Ciao Kazakhstan!

Tomorrow, the 29th of August it's time to leave Kazakhstan. The contract is over, a bit earlier than planned, but it's fine. I'm head over heels to come back to Stockholm!Can't wait to meet my family, friends, colleagues. I've missed you guys a lot. My home is where my dearest people are and that it so true.

Living in Kazakhstan has been a nice experience, different one due to the pregnancy and Vincent's birth. Today our best friends, by the way expats from Tunisia, came to say goodbye. "Sosed", we miss you but definitely meet you in Mahdia to drink mint tea and eat tons of baklava.

The question is:" What to do with the blog?" Should I close it? or find another topic, which is probably my baby by now. If you have any ideas, pls write.

Sosed

Vincent -- the Kazakh man!

Baklava to die for!

Adventures in Thailand

I have definitely less "free" time now (and as a consequence to update the blog) since Vincent sleeps only few hours during the day and the rest of the time goes to entertainment, playing, feeding and walking.

We've survived our first long-distance trip. Now i think I can take Vincent everywhere, almost everywhere except some extreme cold, hot and high spots on Earth. It's possible and even joyful to travel with babies if prepared. Thailand is a great country to stay with kids: good infrastructure, high -quality medical services, friendly people (especially to kids), wonderful food at any choice, nature, beaches, etc. Extreme humidity and absence of baby car seats whatsoever were two inconveniences for us. The contrast between air-conditioned rooms and sauna-like outdoors was tough for Vincent, he was sweating a lot often wearing a sweat moustache. Here area few pics:

Vince goes Thailand

Tomorrow we leave for Thailand for the first vacation together with our baby! It will take us 6,5 hours by plane, 2,5 hours by car to Rayong and 20 minutes by speed-boat to Koh Samet island. We have planned to go to Pattaya and Bangkok, maybe Koh Chang, 10 days in total. Our hotel reservation is so far for two days on the island. It's low season in Thai, no need to reserve the hotel for whole period. Hope everything wil go just fine, breastfed babies should be easy to travel with. Vince has got new baby carrier, stroller and sunglasses. Ready for the trip!

Let's go fishing!

Yesterday I did fishing for the first time in my life. We went to Turgen , famous for its waterfalls and a trout farm. The fishing experience was fun but short.The trout farm has several ponds where trout is bred and it's impossible not to catch anything among thousands of fishes. In 20 minutes we got 8 fishes and in another 20 minutes we were already eating them. There are several ladies who cook the fish for your and serve it with salads, bread and drinks. Call it fishing for lazy ones but it was nice time we spent there. Highly recommended!

Baby update

Vince is keep on growing, he weighs 9,2 kg! I wonder how big he can be. On Monday he will be exactly three months and his doctor will probably give me another advice for Vince not to gain to much weight. As soon as he is healthy and happy I don't actually bother. Isn't he sweat? :)

Fit ball training with dad.

I think he looks like a little boxer!

Let's stretch!

Dancing salsa in Almaty

1. Beginning Dancer: knows nothing.
2. Intermediate Dancer: knows everything; too good to dance with beginners.
3. Hotshot Dancer: too good to dance with anyone.
4. Advanced Dancer: dances everything, especially with beginners.”

Obviously salsa has conquered the world and Kazakhstan is not an exception. There are three salsa schools in Almaty and two latino clubs (Cuba and Copacobana). I cannot advice on them since our baby-life does not get along with a club life ))) . Here you can see some shots from an open-air salsa dancing. If you are in Almaty and love latino beat, don't miss the event (Sundays, Kirova-Kunaeva str in front of the fountains). By the way I was surprised they danced bachata as well.

Paradise 70 km away

Last weekend we went to the Kapchagai Lake, located just 70 km to the north from Almaty.

