ET, Phone Home

No post yesterday – we were just kind of fried. Three weeks in, with two to go can start to wear on your nerves. Even Boston would be boring to a tourist after a while, and probably more so if you can’t read the menus, newspapers and road signs and don’t understand anyone. OK, so the description by others of this trip as being like the movie Groundhog Day is accurate. You begin to lose track of days of the week, and every day blurs into the previous and the next. Even the television falls into the groundhog syndrome. There are 50 operable channels, but only about 10 unique stations – the others are all duplicates. The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are good, since we can usually follow along even without understanding the voice-over, and their commercials are in english. Oh for an English-language channel!

In the morning, we went to sign on to the internet as we always do with our tea & coffee. We were a bit surprised, however, to find that our brand-new 5,000 Tenge card was inoperable, despite having plenty of credit left on it as of the previous evening. We first thought it was an April Fool’s joke by the telecom folks. No, the card still wasn’t working a bit later. However, a card that had run out days before was now up and running again. We aren’t sure what’s up, but as long as we have access, we’ll take it!

Yesterday’s visit with Nicholas went well. We brought in an inflatable beach ball which he just loved. It was big enough for him to roll on, but also small enough for him to play with. We left it just slightly under-inflated (don’t worry – I said just slightly). This allowed him to squeeze it enough to get a grip (working on fine motor skills here) and swing it around. Happy chortles ensued.

He also showed us that he will really be a perfect fit in the extended Wolfe-Dugan clan. The boy loves nothing more than to flake out with a book. We’ll give him a little latitude right now for reading it upside down – the bottom was just a bit more yummy!

We spent some time getting him used to the baby carrier. He really wasn’t too sure about that, but mommy wants him to accept it so that trekking him about in airports and airplanes will (maybe) be a bit easier in May. A little bit every day…maybe he’ll be ok with it by the time we leave, and won’t torture Aunt Florence too much J

After the baby house, we headed over to the Philharmonic Hall to see the finals of a regional children’s talent contest, and to meet the other Americans in town. Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was sold out, and we couldn’t even get standing room seats. So off to the bazaar – a different one this time. We were looking for some slightly lighter weight jackets – it really is spring here, and down is too heavy sometimes. The search will continue, however. Jim didn’t find anything, and the leather jacket Nan really liked wasn’t available in her size. Oh well. And Maureen – no fabric seen that wasn’t of the decorating or dress variety – very shiny and flowers the size of an extended hand! The funny part of the bazaar visit was the fact that Zhanat kept telling us to zip up our jackets so we wouldn’t get cold. I think it was to keep us from looking too out of place- as if we would blend better with zipped up jackets!

Observation of the day today: Kostanai is a remarkably tidy city. Despite the fact that we haven’t seen any trash containers aside from those behind our apartment (which are emptied every 2-3 days), there is NO trash on the streets or sidewalks. This could be in part due to the fact that there aren’t Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks shops everywhere, providing ready trash. It could also be that people here have a great deal pride in their city, and want to ensure it looks its best. Something for most American cities and residents to think about.

The one thing we’re not loving today, however, is the fact that while we seem to have a more than adequate supply of hot water, there is no, repeat no, cold water. We all know that cold showers aren’t that easy to deal with. They can, however, be tolerated. It’s just not possible to take a shower in scalding hot water. Grrrrrrr. Hope it comes back so that we can have clean dishes at dinner-time. At least we have enough bottled water to wash our faces and brush our teeth!

Nicholas didn’t seem to mind our stale-ness when we visited today. He was in a good mood, and actually waved to us when we came into the room. It’s the little things.

We spent some time playing with Miss Morgan today – not cooperating, more like observing and tolerating each other. They both had fun with the balls from the ball pit, then Nicholas decided to make a break for it, straight for the camera.

Can’t wait to meet my family!

After one last round of Daddy-climbing, it was time to eat, and time for Mommy & Daddy to leave the boy in the Sun room (that’s the translation we were given, but if anyone can confirm that, we’d appreciate it – the key word is the one that starts with C).