Current mood:

hungry

Food is yummy
Howdy. Things here are good. How are you? T’was another typical day here, though we both slept in pretty late. We had lunch at the auto dealership, and our translator had enough faith in us to order and then leave us alone to fend for ourselves. I’m getting pretty handy with the Russian lingo, as I’ve added “bes smetana” to my repertoire (without sour cream). Sarah is feeling pretty good, and had perogi, bread and tea. Yum! Atkins would be appalled, if he weren’t dead.

Orphanage visit number 8 was a bit subdued, as both of the kids were rather lazy.


Hmmm… I think I’ll be demure today.

We got a huge grin from her when we walked in the room, and lots of smiles throughout the visit. She is a happy and content kid. We just hope she’s this quiet and easily entertained on the plane rides home. But that’s still a long, long way off, so we won’t worry about it too much now.







Eugene planned our weekend for us already, which will consist of more sightseeing and perhaps a nightclub on Saturday, followed by souvenir shopping and a traditional Kazak game of yak tossing on Sunday. It looks like DJ and Kim may go to a shooting range (skeet), but Eugene said Sarah “would not be happy,” due to the apparent taxidermy situation there.

Sarah spent the afternoon working on a jig-saw puzzle on the carpet (we have no tables in the apartment), and I did some reading. We’ve made friends with a nice babushka that lives 2 floors below us. Our relationship has consisted of us saying hello, us telling her we don’t speak Russian, and her telling us to have a nice dinner. She seems very nice and smiles at us, which is a bit of a rarity here. We Americans seem to be targets for gawking. But I think this is a great first step toward ending the Cold War.

This evening’s highlights included a short walk to Café Knick-Knack for a nice meal of couscous salad and pasta with fresh tomatoes and garlic. Sarah is feeling all better and really, really enjoyed it (beats crackers and dry cereal any day of the week). And there’s just some additional satisfaction you get from dining out on under $4. It doesn’t get dark here until after 8:30, so we took a nice walk after dinner. We went through the main park in the town center, saw city hall and some other Kazak buildings, and wondered at their infatuation with the color pink. Pink buildings, pink park benches, pink elephants (so I’m told), etc. City Hall has slits in the top story for snipers to peer through and pick-off would be assailants. This was only mildly disconcerting for some reason. All in all, a very pleasant night. The weather is starting to turn a bit warmer, so we should have plenty of afternoon and evening walks ahead of us.

Hope everyone is well. Catch ya next time.