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| [9:55 pm] |
| Subject: Best anniversary ever |
| Mood |
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 enthralled |
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Hi everyone. We decided to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary by taking a nice relaxing vacation to Kazakhstan. You can’t spell romance without a K and a Z and lots of other consonants! True to form, it is raining today. It would only be appropriate. And our hot water is out for maintenance. I asked when it would be back and it said when it’s good and ready. Harumph.
I engaged in some cloak and dagger this morning, telling Sarah I had to go with Eugene to take care of some other manly paperwork at the board of education, but really we just went to the flower shop. (You see that all the time in spy movies.) Sneakily I obtained the suspicious daisies seen here. The price was reasonable considering they are probably imported from Holland.
In honor of our anniversary, the orphanage held an “open house” of sorts this morning, and invited all the American families in residence (all 3 of us) to come and see what goes on in the “classrooms.” First a trio of 2 year olds made the rounds in the gymnasium, climbing over stuff and through things and generally showing off for the delegation of parents and orphanage staff. Next we saw a trifecta of 3 year olds doing speech drills in both Kazak and Russian. They promote bilingual education so the children will be able to speak both Russian (the official language) and Kazak (to retain their cultural heritage). Last but not least a teacher put an 8 or 9 month old through his paces of sensory stimulation, fine and gross motor skills development, and general silliness. The whole point was to demonstrate how they take care of their kids and the things they do to foster their physical and mental development. It’s very impressive the amount of resources they dedicate to these kids and we’re very glad that Asella is in this type of environment. All they appear to be lacking is a fashion coordinator. Unfortunately we could not take pictures as it is prohibited to photograph children there other than our own.
After the show we did a small bit of shopping, and then had lunch at the Hummingbird café. Sarah’s options were limited (surprise) but at least this time the fruit salad had actual fruit and not candy. Lunch was only partially satisfying so we headed back to the soviet cafeteria for some tea and dessert. It is criminal how much food they give you for the amount of money you pay them. For about $0.60 we got a cup of tea and 2 good sized dessert things. It would cost at least $7 in the U.S. for this. We’re going to come back every day. Maybe several times. The workers have probably never seen tourists in this place, and asked our translator if we were British.
It was back to the orphanage after our 2nd lunch, where Ms. Asella was in her usually goofy mood. She did lots of push-ups today, working out those baby muscles. She’s a total ham (which is weird given this country is predominantly Muslim, but I digress). She’s also infatuated by her friend Grant, so Daddy’s getting a bit nervous about what’s in store 12 years from now. One more visit and we’re done with Stage 1. After tomorrow we will hopefully know when we’re going to court, and move on to stages 2 through 14. Or something.
The hot water came back with a vengeance this afternoon. Vengeance just happened to take the form of brown muddy stuff, so we’re going to give it a few more hours and hope vengeance goes away. I’ve been assured this is all normal.
Now this evening was an anniversary dinner that we shall not soon forget. We arranged for it to just be the two of us tonight, and made reservations (yeah, right) at the finest restaurant in town, affectionately known as The Castle. This was a rather convenient choice, as it is a 3 minute walk from our apartment. It seems as if someone had millions of dollars to spend and wanted to create a medieval themed, ornamentally decorated, lavish and elaborate restaurant in heart of downtown Kostanai. And really, can you blame them? The outside was unassuming enough; the doorway is guarded by two knights and you enter through the giant wooden door.
Our hostess, seen here, gave us a tour of the different rooms, which included the medieval room, the Victorian room, and the doll room (creepy), while trying to convince us to let them host our next business meeting or family reunion.
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Every inch of this place is covered in dark wood paneling, replicas of famous paintings, coats of arms, ornate furnishings, and of course, surveillance cameras. In addition, what really rounded out the décor were the red and white balloon bouquets and the large disco ball set in the middle of the great hall. Think Medieval Times (minus the show) meets a pretentious upscale eatery meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets the high school prom. The ambiance was sublime, as we sat at our table and listened to the beautiful music playing. We would expect chamber music of some sort, but instead were treated to a nice French ditty, with the only English words being, “F--k them all.” Talk about romance.
To further the romantic atmosphere, the English menu was filled with bizarre and suggestive translations. [You may want to hide the kids for this next part.] Sarah’s cheese balls were supposedly going to “ask to come in your mouth.” I am not making this up. Another vegetable plate would cause a climax. And the asparagus and caviar salad would heighten the romantic evening by increasing the “man’s strength.” Again, I am not making this up. The waiters gave us confused looks as we were rolling with laughter. And now back to the PG portion of the journal.
The food was pretty good, and they had a much better selection for Sarah. I had a nice stuffed chicken breast and potatoes, Sarah had vegetable tempura, the rather courteous cheese balls, and a marinated mushroom and walnut salad. This is the most expensive restaurant in the whole town, and we were warned not to go there more than once. Dinner for two = $20. Cheapest anniversary ever. One funny thing about bread here in Kazakhstan; they charge you per slice that you consume. We ate 4 pieces at 8 cents each.
But by far the most bizarre thing that happened… As we were walking in, two other American couples were walking out. They were there celebrating one of the couples anniversary. April 4th. 8 years. From San Diego. They were married on the exact same day, in the same state, and we were now at the same restaurant with them in Kazakhstan. I’m reading Douglas Adams right now, so all these Infinite Improbability references keep pounding my brain. I’d put the odds on this ever happening at about 65 trillion to one. Too weird. And I don’t think I’ve mentioned this other bizarre coincidence… DJ’s name is Darrin John. There are two Darre/in Jon/hns in Kostanai to adopt right now, both from Denver. Rod Serling will be stopping by any moment.
I think that’s all the news of the weird tonight. Our hot water appears to be returning to its normal state. Good night, we’ll speak again tomorrow. |
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