How cute am I?Bonding Day 10 – Thursday, November 15, 2007
I woke up this morning with no lights, still. No big deal. I figured they would work on them while I was gone all day and they would be back on when I got home. I forgot it doesn’t work that way in Kaz. I got home about 5:00 pm and still had no electricity. Pasha told me he had to argue with the people in the office to get workers to come and fix it. Of course, he actually had to motion this to me. He was also trying to tell me to motion to him from the window while he waited in his car whether I had lights or not. I’m on the second floor and my kitchen window looks down on the area where he parks the van. Of course, he had to go through his hand movements twice for me to understand what he was trying to tell me. I’m not very good at understanding this way. Even when scuba diving, people try to tell me something underwater by using their hands and they usually have to go through it about 3 times for me to finally get it. The lights finally came on around 6:30pm.
Every day is starting to feel the same. I get picked up about 9:45 am to go to the Baby House and get picked up there at 11:30. Then we go to lunch and then we go to a store or museum and then back to the Baby House at 2:00. I get picked up again at 4:00 and either go on some sightseeing adventure or to store if I didn’t go at lunch or back home. I have gone to dinner a couple of times but I usually eat dinner in the apartment. And I usually spend a couple of hours on the computer in the evenings. Then, I either read or watch a movie until time to go to bed. Then, I wake up and do it all over again. I hope to go to the toy store tomorrow because I’m getting a little tired of the same toys day after day in the bonding room. I think BabyKaz gets tired of the same toys too. But, even though it is starting to feel routine, I enjoy every minute of my time with BabyKaz.
At lunch today, I met up with the other 3 families and went to a place about 45 minutes out in the countryside for some pork kabobs. They only serve the pork and onions and bread. That is it. They grill the meat outside on a barbecue, even in the middle of winter. The meat did have a lot of flavor and a lot of fat. It was pretty good but it seemed a long way to go just for some meat. They really like to eat a lot of meat here. I’ve eaten predominantly meat and carbs while here. I can’t wait to get back home to some veggies and salad. I never thought I would miss the green stuff so much.
Except for the first night, I haven’t had cable. The cable line is outside the apartment door and you could see where someone cut the line. But they had it fixed last night but of course the electricity was out. There are a lot of channels but the only English channel is BBC World. They do have U.S. channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, Hallmark channel, some TV shows like Medium and U.S. movies. The English channels are dubbed over in Russian but you can hear some of the English under the dubbing; just enough to make it annoying to try to watch. They have a couple channels with just movie videos and they do show a lot of American music without dubbing over them. I’m watching an Avril Levigne video as I type this. And now Eric Clapton singing Wonderful Tonight is on VH1. It’s nice to hear music I recognize. The best item I packed so far has been my Ipod and the Ipod speakers. It really saved me last night and this morning when I didn’t have electricity. I really haven’t missed the TV even though I probably watch too much at home. I’m missing The Amazing Race and Beyond Everest the most. Amazing Race started after I left and I only got to see one episode of Beyond Everest before I left. Thank goodness for DVR!
I talked to Mom tonight who is still in Almaty. She made it there fine. Please pray for her safe return as she leaves for the States in the morning.
I woke up this morning with no lights, still. No big deal. I figured they would work on them while I was gone all day and they would be back on when I got home. I forgot it doesn’t work that way in Kaz. I got home about 5:00 pm and still had no electricity. Pasha told me he had to argue with the people in the office to get workers to come and fix it. Of course, he actually had to motion this to me. He was also trying to tell me to motion to him from the window while he waited in his car whether I had lights or not. I’m on the second floor and my kitchen window looks down on the area where he parks the van. Of course, he had to go through his hand movements twice for me to understand what he was trying to tell me. I’m not very good at understanding this way. Even when scuba diving, people try to tell me something underwater by using their hands and they usually have to go through it about 3 times for me to finally get it. The lights finally came on around 6:30pm.
Every day is starting to feel the same. I get picked up about 9:45 am to go to the Baby House and get picked up there at 11:30. Then we go to lunch and then we go to a store or museum and then back to the Baby House at 2:00. I get picked up again at 4:00 and either go on some sightseeing adventure or to store if I didn’t go at lunch or back home. I have gone to dinner a couple of times but I usually eat dinner in the apartment. And I usually spend a couple of hours on the computer in the evenings. Then, I either read or watch a movie until time to go to bed. Then, I wake up and do it all over again. I hope to go to the toy store tomorrow because I’m getting a little tired of the same toys day after day in the bonding room. I think BabyKaz gets tired of the same toys too. But, even though it is starting to feel routine, I enjoy every minute of my time with BabyKaz.
At lunch today, I met up with the other 3 families and went to a place about 45 minutes out in the countryside for some pork kabobs. They only serve the pork and onions and bread. That is it. They grill the meat outside on a barbecue, even in the middle of winter. The meat did have a lot of flavor and a lot of fat. It was pretty good but it seemed a long way to go just for some meat. They really like to eat a lot of meat here. I’ve eaten predominantly meat and carbs while here. I can’t wait to get back home to some veggies and salad. I never thought I would miss the green stuff so much.
Except for the first night, I haven’t had cable. The cable line is outside the apartment door and you could see where someone cut the line. But they had it fixed last night but of course the electricity was out. There are a lot of channels but the only English channel is BBC World. They do have U.S. channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, Hallmark channel, some TV shows like Medium and U.S. movies. The English channels are dubbed over in Russian but you can hear some of the English under the dubbing; just enough to make it annoying to try to watch. They have a couple channels with just movie videos and they do show a lot of American music without dubbing over them. I’m watching an Avril Levigne video as I type this. And now Eric Clapton singing Wonderful Tonight is on VH1. It’s nice to hear music I recognize. The best item I packed so far has been my Ipod and the Ipod speakers. It really saved me last night and this morning when I didn’t have electricity. I really haven’t missed the TV even though I probably watch too much at home. I’m missing The Amazing Race and Beyond Everest the most. Amazing Race started after I left and I only got to see one episode of Beyond Everest before I left. Thank goodness for DVR!
I talked to Mom tonight who is still in Almaty. She made it there fine. Please pray for her safe return as she leaves for the States in the morning.
4 comments:
He gets cuter everyday! Every new picture he seems more and more your son. It's like looking at a picture of Jamison or Jackson. He's just your
xxxxxxxxxxxx (can't say a name). Lots of love. Wishing your mom a safe return.
I am so enjoying reading about your trip! thanks for posting! I'm not sure what I would (will??) do without electricty! How boring. I too will bring my iPod... hope it stays charged. :) He is just the cutest ever! Just so so cute. I have 'thought' the same thing about the days... same day after day. I know I can't wait for the time with the baby... but otherwise, I am afraid I'll be bored, and get numb to it. Hopefully, I won't. When you don't have electricity... what about heat? Is that gas so not effected? Brrrrr.
He is so precious! Hope you are staying warm. I will be praying for a safe return for "grandma". Keep posting...I really enjoy checking on you two:)
Stacey
I loved their kabobs...it was a far travel, but I found it so delicious and Pasha loves to take families there to eat what they believe are the best kabobs around. The onion soaked in vinger was different, but found it was good going down and a bit odd when it burped up later. We had the lights out several times....had it happen in restaurants at dinner time....boy is it dark. Oh the memories coming back as I read about your time there in Semey. Give my greetings to Pasha and Olga.
Beckie
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