Astana

We're 3 days in and things are starting to move along at rocket speed.  Alex has been assessed at school and we've bought a first tranche of uniforms. She even has a special school logo backpack she has to use (sorry, mom). Zoltan managed to snag a spot in the detsky sad where we wanted him to go. Terry has a local phone. Technically I have a work phone but it isn't the phone number I was told it was, and nobody knows what it is. Also, it doesn't make outgoing calls or texts.  In case we haven't mentioned it yet, Terry got his teleworking finally approved so it is really going to happen. September will be a big month for everyone, as the kids to back to school and he starts working after 2 weeks on leave.

On the work front, as they say, "everything is awesome". My portfolio rocks, I have already started meeting people and racking up quite a business card stack - now i understand why the embassy printed me a bunch before I even arrived.  My colleagues are wonderful. taking time out of their hectic schedules to explain things to me, give background and relevant info.  The local employee who works on my portfolio is as wonderful as everyone said she is, and as a bonus she gardens so can give us tips for next summer.

Our apartment is huge and not perfectly laid out, so it remains for our stuff to arrive and for us to figure out how to arrange things. Zoltan's room may need to double as consumables storage, and the office will need to be co-located in our bedroom. On the plus side, the bathtub is the size of a jacuzzi and we have three lovely balconies for when the weather is nice. The apartment building takes up an entire city block (like a big hollow square) and the inner courtyard contains not one but two sets of playground equipment. We can walk to a bunch of tourist sites as well as a huge shopping mall that contains a grocery store.  Next week I will try my hand at walking to work.  I also hope to have some photos up soon ... got to get Mr. Photographer working!

The cloud, then the rainbow

(the cloud) When I went to double check that the hotel in DC had confirmed a reservation with a taxi to the airport, the gentleman at the counter confirmed that no reservation had ever been made. Grrr. But he did what he could, and a taxi almost big enough showed up only 15 minutes later than our reservation time. With the help of bungee cord, the "almost" became "just enough."  No traffic meant we made it to Dulles with plenty of time.

(the rainbow) Pretty much everything that has happened after we got to the airport was wonderful.  The whole check-in online thing has really streamlined the time spent in line at the airport. The kid are big enough and motivated enough that they are quite helpful - they each pushed a 360 spinny suitcase and Terry and I were able to manage the rest of the luggage.  TSA Precheck was the most glorious perk of official travel I have experienced in a while. No need to remove ANYTHING from any bags ... except that I forgot a bottle of milk from Zoltan's breakfast and they did have to screen that, but it wasn't too much of a wait.

The flight was uneventful. As usual, the kids did not sleep ... well Zoltan did pass out on a makeshift bed on the floor under his and my seats but a tiny spot of turbulence meant we had to get him up and buckled and that was the end of that. The inflight entertainment options were plentiful and the kids never asked for the tablet. The kids' TV shows were largely shows they like and the movie options included Frozen AND Lego Movie AND Cars AND Cars 2. We could have stayed on that plane all day.  One glitch was that we didn't request kids' meals 24 hours in advance, but as we knew that we bought a sandwich in the airport before the flight and cobbled together snacks and the roll that always accompanies airline meals into a decent enough meal. The flight attendants very kindly asked if we needed anything more and did in the end bring us applesauce for each kid.

At the airport we quickly got our bags and equally quickly found the place to leave the bags overnight.  Off to the hotel!

This is where I rave about the Frankfurt Marriott hotel. The gave us early check in (9:00am - super early!) AND late checkout (3:00pm - kids can nap before the red-eye!) AND adjoining rooms. The month and more we spent living in hotels last summer did wonders for Terry's status with Marriott so we got executive floor access, including the club room. This means breakfast, a "happy hour" with enough food to fill our bellies, and water whenever we want it. Score!  We ended up eating lunch in the hotel restaurant too and although European prices are still heart-attack worthy, the food is at least delicious. I am still thinking of the tomato and buffalo mozzarella starter we had. The staff has been so amazingly helpful and gracious. When I asked if one dessert had milk in it, the employee I asked checked with the kitchen, came back to say sorry it does, and then told me that if we would still be guests of the hotel tomorrow night the chef would make something special for Alex.  They gave the kids sweets and again were sensitive of Alex, handing her bags of gummy bears along with the chocolate candy for Zoltan.  I can't say enough good things about this hotel and look forward to staying here again when we PCS.