Kapchagai Lake is a man-made reservoir formed in 1969 for the purpose of building the Kapchagai Hydroelectric power station. In the absence of the sea (Kazakhstan is a landlocked country) Kapchagai attracts people from Almaty and vicinities. I was amazed that an artificial lake can be so beautiful:

On the way to Kapchagai, the closest town has the same name. The road to the lake is in a bad condition, which is quite strange, it's a popular place to go, so the government could have used the taxpayers money to renovate the road. They say, Russia has two age-old problems: fools (often referred to governors) and bad roads. It seems, Kazakhstan suffers from the similar problems. Watermelons, melons, apples, honey are sold on the wayFinally at the destination! The entrance fee to the beach was 1500 tenge (10 USD). If you have any food or drink with you you have to pay 4000 tenge (25 USD). Probably the restaurant folk would not have any job if everybody came with own food basket. R looks at the menu, Vince looks at the lake.

Me and Vince, my big boy!

Vince can swim!

When Vince was one month old we took three lessons from a swimming instructor for newborn. First day I was watching how my baby get massage and got into the water in the hands of a experienced instructor. The second day it was my turn to repeat the whole procedure. What should I say, it was not an easy job for anybody, especially when I had my precious little boy in my hands. Since then we repeat the whole procedure with massage, swimming, going under the water for 4 seconds and few seconds under the cold water called acclimation every day.

Vince learns how to handle himself in the water. At first we helped him to hold his head with a pair of ribbons on the bonnet with five foam rubber blocks. The bonnet calls here " mermaid bonnet" ;)

Now he can float with three blocks himself! He moves through the whole jacuzzi ;)

Ohhh, going under the water is a hard job!

Mountains and shashlyk

Yesterday we escaped to the mountains from the summer heat. 30 minuted from the city and you are in the peaceful chilly place. Here are some pics:

Somebody turned the party music on and ppl had fun dancing.

Dinner: Shubat ( dring made from camel milk), baursaki ( fried doughnuts) and shashlyk ( grilled lamb meat)

The happiest family It was quite chilly so Vincent got proper cloths

Internet and politics -- Livejournal banned in Kazakhstan

For two weeks I have not been able access Livejournal website -- the biggest blogging platform in Russian. It turned out that LiveJournal has been banned in Kazakhstan since October last year, but I was among those 10% who still could have access to the platform.

At first there were no official information why Livejournal has been blocked, but the unofficial reason was said to be Rakhat Aliyev blog, ex son-in-law of the President Nursultan Nazarbaev. Rakhat Aliyev is a political opponent of Nazarbayev, lives in Austria and has been granted political asylum.

In May 2009 Kazakh authorities recognized that LifeJournal has been blocked due to political reasons and court decision to "stop spread of false information".

Some states still believe that deliberate political censorship is possible in Internet. There are two things they need to take into account:

-Information is accessible via different ways.

- The forbidden fruit is sweet.

Hot summer and fountains

Summer in Almaty is really hot, it's better to take siesta or stay inside between 11.00 and 17.00. Average temperature of July is the same as on the islands of Sri Lanka or Kalimantan. Average temperature in January can be compared with north of Finland.

I like Almaty summer for two things ( so far):

1.For it's warm breezy summer nights with it's special smell. You can go out in t-shirt at night and don't bother to take a jacket with you.

2. For it's fountains. Perfect for dry and hot summers. There are 125 (!) fountains in the city (wikipedia knows everything). Again, I like fountains at night, especially those with floating lights. Here you see pictures of different quality but all of them are original without any Photo shop tricks.

DAY

NIGHT:CHANGE OF COLORS

Summer is here and we are back

We are back after three weeks of joy, sleepless nights, long walks and intensive growth. Take a look how Vincent has changed:

With daddy (about 1 week old)

little-little legs

6 days old

6 weeks old (6 kilo)

Slingomama

Wearing a sling and different kind of wraps is trendy here. I bought a sling and thought it was an easy thing to use. Well, after some failed attempts to put my baby in a comfortable position we both were exhausted and almost ready to give up. Luckily, there are so called "sling meets" for mums who use or want to use the sling and like us struggling with it.

Here you see some of the mums with there babies.Vince was the youngest participant among the babies, besides, he was eating when we took the pictures and his head is covered.

