Monday's Day

Monday we started to get into our routine. Get up, lay around, mommy goes to hotel or café to upload pics to the blog, daddy goes for a run, then Serik takes a nap, we get picked up at 1:45 to head to the baby house, visit with Sasha for two hours and then head home. In the morning Serik is cute and asks if Murat (pronounced Murlat by Serik) is coming to pick us up. He gets in and says ‘privet murlat’ – pretty close. At the baby house he carries his luggage around ‘all by myself’ and goes into the room with us to get the baby. Today she was sitting on the potty in a sort of large communal crib. I wanted to take a picture of her but the caregiver nixed that idea. She was sitting on a little blue potty with just her shirt on and a large bandana around her middle tied to the crib bars to keep her upright. She ‘finished’ and we dressed her and took her to the playroom. It’s weird to be in the playroom without other families. We’re the only ones here although Saule did say a woman from Spain was coming and wanted to adopt a little girl but that she was going to try and convince her to adopt a boy since there were no little girls. Side note: There are several adorable little Kazakh boys and girls in Sasha’s group whom I asked about. Apparently they are being held for local adoption. I hope so because I’m ready to take home a few of her group mates. Last night we decided to grab a bite at a little cafeteria next to the Gros Supermarket called Regine’s. Needless to say it wasn’t much to write home about. We get a lot of looks here especially with Serik with us as I’m sure they’re all wondering what the deal is with our situation. So I’m trying to stay on the down low and Kurt picks a table right on the end of the restaurant next to a fake white picket fence with flowers. This fence essentially separates the checkout lanes with the restaurant. So there we are in full view of everyone and after Serik had finished eating his chicken (which by the way was a minor miracle as he was a pure carb boy for the first week) he walked to the fence, grabbed hold and two seconds later – crash! Everyone whipped around to stare at us – hi – don’t mind us, the crazy Americans. Won’t be eating there again any time soon. The temperature drops pretty quickly after five so we just went home after and hung out until Serik went to bed around 7. Today (Tuesday) we are waiting for the TV cable guy to come to get us some better service and then we should be getting DSL tomorrow. Also – if you are visiting this blog on a guest pass make sure to come up with a gmail account so you can have continued access after the 2 week guest trial ends.

Observations: The wind is starting to howl and the temperature is supposed to drop into the 20s with snow by Saturday – was hoping for a longer reprieve before the cold settles in. The cars on the left bank drive like they’re on the autobahn – serious speed demons. Garbage trucks come at 4:30 am – loudly – don’t know how I’m going to get Serik to sleep later than that when it’s ridiculously loud out there.

p.s. As Serik and Annabelle would say 'Obama Excellent!' Will be interesting watching the returns here tomorrow a.m.