Karaganda is very chic

Hello all,

Today was another great day with Sofie. She was a little more mellow than yesterday. Probably wore her out from exercising. I had to wake her up from her nap. She doesn't like that. She didn't cry, but she looked at me and rolled right over on her side and stuck her finger in her mouth. I know how she feels. There's nothing like a good nap.

During our afternoon break today we went to the downtown area of Karaganda. My Vermont friends can't believe how much it has changed in just 5 years. The government is pouring money into large cities trying to modernize and establish a stable economy in the somewhat newly independent country. I am so impressed by the people of Kazakhstan. I wish you could see how beautiful they are. There is not one particular look like other countries have, but there is something about them that is so beautiful. They are also very fashionable dressers. We in the US are so casual. We felt very frumpy walking amongst them. High heals on every woman. Dress slacks on the men. Its amazing. Everyone, I mean everyone was dressed up. Its a big city. Around 400,000 people. I am impressed. Next time we are going to bring our cameras and take pictures of all the fancy outfits, etc.

Just want you to know how nice it is to read your comments to the blog and your emails at my hotmail account. It is so important to me to share this happy, happy time with you all. Hearing from you makes it seem like I'm not half way around the world!