Russian "solyanka" under military sauce

I was among those who didn't watch the Eurovision song contest first semifinal. It was enough to watch the video how the the host country promotes itself in the show. It was a wierd mix of t.A.T.u "Don't gonna get us" with Alexandrov Red Army Choir (!), drummers, kalinka-malinka, Roma and Cossack dance in front of pink tank and blue jet. Was it a joke? If not, what message is Russia trying to get through?

Well, Swedish Tingeling is actually more about truth then sterotypes. The whole idea was anticipated in the Tingeling video.

Anyways, military messages contradict the whole idea of Eurovision and I really hope Russia will make a great peaceful show at the final on Saturday.

The Great Canyon... in Kazakhstan

Do you know that the Gran Colorado Canyon in the US has a real brother - The Great Charyn Canyon in Kazakhstan, 200 km far away from Almaty city? The place is also called Valley of the Castles.

Last weekend my husband and his colleagues made a trip to the canyon. Look at the scenery!

The trip took the whole day including walking up and down in the canyon area. We were considering going together with Vincent, but stayed away of this crazy idea taking a three-weeks old baby to a desert-like place.

Victory Day!

While different countries have different versions of the World War II history, the sacrifice of the Soviet people in defeating fascism should never be forgotten. 64 years have passed, but May 9 or Victory Day is remembered and celebrated in Kazakhstan.

Yesterday we took a walk at the Panfilov Park, where the main festivities took place. Vincent were sleeping despite the live concert at high volume.

In front of the war memorial in remembrance those who died during the second world war, people laid flowers at the site of the Eternal Flame. Thousands of flowers! Another park, just behind the "spaceship" house we live in. The park is so well groomed that the police station is placed there. I love yellow tulips, suddenly it reminds me of "Yellow tulips/Желтые тюльпаны" song by Natasha Koroleva. It was my first summer camp, I was 13.

Breastfeeding is a life-style

There are three reasons for breast-feeding:
the milk is always at the right temperature;
it comes in attractive containers;
and the cat can't get it.
Irena Chalmers

Having a baby makes your life different, I would say very different. Almost all time goes to breastfeeding Vincent. We are two employees with full-time and overtime job: Vince is responsible for eating and me for feeding him. He is always hungry my little boy, he also likes to combine sleeping and eating. In between I try to do some basic things such as taking a shower or grabbing some food for myself. No wonder there is almost no time for blogg update. I'll be back soon with some nice pictures.

Vincent Antonio's Grand Entrance!

Our baby boy, Vincent Antonio, was born last Monday, April 20 at 16.49 at "Keruen-Medicus" maternity clinic in Almaty. He weighed 3700 gr and is 55 cm long.

Our delivery story is short -- the whole delivery took less then 2,5 hours.

As I wrote before, I was laid at to the maternity clinic for observation on Monday, the 20Th of April. We arrived to the clinic and I didn't know what to expect and how long I would stay there.

My husband R and I speculated that our baby wanted to be born under the Taurus sign since it was the last day of the Aries. At the mid-day we were sure there were no chance to be born the same day.

The nurse checked me at 14.30 and at the same moment waters had broken .Almost immediately I went into labor with a lot of pain, contractions were strong and came every second minute. R arrived and helped me with massage, I tried to remember the breathe technique and it helped a lot in the beginning. After one hour of unbearable pain, shaking knees and sweating I called for epidural. I was told that labor usually takes between 12 and 18 hours for first-time mom. Just thinking about pain for another 10 or more hours was impossible. I got epidural and had to wait for another 20 minutes until there were no pain. Not long after it was time to push. I couldn't believe it. After another 20 minutes our baby was born. The whole delivery took 2 hours and 20 minutes. Vincent made a fast entrance into this world under the Aries sign. It was amazing and unrealistic to feel his body at my stomach. R helped to cut the birth cord.The clinic staff were surprised that everything went so smooth without even tearing. Who said that a 29-year old women is too old to be a first-time mom?

Too old, too tall

40 weeks and 4 days today. Yesterday I went to the clinic for a check control. Three doctors checked me up and concluded that there are two major reasons for my post-term pregnancy:
1.I'm too tall. So my hormone balance is somewhat out of balance.
2. I'm too old or rather old (29 years) to give birth for the first time

Both arguments are ridiculous since we know how many tall and much "older" women got their babies without any problems.

