering tortoise friend!  Our kids named him/her Bob.

After we had walked around the park, we came around the side of the parliament building just in time to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.  We have seen similar ceremonies in Moscow and Prague, but the one in Greece was very unique.  They wear distinct uniforms and the way that they march is really very interesting.  The ceremony was very nice and we were glad that we were there to witness it.

Tomb of the unknown soldier at the Parliament Building.

Changing of the Guard

More of the ceremony

Checking that everything was right after the guard was changed.

Lina watching the change.

After the ceremony we walked around downtown a bit.  The stores were mostly closed on Sunday (which was unusual in Europe, but nice in a lot of ways) so we got back on the metro and headed back to "home".  We stopped at another little restaurant that served Gyros and Pitas and had a nice lupper (lunch and supper).  Afterward we went to the pastry shop next door and the kids all had an ice cream - and Yulia did too. 

After that we went back to our apartment and spent the rest of the evening reading and just resting.  It was a very nice day.  We were very glad we had found the church and that we had a nice quiet Sunday.  We knew that we would be going hard the next day, so a quiet day was just what we needed.

Getting ready for more walking!

Rewarding ourselves after another long day!

So many yummy pastries!

To be continued...