Not looking to Steppe on any toes, but …

By Colin McFadden
This post is part of a series called Kazakhstan 2019
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We’re currently in the air, enroute to Frankfurt.  From there, we’ll be on to Almaty, Kazakhstan.  This is a bit of a different trip – we’re staying for six weeks, we don’t have an incredibly ambitious todo list, and there’s actual work to be done.

While we’re there, I’ll be teaching at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) as part of an engagement through the Fulbright Specialist program.  This program provides a chance for US-based professionals to engage with academic institutions abroad. I’ll be teaching a course on Digital Historic Preservation, and hopefully getting to know the University community.  I’m mildly terrified, as I’m stepping into a lot of unknowns.

We won’t be doing day-by-day blogs on this one, since that would get pretty repetitive.  (“Drank some fermented horse milk. Taught. Worked.”) We’ll try to capture the exciting bits though, along with our sense of Almaty.  Almaty is pretty far off the tourist trail – most of the materials available for travelers are intended for expats coming to work in the extractive industries.  There’s a lot to discover about our temporary home. But we’ve identified a climbing gym, and Kat knows where the yarn stores are, so no worries there.

In the short term, if anyone needs to reach us while we’re traveling, count on calling my cell phone, texting, emailing, or tweeting.  Work friends, you can always ping me on Slack as well.  We’ll be +12 hours from Minnesota until DST ends, and then +11 hours (Kazakhstan doesn’t change their clocks).

Fingers crossed.

This entry was posted in Daily Entries

3 thoughts on “Not looking to Steppe on any toes, but …

  • Deb Marsh March 2, 2019 at 1:02 pm Reply

    We are so excited about your Almaty experience! We are looking forward to your blogs so don’t worry about boring us! Hoping to learn about the geology, the yarn stores, and everything else. Have a wonderful time.

  • Susan March 2, 2019 at 2:29 pm Reply

    Thanks for starting the blog. We’re excited for you and Kat. Hope you get some sleep before Monday in. Almaty.

  • John T McFadden March 2, 2019 at 3:04 pm Reply

    Since you checked a bag, you can bring some horse milk home with you!

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