Anyhow I was told to grab my delivery bags and come to the maternity clinic on Monday for examinations and observations if not delivery itself. Usually women stay in the clinic 4-5 days after the delivery. Probably I won't be able update my blog in a week or so, but I'll be back!

Almaty is in the top of 50 most expensive cities

A bit old news, but i thought it would be interesting for you to know.
Mercer Human Resources Consulting included Almaty in top of 50 most expensive cities worldwide. Even if Almaty has jumped from 30th place in 2007 to 44th in 2008, it's still more expensive than Toronto, Los Angeles or Hamburg.

Stockholm as not far away and occupies 31st place in 2008 (23d in 2007).Moscow is still the most expensive city for expatriates; Asunción in Paraguay is the cheapest.

I wasn't surprised about Almaty. Some things are really costly here, especially when it comes to foreign and luxury products and services.

Here you can see an advertisement for such food items as yogurt, milk, cheese, juices, sausages made in EU. "The best from Europe"-- magic words! All things made in EU are per se better in post-soviet eyes. In addition to all preservatives with triple E-numbers, you pay three times more than for local, to me much tastier food.

One rainy day

Some pics from chilly and rainy Almaty... Spring is beautiful in any weather...

Expected date of birth yesterday and no baby yet...

My delivery date passed yesterday. Now it's the final countdown backwards.I know that a normal pregnancy is 38-42 weeks and only 5 % of babies are born on their exact date of delivery. As a saying goes: "when the apple's ripe, it will fall". But it's hard to pass the date imprinted in your head and calender.

My husband once was kidding that Peruvian babies need more time to get color in the oven )) Let's see when it's ready...

Happy Easter! Glad Påsk!

Happy Easter to everybody! Easter is celebrated in Kazakhstan by many Christians living in the country. Did you know that Kazakhstan is populated by 120 ethnic groups? The largest are Kazakhs (68%) and Russians (21%).

Orthodox Easter falls on the 19th of April, but you can already buy traditional Easter bread called "Paskha" or "Kulich". Actually Paskha is very similar to Panettone, Christmas bread popular in Italy and in Latin America. Each time we come to Peru during Christmas holidays, we eat Panettone with hot chocolate, mums. I like baking, but baking Paskha is too time-consuming ritual. Instead I've picked up a tasty, easy and healthy "Poppy cake" recipe made without flour. Here we go:

Ingredients:

200 g poppy seeds (vallmofrön/зерна мака)

200 g walnuts

200 g sugar

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla sugar

50 g breadcrumbs (ströbröd/панировач сухари)

1. Blend poppy seeds and walnuts ti fine crumbs in the food processor. Mix with the breadcrumbs.

2. Wisp egg yolks with sugar.

3.Wisp egg whites separately with vanilla sugar.

4. Stir 1-2-3 (crumbs, egg yolks and egg whites)gently until blended . The mixture should be fluffy.

5. Put in the round form 26 sm. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the oven preheated to 200 C.

Enjoy! The cake baked yeasterday is already gone))))

Baby names-2: Top-10 in KZ

Baby names is the topic of the day. In the latest issue of a local magazine"My child" I found top-ten baby names in Kazakhstan.

Kazakh female: Aruzjan, Tomiris, Zere, Aulim, Ajazjan, Aidana, Aiim, Aisulu, Simbat, Amina.

Russian female: Alina, Maria, Arina, Milena, Polina, Evelina, Diana, Anastasia, Kseniya, Darya.

Kazakh male: Meirzjan, Miras, Sanzjar, Il'yas, Tamerlan, Alisher, Alihan, Ramazan, Askar, Abilai

Russian male: Egor, Il'ya, David, Nikita, Daniil, Daniel, Maksim, Yaroslav, Emil, Dmitrii.

