Joe Ragan

to House MD.  I borrowed the first two seasons of the show from some colleagues in Kyiv.  I have already watched the first season and well into the second.
I remember watching Quincy MD as a child and this show is even better.  Houses’ cutting wit is something else.  The cases are incredible.  I really enjoy [...]

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It is 1 a.m. in Kazakhstan.  Happy New Year!  Where do the hours, days, weeks, months go???
It is -24 degrees F and I watched numerous people assemble on the square across the street from me to watch the new year roll in.  They are still out there, popping fireworks so I am not sure that [...]

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I went for a walk around the city this afternoon. The city is in full preparations for their BIG celebration on January 1. That is when most family and friends get together and exchange gifts.  America’s Christmas is the former Soviet Union’s New Year celebration.
It has been snowing off and on for the [...]

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to Ginny, Mike, Gloria, Janean, Patrice and Frank.  These dear friends in the Seattle area put together 2 boxes of gifts for me to use.  Ginny wrote me in Sept/Oct with the idea.  She (along with her gang) came up with the idea of acting as my “personal shopper”.  They asked me for gift ideas [...]

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The temps continue to be below zero.  I think we might have gotten up to a whopping 2 above for a brief time today.  The snow continues to fall off and on.  I just looked outside and it looks like it has been snowing all evening.  Gotta love it!

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Well, I wanted to get up early so that I could get to the mall to take advantage of all the after Christmas sales.  Then I woke up and realized I was in Karaganda and that wasn’t going to be happening…  No, really, I hope those of you who got up and out today in [...]

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I thought I would share some photos from my trips to Kyiv and Moscow.
My trip to Moscow was interesting. It is the first time I was ever able to get a picture of the police. Usually they will not allow people to take their picture. In 1995 I remember Andrea and I [...]

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I had this photo taken today when it was still above zero today…

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It is already Christmas Eve in Kstan. At the moment it is 10 a.m. and for the last three hours I have been watching the Aloha Bowl live from Hawaii.
With the time difference, most of the evening bowls will be shown live here in the morning (of the next day of course…) I’m [...]

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it’s also beginning to FEEL alot like Christmas.  Today I traveled back to Karaganda.  I was so tired after arriving in Astana Saturday morning, that I was afraid to drive home even after I had a nap (or two…).
I left Astana this morning.  I got about 50 km from Astana and noticed that the sun [...]

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