Family Outing

Sunday November 2, 2008 Yesterday we lay around the apartment in the a.m. Serik has been getting up at around 4 or 5 a.m . Saturday night – he woke up at 2 or 3 for an hour or so – and then Kurt managed to get him back to sleep until 8 am – thank goodness! We knew that we were being picked up at 1:50pm to go to Zaure and Serik’s house so we had several hours to head out and explore. We decided to head to the Baytarek (or Astana Ball) and see the view from the top. Turns out that going on a Sunday am is a good thing – not too many people and we easily bought tickets and rode to the top. The elevator up is one of those glass jobs on one side so you can see out – well Kurt and I were on the metal side by the door and Serik was hanging on the metal thin metal handrail with his faced pressed up on the glass as he watched us going up. Apparently our son has none of the heights hangups that his mommy and daddy have. Once up we had a great view of the city – it was beautiful sunny day and the weather wasn’t too cold. Serik put his hand in the hand print of Nursultan Nazarbayev which is sort of like putting a coin in the Trevi fountain in Rome, saying that you hope to return one day. We walked down the mall and looked at the displays of yurts, camels, elephants and a peacock that they had there as well as several large Kazakh rings. There isn’t as much going on shop/restaurant wise on this side as compared to where we were last time.

However, we were so excited to find about 5 restaurants along the mall (which is right around the corner from us). I needed a coffee fix so we popped into one of them that advertised coffee and food. It was a totally hip, straight out of Manhattan, café. They had wifi and good lattes and we got a milk cocktail for Serik. Serik tried to follow his daddy to get a magazine and promptly bumped his nose on the corner of the table – yup it started bleeding. Our waiter rushed over with a small kiddie table, set it up and scurried off again. He then came back with an apron, rolling pin and a bit of pizza dough and asked Serik if he would help him make pizza. Seriously, when does that ever happen. He showed Serik how to roll out the dough and then left to get our drinks. Serik had a blast playing with the dough, rolling it and flipping it over. We’ll definitely go back there. I said to Kurt – ‘if we don’t get DSL you can always come here and work for a couple of hours a night’. We ran home and changed and Murat picked us up. When we drove up to the apartment Zaure and irina were hanging out the window looking at us and waving and saying ‘privyet’. Serik waved and said privyet right back. It was great to see Zaure and she gave us all big hugs. She clucked over Serik and couldn’t believe how big he’d gotten. Soon Uncle Shamrat, Saule (his wife not our coordinator),Babushka and Gulia came over. Everyone was so warm and happy to see each other – it felt like we had never left. Uncle Serik was driving down from Tshuchinsk and came about an hour later. We sat down to eat – big spread: Mutton dumplings (yup my GF diet was out the window) Eggplant with tomato and something else Sliced carrots Potatoes Fruit Horse salami Cow tongue (which was foisted upon us – ugh – Kurt said eat it with some other stuff and it’s not too bad. Ha. I mixed it with cucumbers and tomatoes and got a few bites down). And of course vodka….in the form of Nikolashka. Uncle Shamrat made the first toast and then I made one…of course I got all teary saying things like ‘how glad we were to be back, how fondly we remembered them, etc, etc, Serik wasn’t really interested in eating as he hadn’t taken a nap. He was soon laying on the couch and Uncle Shamrat rubbed his back and soon little man was asleep. That lasted maybe an hour because Uncle Shamrat promptly picked up the dombra and the guitar and they all started singing and Zaure made me dance. Kurt got all this on video so it should be amusing. Uncle Shamrat also helped Serik play the dombro (sp?) and the guitar and Serik was in heaven. Shamrat, Saule, Gulia and Babushka left and then it was just Serik, Zaure, Irina and us. We stayed for a bit longer and then after a 5 hours of togetherness made our way home. They wanted us to stay but Serik was pooped and so were we. Big Serik has invited Kurt to go fishing with him next Sunday – that could be interesting. In a few hours we’ll head to the baby house for our Monday afternoon visit with Sasha will update more later.