First real day

Ready to go from Heathrow

Although we arrived yesterday, we decided to write the day off. The children survived their first flight, but jetlag hit us all so we dropped off to sleep at ridiculous times. We are in a land that speaks little English, so until we start learning the lingo we were very grateful to the assistant from Nazarbayev University (NU) who took care of us, helped get us mobile phones and food.

The apartment we are currently in is huge! The place is called Riverside for obvious reasons and a few shop signs that we can see from the windows (for we have several) are the instant reminder that we are not in Eastbourne anymore. It's all a bit weird as expected, but a little bit more manageable after some food. Found the nearest KFC and for Ali a Costa, so we might venture out in minus 20 degrees, across the frozen lake and warm up with unhealthly reminders of home.

First day at work and the opportunities to develop nanochemistry within NU are phenomenal. Perhaps it was slightly tempered when Ali texted to say our littlest was sick. Managed to get Ali out of the apartment once I found an excited US lass also in Chemical Engineering who is living a few doors down from us. Guess trying to balance the new found wonder of work with a family that is trying to avoid cabin fever will be a challenge.

Are we ready for Kazakhstan? Is Kazakhstan ready for us? Time will tell.

Ray