I'm A True Kazakh Now

Dear Folks,
My blog has sat empty for almost 3 weeks, but I am alive and healthy. The travel to the states before Christmas was uneventful until I got to Chicago and had only 2 hours to go through customs. I thought that was plenty of time, but I was still standing in the line to recheck my baggage to Asheville when they told me I was at the wrong airlines. My ticket had been printed up wrong and said American instead of United. With only half an hour left I rushed over to United and my heart sank when I saw the long line ahead of me. I knew I was doomed, so I did something that all Kazakhs do which infuriates me - I CUT LINE!!!! I felt so horrible and tried to explain my situation to the guy I cut in front (not the whole line). While waiting in line I found out that my flight to Asheville was cancelled because of the snow. Maleika and family were snowed in and wouldn't have been able to get me at the airport anyway. I let the guy that I cut in front go ahead of me and he was so sweet and thankful that it made me feel even more guilty. I got a flight to Greensboro where Natosha lives and got in about 2:30 that morning.
All of us met at a beach house on Hatteras Island the day after Christmas and spent a week loving on family, soaking in the hot tub, walking on the beach, eating way too much delicious food, and pigging out on homemade candy. One of my favorite times is when Ruby (3 years old) and I spent a few hours making a sand castle on the beach and decorating it with seashells. Then we dug a huge moat around the castle and waited for the waves to come and fill up the moat. I don't know who was the most excited to see it get washed away. We were both screaming and laughing. Tyler will kill me for telling my best memory of him, but one night I felt a body get in bed with me in the middle of the night. I thought it was Ruby because we were all sleeping in the bunk bed room together, but I discovered that it was Tyler. The big house at night was spooking him out and he came to grandma's bed. It was so cute that I couldn't kick him out, but it was a very crowded rest of the night in the bunk bed.
I couldn't believe that I was heading back to Kazakhstan and thought for sure that I would get stuck in Chicago in their snowstorm, but our plane to Istanbul, Turkey left on time. It was an 11 hour flight and I was squashed in the middle seat with no leg room. There was a metal box on the floor in front of my seat, so by the time I put my back bag down, there was little room for anything else. It was the most miserable ride of my travel career. It was so hot in the plane that I started stripping - first my sweater and coat, then scarf, then hat and shoes, and then off came my socks. I could have kept going, but didn't want to get arrested. There was just no air on the plane and I was wiping sweat off my face. It was so hard to get to sleep. However, they really fed us good on that international flight and the two people on both sides of me were really nice, so I'll stop complaining.
We had a 24 hour lay over in Baku. I say we because my director and his wife were on the same flight. I had no idea what I would do for 24 hours in an airport. Baku's airport is very small with only two snack places - no restaurants for real food. We all took mini naps off and on during those 24 hours trying to get comfortable on the metal benches. I walked all around the airport trying to find a plug so I could at least plug my computer in and play a game. I was so excited when I finally found an outlet and got all set up with my water, blanket, and pillow and then wanted to cry when I realized that the plug didn't work. I asked someone about plugs and they told me that there were none in the airport. I just couldn't believe that, so I kept looking. I finally found a plug between the two restrooms and it worked, so I set up shop there for awhile. In Baku they had taken our passports and paper tickets when we arrived and didn't give them back until half an hour before our plane left. Crazy! Crazy! Then 8 uniformed men came in asking for Knight Rachel and to follow them. I'm sure you already know this because you could have heard my heart thump all across the ocean. They led me into the security area where they had one of my suitcases. Only two of the men could speak English and I finally understood that the x ray machine had found some metal in my suitcase. They wanted me to take out each thing one by one and explain it to them. This was my suitcase that had all my school stuff that I was bringing back. I wish I could have had a video camera of the next half hour. I wanted to laugh, but they were very serious. I opened my suitcase and it was full of calendar cards, children books, tapes, Dr. Seuss characters that Natosha had made a few years back, picture cards, games, and even a leopard tail from Ruby's collection. They wanted me to take out each thing and put it in a basket and "explain" it to them. I picked up a picture and said, "This is a picture of a bear." They always answered, "No Problem. No Problem." The funniest thing to me was that there was 3 or 4 of the guys bent over into my suitcase going through things and picking up all the cassettes and smelling them. At the end I asked them why they were smelling them and the only word I understood was "oil". They discovered a bottle of vanilla and were sniffing at that. When they discovered the leopard tail they all took a turn squeezing it from top to bottom. Finally, most of the stuff was out of the suitcase and in baskets. They ran the suitcase again and still found the metal. You couldn't believe how they patted and examined that suitcase ( the one you gave me Rebecca). In the end I think it was a card game of dominoes in a plastic bag. It was brand new and had never been opened. They made me open it and show them. I laid the cards out and showed how you matched the animals. They were finally satisfied and I dumped everything back into the suitcase. The two men who could speak English said they were sorry over and over to me.
It was such a relief to arrive in Aktau. It was biting cold outside at 3:30AM. My last leg of the journey was getting all my stuff up 14 flights and getting back inside of my apartment. I couldn't sleep for a few hours and then I slept until 3:00 PM the next day. School tomorrow, so off to bed. I'd love to hear your stories of the holiday. Love, Rachel