The Move

I wish I had a picture of the look many people gave us when we told them we were moving to Kazakhstan. It was generally a mixture of horror, confusion, and pity. What amused us was the complete contrast between their look and our excitement. Finally the time came and we were on our way.

Some of our belongings we shipped in seven large boxes with DHL. The rest came with us in check-in baggage. We found an airline that allowed two free bags per person and then only charged the same fee for each additional bag over. We decided to take advantage of their offer and ended up checking 16 bags for the four of us. After purchasing 11 of these fantastically cheap and compact 32-inch rolling duffle bags from Wal-Mart, this is what our total luggage looked like. Eleven black duffle bags, three large suitcases, a guitar, a violin, and four carry-on items. We were ready.

The lady at the check-in counter in Atlanta recovered from her initial panic attack given the relatively small size of the airplane of the first leg of our trip. Fortunately we were there early enough to have all of these bags make it on to our flight. She wasn't quite sure they would be checked all the way through to our destination, so she said we should check at each location and make sure they were still following us through. Very comforting.

The first leg, from Atlanta to Chicago, was a breeze. Noah took a nap and Olivia read most of the time. We arrived in Chicago, took the tram to the international terminal, and headed towards the security checkpoint. It turned out that our boarding passes for our next flight, given to us by American Airlines in Atlanta, weren't any good and we had to get our tickets from Etihad Airways, the actual carrier. So with our four extremely heavy carry-ons and two children we trucked our way back to Etihad's counter and stood in an obnoxiously slow line.

The line was slow because the airline was having people weigh their carry-ons. We had read online that there was a weight limit per carry-on, but we didn't really believe they would check. Who weighs carry-ons? They do. At least in Chicago they did. The lady looked at us as we put our first one on, it weighing nearly twice the allowed 7 kilos, and said, "you'll have to check that bag." "Ok, sure," I said. Then we proceeded up to the counter, banking on the fact that we just needed boarding passes and no one else would care to check the weight of our carry-on bags.

I was wrong. The woman behind the counter was helpful and friendly, but made us weigh a carry-on and informed us that they wouldn't let us get on the plane with it weighing so much. We'd have to check it. "This isn't even the heavy one," I thought to myself. We had carefully packed these carry-ons to not only have some particularly heavy items like our scriptures and other books but also games, activities, and snacks for the kids during this long trek across the world. There was no way I was going to check one of them let alone all four. So we proceeded to the gate, stopping for some dinner before going through security, and pondering what options we had, none of them seeming very favorable.

As we ate dinner, we watched in horror as the line to get through the security checkpoint grew and grew until it almost went out the door. We needed to get to our gate and come up with a game plan for our carry-ons, and we were in no position to sit through this incredibly long line. So I decided to take us all up the employee line and cash in on the promise the initial security person told us - that once we had our boarding passes we could come back to the front of the line. Only he wasn't here any more. But it turned out to be even better because this nice gentlemen sent us straight on through the employee line all the way ahead to where they go through security. We jumped straight ahead and were through security in a flash. Bless the TSA of Chicago.

We arrived at our gate and decided that maybe we could weigh down one carry-on enough to lighten the rest of them. So if we had to check overweight bags, at least we knew which one it would be and we could still have the rest of our stuff with us. I could also take out my laptop and count it as a personal item, so I took it out with its case and loaded the case full of other heavy cords and adapters from my bag. Jessica took her pillow she was carrying and began stuffing books in the pillow case. Then she took the heavy bag up to the front and asked if she could weigh it to see if it was over. The man working the counter looked around and then said, "my scale is broken today so we won't be weighing the bags. Don't worry about it."

What a miracle that was! We packed everything back to how it was originally and started to board the plane. However, because the scale was broken they did random spot checks and told some people they had to check their carry-ons. They grabbed Jessica and told her to check her carry-on. They must not have seen me with three. So I started booking it down the boarding ramp with three heavy carry-ons and two kids. I waited for Jessica just outside the plane, and when she finally caught up she still had her carry-on with a big smile on her face. The woman checking overweight carry-ons had put the wrong tag on Jessica's bag which means another bag got Jessica's tag and was carried off before she could fix it. "Just take it," she surrendered. Yes, we believe we were smiled upon greatly during this trip.

