November 25th, 2007 by Benjamin Wagaman.
Categorized as fun, life.
I had written this little tidbit three years ago when I was living in the middle of Kazakstan for the summer. I thought it was funny enough to post here.
You might be in Karaganda, Kazakstan if…
It’s 11 o’clock and it’s still light outside.
You locked yourself into your top-story apartment.
Your landlord, Galina, inspects your sheets daily for _____.
They are building something underneath your apartment with random bricks and pieces of wood taken from wherever.
Your soviet television is a decorative piece (it doesn’t work).
Nescafe is your best friend.
You hang your clothes on the balcony and it snaps, flinging clothes everywhere.
Your landlord, whom you haven’t ever met, finally picks up her bills after 4 weeks.
The dust on the streets is thicker than the Wild West
You look daily at the tenge-dollar rate at local exchange banks to see if you can save a nickel on today’s transaction.
You ride a German bus with Russian pop music to work everyday.
Your taxi driver thinks he is in NASCAR.
It’s easier to find and cheaper to buy beer, vodka, and cigarettes than coffee.
You find yourself in a manhole laughing.
You are excited to go eat some Kuksi (a Korean dish) at the coffee/flower/aviary/pet shop/café place.
When you go to the local airport, it takes 30 minutes to get there, it is in the middle of nowhere in the steppe, there is absolutely nobody there (literally), and fighter jets are taking off every five minutes.
You have no idea what is going on in the US.
You have no hot water. Or you have no cold water. Or you have no water.
Your Soviet phone died again (and you don’t really care anymore that it doesn’t work).
The puppies 3D poster on your wall is beginning to grow on you.
You have an Aeroflot calendar from a decade ago on your wall.
You have old dusty furniture, falling-apart furniture, or no furniture at all.
The chandelier is a simple dangling light bulb.
RSS Feed
Hello guyes!
I lived in Kazakhstan 17 years so this item can use for all cities in KZ - for example, “You live in Shymkent (where I lived) if… ” and go on..
It thrue that all of this thing is working.
Thank you!
God bless you
wow. i was wondering when there would be a new post.. how did I miss this?
Wow…very interesting. You must’ve loved the freedom of being there….
did you like the food?
did you meet the random people?
How did you get that chance to work for the summer. I want to do it.
imagine the winter…there is no cold water and so hot inside but cold outside…beautiful.