Good-Bye Chagala - We’re Movin’ On Up….

Yes today is the day we say good-bye to our friends at the Chagala Hotel – at least as residents – and move over to the apartment. Although we will miss the staff, the free laundry service and the kashi (boy will I miss my kashi), we are looking forward to cooking our own food and increasing our vegetable intake! We did tell the staff that we would bring Joseph over for pizza once we get him so we know we will be back!

After breakfast we went to the baby house and were greeted with a boy with even more chicken pox than yesterday. Of course this meant even more green ointment and so we were looking pretty sad. He had a fever so we knew that today would be a cuddle morning. The doctor stopped by to tell us how he was doing and the medications he was one. She did suggest that we shift our visits tomorrow by 30 minutes later so that he could have a nap after each meal. She thought he was about half-way through the course of things. As predicted, we basically just held him and played a bit with his cups but nothing too exciting. He was interested in his stuffed animal dog (thanks Cuz Karen and Mike) but was just a sad sack. He feels badly that he is not making for good blogging (or globbing as my Dad says) but we told him not to worry and said good-bye until the afternoon.

Igor picked us up and we discussed with Olga our plans for the move to the apartment. We were already packed and so we dropped off Olga and Igor made two trips with us between the hotel and the apartment. The apartment is about 3-4 blocks from the hotel and right down the block from my favorite bakery (I am closer now to torturing the woman there with my Russian!). The apartment is a staple of our adoption agency and there is even a book in the apartment which couples over the years have left their photos, stories and suggestions. There are two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, a toilet (Laura has started using the international WC or water closet term now that we actually have one) and a bathroom. So it is quite spacious and includes a full size (almost American size) refrigerator/freezer. There is a washing machine but of course no dryer. The dryer is the sunporch with lines for hanging our clothes. When laundry day comes I will put a photo up so you can appreciate things. The photo here shows the kitchen and the living room with Laura reviewing the message book.

This afternoon during our visit with Joseph, we started off with his Danny Zane CD and some simple cuddling. He was happy to see us but his head and his body were pretty hot - it just breaks your heart to see this green spotted little boy not feeling well. He tried to work up a smile here and there but could not really pull it off. He did sit up for awhile which he is getting better at each day that we see him. We decided that it was not a “workout day” so we let him set the tone for things. We have started to notice that he really has changed quite a bit since we arrived and he looks a bit older than the first day we met him. One of the highlights for Mom today was seeing that Joseph just about fits into his 9 month old clothes. I guess this is a Mom-thing as it really did not phase me but I did give an “oh yea, that is great!” – I can play the supportive sensitive husband role. We reached for the Neil Diamond CD and although the man tried, Joseph could only muster an occasional arm wave but he did do a decent job of toe tapping. As Neil was only marginally successful we knew Joseph was pretty uncomfortable and so after many more hugs and kisses we thought it was a good idea for him to have a nap and so said our good-byes a few minutes early. We cleaned up and headed out with Olga to grab a ride back to the apartment with Igor.

We needed to do some grocery shopping and headed over to the Atrium market. We recently learned that the Atrium market is about 2 years old and is due to the influx of the oil money which has been pouring into this area. As I think we mentioned, there are a few huge homes being put up around here right next to very “basic” homes, many of which do not have running water - the change indicative of the influx of new wealth. The Atrium market is quite large by Uralsk standards is more like an American style market meaning self-serve with checkout lanes and cashiers. We headed straight for the pasta aisle and the frozen vegetable section – two things we really miss. We grabbed some new Kazakh beer, a bit of OJ and some bread. When you checkout, you can purchase plastic bags (2 tenge each) but this time we brought our own like the locals! We grabbed our backpacks from the lockers (required to use) and walked back to the apartment.

It was a great evening for the walk back (it does not get dark here until about 8:45 pm) and Laura rustled up linguine arrabbiata and warmed some bread while I worked on today’s blog. It was a delicious dinner! I should also mention that in the apartment we are required to use a different internet provider than in the hotel. This provider has a maximum connection rate of 32K compared to the 56K at the hotel. Although neither is anything “to write home about” this one may limit the photos I can put up on the site. That’s all for now – da zaftra!