Skip to main content

A few more days!

We have just a few more days until we meet at LAX! Here is a link to a recent meeting between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the leaders of Kazakhstan (Tokayev) and Uzbekistan: Blinken in Central Asia (Al-Jazeera).  See you on Thursday, March 16, at 7:59am - our last pre-departure meeting. Be sure to take care of your body - we do not want to go into the trip sick:-(




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 0: We arrived- worth the wait!

Greetings from Almaty on Monday night (we are 14 hours ahead of Pasadena). Well after two days, make that three days (actually 30 straight hours) of traveling, we arrived in Almaty.  Thanks to Turkish Airways and their three plentiful meals and a collection of movies (comparable to bringing our own Red Box), we kept our sanity. We enjoyed a tasty meal in Istanbul:  PIDE (a boat shaped pizza style bread), DONER'S (lamb or chicken sliced over an over roaster) or  LAMACHUN FLAT BREAD ( a thin and crispy bread with a spread of tomatoes and ground meat on top). After arriving at the Almaty airport today, we dropped our gear at the hotel and ventured out into parts of the city of Almaty: the Mega Mall, a pizza lunch, city walks, a trek to the Presidential Park, our first subway rides, and a delicious meal with samsa, milk tea, salad and shashlik (chicken or horse meat on a bed of noodles). At dinner, we were treated to hearing from two men, one a Kazakh and the other an America...

Day 1: games and engagements in a nearby village

Cori, Rebecca and "A" in the "backyard" After 30 long hours of travel, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. We had an assortment of fruits, breads, juices, and rice. Soon after breakfast we hopped on a van and challenged ourselves by sitting next to people in our group we didn't really know yet. Despite this, we had great conversations about Poly life, sports, Kazakhstan, math, food, and the gym. Finally, we arrived at the house we spent the next 7 hours. There, we met the owners of the house in the village. The husband served us great home cooked meals and talked about his experience shopping in Kazakhstan and finding different kinds of meats, cheeses, and other ingredients that not many people know how to find. While we ate, the wife talked to us a little bit about the Kazakh children we were about to meet. We learned that most children in the village only attend school up to Grade 9, and although they may continue until grade 11, most are requested by t...

Day 4: Religious Culture Day

                                                              Monument to Kazakhs who fought for USSR A Monument WWII USSR                                                                       Brendan downs a doner                                                                            Central Mosque entrance                 ...