All other countries have inferior Potassium: Easter and eggs equals elegant elations

In less than a week, I’ll be on a train headed for Almaty. Then I’ll fly to Key West, FL!!! I’m quite excited to be coming home, to see my family, first and foremost, and then to see friends and have a taste of American life again. Good food (with spices and not oil!), good wine, good micro-brews, and good times. They have a good word in Russian to explain all of this: Кайф – something like “bliss”

The local Easter was last Sunday and Nina invited myself, Paul, our new PTO, and Aitzhamal, my regional manager, to her apartment for a Easter lunch of borsch, blinis (blee-nee (s) – thin crepe-like pancakes), eggs and Easter cake. Several people I ran into during the day also gave me little gifts of eggs or chocolate as well. I love how they decorate the eggs here, usually either dying them like we do or putting those plastic sleeves around them and them dipping them in hot water. Except the egg wrappers here are really cool, ornate, and historical. Traditionally, there were different villages that became well known for the designs they painted on the eggs at Easter. Now, they’re printed on plastic, but the styles that they’re called by are named after the villages from where the design came. Neat, huh?

I attended a youth healthy living/ sports camp last week that was outside the city in a little town at a small resort and was invited to co-present the section about nutrition, which, as many of you know, is something I love to talk about. Natalya led the first half, talking about food additives, chemicals, and unhealthy foods and I spent the second half presenting the food guide pyramid (both the old and the new ones) and talking about what kinds of things you should be eating and how much you need. Then we had lunch.

My friend Maher, a volunteer here also in Pavlodar, is getting married! He got engaged to his local Russian girlfriend last week and asked me to be his best man, to which I, of course, said yes! The wedding will be in June and I'm looking forward to taking part in this. They're a great couple and they'll have a long, happy future together (with smart kids as his native languge is Arabic and her's is Russian and they speak mostly English with each other).

And finally, to answer all of the requests I’ve been getting, my apartment is now in order and I’ve taken pictures, below. They're resized, like always, but i only resized them a little bit, so if you click on it, you'll see a much bigger view than usual. There are a few things that need fixed up, minor repairs and physical damage and my landlord has assured me she’ll take care of it all when I leave in May. To my American readers – see ya soon, and to the rest of you – see ya when I get back!

This is пасхальный кулич (Pas-khal-nee koo-leech, the easter cake specially baked for this holiday) - it's pretty good, but hot-cross buns are better in my opinion.

My landlord is a really great person. We're neighbors and she gave me a little "Easter basket" of sorts with cake, eggs, and chocolate!

This is "Царь" cereal, which in english translates as "rip off." Look at the size of the box to the size of the bag to the amount inside the bag! They could have made a box 1/4 the size!

City workers, world-wide, are all the same. I decided to take this picture after they'd been standing there for about 30 minutes.

A little last minute preparation before we leave for the camp.

I get a million looks whenever I pull my laptop out outside - who does that?

Arriving at the camp!

You know you're in Kazakhstan when (#423): The tall Swedish-American is hovering about everyone else.

Our projector wasn't displaying either of our laptops for some reason... but this is us presenting.

My name is Настя (Nastya) and I'm singing "На Районе" (In the Outskirts, literally "in the region", which refers to a place outside of the city).

There was a Russian billiards competition and I got second place! Not bad for a guy who isn't used to the pockets, which are much smaller than an American pool table (though the table is about the same size).