Monday May 9 2005 - Taraz!

The "Spanish Train" (So named because the actual train was imported from Spain) from Almaty to Taraz was very nice. We had our own 2-sleeper cabin complete with it's own full bathroom. We had big plans of watching another episode of "24" after reading a little bit, but once we started reading, we each got lulled to sleep by the constant swaying and clack-a-clack-a-clack of the train tracks. Comfortable beds, and no disturbances.

A couple of things for those of you who are reading this in anticipation of your own trip to Taraz: First, they will try to not let you bring aboard your oversized luggage. Marina was a gem in "negotiating" with them to let us just put the 2 monster suitcases in the shower, where they went completely unnoticed. Then, second, about an hour into the ride, the attendant - a very nice lady who spoke no English - came by and nicely demanded 200 Tenge (pron. "TEN-geh", equal to .76 US pennies) from each of us. The lowest bill I had was 1000 T. She said she'd bring us back change, but she never did.

Vera and Medet, our Taraz coordinators met us promptly when the train arrived, and brought us to the Hotel Gazovic, a very nice hotel near what seems to be the square or main strip in Taraz. We had a terrific breakfast in the hotel restaurant (free while you are staying in the hotel), and then ventured out and took in the Victory Day parade. It seems like a Kazakh parade is more like a huge, street-sized re-enactment of the actual thing, in this case the Soviet defeat of Germany in 1945. We took many pictures, and will try to post them later.

So, as usual (for this trip so far...) we came back to the hotel and napped. Not sure when this will stop, but for now, we're enjoying the last few naps we'll get for a long, long time. Vera came over at 3 to take care of some paperwork and payments, and show us where a few important things are located near Hotel Gazovic, like the bank, grocery store, and pizza place.

Did I mention our internal clocks are still somewhere over the Atlantic? After meeting with Vera, we came back to the hotel and just plain crashed...until MIDNIGHT! Angel managed to get back to sleep after 2 episodes of "24" (Jack Bauer is in DEEP...imagine that!) but I stayed up, read "The Bourne Supremacy" for several hours and here I am at 530am answering emails and posting to our blog.

So, today is a very big day: it's my 38th birthday, I get to meet my kids for the first time, and then we will forceably stay awake until 9 or 10PM so we can get on a normal sleep schedule.

Including all this, all is well, and God is surely blessing us on this journey.

Blessings,
Kevin

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