How I Live Now

This blog post has been updated.  The video that did not work has been replaced with pictures and narration.  I'll try video another time! :)

Sorry it has been so long between posts.  I knew what I wanted to post, but was having trouble getting the footage.  But now, here it is.  My new home!

This is the outside of my apartment building.  This is taken from the parking lot in back.  My apartment is on the top floor.  The one with a wooden exterior.

I go in the door in the corner and climb 70 steps up this stairway to my apartment.

Here it is: #37.

Come take a look inside.

This is my entryway.  The inside of my front door is "pleather" with studs.  We don't wear shoes in Kazakh houses, so I leave my shoes by the door.  From the entryway, we can go into the bathroom:

My bathroom is nice and big.  I have a huge bathtub and a small washing machine (one sheet at a time).  The hot water heater (boiler) hangs over the toilet.  It wasn't working my first week here, so I am very grateful every time I take a warm shower.

My kitchen is also big.  I have a table with seating for 6 and a refrigerator that is twice as big as most of my colleagues.  I get to make ice!  Last week I had ice for the first time in 4 weeks.  I was very happy :)

Along the back of the kitchen is a little enclosed porch.  That is where I can hang my clothes to dry.

My living room is also big.  The wall paper is a silver foil.  Gold and silver are very common colors here.  Even though I have a nice TV, I only get Kazakh and Russian stations.  I'm hoping I can learn some language from those.

The houses don't have carpets, just area rugs.  It's probably because things are so dusty and dirty outside that it wouldn't make sense to have carpet.  Almost all floors are the laminate you see in my place.

The bedroom is the smallest room in the house.  I took a closeup of the wall paper so you could get the full effect.  My room is like a tribute to Kazakhstan.  The Kazakh flag is turquiose and gold with an eagle and a sun, so those are very common colors, also.  Not only are those the colors of my bedroom, I have the Kazakh sun on my ceiling!  I love looking up at it.

So that's it.  My flat and my new lifestyle.  Not as bad inside as you expected from the outside, right?