Millie was up at 6AM despite her late night. The massive apartment complex we are staying at sits above, I kid you not, six different coffee shops. But not one of them opened before 8AM. So we hung out until it was time.

We chose one at random and ordered our usual two americanos, a warm milk, savory breakfasts for me and Nick and oatmeal for Millie.

I looked around the coffee shop and observed how the design matched that of modern coffee shops around the world. White walls, white bistro tables, fake greenery, a cheeky piece of art (in this case, Einstein drinking coffee), and some plastic neon. How does this happen? Where did it originate?

After breakfast we walked around trying to find a grocery store. Google maps is completely inaccurate so we just followed our instincts like the olden days. We found a little shop with fresh fruit and then another for packaged basics. I walked around the store with my phone out to translate the labels.

We walked back and then had about 4 hours of laziness. We did laundry, played cards, drew pictures, listened to music, and finalized our China itinerary. I lay down and had some quiet time while Nick took Millie downstairs to play on the playground. We purposely wanted these few days to feel relaxing before the hustle and bustle of China.

At about 2 Nick and I started going stir crazy and wanted to get out. I looked up museums and found the Almaty Museum of Arts which opened only three days ago. We took a 15-minute Yandex and arrived.

This museum was so nice, better than any in Austin. I can’t help but constantly think about how much other places have compared to America. There is so much money in Austin, why don’t we have this?

The main exhibit was of Almagul Menlibayeva’s life’s work. She is a Kazakh artist who was born here in Almaty. My favorite part was that they displayed some of the work she did as a child. We had just finished talking to a frustrated Millie who kept telling us she wasn’t a “real” artist. It felt like it had been placed there just for us to teach her that all artists start somewhere. It actually made me emotional to imagine her drawing these as a kid and then having the first ever exhibit at the huge new art museum in her home town.

We walked through the main collection which was also great. Some favorites:

They had a large room with a Richard Serra, and another of Yayoi Kusama. Kazakhstan, who knew?

We noticed it was raining and so we hunkered down for dinner in the cafe. It was well designed and the food was excellent. I had braised lamb on smokey eggplant hummus, with sweet pepper relish, fresh herbs, and crispy fried chickpeas. I ate it slowly to try to remember all the components so I can recreate it someday.

My dining companions were as crazy as ever.

After dinner we called another car. It was triple the price and triple the time. The app was telling us it was a 45 minute ride, 30 minutes longer than it took to get to the museum. I figured it was surge pricing and timing due to the rain.

We then spent a whole hour in grid lock traffic, getting almost nowhere. The ETA ticked up as we waited. Nick persuaded me it would be faster to walk, so we paid and hopped out. The rain had really picked up now and we ended up walking an additional 30 minutes in a torrential downpour. Once I got over my annoyance that he made us leave the taxi, we had a great time. We arrived home soaked all the way through.

We had hoped for an early night but after the 2-hour adventure to get home, it was another late one.