Barack'sUp and Chandra's Down

Sorry that we’ve been out of communication lately. Couple of reasons – Had no phone and therefore no internet connection I was sick as a dog. Would love to say that I was up all night on Tues/Wed watching coverage of the election but suffice it to say that from 1am-6am I was either laying on the floor in the bathroom or laying on the toilet.Don't know if I caught a bug or the more likely scenario I ate something with the local water (like the salad I had), or something with gluten.

Consequently the guys went to the baby house without me. Before they went to the baby house Kurt ran to a café to get on line and Serik stayed with me. Poor kid. I was useless. I was about to be sick and was trying to shoo Serik away but he said ‘I’ll stay right here and watch you’ – great. Probably scarred him for life. Apprently the visit went well and Sasha is sweet as ever. Serik has been handling it all like a trooper and only mildly acting out. The other day he wanted to hold her like in the ‘I’m a big brother now’ book we got him. He did really well and was very attentive (see pics). He’s always excited to see Irina and she’s very good with him. The phone guy came while they were at the baby house so we once again have dial-up internet and a land line. The DSL guy came last night – no luck – but he’ll try again today. Irina brought me some medicine – two different packets of powdered something or other. Love how I took the medicine, not really knowing what it was, without any questions. We’re hoping to do a little running around the area to break up the routine/monotony that is kind of setting in. Visit the EurAsian mall, take Serik to the circus and the aquarium etc. If it was warmer we’d be able to do more with Serik outside and if we hadn’t brought him (which wasn’t an option for us) we’d be doing more running around by foot. Things are a bit different this time because of that. We do have two families from Kokshetau that will be coming in to town on Saturday on their way home to the US. They have to go home after bonding and before court because they don’t know how long the wait will be until they get a court date. So we’ll be able to see them this weekend – should be fun.

Right now we're at the Diplomat hotel getting Serik a snack while I upload photos and post this blog. Yeah - actually got out of the apt. before we had to leave for the baby house. Observation time: We say Barack – pronounced Ba-rock The Brits (courtesy of Euronews) say Barack like barrack as in an army barrack (sp?)

Below are some pics of our apartment: