Diplomat Astana

... to my hotel.I asked to be dropped off a street away to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise. Thanks all round. Another group of new best friends they surely are.<br> I was somewhat bemused when Dmitri left them as well and walked with my. I had planned to try to do a bit more on the internet before I lost the contact the following day. I find myself walking, not to the hotel, but along Respubliki to where another friend of Dmitri's was waiting for us with a classic Lada. Hope ...

... the city at 100kph except where there are speed cameras. Then Nikolai slams the brakes on. He knows every single one. His system of driving, a common one, is to keep you options open. Better to straddle two lanes than to commit yourself to one. And then drive like hell! On the way to his house he stops at a mate who he says is an electronics expert and makes an appointment for the sick bike for 15.00 this afternoon. Just in case!<br ...

... is my next ploy. It fails. Another stream of Russian issues from the intercom. The remaining crowd gather around me and come to my rescue. Whether or not they said "Oh, for goodness sake let the lad in it's freezing out here" or not I'll never know but I am admitted. <br><br>I had wondered where all those people who had been admitted earlier had gone to. There they all were labourously filling in forms and going to windows. I'd ...

... swings violently across the carriageway to the left and Serge has to use every ounce of his strength to keep it on the road. He succeeds and we come to a halt. A rather flat and bald wheel replaces the punctured one and we set off again along an increasingly potholed road.<br><br>Finally, with growing apprehension, Serge stops and asks a truck driver if we are on the right road. No, we are heading for Russia, not that far away in fact. A rather ...

... an all weather Leisure Centre. There are numerous other buildings nearing completion. What an amazing place. Makes the Beehive look a little tatty. The new is separated from the old by a river which has an artificial beach on it's banks. The so called 'old city' is also quite modern with some of the older buildings looking very out of place. There are remnants of the typical old housing estates with thick earth-packed walls and rickety tin roofs ...

... wirklich verbraucht wurden? Also nicht wie viel man im Monat getankt hat, sondern dann aufgrund des Kilometerstands und des vom Hersteller gesetzen durchschnittlichen Verbrauchs, wie viel man verbraucht haben könnte und wie viel noch im Tank verblieben sein müsste. Und der Tankinhalt muss dann aktiviert werden. Nach der Erklärung habe ich etwas verdutzt geschaut und die Gegenfrage gestellt, ob man denn auch den ...

... um den Tag auch wirklich nutzen zu können muss man von Almaty um 6:10 los fliegen, also um 4 Uhr aufstehen. 4 Uhr in Kasachstan ist 23 Uhr in Deutschland, so dass man beim kurzen morgendlichen Computergang noch die ganzen Deutschen in Skype sehen kann. Ein komisches Gefühl schon wieder aufzustehen, wenn die anderen noch nicht mal im Bett sind. Da kommt man sich irgendwie weiter weg vor als sonst. Eines der positiven Erlebnisse in Astana war das Treffen mit unseren ...

It is very cold here in Kazakhstan, and the ground is covered in snow. A popular winter sport in Canada is "Curling". Curling is a precision team sport similar to bowls or bocce, played on a rectangular sheet of prepared ice by two teams of four players each, using heavy polished granite stones which players slide down the ice towards a target area called the house. Other players use brooms to sweep the ice in front of the sliding stone. It is my belief that perhaps ...

A few thoughts on my trip to Mt. Everest and my journey to the top of the world! So, I made it only as far as the first base camp......... But it was still really impressive to be standing at the base of the highest mountain in the world and at an altitude that most commercial airliners cruise at! It is funny how when you are standing at the base of mt. Everest at 5200 meters (17,060 feet) 8,847 meters (29 ...

... Zhezkazgan. This was a wonderful way to make a connection between volunteers and government officials. It also was a way for us to network and open up our projects to other cities. After the presentation we were able to explore Astana. We all went to a Uzbek restaurant and had different types of Plov and salads. The next day I went to my host cousins Eurasia University to speak to her English students. They asked questions and I talked about ...