And another shout out to my mom for her mad shopping skillz.  The Hungry Hungry Hippo travel game has already earned back whatever she paid for it, and Alex has already done half the templates included in her magnetic mosaics toy. We should have guessed that Zoltan would be absorbed with anything vehicles and not bothered packing anything else, but the tape road was a big hit in the hotel room.

One important lesson we learned is that when we let the kids pack themselves, we need to double check. I added a ton of extra clothes for Zoltan but we trusted Alex to follow directions and in the end she will be sharing socks with Zoltan and/or me until UAB arrives.  And we should have had her pack a bit more pants and a bit less shorts, that is our fault though. Thanks to the insight of one of my A-100 colleagues who suggested flying with a bag of the little detergent packs we are ready for laundry, which will be needed as we don't have a ton of clothes in general. The laundry packs already saved us in the hotel last week, as we got to fly with all clean clothes.

Also, the two travel nights' bedtime went like this:  We give hugs and kisses to the kids, then retreat to our hotel room while Alex reads a story to Zoltan in their hotel room.  It's pretty adorable.

The pack out

It all started so auspiciously. The pre packout inspection was the most thorough I've seen, he was detailed, wanted to see absolutely everything and wrote down what was going where and how.  High hopes.

I even got a phone call early enough on the Friday before packout that I hadn't thought to call them yet. Confirmed the team would arrive between 8:30am-10:30am.

The team arrived well within the timeframe. There were three guys. My heart sank a bit but I cheered remembering a recent blog post I read of the packout power of three (apologies to the poster, I now can't find it amid all the packout blogging going around these days).

One guy started packing the downstairs UAB (90% of our air freight was piled in the study), one was in the kitchen working on UAB stuff there, and one guy started going through the kids' rooms packing whatever needed packing there.

Things started to go south rather quickly. Knowing the weather forecast, Terry and I each encouraged different team members to start on the outside stuff right after doing UAB because Monday would be clear but Tuesday rainy. Being ignored by people who are supposed to work for you doesn't really lead to good relations. By 5pm Monday we knew there was no way we'd finish in 2 days.  And, because the movers never touched the stuff outside, Terry and I had to drag it all back into the house or shed because the deluge that would become our Tuesday was already starting.

Tuesday was rainy as predicted, and the movers brought a 4th person. Things moved a bit faster but by mid-morning we'd added a third day and I had cancelled or rescheduled all my consultations for Wednesday.  To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. We'll come back to this.  By 5pm all the HHE was out of the house (thank you Mother Nature for the brief interlude in your deluge so the movers could actually move the boxes out of the house, we thought they would have to wait until Wednesday.)  The movers wanted to quit for the day.  The team lead said he was sure we could probably be finished on time Wednesday. I said "probably" wasn't enough reassurance, they needed to stay a bit longer. A bit after 6pm we all went home.

Boy, was I glad I made them stay Tuesday when 4pm Wednesday rolled around and they weren't done!

Why was I so annoyed at the extension of packout? Let's compare:  Philly 1200 sq. ft. rowhome, 5 movers. St. Petersburg only HHE/UAB, no storage, 4 movers. So how anyone could expect 3 movers to pack out a 4 bedroom home full of stuff, furniture and tools is beyond me. What was the purpose of that detailed prepackout survey if it was so entirely useless? We had a full day on Wednesday.  This means the move took 50% longer than expected. I don't think it unfair to say usually if someone is wrong by 50% we question that person's opinions/skills/expertise.

I know my husband's answer to the problem for next time: own less stuff. There is a tiny chance I will try out such a possibility before our next packout.

Philaldelphia

Terry's dad had the kids for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. It was our only chance. We cashed in a bunch of miles and booked a room downtown, right by Reading Terminal Market, henceforth known as RTM. We packed an overnight bag and threw all the ice packs in the cooler. We knew what a weekend in Philly meant - food!

We drove up first thing Saturday morning. Went to RTM and bought as much Lancaster county-grown steak as we thought we could eat in 3 weeks. Managed an early check-in. Moved the car, went to lunch at Vietnam and bought a soft pretzel at RTM on our way back to the hotel. I'd totally forgotten what a pretzel could taste like. Took a nap, went back for another pretzel on our way to Italian Market. Wandered around, popping into stores, buying fresh mozzarella in marinade and duck prosciutto and blueberries. Wishing we'd brought 2 coolers. One more stop by RTM - we had thought we'd find cannoli in Italian Market but hadn't.  Back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Mmmm Malik's. We were worried it wouldn't be as good as we remembered. We were the only patrons in the entire restaurant and it took an hour to get our food. But - worth it! And we drove by our old Philly house for the first time since we moved. The tree we planted is gone, whether it died a natural death or not is up for grabs.

