Just Have To Share

We leave Bulgaria this summer.
I don't know how I feel about it. If you asked me about it a couple of months ago I would tell you that I cannot wait to go somewhere new. But lately I've been thinking about the pluses of living in Sofia. Some of those pluses are living in a big house with a backyard, having four seasons that are close to what I am used to, having beautiful summers that are abundant in fruit and veggies, having mountains close by, and being able to find pretty much everything we need. Don't get me wrong, it still doesn't have good sidewalks and walking where we live is pretty much impossible, and having a big house close to the mountains means we kind of live far from everyone else. But I got used to the things that are not so good and they don't bother me much any more.

So why am I telling you all this? Because finally (after months and months of bidding) we got our new assignment. This bidding thing almost depressed me because it was the first time Matt had to lobby for himself and pretty much find a job inside his State Department job (it sounds weird, I know). So we had pretty high expectations and after not getting our initial bid places I started to worry. It lasted for months and when we got a job offer we had to take it and I could finally sleep better. (Haha, joke's on me though as I got a newborn that doesn't really let me sleep anymore).

So starting Dec 2014 or Jan 2015 we will be in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Again, I don't know how I feel about it. But let's not talk about it now. Let me tell you some fun facts about this country. I had to google them all as I know close to nothing about Kazakhstan.

1. Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country and it has the longest continuous border (with Russia).
2. It is believed that Kazakhstan was the first country where horses were domesticated by men, thousands of years ago.
3. The New Year in Kazakhstan is celebrated on the 22nd of March.
4. Winters are super cold and windy and summers are very hot.
5. The first and the world's largest space center "Baikonur" is located in Kazakhstan. The first artificial satellite (Sputnik-1) and the first man (Yuri Gagarin) were sent into space from the Baikonur's Cosmodrome.
6. The sun in the flag of Kazakhstan has 32 beams, symbolizing progress and abundance.

Now you know about Kazakhstan as much as I do. And I'll have to tell you more when we get there.