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| [8:56 pm] |
| Subject: Weekend fun |
| Mood |
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 mellow |
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Happy Birthday Shelby!
Plenty to do in the sleepy town of Kostanai, and we’ve had a thorough Saturday. We started off the day a little earlier than usual to take in the town museum. The sign on the door said it’s closed, but they really didn’t mean it. Entrance fee - $0.20. Photograph fee - $0.80. The main hall of the museum had some artifacts and relics found in the Kostanai region, as well as some representations of early inhabitants and their modes of transportation. Adjacent to the main hall was Sarah’s favorite, the stuffed animal room. No, not build-a-bear, but genuine taxidermy type things. A wild boar was the centerpiece of the exhibit, and they also had numerous rodents and sparrows. Nifty. They also sell fish, cockroaches, iguanas, and snakes. Kind of a museum/pet store. The upstairs section featured a large exhibit dedicated to WWII. There were uniforms, medals, weapons, propaganda posters, etc.
In the courtyard of the museum there is a brick wall with numerous bullet holes in it. In 1919, the White Army (Russian soldiers allied with Germany) rounded up numerous Red Army soldiers, Kostanai communist party leaders, and the town literati, and had them executed against this wall. Pretty grim. The statues depicting a soldier and both Russian and Kazak party leaders captured the posture of defiance against the White Army.
On that happy note, we went to lunch at the Soviet cafeteria, Rush Hour. On the way there we chatted briefly with a Colorado Springs-ian who is almost done with her 2 year Peace Corps stint here. Alex, our weekend translator, knows her from something or other. She's working on fostering volunteerism in Kostanai and also helping oprhanages in some way. Rush hour was a bit more expensive today, as I think my fresh cucumber and tomato salad pushed the bill well over $3. It was pretty obscene the amount of food we had on our table.
The orphanage visit was quite exciting today, as a few different things occurred. Asella got a beautiful haircut. Please allow us to introduce you to our new son, Asella, seen here enjoying an outing to Chuck E. Cheese. The iodine drops on her face are back too. We think this is really a good look and will definitely help further her career as a supermodel.
The nurse showed to up squirt about a liter of what we think is saline solution up her nose (she’s still getting over a cold), and Daddy managed to get her to eat her entire lunch, which included gross orange things. I was especially skilled with the glass of juice. We managed to get food EVERYWHERE, but 98% of it did eventually go in her stomach. Woo hoo! Parenting is awesome!
The kiddo was seriously goofy today (that’s a nice oxymoron), and babbled and cooed to all sorts of inanimate objects. Here she is playing some Shostakovich on the playroom’s Steinway. It’s a bit out of tune though, as you can play an entire F# diminished 7th chord just by playing G. Cool, eh? She really is a nutty and happy kid.
After the visit we spent the afternoon shopping for souvenirs, finally having done enough comparative browsing to purchase actual goods. We were told that shopkeepers would be willing to bargain with us, but so far, no such luck. We managed to get a 5% discount at one spot. Woo. In addition, we discovered the green market today, which is a huge produce and meat market. And I mean that literally. We purchased some fruit from a very nice woman who was very excited to speak English to me, and insisted that I refrain from trying my Russian on her, as she demanded to try her English on me. She actually knew quite a bit and was very pleased with herself. Here she is reluctantly agreeing to be in a picture with us.
We also went back to the candy shop in the open air bazaar and were helped by the same kindly ladies who got so much amusement from our last visit. We love cheap candy! After our afternoon of shopping and walking, we were pretty beat, so we decided to go out for dinner, thus avoiding any cooking or cleaning. I’m hoping by the time we get back home Café Knick Knack will have expanded to a Highlands Ranch location, and we can get giant good meals for $3 each.
Our apartment complex is bustling tonight with kids out playing and rugs getting what’s coming to them. It should be really vibrant once everyone realizes winter is over. Don’t know if that will happen before June though. We’ll see.
It seems like we did a lot today, though it really wasn’t much. Coming home with a baby is going to be a huge reality check we’re afraid. Speaking of that, we’ve booked our flight home for May 16th, but we hope to get back a few days before if we can. Looking forward to those flights.
That’s our report for the day. Thanks again to those commenting on my nightly ramblings. We really enjoy hearing your ramblings. So please don’t be shy. We want to hear from everyone. Thanks and good night, and don’t forget to do your taxes. Someone did ours, right? |
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