Shopping in Kapshagay

Happy Monday!  Heath left for Astana by train yesterday afternoon, and he made it safe and sound this morning.  The train ride was an awful 18ish hours, but he said the time went by pretty fast because he slept for over half of it.  They immediately had practice this morning, but he got to eat some American food in the mall-- Hardee's.  A burger and fries is about as American as you can get, right?  

Before he left, we spent his day off Saturday walking around town... and taking me shopping!!  Well, window shopping.  I never noticed all the shops around the supermarket here so it was fun looking at the different fashion and clothing options.  I had to pull out my phone for the conversion app so I could see how much stuff was, but the prices weren't really that different than in America.  I did find a couple of boots I liked, and I made sure Heath took note just in case he was in the market for an early Christmas gift.  

The area is referred to as "the mall" because there are clothing shops, an electronic store and a large supermarket.  Remember when I mentioned all the malls in Almaty included a supermarket, too?  By the time we got to the third store, Heath already said "I'll be sitting on the bench outside."  Typical.

On the other hand, the food here is VERY cheap in regards to comparing prices in America.  Heath and I can go out to eat for less than $10 total and be completely full.  It's going to be difficult going back to America and realizing that going out to eat will be at least twice, if not three, times as much.  It's already hard for me to buy food here that is more than $5.  I wouldn't even buy a wine opener because I thought $7 was a waste.  I just kept thinking of all the food I could buy with that $7.  In all seriousness, this is how the wine opener conversation went:

Me: "How much is the wine opener?"

Heath: "About $7."

Me: "ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHY?"

Heath: "I don't know, but it's the only one they have."

Me: "We're not getting it.  We don't need it."

Heath: "How are we going to open your wine bottles?"

Me: "Pushing the cork through worked last time.  Let's just keep doing that, then covering it with foil if needed.  It'll also make me finish the bottle faster so the cork isn't just sitting in there."

Heath: "I'm fine with that.  Saves me $7.  Hey, I like the way you think."

We're meant to be, ladies and gentlemen.  Together forever.

The McKays lunchin' @ Svetlana.

This is an example of cheap prices, but large portions.  The guys frequent Svetlana because of how much food they give you!  This plate is bigger than my face, and I have a pretty big face.  I ordered Chicken Lagman for only 550 tenge ($3.56!!!!) and love all the veggies that come with it.  The pictures are actually the same dish, but you couldn't even tell there were noodles in it when it was served to me because there were so many veggies.  YUM.  Don't worry; I didn't eat all of it.

Boys.

My favorite store in the mall!  They had the cutest bags and scarves.   

Heath, can you buy me all of these?

Cheetah.  Leopard.  I don't know the difference, but I need this. 

The kids area in the mall. 

I was a little thrown off by the name.  I didn't know a store called "GANG" would be so promising.

My bag boys. 

We had dinner at the burger place downtown.  I'd been wanting to try the club sandwich, and it did not fail me.  No need to ask about the French fries.  French fries from anywhere could never fail me. 

Heath's cheeseburger he ordered didn't come with cheese, sadly. 

Yes, I won't buy a $7 wine opener but I will spend $7 on a bottle of wine.  Especially one called Wine Man.  Can you see the floating cork?

So now that Heath is gone, I'm still having fun doing even more shopping!  This time, I'm actually buying.  I love walking around downtown at the Farmer's Market even when I don't even need to buy anything.  The people try to speak Russian to me, because clearly I look Kazakh.  I almost fit in.  Almost...

Today, I spilled an entire bag of coins in the middle of the Farmer's Market.  It's bad enough when you know people are staring at you trying to figure out why I'm "English only."  Luckily, the sweet old lady I just bought a head of lettuce and cilantro from helped me pick all the coins off the floor.  I still don't understand how my ziplock bag conveniently got a hole in it when I left the apartment just ten minutes prior.

I got this bag at Sam Moon in high school, and I'm not sure why sometimes.  After all these years, I now know why.  This is commonly used as a fake-out "personal belonging" bag on the airplane so I can fit my actual purse, plus laptop, iPad and book.  Hence why it made it to Kazakhstan.  Today, it was useful in carrying my produce items home-- hands free.  Thanks to the self-timer camera app for this staged photo.

I got all of this for only $5!  Can I bring the Farmer's Market back to America, please?

I'm excited to make even more salsa tomorrow with my fresh tomatoes!  Heath requested it two other times since I made it for the first time last week.  This time, I won't have to share it... until he comes back on Thursday.  "Heath, can you at least leave some for me?" is a pretty common request around here.  I guess we really are never going to buy store bought salsa again.  He said that about the homemade pasta sauce too.  A way to a man's heart is truly his stomach.

Well, back to a new guilty pleasure.  I caught up to The Mindy Project yesterday, and started Nashville last night.  I most likely will be caught up with it by tomorrow.  I hate Juliette, Gunnar's shyness is adorable, Avery needs a haircut, Scarlet's locks are perfection, Peggy is the lamest homewrecker and can Rayna and Deacon just get together?!  I don't even have time to miss Heath... ;)

My other new guilty pleasure are Twix, but I'm not going to say anything more about that....

P.S.  BK Kapshagay's first game of the season is tomorrow at 5 PM!  It'll be 6 AM central time, so I trust all of you will be up that early to say a cheer for Heath.  Just kidding.  However, you can watch it live online at http://www.bcastana.kz/en/.  Wear your blue or white... Go Kapshagay!  Especially #9 (Heath), and #15 (Nate).



Until next time,