Hello, Where Are You From?- Oct 10

Hi all!
Sunday was another free day. Free of schedule is a good thing at home but here, where we have no idea about anything really, it can get a little overwhelming to have the whole day with nothing to do and no idea of how to entertain Rinat. We wander with no destination in mind which is fun for grownups, not so fun for Rinat-chik. We headed out in the morning with the intention of walking through the park but we instead ended up in Fantasy Land. In the summertime it’s an outdoor carnival sort of place with a ferris wheel, go carts, a carousel, and other twirly rides. I can close my eyes and imagine it full of people- boys and girls meeting up to flirt, families sharing a giant ball of fluffy cotton candy. But now, when it’s cold, it was deserted and a little bit sad. Like a lot of the things here, it is old. The canvas covers over the ferris wheel cars are ripped, the seats of the spinning cone are rusted, the paint has worn off of the tires at the side of the racetrack. But did that bother our little malchik? Nope, not a bit. There was a giant rusted structure that he named the Monster House which he played in for a while. We climbed to the top of the tower above the racetrack and he announced who was winning between Peter and me. We had leaf fights, Rin gathered piles that he then threw in the air yelling “Faaaaaalllll!” and he made leaf angels. He wandered around looking at all of the animals on the carousel and tried out the ferris wheel chairs. We were there for two hours. Who needs shiny new and fancy? Not us!

Then it was about time for lunch so we headed, yes, across the street to the mall. On the way, there was a sweet boy who ran up and stopped us by saying “Hello! How do you do? Where are you from? My English teacher is over there.” We let him and his friends come and practice their English on us for a little while (they were very good) and take a photo before saying goodbye. I am hoping we run into them again.

Then after perusing the Lego collection in one of the stores (for so long that the sales ladies gave us the catalog) we headed to Assorti where there was some pizza that, although no 2 Amy’s, was pretty darn good so Peter and Rin put some away. And I had some awesome awesome Stroganoff. Warm, creamy, full of yummy mushrooms and onions it completely hit the spot. My eating binge continues. I ate the entire thing and would have licked the plate if it were not a respectable eating establishment. A quick stop at the Jungle Park for a very good boy and then it was home for ‘quiet time’. I have had it with Rinat waking up at all hours and I know I am being an evil mother by nixing naptime but it appears to have worked because he only woke up once last night for about 10 minutes and then slept until 5:30. It’s a Kazakh record. Of course, poor Rin has developed a cold (imagine that) and I was really hoping some good quality sleep would knock it out. I have been trying to give him hot baths too but since this is Kaz, we were without any water at all last night to he went to bed bathless. It’s back this morning though thank goodness.

And now we are just hanging out again today (Monday). Oxana called yesterday to say that Natasha (coordinator) needed to go and meet with both baby house directors this morning to get the low down and we might, maybe, perhaps meet babies today but most likely not until tomorrow :-( BooHiss is all I have to say to that. I am a firm believer that we learn from every experience we have and what I am learning at this point is patience. Grrrr. ‘Til tomorrow…

Love to all, -m