Sunday morning we ate the desserts we hadn't finished Saturday.  Yet again to RTM, this time for beef ribs as we hadn't managed to fit that into our calorie budget. We finished our trip with New York style pizza. Then on to Terry's sister's house, which is conveniently right between our house and Terry's dad's. We met up, had an early dinner and took possession of the children. And got to taste some treats we'd bought at RTM to bring over - the cinnamon rolls really weren't anything to write home about, which was surprising, but the pecan rolls were absolutely delicious.

I hadn't realized how much I missed Philly. When we were there last year I didn't feel like this, but then I was also going through stress at dealing with Alex's medical issues and sadness at leaving Piter so abruptly. This time we left with heavy hearts and a heavy cooler of delicious reminders.

Two!

I had my Russian language exam Friday. I went into it feeling confident - I knew I was at the right level, my teachers has prepared me well for the general format of the exam, doing lots of practices to get me comfortable with it.

The end result was the 2 I needed, so it means I go to post on time!

One part that was very funny to me: After giving me the score, the tester asked if I wanted feedback. Of course!  Well, the gist of the feedback was that I needed to work on everything. It was funny to me because level 2 is a very low level of ability so of course I needed to work on everything - if I didn't, I should have gotten a higher score. For the record, the score is spot-on.

The travails of two working parents

Yesterday I got a phone call from Zoltan's preschool. His eye was red and swollen, he might have conjunctivitis, someone needs to come get him.  I call Terry. "But I am about to go into a meeting."  "But I need to go to class, there's a zero absence policy and I test in 2 days." Long pause.

We agree that he'll go get her, but he's in Virginia and needs to get the shuttle back to DC to metro home. I go back to work (well, studying, but that's my job right now). Then it's time for class. An hour after our last conversation my phone rings. "I'm stuck in traffic on 395." @$(%@!*$)%)(*

So I got to discover how not exactly 100% attendance is required, because, obviously, there are certain exceptions. We're lucky I took the car, because it would have been a lot longer to get there otherwise.

And of course by the time I get there, the area around his eye is a tiny bit swollen but otherwise fine. Not red, not gooky. He must have gotten something in it, and after it was flushed out it took a bit of time to heal from it. But as I was there, I took him home. 

Our house is rented!

Our property manager is someone I grew up with - it just happens he is a property manager in this area so of course he's the guy I called. He came by, went through the house telling us what we needed to do and what we could do if we wanted. We got the place ready and in due time the house went up for rent.

The conventional wisdom I had heard was that you don't want to be hanging around when people come through to look at your house. Find a park, neighbor, or errand to run, but in any case don't be home. Well.

We must have done something right marketing-wise because we had about 6-7 people come through in the first few days after the listing. For three of the people, we were indeed home when they came through - it just happened that way. It turns out those are exactly the three people who put in applications to rent the place!

We chose one application, there was a little back and forth and in the end we have a 2 year lease signed, sealed and delivered!

Now I really need to pass the Russian exam as we will be homeless two weeks after I take it.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

We took advantage of the extra day off for the 4th to make a cabin trip. My mom was here that week, she stayed with the kids for the 4 workdays and then came with us for the long weekend. Between the extra passenger and the need to bring a ton of stuff up there that weekend we ended up driving two cars.

[the worst of times]
One hour out of town I hear "I need the potty."  "I do too."

One half hour after that stop, "I need the potty again. I need to make a poopy."

Another hour later I am hungry and grumpy and need to stop for a snack.

Almost two hours later we stop for lunch and groceries.  One last half hour later we are finally there.

Terry starts unloading the truck while I unload the children and the Bubby and start putting the kitchen things away. He calls from the basement to come down. I enter the room and gasp in horror. The floor is soaking wet and the back wall is speckled black. Mold. We turn the dehumidifier back on - oops - and grab mop, bleach, rubber gloves, rags. One door is so nastily moldy that Terry takes it off its hinges and brings it outside.  We become very thankful for the decision to use the semi-gloss paint downstairs as the mold wipes right off the wall. We also become very thankful for the Bubby, who entertains the kids upstairs, feeds them a snack, and generally keeps them from coming downstairs to the mold and bleach dangers that await them there.

