Great Day - Big Post

Today has been a very good day, thus a big post! Tons of great photos from today thanks to Evy, she and her husband Davy are adopting little Illian (I posted of photo of their family of 3 on today’s post too), they are one of the two Belgium couples here adopting. Sundays we are only allowed to see our babies from 10-12:00 but it was a happy 2 hours. Zahri was in a great mood, and she was a bit more lovey today too! Z tends to want to go go go, but today she combined her need to go with a little quiet loving for mom, and it was so nice! We sang a couple songs, played the piano, rocked with a bottle of juice (still she has not been picky with flavors – today we had a combination fruit juice and she loved that too) and then we played ball with the other babies. These babies love the blow up beach ball, so we sat in a circle and kicked and hit the ball back and forth; the kids had a ball (pardon the pun.) The caregivers have asked me to bring in some medicine for Z’s cold, so we need to go on a hunt for something to make her feel better; the last thing I want for them to do is give her that cough medicine again, the medicine that nearly made her drunk………no kidding, I hated it!

I must also tell on us again………Laurie and I went shopping for baby lotion for her, so we ended up picking some up at the baby store where Laurie purchased some toys, bottle, and a nook. Yesterday Laurie mentioned that Kyson was breaking out on his face, could he be allergic to the lotion possibly? Yes, I had been using this same lotion on Zahri as I gave my lotion to the caregivers to use on Z while I was away. Today Laurie’s translator looked at the lotion for us and come to find out we had purchased the wrong type of lotion……………it was in fact for nursing moms to use for stretch marks on their breasts. Ooooops! Let’s chalk that one up to a new mom too? Or maybe our lack of being able to read Russian? It did have a pink lid so we assumed baby store + pink lid lotion = baby lotion.

TIP: Never assume that a pink lid on baby lotion = baby lotion. hehe





Well, I think that I have decided to stay the entire trip, that is unless something crazy happens around court time to push the time past a 2 month stay. Bayana took me to see a single bed room at the Hotel Dastan today, thanks Laurie for the heads up on the single rooms, and it looks like I can stay here for about $50 a night – this is less than ½ of what I am currently paying for my posh room at the Amsterdam Hotel. Bayana had called the Amsterdam Hotel yesterday for me to see if we might be able to get a reduced rate if I stayed for one trip, and they wouldn’t be able to run that by the manager until after the new year, but from what Bayana says, it is rare for them to do any discounts, at least not a good enough discount to make staying financially comparable to doing the two trips. Laurie had mentioned that the Dastan had single dormitory style rooms for around $50, but Bayana did not know of such rooms so she called for me this morning and an hour later we stopped by to view the room. The room is simple with a single bed, TV, little fridge (something I really still wanted to have), armoire, and a small ¾ bathroom. It will do just fine I think and it saves me a butt load of money! Score! Plus the Hotel Dastan is in a great location, it is next to much shopping, restaurants and Laurie’s apartment is just around the corner. Maybe for New Years, tomorrow night, we will go out them since we now do not need to worry about drivers taking us each to different locations! I will be your local tour guide of all hotels and apartments. I will take photos of the Dastan now, plus Margo is staying at the Hotel Asia so I can get some exterior photos of this hotel as well as photos of Laurie’s apartment. Hopefully this will be helpful to future Aqtobe families! The menu at the Dastan is less expensive too, so this will help as well! The room was a little smoky, so that is the only thing that kind of worries me, I can’t do smoke. Bayana is set on getting me an ‘Adoption Discount’ too, so we will see if this is possible. This is all for you little Zahri! Now that I have my internet card with cheap internet access($1-$2 per hour versus the $5 an hour I was paying through the hotel), my hot plate (which I will leave here for future Aqtobe Hotel bound families) and a cheap, safe, clean place to stay things should be good! I will absolutely miss my posh Hotel and my robe, fresh towels, built in blow dryer, clean sheets and piece of gum that I get after each meal, but I think the trade offs are worth it.

This afternoon Laurie, I and Bayana went to the indoor market by the stadium and it was neat! If you are looking for more reasonable shopping, this mall is a better bet. Here they have everything from medicine, to diapers, to clothes, purses, coats, toys, food and there is a large area with slabs of meat on butcher tables and fresh frozen whole fish as well. Yuck! The smell in that area was terrible! Raw meat sitting out on tables? Who would have thought, so of course I want to take a picture, and do take that picture, and not 30 seconds later I was greeted by a security guy. Ummmmm I can’t understand him. Yikes! I get Bayana, my translator and he tells on me for taking a photo so she said that I didn’t know any better and he left it at that. Do they think that we will steal their idea of a market? Or was it their brilliant plan of selling slabs of meat that I might steal and bring to the U.S. to duplicate and make millions? Why no photos???? Bayana couldn’t really answer this either, she knew of the rule and thought it was silly too. Ooops! We then had lunch at another indoor mall just next to the indoor market; this was a cafeteria style place in the basement of the mall.

TIP: Always check out the basements of buildings, it seems that this is where all of the good stores and restaurants are.

Here are photos of Mr. Frost / Freeze, the Outdoor Skating Rink by the Football Stadium and two photos of the indoor market; one photo is showing the 2 levels of shops and the other is the meat and frozen fish tables (hard to see, but I got in trouble and couldn't take a second photo. :)






Anyhow, we got a really yummy veggie soup, potato type salad, rice and sweet and sour beef dish + juice for only about $6.00! This is the best deal in Aqtobe! Then Bayana had to leave so she told us to please bring our dishes up to the front to wash them. We were going to do it! And then she started laughing, and kept laughing for quite some time, she was of course kidding. Shheeeesh!

When we finished lunch we walked back to the Mosque Mall and went to the souvenir shop again in the basement and we found the best things ever………….they had kids books in Russian and English, and they are books about Kazakhstan & Kazakhstan life, I am so pumped! I bought all 4 books that they had! Score huge! Do visit this little store; it is right by the carpet / dining table store.

KAZ LIFE: They love our American music here, especially 50 cent, Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears, J-Lo – really anything hip-hop!

There also doesn’t seem to much of a middle class here, there is the Oil money that is driving up the prices of everything from food to housing making it very tough for the local residents to live. Bayana says that many older kids still live with their parents because housing isn’t affordable. Truly the prices here are crazy – most things we can buy back in the states for less! I am really not sure how people make it here as the wages are low bust cost of living is high. How do those girls then buy these fur coats and leather stilettos is my question?

I best get to packing up my room for the big move to my dormitory at the Hotel Dastan!