Food Friday!

Today started out with some awesome kashi (oatmeal like)! It seems to vary a bit each day and at what time we make it down to breakfast. They did mix it up a bit with the addition of some fresh hot yeast rolls which were really good. After consulting with Tamara, Milana and Beata, it appears that I can ask for belinis for breakfast so I will give it a shot perhaps tomorrow. If you continue to read on belinis actually come into play later on today! You can see here a photo of the Chagala (pronounced Sha-ga-la) Hotel which has been our home in Uralsk. We may be moving into an apartment after Monday when the other couple flys back to Almaty. The Chagala (or Shag-a-la) is simple but nice and the staff has been very kind to us – not to mention the complimentary laundry service! We take turns doing laundry which consists of putting our dirty clothes in a plastic bag, filling out a ticket, and placing them outside our door! Of course whoever is in charge needs to put away the clothes after they are returned to our room, ironed, folded and on hangers (life is tough in Uralsk!). We were very excited this morning to get on our way as today we would be able to feed Joseph his semolina breakfast!Upon arrival, Olga brought back his clothes to his caregiver and we were brought into the feeding room. There on the table was a honkin’ big bowl of semolina with pureed fruit and a cup of black tea with a cookie in it! The “man” himself appeared in his University of Chicago attire with a bib in place and his caregiver Tanya demonstrated the shoveling technique. As Laura got the first bottle the other day, I gave the solid food shoveling a go. I did okay but was not as skilled at the technique as Joseph would have liked but we managed. You can see from the photo that I did a good job of getting near the target but not always succeeding! After a bit Laura gave it a go as well and tossed in a little tea to wash things down. The funny/interesting thing was that the tea was just standard black tea in a mug! Laura just lifted it to his mouth and gently poured it in and he drank it – with his hands alongside the mug! We have been told he is a good eater and did finish it all. After the bowl of food and tea, they brought out a half baby bottle full of more tea and yep, he drank all of that too. I was feeding him that tea and at one point I took the bottle out of his mouth to give him a break. He then reached down and squeezed the nipple which proceeded to squirt him in the face with tea – very funny! He did not mind. We then moved into the music room for about 15minutes of our remaining time. He was feeling much better today and we were looking forward to the afternoon playtime.

We did not do anything much in between our morning and afternoon sessions and just did some note taking, emailing etc. When we arrived back at the baby house Joseph entered the room with big smiles for us and you could just tell he was feeling much better. We set up the blanket, the books, toys and yes the music as it is our routine. Today Joseph got to experience the musical stylings of Michael Buble and he loved it (or that was my interpretation). He was definitely in a good mood as he was full of smiles, waving his hands around, kicking his legs and doing a bunch of babbling – da da da ma ma ma - etc. You can see Joseph in this photo all decked out in his University of Chicago outfit! He is a good looking man! Of course the hour flew by even faster than normal and we were saying good-bye until Saturday. Too bad we can’t watch Saturday morning cartoons together yet but soon…very soon!

After we left the baby house we ran some errands including going to “X-Photo”. We need to provide dated photos of us visiting Joseph to the court so we wanted to give it a test run using my flash drive. Unfortunately they were busy today as a bridal couple and party were in getting photos taken. The photo to the left shows their decorated wedding car! Olga told us that weddings are primarily on Friday’s and Saturday’s and that the only photos taken are at a studio/photo shop not by a photographer on site. The wait was unclear so we took off for the hotel. On the way back we were talking about going to dinner and ask Olga for a recommendation. It turned out there was a restaurant / club at the end of our block that she said was good. As she was unsure about them having a menu in English, we stopped by and she ran in but soon returned. She found out that they did not have a menu in English and no one there spoke English. What we then decided was to go back inside with Olga and place our whole dinner order now and then return to the restaurant later to eat it! The place was very Romanesque inside and we sat down at a nice table with a very nice woman who went through the menu with us and made recommendations. We ordered everything from the wine to the salads to the dessert. I asked if this nice woman would be there when we returned at 6:30pm and the answer was no but that she would “tell someone about us”. That was as good as it was going to get as Olga would not be able to join us – we were on our own.

Just before dinner we met with the two other families and their newly adopted kids in the Chagala Lounge. The one apartment did not have water so they were over here to have a pizza dinner. After visiting for a bit we left for our night out. We entered the restaurant, handed over our coats (all coat checks here seem to be free) and walked into the restaurant. We were guided over to a table and as you can see from the photo it was all set up for us including the salads, wine and bottle of water we had ordered earlier! It looked great!! The music playing was American Blues and the waitresses had outfits on that you might see at Caesars Palace – short green velvet dresses. The salad was great and so was the wine. The wine was from the republic of Georgia and was similar to a Merlot. After the salad, the waitress poured us the cherry tea which was incredible!!! We really really liked it. The entrees, Laura’s fish and my pork steak, were great and were served with a vegetable rice pilaf. Finally for dessert I got my belinis! They were served with honey and whipped cream! All and all without any English and our few words of Russian we had a great meal. As we left the restaurant with our empty bottle of wine, I was taking a photo of Laura outside as she was pretending to drink out of the bottle. We heard a laugh and we turned around to see it coming from a guy dressed in a hat and raincoat smoking a cigarette sitting on the ground…with no legs. He was a happy panhandler and so we donated some tenge to him for making us smile. Another interesting day in Uralsk!Now we just have to get through the night so we can see Joseph in the morning! See you tomorrow!