Tips for Future Travelers

Don't bring anything unless you just simply can't live without a certain brand or a certain something. For example: my husband and coffee. All the coffee here is Nescafe. Jim brought some ground Starbucks and a French press so he could brew it in the room.

Call Sara or Beth at Interlink when you get here. Main office # is 45 41 01 or 45 38 97. Call during business hours--voicemail is nonexistent. Interlink has a welcome package with a map of the area featuring US friendly restaurants, grocery stores, etc. They also have a library of about 200 DVDs you can borrow. And if you want your video camera batteries recharged (or anything that needs a US plug) Sara can do it at her desk. They can also help out with any questions you have--just ask!And Sara makes the best pizza in town so try to get invited to some sort of Interlink get-together :)

At restaurants, any of the pizzas are safe (safe meaning, no strange ingredients like sheep's head). Also, doner kebab is like a gyro. Any of the kebabs are safe, provided you like the taste of gyros (lamb). What we think of as a kebab is called a 'shashlik' here. The salads might seem odd but they are good. They aren't bowls of lettuce but more like chicken salad--chopped veggies sometimes with vinegar dressing, sometimes with mayo dressing.

About 1/3 of the time we order something and are told it isn't available so have a backup plan :)

Also, they don't give you a lot of time between sitting down and ordering and they expect you to order everything--drinks, food--at once. Learn the phrase "minoot koo"--it means give me a minute, please. Menus at the popular restaurants will be in English but the ingredients generally won't, so you'll be able to read that it is a "Malibu Salad" but not that it has tomatoes, etc. in it. The menu at the Gazovik has everything in English--names of the dish and ingredients and the Sakartvelo menu has many of the ingredients in English.

Learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You can read a lot of the signs by sounding things out if you know that C makes the 's' sound, P makes the 'r' sound, etc. And, if you learn the vocabulary for typical ingredients in Russian (tomato, corn, meat, chicken, etc.) you can sound out the ingredients and know what is on that pizza you just ordered.

When ordering water: 'vada biz gaza' is without bubbles. 'vada su gaza' is with bubbles. All restaurants also have Pepsi, Fanta, etc.

If there is a charge of about 25-30 tenge on your bill and you can't figure out what it is for you have probably fallen for the bread basket trick. That bread you ate isn't free. But at about 20 cents, who's complaining? Also, they do add a 10% service fee to the bill.

Vera sells Avon!

Bring a gift for the judge and prosecutor even if your agency says not to. We hear they are big on hunting.

Bring 5 or 6 extra small gifts for helpful people along the way. For example, Sara at Interlink set us up with a Kazakh college student who took us to the bazaar so we could see what it was like and so that he could practice his English with us. He wouldn't let us pay him so we gave him a gift (via Sara).

If you are going to do laundry at the hotel buy liquid Woolite. I've seen all kinds of powdered soap for automatic washers but haven't noticed soap for doing laundry by hand. I'm sure they have it, I just haven't seen it.

Bring good earplugs. Our hotel room practically faces the square and there is always someone out there at 1 a.m. There is also some guy who can't figure out how his car alarm works but tries almost every night and every morning at about 7. Earplugs are so tiny you won't notice the extra weight in your luggage :)

Bring chapstick and hand sanitizer. Unless you are particular about brands, buy shampoo and lotion here (nothing worse than having that stuff leak in your luggage). They have a bunch of US brands as well as Western Europe brands.

Gros supermarket carries a wide variety of frozen pizzas. I've wondered if the kitchen staff here at the Gazovik would heat one up for us. I haven't asked but I bet they would.

Vera can get a small fridge for your room as well as a set of plates. Ask at the hotel restaurant for silverware. We used a hotel coffee spoon to feed Alex 1/2 jar of baby food each morning at the baby house. Also good to bring one or two of the tiny Ziploc or Glad plastic containers--we put 1/2 the baby food in it each day.

Interlingua's phone number (where you can take the classes on Kazakh culture and history) is 45 30 82. They all speak English--or ask for Adilya. Set this up early, the first week you get here, so you have time to take a good number of classes.

Depending on where you have a layover, get about $50-60 of that local currency before leaving the US. We had euros (thanks, Genie!) to spend in Frankfurt so we could get a little lunch.

Don't bring a donation for the baby house. The director will tell Vera what she wants the last week you are here.

Don't buy "Daisy Bloom" brand baby wipes. They smell strongly like the most flowery perfume ever. Makes me gag just thinking about it.

At the Orthodox Church (which is breathtakingly beautiful!) women traditionally wear a scarf over their heads, tied under the chin.

Before leaving the US check on phone card charges per minute. If you buy a phone card here you will spend $1+ /minute to the US.

We wish we had brought small plastic water bottles to carry around with us rather than buying them whenever we got thirsty. Buy bottles with a wide neck so it is easy to fill them from the water you buy at the grocery store.

There is no Equal/Nutrasweet, etc. here so if you have to have it, bring it. There is 'Pepsi Light', which we think has 1/2 the sugar. There used to be Diet Coke, but no more. Maybe it will return??

Bring a travel alarm clock--there isn't one provided in the room.

Bring a leatherman, Swiss army knife or small toolkit just in case. Don't pack it in carry-on.

Be VERY CAREFUL crossing the street. Look both ways and then look again. And one more time. A lot of times people stop for us and let us through because I think they can tell we are foreigners and are just being nice but still....look out!

If you bring flowers to someone (say, if you are going to their house for dinner) bring an odd number. Even numbers of flowers are for funerals and the dead, odd are for the living.

Sakartvelo (the Georgian restaurant) and the gym by the soccer stadium are closed on Sundays.

Sakartvelo has GREAT food! Their Greek salad is wonderful and their grilled meats are awesome, especially the pork shashlik.