Koktobe

Yesterday was a lovely day. We all slept well and Serik is having a blast in the new apartment (new toys to play with here). Vitalli picked us up around 10:30 so we could head to Koktobe (cable car up one of the foothills on the edge of town). On the way we stopped and got a picture taken of Sasha for her Kaz passport - not the prettiest one of her ever taken but it'll work. At Koktobe last time I had been chastised for not having Serik bundled well enough (the kid had 3 hats on) - this time it was much milder and I had no reprimands. Serik loved the ride to the top and once up there we checked out the various birds in the 'zoo', sheep, goats and the fallow deer with the green antlers. Yup, green antlers. Kurt and I are assuming that they painted the poor things antlers for the holidays but who knows what the deal is. Don't know if you can make out the mountains in the background behind Kurt and Serik because of all the smog. But they are beautiful and are around 10,500-11,000 feet.

We went to the Koktobe yurt restaurant for tea and lunch and sat at the same table that we had two years ago. We were the only ones in the place which was good because Serik was wandering around checking out the wall hangings/dead animals and crawling under tables. At the end of lunch Serik announced from under one of the tables that he was pooping. Thankfully it was a false alarm but as we were window shopping on the way down he graced us with a treat. I didn't realize it until we were in the cable car and I thought that someone (other than us) had 'cut the cheese' - ah no - it was our beloved little boy. He ended up getting a diaper change in the back of Vitalli's car. I talked to Irina to find out about the mountains but that didn't end up panning out as Uncle Serik and Zaure were trying to get a kitchen picked out and installed.

Serik and I ended up meeting up with Irina after nap time and Vitalli took us to the Tsum here. This place is huge and jammed packed with everything. Not at all like the sedate Tsum in Astana. My goal, to by a large Uzbek plate. I had seen them last time we were in Kaz and had really admired them so this time I decided to one. No idea how we'll get it home - carry on I guess. Took a good 45 minutes looking at the pottery at all the different stalls and comparing prices. Irina and I haggled the ladies down from 7000 to 5000 tenge for the one I finally decided on.

While we were looking Serik made friends with a little Kazakh girl who's mother was blowing up balloons for her to play with. She gave one to Serik and the two of them bounced them up and down in the hall. Kid charms everyone. While we were there I noticed that my face had started to itch. By the time we left I was pretty darn itchy and Irina kept scolding me for scratching.

Baha (her boyfriend and our friend) met up with us there and then we went to the Aptika (pharmacy) to buy me some sleeping medicine, miracle cold cure (for Kurt and to bring home), extra pacifier and clip (for Sasha). Then found out that Uncle Serik and Zaure were meeting up with us and they wanted us to go out to dinner with them. I wasn't sure that Kurt would be up for it since he's been tired and fighting a cold. We walked in the door and Sasha was screaming and had been for 2 hrs. That combined with my itchy (and as it turned out red/hive) face made us say 'thanks but not tonight'. I spent all of last night popping Benadryl and still am splotchy this a.m. I'm thinking about getting Irina and heading to a pharmacy or clinic to get something stronger than Benadryl because this is no fun.

Not sure what we plan to do today. Sasha is fighting a pretty good cold. Might walk around the corner to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas which we didn't see last time and then to the swank grocery down the road for a few things. I say swank because it is cool - there's another one a 1/2 block away and it's got all the basics and then some but the other night when I ran to get a few things (that were too heavy to carry from the swank place) the lights were all out and I was using my cell flashlight to find things - turned out to be a bit difficult. It's supposed to be sunny and around 40 so we'll take advantage of the walking weather.

This is the view from our apartment and Sasha showing off her sexy self.

Notes: Forgot to mention on the other post that we drank fermented mare's milk and camel milk at the Muslim celebration. Not exactly thirst quenchers. I only had a few sips of the mare's milk (which you can apparently get drunk off if you have a couple of cups) but did like the camels milk.It's served warm in a bowl/cup and I think they might mix it with something like water and butter but not sure.

Also, Absinthe is legal here and they have it at the Biscuit Cafe where we would go to get coffee last time. Thinking about trying it as I'm sure I'll never get the chance to try the infamous drink again - will let you know.

Forgot to mention that I found out that the two babies I was worried about at the baby house are all set. One is getting adopted by an American couple and the other has a mom and is only there temporarily.