This trip took us direct from Chicago to Abu Dhabi, UAE. It was a 14 hour flight, but in many ways it also was a breeze. We left in the evening and the kids were soon asleep. They slept incredibly well which allowed Jessica and I to sleep well also. After they woke up we watched a movie, played some games, ate, and we were there. We thought the most difficult part of the journey was over. We were wrong.

While we only had one more flight to go, it was this last leg that would wear us out finally. We had about a five hour layover in Abu Dhabi before our four and a half hour flight to Astana.

We had to get boarding passes (again), so we had to stand in line with four heavy carry-ons and two kids (again). Only this time the line seemed like an eternity and ended with the guy behind the counter telling us we needed to go next door. Thanks. No signs or anything to indicate who should go where. But oh well. There was at least no line next door. We got our boarding passes, ate some pizza and noodles with the kids, and then proceeded to our gate to do the final waiting.

The Abu Dhabi airport has a central waiting area that is a large circle with shops and food around the outside of the circle and hallways towards the gates breaking off from the center. We went through security (which was a breeze compared to security in the U.S.) and sat down. The next flights boarded and we made ourselves comfortable ... until security came and told us that if we weren't boarding we couldn't be at the gate. So we had to exit the gate and return to the central waiting area. So we did.

We found a place to camp out for the next couple of hours and tried to keep the kids entertained.

I headed downstairs to the bathroom. This is where it gets a little interesting. The stalls in the bathroom were like separate rooms, and I opened the door of the only available one only to find it wet from floor to ceiling. My reaction was to shut the door immediately, but then I realized it was wet with water. A high-powered bidet spray hung on the wall, which I grabbed and proceeded to give the little room another good spray-down. However, once I finished spraying it down a leak sprung in the hose just beneath the nozzle so I had to hang it back on the wall and then turn it so that it didn't spray me the whole time I was in there. I managed to make it out dry, but I don't know how people use those sprayers without soaking their entire bottom half.

Finally we were allowed to go to our gate and boarded shortly after. We thought the hard part was over, especially after the kids fell asleep soon after we took off. Perfect. But they only slept for about an hour and a half. Then they were up for the last three hours and really done with being on a plane. So were we. I don't think it would have been nearly as uncomfortable if they hadn't turned off the air conditioning and allowed the plane to reach balmy temperatures. We thought we were going to die of heat and thirst. We really didn't care that it was -15 degrees at our destination and that maybe they were heating us up before we were to freeze. We were pretty uncomfortable that last leg. But we made it.

What's more of a miracle is that all 16 of our bags made it as well. I was surprised and extremely grateful as I pulled each of those heavy bags off of the tiny baggage claim belt. They were piled up around Jessica and the kids while I looked for some carts to help get them out of there. I scrounged up two carts and then proceeded to pile duffle bags in a way that I think any architect would be impressed with. The bags were piled as tall as I am and were strapped together in various places so as not to fall off. We finally were able to start our way towards the airport exit but had to go through customs first. We were the only ones left, and about 5 men working the customs looked at us and then at each other. I gathered they weren't too interested in checking our bags, but it seemed as though they also were afraid of getting busted for letting us just go through. So through absolutely no common language between us I gathered I needed to send each of the bags through their scanner. So I began unstrapping them all and sending them through.

About half way through, one of the operations managers sent to pick us up at the airport comes busting in straight to me. "Brett, what's going on? Have you lost a bag?" I replied that I hadn't, still smiling from the thought of it. She then turned and starting bossing the customs men around and they quickly stopped me from unstrapping any more bags and let us through. I found out later that she simply told them that I worked for Nazarbayev University and that was enough.

So we loaded up the bags in one van, and piled ourselves in another. We arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan at about 6:45 am on Monday, February 11th and were taken straight to our new home. We were excited, exhausted, and still in awe and disbelief of what we were really doing.

Stay tuned for the next post, with exciting pictures of our home and city.