I've seen and got known of a lot of things in my first week Aktau. Let's start on Monday...

After a long big sleep I walked to the office on Monday morning. It takes less than 5 minutes and I pass the hospital. It’s my neighbor. When you’re not insured, you should teak a walk at the sidewalk of the hospital. 100% chance that you will break at least something.
At the office Witteveen+Bos Aktau work about 23 people. 17 of them are woman (no they are not just secretary). This was very weird to me, in the Netherlands you won’t find that in engineer offices.
For me it was Monday morning with a lot of new people and foreigner names. I made a plan of the two rooms in the office and asked everyone write his/her name by the desks. I hope I will know all the names by the end of my internship. The temperature in the office is quite high. I walk around in my t-shirt while the rest of my colleagues still wear a scarf.
The people here work from 8.30-12.00. Lunchtime takes about 1.5 hour. Comparing with the Netherlands, that is quite long. Most of the colleagues go home to have lunch with their family.
Colleagues who don’t go home, take there lunch on the streets by a little stand. It’s a package of filo pastry filled with meat, vegetables, cheese or something sweet. You can warm it in the microwave in the office or also by that little stand. It looks funny.
When the colleagues are back in the office, they work for 100%. Despite the nice cookies they hardly take a break. They use the chat function of Skype to talk with each other. So it’s a bit quiet in the office.
After the acquaintance with the colleagues the real work started. My first assignment was to write a technical note about the well cellars on the island. It is a retaining construction that in need of the installation of the drilling rig and drilling activities. I got another technical note as an example. I started to read and thought about how to approach this.

Tuesday was a beautiful day! No clouds in the sky and a nice warm sun. Aktau looks much better than; al the concrete looks friendlier. I worked further on the technical note; I made a ‘roadmap’ for myself to get things clear.
During lunchtime I went to the fruit market. That I’m not a Kazakh was not hard to see. While everyone was still wearing there long coats, I walked outside without a jacket. The fruit market looks like a bazaar. It’s an indoor market and around the stands there are little shops. Except from fruit and vegetables you can also buy fish, meat, detergents, care products, clothes and even toys. You can better buy your fruit and vegetables over here buy an old lady with gold teeth instead of the supermarket, it looks much better!
Back in the office I started to work on the calculations of the technical note.

Wednesday was again a beautiful day, 10°C. Who said that it would be cold in Kazakhstan?
I worked on the calculation for the technical note. While working on it, I got used to the English terms. During lunchtime I visited the Shum, another mall in Aktau. It looks like an UFO and they sell a lot of junk… uhhh stuff. Lamps, crockery sets, mobile phones, cloths, food, soap… You name it, they got it.
When you forget your lunch in Aktau, it isn’t a problem at all. There are a lot of stands or bars where you can get something for lunch. At the backside of the mall there was a wagon selling sandwiches. I took one filled with a kind of sweet peanut butter. It’s typical for Kazakhstan.
Back in the office one of the colleagues asked me if I really wend outside without a coat. ‘Yes, why?’. According to the Kazakh people, you shouldn’t do that. The difference of temperature with the days before was too big, so I could get seriously sick. I explained her that in the Netherlands everyone would go outside without a coat and would take a seat on a terrace in the sun. She had been in the Netherlands before, so she had seen that. But still I should wear a jacket.

Unfortunately after 2 sunny days it was cloudy and it rained a little bit on Thursday. Generally it never rains in Aktau, you hardly see some grass or threes with leaves on it. So when it rains the streets get immediately dirty from the soil that’s free to go because there is no grass that holds it together. In the city there is also no system built to catch the rainwater.
During lunchtime I went to my apartment to get something. I met the woman who cleans my apartment once in a while. In a split second she started to talk to me in Russia. When she saw my guessing face she took me to the washing-machine and repeated. ‘ahhh ok! It was an explanation of the washing-machine. ‘Spasieba, paka.’ (I guess because of my pronunciation she looked a bit strange.)
Back in the office Saken (one of the male colleagues) told me that on Monday the 8the of March it was Women’s day in Kazachstan. On Friday there would be a celebration in the office. I heard about the Women’s day before, but didn’t know it would be something special.

Friday wasn’t only the last day of the week. For Saken it was also the last day by Witteveen+Bos. He got a new job by another company. Because of that he brought a cake. Like in German cake is Torte in Russian. This was a real Torte, a very heavy one with chocolate and lots of cream on it. ‘Do you want another piece? There is some more!’. Well the cake was delicious, but my belly was about to explode.
The 8th of March is international Women’s day. Unfortunately the Netherlands didn’t belong to the USSR so we don’t celebrate it. But most of the (formal) communism lands do. In the Netherlands we have ‘Mam’s day’ and I thought it would be something like that. Daddy buys a present for mom, you visit grandma and that is it. But for the Kazakh people it is more than that, it is a real big thing.
The men had a ‘secret meeting’ in the office and after that only Krijn was left. At 2 o’clock was the moment. They invited the ladies in the meeting room. There was a big table with salads, Pirog (kind of pie), vegetables, fruit, bread, wine, juices, chocolates and for every lady a nice tulip. Every man gave a small speech. Between the speeches there was a small break to toast, to chat and eat something. The women in the office explained me that they would go home earlier. Clean their house, buy new clothes, go to the beauty farm, … because Monday was the big day. Then they would get presents not only from their husband and kids but also from their brothers, nephews, uncles, close friends, neighbors, etc. This day is even more import than their own birthday. I was very curious about Monday.

Paka!