Apples are from Kazakhstan

I see that there are quite a few people reading this blog recently and perhaps waiting for updates. So, welcome and here goes. :)

The Dossier is now at the Kaz consulate here in Ottawa and we await the return of the person who handles them, hopefully this week (Its Sunday today). Liana will call on Wednesday and check. Since they are no dossiers submitted yet, ours should still be the first one, so hopefully should not take too long. (Fingers crossed)

While we wait, I am trying to find out more about the land that's so hard to get information about. Everyone seems to only say one word when they hear 'Kazakhstan', its that ridiculous character in a film that had nothing to do with it, which upsets me a bit since its rude and ignorant. So, I want to try and inform people while I learn more about this land as well.

Highly recommend 2 things. The first is a documentary series called 'Long Way Round' chronicling the journey of the famous actor Ewan Mcgregor (who btw is a father of 4 children, 2 of whom are adopted-1 from Mongolia) and his friend Charley, going around the world on a motorcycle. Its an amazing watch and very interesting since episode 4 is their journey through Kazakhstan (including a bit about Aktobe!) Its on youtube - a continuous 45 min episode each. The whole series is pretty awesome!

The other is a book I discovered out of all the other reading material I was able to find. Its called 'Apples are from Kazakhstan'. I love it! The author spent about a year living there, meeting people, researching its past and getting an understanding of who they are, how they think and why they think how they think. I think its a pretty awesome read (Im half thru and quite glad to have discovered it) and helps gain a lot of insight into this country which was closed to outsiders under the Russian rule.
Happy Reading! :) Its wonderfully encouraging & motivating hearing from all of you, so feel free to write to me personally or comment on the posts here.