Daniel’s Diary -SEPTEMBER 25th

So we arrived in Almaty around 5 am in the morning and we are quickly met with this embassy liaison who is there waiting for us with a sign with my name on it. There is another name and I quickly learn there is another American on the flight besides myself and Davon. We are shown what to do and we are sent to the front of the line with the liaison. We quickly get our stamps and go and wait for our luggage. We meet the other American. He’s an embassy worker with a couple of cats in tow. Davon and I are a little surprised that this guy has cats with him. There’s a police officer looking at them and he’s doing all the proper paper work but I’m sure he’s just as surprised as I am about seeing some American guy with his cats in tow. We later find out he’s on his way to Bishkek to live and for some reason he can’t live there without these two cats. Davon says that there’s a lot of love in that. I think he meant it was a bit extreme for someone to take a couple of cats clear out to Central Asia.

We are led to a large White Chevy Suburban and we throw our luggage in the back. We are driven to the hotel. It’s pretty decent Soviet Style hotel with some modern amenities thrown in. It has a television with cable so I can watch old Soviet movies and then watch CNN.

I can hear James and Anna’s voice in the hallway soon as we arrive into our rooms. I can hear the twangy American voices through the door! I open the door and let them know we’re here. We all chat and it seems as if James and Anna are having a great time already. Davon notes that it seems like they’ve already been here for a while. It looks like it’s taken them a little longer. They missed their connector in Heathrow Airport (I hate that airport) after booking a flight that seems to be to far away from the connection to Almaty. Anna pulled some persuasive action and they got a free hotel in London and flight the next day. They told us they’ve been walking around Almaty for the last day. They got to meet Vladimir and Leila. They walked to the embassy saw a bit of Almaty and even found themselves in an Irish Pub drinking Guinness and having Shepherd’s Pie.

We had breakfast downstairs and then all went for a walk near our hotel. We went to the Arbat and looked around a bit. We talked a little about our work. Afterwards we walked back to our apartment. My stomach wasn’t feeling so well. This always happens when I eat that fucking airplane food. I always tell myself I will try not to eat it. My “refined Chez Panisse stomach” isn’t used to all of these preservatives in the food. It wants organic tomatoes and grass fed meat. Fortunately the food in Kazakhstan is great! I make some phone calls to friends. I’m surprised after one year away from Almaty many of my friends cell phone numbers are no longer working. I guess you can’t take your phone number with you to the next available service. I reach Saule and have a brief chat with her (It’s so nice to hear her voice!) and we arrange to meet on the following day. They want to arrange to pick me up right at that moment but I let them know I have a lot of work to do.

Around 1:30 pm we meet Leila the embassy official, and Vladimir along with a few other embassy people. We have a brief meeting with them and we discuss a bit about what we’ll do. We talk a bit about losing the wall for a mural. Vladimir shows us the large canvases that we’re painting. They’re huge! We’re happy about them. We also get a chance to meet some of the local graffiti writers. They’re a bit shy but that’s normal.

We go to dinner with Bota and we meet Malik. We have dinner at Destarkhan. It’s a pretty decent place but it costs around 25 dollars. I think it’s pretty expensive but it was good food and Davon, James and Anna liked it.

We go home and we find out on CNN that Washington Mutual went under. Things aren’t looking good in the financial world.