Baby names

A man goes to the Birth Registration Office to register his newborn son.
The man behind the counter asks the name he wants to give to the boy, and the father replies, “Euro.”
The man says that such a name is not acceptable, because it’s a currency.
The man says: “What? There weren’t any objections when I called my first two sons Mark and Frank.”

A friend of ours proposed a special name to our baby I have to share with you.

Nursultan Sven-Olof Dormidont Joaquin

It goes really well with our international background ))))

Black & White

Yesterday kazavida blog got a record number of hits 33. Usually it's not more that 10 hits per day. I don't know what can generate more interest, probably some of you want to know if a new member has arrived. I wish I knew too))

I still try to use my spare time effectively before the day D. After reading different books about newborn psychology and perception of colors I was inspired to make a "black&white mobile" (thing you hang over a baby bed). It has been a while I did smth similar but it was worth a try. On the last picture it's a cylinder filled with beans so it can also make some noise.

Why Black & White? The answer is simple, newborns can see only high-contrast black and white patterns. Large black and white colors present the highest possible contrast (100%) to the eye and thus captivate and hold baby's attention, encouraging visual development.

Let's see what our baby will say about it ))))

12 days left... I hope...

Many people are wondering if I'm still pregnant. Yes, I am, as you can see on the picture. Seriously, I don't know if my belly will keep on growing for another 12 days. It's already on the edge of explosion. I can't really complain, all pregnancy period have been pure joy for me.


Some people are wondering how I spend all free days in Kazakhstan. As my friend said, it's great we have nine months to realize and get ready for parenthood. Just reading books how to take care of a newborn is time-consuming. Internet is still the worst time-killer for me so I force myself to go out for long walks. Training yoga is good both for body and soul

and I try to do it every day.

Few weeks ago I got obsessed with the idea to play piano after 15-year break (since I graduated from the music school). What a pregnant women wants... she gets. I've chosen keyboard, sounds and feels almost like piano plus hundreds of other functions, instruments sounds and possibility to create own music.

Green light for green city

Have you voted Earth tonight by switching off the lights for one hour? R and I have voted by falling asleep at 19.00 without having dinner. Now it's 04.00 in the morning, I'm awake and hungry.

I also read discussion forums what people say about the Earth Hour initiative. The positive ones make lists for "what you can do in the darkness", for example to paint the body of your partner in the darkness and then to take pictures of the result.

Many are not so positive. Some parts of the city were left today without electricity due to the electricity failure during several hours. People from this parts went furious about their "involuntary" voting. Electricity failure is still a common practice here. I remember it was even a common practice in old Soviet times and even more in post-Soviet. I remember when the electricity was suddenly off during Christmas and New Year celebrations. I remember one winter when the whole heating system AND electricity was off during several weeks. We slept in the fur coats with bottles with warm water and made fire in the garden to cook food.

I like the city turns green and here are the very first leaves:

First tulips

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Наурыз кутты болсын!
Today is the third day people in Kazakhstan celebrate New Year called Nauriz, the greatest Kazakh holiday throughout the year. It's nice not to go to work on Monday!

Nauriz is also celebrated in Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey on the spring equinox on 21-23 of March.Since Nauriz’s central theme is renewal and joy hence is the tradition on the eve of Nauriz to thoroughly clean you house, return all your debts, forgive all offences and resentments and to make peace with all with whom you were at odds.

Particularly in Kazakhstan they cook a special dish -- Nauriz Kozje (yogurt soup) -- prepared from 7 ingridients , that symbolize 7 elements of life:water, meat, salt, fat/oil, flour, cereals and milk. We tried it for the first time and it was ok, R was not exited so I ate the whole bowl.

Festivities on the main square, +20 degrees

Traditional sweets are very popular. Easy to put on some extra kilos after three days...

Me and my balloons... It was hard to find a parking place, but the police was implacableKazakh national carpets made from felt (войлок)

Felt brooch I bought at the festival:

Non-boring weather

Don't knock the weather;
nine-tenths of the people couldn't start
a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.
Kin Hubbard

Almaty three days ago, sunny, warm and outdoor seating, + 21 C.

Almaty yesterday, lots of snow, cold and refreshing, + 3-5 C.