A Sweet Day at the Caspian Sea

Dear Folks,
The Caspian Sea is saving me from the hardships of adjusting to a new culture. Marc told me about a nicer beach with whiter sand and no rocks. He was so kind to meet me about noon and walk me to this new beach. He had even found one of those foot pumps to blow up my floater. This floater of mine is sure a deluxe model and has been worth every penny. This beach was right by the boat club, so there were boats in the water and an empty buouy for me to hang on to so that I won't float to Iran.
I am just in heaven hanging out on my floater in the water. It was a beautiful day and when I closed my eyes I could imagine easily being back at McKee's Beach on my floater. There was a boat playing some decent music, some sailboats to watch, a gal water skiing, some guys rowing a blown up boat, the lapping waves, and a beautiful sun. Who would know that I was in Kazakhstan??
Marc ended up heading home and I just hung out on the beach, laying on my floater to get all the air out and soaking up the sun.
Marc had told me about this group of people on the beach that were doing this crazy thing of trying to build a fire without any firework, so they were trying to pull branches off of the little trees along the beach. He could just see them wrecking the trees and we both agreed that it was a STUPID thing to do.

When I was leaving the beach, I passed this group of people having a picnic with their little fire going. I looked their way and the only girl in the group of 7 guys said hello to me. We started talking and she asked me to join them. One of the guys was having a birthday party. The blanket was all spread out and in the middle was a huge platter of potatoes,carrots, and meat which had been cooking on the fire. She had homemade bread and everyone was dipping their bread in the potatoes. It was absolutely delicious! She had also made this salad out of tomatoes and cucumbers which reminded me of something I used to make back in Kentucky with cucumbers. They also had a big platter of sliced meat. The girl's name was Venus and she did all the translating for us. They wanted to know so many things about me. Whenever I said something and Venus translated they all laughed and were so friendly.

I told the group that I didn't think the people in Aktau were very friendly. I told them how I try to smile at people and then I demonstrated what their faces (the people on the street) looked like. They got a kick out of that! When they understood what I was saying, they all started talking at once. They were naming other towns where the people were very friendly. Venus agreed with me about the people here. She said that they have many problems and they look down at the sidewalk all the time thinking about their problems.

Actually, I am starting to get more and more smiles. One guy said that he saw me walking to work every morning. I told him that I hoped I was on my best behavior. He just laughed. Then I found out that he was a soldier guarding the streets and I said, "Wow, I better be on my best behavior." More rounds of laughter. You would have thought I was some movie star or something! Venus told me there were many beautiful places to see in Aktau (which was hard for me to believe) and she wants to take me to see some of them next weekend. She knew all about my school. She used to work there I guess, so she is going to call Art and give him her telephone information so I can get in touch with her. I left feeling so happy that I had made some friends even though they were trying to kill a tree.

On the way home I stopped at three different markets to get the last ingredients for my big lasagne dinner tonight. I got home around 8PM and had so much energy that I made 3 pies....two mixed berry pies and one huge apple pie made in a huge glass baking dish because I didn't have a pie plate. Wanda's secret ingredient for the best pie crust around is an egg and a t.of vinegar. Nick had told me that you really had to be careful of the vinegar they sell because you have to dilute it otherwise it will burn a hole in your stomach and could kill you. So here I am with this bottle of vinegar (70%) trying to decide how to make a pie crust without killing everyone off. I just used a few drops and hoped for the best. I couldn't get the image of everyone keeling over after eating the pie, so I decided to eat some before I went to bed. The crust was really not that great and I could taste the raw sugar, but with ice cream it wasn't too bad. I didn't die during the night so I guess I will serve the pies tonight.

I have to go to start making the lasagne. I'll let you know how that turns out. I love all of you. Love, Mom Rachel