i was planning to put up a "leaving kazakhstan" post tonight before i left for the airport for my 3:55 am departure early tomorrow morning. but then this evening i was signing a bunch of documents to prepare for my absence when our coordinator got a call. it was some americans who he was planning to meet at the airport tonight. they were calling from frankfurt and wanted to tell him that their flight was canceled and they were rebooked on a flight the following evening. the coordinator thanked them and then hung up.
as i continued to fill out forms, he told me what happened. and i said, "wait, their flight from frankfurt is canceled?" "yes," said the coordinator, "oh, is your flight on lufthansa?" in fact it is.
there's only one flight between almaty and frankfurt, and that's my lufthansa flight. if the plane is not leaving frankfurt for almaty for this american family, it means there won't be a plane to take me back to frankfurt early tomorrow morning. i called lufthansa and confirmed that my flight had been canceled. luckily, they managed to rebook me on a flight leaving the next morning, nov. 28th.
my coordinator explained that a bunch of flights into kaz were being canceled because all these presidents and big-wigs were starting to arrive for the OSCE summit. never mind that the summit is in astana, not almaty. no one can ever keep those A-named cities straight anyway.
and never mind that the summit does not begin until december 1st. if the airport is disrupted three days ahead of the summit because of big-wig arrivals, wouldn't it be even more disrupted only two days ahead of the summit?
so the long and short of it is that my long stay in kaz has just been extended one extra day. which also means that i will spend my 41st birthday sitting on a series of flights. on the plus side, it will be my longest birthday ever. because of all of the time zone changes, it will be a 35 hour day. woo-hoo?
