Day 10: The Weather Over Here

The telephone banter in my family is probably hardly unique for Americans from the West, but one pervasive question that I overheard as a kid when my grandparents or other relatives would call was "What's the weather like down/over/out/up there?" It's a question that has always come up when I call home - whether in a neighboring state or a continent away. As Kazakhstan may be even more difficult to conceive (let alone say), I thought that maybe if I gave you a run down of the weather over here, you'd feel as if the whole place was a bit more tangible. First of all, the weather is dry. When I normally visit Gillette from a normal, more humid sort of place, my skin starts to scale and flake off within the first couple of days at home. It's itchy and dry, right? Astana is much the same - my lips are chapped and skin is dry. I can see that lotion and chapstick are going to be serious investments. It's windy. There simply is nothing on the Steppe to slow it down. It races across the flat, dry lands and must pick up speed. It's difficult to sit outside and eat your lunch without it flying away, trees battle with it, and you can see the many Kazakh flags hung around town really clearly as they are mostly sticking straight out from the wind. The sun is bright and the days are long. The sun is well up when I wake up in the morning and it is just finally getting dark here now at 10:00 p.m. The blue skies and bright weather really make me happy! Temperatures have not been too extreme. Daytime temperatures have been in the 80s (around 30 Celsius), but nighttime temperatures quickly cool off so I've often needed a sweater when heading out in the evening. With the wind and dry heat, it is very comfortable. To make it short, the weather over here is pleasant for the time being. Winter may bring a very different story!