[the best of times]
We drove on the 4th itself. Learning from past mistakes, we planned to keep the kids up for the fireworks. This meant late nap and late dinner. Everyone except Terry napped. Afterwards the kids and I went up the hill to check things out. We saw the mature trees (aka the old apples, the plum, and the various Adams County new fruit trees). We picked black raspberries - we probably got a whole cup of them.  For dinner we grilled the steaks we'd bought on the way up, as well as corn and potatoes. Later came the fire and S'mores. When it got dark we pulled out the glow-sticks and let the kids pick two each. We watched the fireworks from the deck - there were some to the side, barely visible through the trees but there was a second display right smack in front of us on the water. The kids were beside themselves with excitement and happiness. Turns out fireworks are their very most favorite thing.

The next day we went to the beach for a while. I hadn't planned to go in the water so hadn't worn a bathing suit. There was an "emergency" - the beach ball went beyond the marker where Alex was allowed to go - so I ended up swimming in my shorts and Tshirt. And glasses But I did rescue the ball. The kids really do love the water. When it was time to head home for lunch and nap, they were reluctant to leave but handled it remarkably well given that they had not slept nearly enough the night before. Our traditional dinner at Grotto's and another round of S'mores back home and it was once again bedtime.

On Sunday, Terry's dad and step-mom came. The kids told me how excited they were to have two sets of grandparents together at the same time. And it was pretty cool. With so many grandparents I felt not a shred of guilt leaving them all together and Terry and I went to check on the game commission yearling trees. This was our 2nd or 3rd try at rebuilding a healthy forest and Terry told me later he planned to give up if this wasn't successful.  One of the main differences this time was that he had done a lot to prepare the area where the trees were planted - cleared all the weeds and ferns for a decent perimeter - and some lucky trees also got the assistance of tubing. I am hoping he will pop on one day and blog about the reforestation dream and adventure. This time, well more than 50% of the oaks were still alive and I think 75% of the cherry trees were alive. One cherry was maybe 3 inches off the ground with two tiny leaves, surrounded by ferns reaching past my knees. I was sure there was nothing there to find, but even that little baby persevered despite all the competition.  We had to clear more weeds and ferns, but they seem like many of them will actually make it. Next year will be the big test.

[back to the worst of times]
And then it was time to leave. We got all the kids's stuff situated with the Pennsylvania grandparents and Terry, mom and I took off for home.  Usual 4th of July weekend traffic meant that although we only stopped once, it took just as long to get home as it took to get there, and on the way there we had a sit down lunch. The "highlight" of the awful trip home was the major delay on Route 15 that led Terry to decide to get off at Gettysburg and find another way. I followed him dutifully, past the center of town, past the horse-drawn carriage, and right through Gettysburg battlefields. Well, it was in the battlefields I turned to my mom and said "We are so lost. We're going to have to turn around eventually."

Silly me for doubting my husband who can follow the sun and carries a map in his head. Soon thereafter we saw the highway we'd gotten off of about 5 miles back (but now we were 5 miles farther along it) and traffic was moving. As in, going the speed limit.  From there on out the traffic was bad but not as bad as we'd expected. We got home before bedtime, it was a win.

My Russian language highlight of the day

Background: language instruction at FSI in generally thus: 3 hours of speaking practice/lesson; 2 hours of reading practice/lesson; one hour of language lab; 2 hours of homework. Sometimes people have the same teacher for reading and for speaking and sometimes they are different. Right now I have different teachers for the two.

The highlight: My reading teacher is amazed at how well I guess the meaning of an article when I actually know so few of the words. He thinks my ability to guess is even more impressive than if I actually knew what the article said.

The goodbyes begin

Several people from my A-100 class left for post this past week. Several others have finished their time at FSI and are doing their other stuff (leave, consultations, outside-of-FSI-training) and will hit the road within the next few weeks. It's funny how going from post to post is bittersweet and nostalgic, but this is the first time I really feel like I am leaving something. My language training is the last FSI training I get and I'm in it right now. There are several people I'm making plans to see and I know this time will be the last time for a while. My mom is coming this week to spend time with the kids - unless she comes to Astana, when Terry drives her to the airport at the end of her week here it will be the last time we see her until R&R.

On the upside, we found our Rockville version of shashlik in the park. There's a wonderful water ice place across the street from a playground. Sugar the kids all up with a frozen treat then work it off. Meet up with friends and it's a party. We'll be there once a week until we leave!