In Almaty, Kazakhstan!

Hello Everyone!
My apologies for such a long delay in writing. As you can imagine, I have had a very busy month, after leaving Tajikistan on December 17.
I am now in Almaty, Kazakhstan! -- Sitting at my nice little office on the first floor of the College of Social Science at the Kazakhstan Institute for Management, Economics, and Strategic Research.

I am an Assistant Professor and I am teaching FOUR separate courses (the worst workload imaginable)... Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, US Politics, and Terrorism and Security.
I am having a pleasant time teaching the students, but there is very little time to breathe as course preparation takes just about every second of my day. I eat my meals on the university campus to save time. The students are for the most part diligent, some are spoiled and some take very seriously the cost of education at this elite private school.

I recently found an apartment and YES, It IS in fact European/US cities expensive. I have a small studio, not recently refurnished, and with utilities will pay upwards of 900 a month. In Dushanbe, I might have rented a whole house with a pool (maybe not a pool) for that amount. The good side is that the apartment is walking distance to campus, and with temperatures in the negative numbers every day, distance walking is not a very appealing idea.

Interesting News for the Day:
Reuters has reported that Forbes.com has compiled a list of the top ten most dangerous destinations: They are:
1) Somalia, 2) Iraq, 3) Afghanistan, 4) Haiti, 5) Pakistan, 6) Sudan, 7) DRC, 8) Lebanon, 9) Zimbabwe, and 10) the OPT (palestine).
As I have only been to Haiti, I think those of you who have given me a reputation for danger traveling should notice that no central asian country is here, and neither is Iran or Kosovo! Although I would take exception with Haiti being listed ahead of the DRC or Sudan...

Interesting Website for Today:
www.pollingreport.com

--> Looking forward to Super Tsunami Tuesday. I will offer my students the opportunity to wake up at 7 am and watch the results come in...for several hours on Wednesday morning.