I know. We’ve been here a month and I haven’t posted anything. Though, in fairness, my last post was June 6 and it’s now September 30, so what’s a month, really? I keep telling people this is the problem with blogs. Also, if you want photos, please go to my Instagram and ask to follow me. I’m @h_e_see.

Anyway, here is a brief rundown of the first four weeks here in Astana:

Week 1: Ugh
Jet lag is no joke here. There’s something about the nine-hour time difference on top of the, for us, 24 hours of travel that really threw me for a loop. It turns out I’m not the only one who’s experience was this bad, either. Several foreign service types who’ve had multiple tours overseas told me this place’s jet lag was as bad as they’ve ever had it. It’s not just the schedule, either. Being up at weird times, the disturbed sleep, and not having anything to do was kind of an emotional gut punch and the first week wasn’t super fun.

Week 2: Almaty
My wife had to be in Almaty so I went with her. Almaty is in the mountains in the south and the former capital. Astana has been the capital since 1997 and is a planned city on the steppes. It’s flat and new. Almaty is much older and has many more hills and trees. Also old Soviet and Russian Empire buildings. It’s interesting and feels a little more lively. Think of it as New York to Astana’s Washington, DC. People who’ve been to Kazakhstan generally have visited Almaty and many people really love it. I liked it a lot too and it’s worth a whole post of its own. I will write one someday; my wife will have to be there a fair amount and I’ll go with her when I can. So just be patient, okay?

Week 3: Sick
Yeah, I was pretty sick all week. It all caught up with me and I just kind of crashed.

Week 4: Kids!
Kazakhstan has been independent since 1991. Astana has been the capital city since 1997. It’s a new country with a very long and very rich, and sometimes tragic history. But what really comes through in Astana is the new part. The city is in a state of constant construction. There are new buildings going up everywhere. Giant apartment blocks, suburban subdivisions, schools, office buildings, you name it. Also, there are a lot of new people here. Small new people. 27.6 percent of Kazakhstan’s population is under the age of 14. To give you a sense of this, 18.1 percent of the US population is under 14.

Basically, there are children everywhere in this city. Infants are being pushed through town in strollers covered with five layers of blankets and tiny quilted onesies. Toddlers are chasing after pigeons in the courtyard of our apartment complex or running through the airport to be gleefully scooped up and kissed by their parents. Preschoolers are running after the toddlers, overjoyed to no longer be toddlers. Elementary school-aged kids are walking together, arm-in-arm discussing important events of the day or riding bikes while discussing important events of the day. Still older kids hurry through the city with musical instruments or gym bags on their way to lessons of various sorts. Elsewhere there are teenagers in parks or cafes talking nonstop and showing off for each other. The energy is dizzying.

The children of Astana are much more independent than kids in the US. Think Gen X level of independence, but without the benign neglect that Gen Xers experienced. Kids are allowed to go off and explore, but their parents are clearly involved; just without the hovering and overindulgence for which US parents are so famous.

That may be why children in Kazakhstan are remarkably well-behaved in public. I have seen six or seven year-old siblings sitting playing while sharing toys and art supplies without fighting. Siblings. The grocery store closest to us is around the corner from a toy store, across from a children’s bookstore with a wide selection of toys and, just for good measure, there is a toy kiosk right outside the entrance to the grocery store. I have seen exactly zero children throwing tantrums at any of them. In fact, I have yet to see a single child demanding anything from an adult anywhere in the vicinity.

Independent and not overindulged, but definitely not taken for granted. These kids are cherished. While Kazakhstanis are reserved in public with other adults, they are no such thing with their children, who are showered with affection. Kazakhstani parenting seems to be predicated on the idea that a child should never doubt for a single moment that they are loved absolutely.

They seem also to believe that a child should never doubt for a minute that they are limited in their choices of activities. In our apartment complex alone there is a brand new public school with after school sports and enrichment programming, a youth soccer school, a youth martial arts academy, and a gym with a youth swimming program that basically takes over between 4:00 and 7:00 pm. “We always keep a lane open for adult lap swimmers,” they told me. Right. The lane is there, for sure, but swimming laps there would be like swimming in the wake of an aircraft carrier. It’s choppy. Not far from our neighborhood, there is a large language school for kids, an indoor playground (it gets really cold here in the winter), and a center with everything from music and theatre programs to coding and what looked to be a maker space.

Kazakhstan is not without problems but based on my short experience here neither having bored, poorly behaved, children or cold babies is on that list.