Ugly Americans

It is past the midway point of October, and the weather is only mildly cooler during the day than it was in the summer. Our air conditioning has been taken away from us, not to be seen again till some time next spring. That's what happens when your AC is centrally controlled by the building, not by unit. It would be one thing if we were able to leave our windows open all the time- the wind we see on the 9th floor (late in the day when the sun is behind our building) is cool enough that the apartment is breezy and not that warm. The sandstorms, however, make it impossible for us to leave them open all the time. If you are in the apartment you can see them rolling in, across the city. It always looks like a big yellow cloud enveloping the city block by block. They're not really something you want to drive in, either. We had another carpet/arts&crafts/ yard sale this past weekend. I ended up buying more gifts for home. We also picked up three more carpets for home. One for

It is now nearing the end of August, and we have been here six months now (September 1st will be the start of month 7). A lot has happened between my last post and now. All of our stuff is here, and we are for the most part completely settled in. So settled, that we have had dinner parties (shocking!). We still have way more consumables than we should have purchased, but that's ok. We have purchased small 220 appliances (a toaster and a food processor 'kitchen robot'). We have had some of our U.S. appliances die horrible, horrible deaths (a blender and food processor). I can read a good deal of Russian, order my food in Russian, have simple conversations in Russian, etc. etc. I know this doesn't sound like much, (and sometimes it feels like very little progress) but it is a BIG THING when everyone speaks Russian (or Turkmen), and most of the goods you can buy (and the signage) are written in Cyrillic. I am now, once again, gainfully employed (and have been sin

I am tempted to construct a countdown calendar on the wall of our office. This isn't because I'm miserable here, I would like to point out. I think both of us came here with the lowest expectations possible , and we have been pleasantly surprised at every turn with day-to-day life here. I have been taking the bus for the past four months everywhere in-city, and while it can be very crowded at times, it's cheap and no one bothers me. We have our car now, but I will likely continue to use the buses when Mike needs the car. Sometimes it's better to use the bus than feel you are putting someone out/ inconveniencing them by asking for a ride. You can find most everything you need here regularly, save for a few things (celery and lettuce, for example) as long as you are willing to look for them. So far driving is no more/no less stressful than driving in Miami.

This is now, officially, week 3 of living in Ashgabat. The city is both weird and interesting at the same time. It's safe to walk about, even if there are street ninjas on every corner (I have to take some photos of them when I can!). Some people like dogs, other people look at you as if you are insane for walking with one. There are cats everywhere.

I was going to post some entries that have been sitting in editing hell, waiting to be posted that (chronologically) take place before this post. But they're going to wait because frankly no one gives a shit about our trip to Hagerstown, or about our 8 billion trips (it at least seemed that many at the time) to BJs for our consumables, or anything else that took place before we got here. So those posts will have to wait for another day. Oh well. Also, this post is super-long. We 'officially' left Oakwood (the temporary housing we were staying at) at about 5pm on Wednesday, February 2nd. We arranged for a super shuttle van to pick us up and cart our asses to Dulles airport, and that was pretty uneventful. When we got to the airport, I had all the pet information in hand (vaccinations, health certificate, etc. etc.) ready to go for the attendant at the counter. That part went smoothly. Our luggage on the other hand, was one big mess. We had left Oakwood with four suitcases,

When a person goes off for Foreign Service training, their belongings (courtesy of the USG) are packed up and shipped off- their final destination a storage facility located in a place called 'Hagerstown'. During the packing/moving phase they also highly that you have the movers write the exact contents of the box ON THE BOX. Which our movers did. Kind of. I also took a picture of each box, just to be safe, but to be honest it was a horrible pack-out and move since I actually had movers walk out on me during day two (I should probably just make a separate post about those two days). Anyways, once you give the go ahead for the U.S. government to come on in and pack/ship your stuff, you are given a book that tells you everything you need to know about moving AND some very important information about accessing/ reviewing your stuff once it has been hauled off. 1. You only get one free admission to the Hagerstown storage facility. Any visit beyond the first is on your di

On Flag Day, when Mike was officially told what post we would be going to (Turkmenistan), we knew next to nothing about our future new home. Over time, we learned a few things about the place, through post reports and from stories told to us by people who had been there. Like the fact that the water is not potable, and you need a distiller to make it drinkable. Or that you need to go to the open air market early in the morning if you are buying meat there, because they have no refrigeration. They just butcher on site. Things like that. We were also told that internet access would not be the same. Significantly not the same, as in 'lucky to get Facebook'. So, understandably there are a couple of things that are going to change once we get 'over there' (aka Turkmenistan). Many of them involve technology- like the internet, cellphones, television, or gaming. You know, what most people take as a given here. The first thing we lose at the end of the month is our cell

It's a little more than three weeks until we arrive at our new home in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The time is going by faster than I expected, but most of things that need to be completed for pack out have been completed. Some things still have to wait- I can't get the health certificates for Nara or Elizabeth from Aphis until 10 days before our departure. Our car won't ship until later in the month. We'll be buying our consumables that ship to post this weekend, along with picking out what will be shipped from storage to post. And we will likely get our visas on arrival to our host country. Yesterday we sent out three boxes in advance to post, with items we will need on arrival. The post's HRO has kindly offered to receive our incoming boxes before our arrival and arrange for them to be placed in our new home, which is very kind of him. Our initial pile o' stuff to be sent did not completely fill the boxes. Seeing the opportunity to jam all three boxes to the gill