Good-Bye Uralsk…Hello Almaty!

Sorry folks about not having a blog for Thursday but it was a rainy day at home for getting ready for our trip today to Almaty. I ran a couple of errands on Thursday while Laura and Joseph were packing at home. Although we unloaded a bunch of donations etc for the baby house, we did acquire some new things and so we still had a bunch of crap to pack and yes, we were still without hot water! We were digging around the apartment for all of our stuff and getting things cleaned etc. One of the things we had not done was test out our Baby Bjorn. We wanted to see how Joseph would like it and how well it worked for us. With all of our luggage we would need all of our hands for sure. Although Laura was going to be wearing it on Friday, I decided to give it a test run with Joseph while I packed etc. In this photo you can see that he is pretty happy. I was able to move around and get a lot done. The only reason he came out was because we thought we should give him a break although he did not ask for one. For whatever reason, it seems many babies like these things and he is one of them. We kept packing until we were basically done and so we just had some minor packing and cleaning before Igor came to get us at 8:15am for our 10:10 am flight.

Friday morning seemed to come pretty quick and so we leaped into action. We got Joseph up, fed and dressed and we did the same. Unfortunately, although Friday morning came quickly the hot water did not – no hot water today! The last time we had hot water was Tuesday morning! Oh well, at least we have electricity! Olga stopped by this morning before Igor to give us a Kazakhstan cookbook and a crystal to bring us health and safety! We were really touched. I had been looking for one of these cookbooks but did not have luck. I was not even looking for one in English but knew it would have to be in Russian. Thank goodness we have MANY friends at home who can translate (right Tamara, Milana, Anna, Dalia, etc?). Olga wrote a very nice forward about enjoying us and the visit. It really meant a lot to us. She also translated the Beshbarmak (Five Fingers) dish for us so perhaps some of you will get to enjoy it at our house!

As we had so many bags Misha, the other driver, arrived with Igor. We loaded up and away we went. Joseph did okay but was a bit cranky as we had to wake him up to leave. It was raining most of the way and we talked about how quickly the trip went and how when we arrived we thought it was going to be an eternity. We really came to love Uralsk and our time there. We will miss the city and especially the team of people who took care of us so well. When we arrived at the airport we got all of the bags up to check in. On this flight we upgraded to business class so that we would have more room for Joseph’s first flight and because we heard there were not weight restrictions so we did not have to worry about how we packed each bag. On these two accounts we were 50% right or 50% wrong – we had to pay for our overweight bags!!! Oh well another lessoned learned. Time was drawing near and so we got this photo of all of us. Olga, Olga, Laura, Joseph, Igor and me. We gave Igor the photo book that Laura came up with and Olga translated it and it came out really nice. It had wishes and photos from people who had adopted here in the past and had Igor as their driver. Olga translated them into Russian and we printed and bound them. He seemed to really like it. We said our sad good-byes and off we went.

Joseph liked walking outside across the tarmac and up the stairs to the airplane as it was windy. We got into our seats and had plenty of room – we could really get used to this sort of travel space! For most of the flight Joseph slept and it was a pretty good experience for all of us. Once we retrieved our bags we met our driver Kirill who we had when we were in Almaty a month ago. This time he was in short sleeves and shorts as it was about 80 degrees and sunny outside. By this time Joseph was not doing so well and the heat did not help. We were all feeling it and there was a ton of traffic in Almaty. This was clearly not Uralsk! We had to stop at the agency’s office before going to the apartment to get the keys. These delays Joseph did not understand but eventually we got here and our first priority was a diaper change and feeding him. Boy how our priorities have changed already – it seemed like a good time for a beer! You can see in this photo how happy Joseph was to get to work. He as taken up helping us shovel in his food! He likes to grab the spoon and get it to his mouth as quickly as possible. Needless to say he is not the most graceful at this stage so we have to clean up a bit! After some food and bit of visiting he got him to bed and declared that the airplane trip was fine but the car ride was tough!

The apartment is located in a seemingly nice area of town and so I ran down to the corner market to get food for the next few days. What a pleasant surprise! I would compare this market to something like a Whole Foods market! It had everything and I was so excited to see several kinds of bread (although unfortunately still wrapped in plastic – not what you should do with good bread), cheese and vegetables!! I could not help myself – they even had Cheese Krack! This was the big city! So as the “hunter-gatherer” I loaded up my bags and brought back food for my family. Of course this essential load included fresh donuts, diet Pepsi and croissants! Laura was as thrilled as I was when I walked in the door! We cooked up some pasta and actually found Parmigiano cheese to go with it! After dinner we sat down for some family time and looked at the gifts we received from Olga (I). She gave Joseph a Kazakh hat and an Uralsk newspaper from our adoption day! Joseph was very excited and was sporting it around the apartment. As you can see from the photo, he certainly can make it work for his look! Now introducing Kazakh Joe!

Tomorrow is an average day for us as we have to go get passport photos for Joseph but a fantastically exciting day as all of us can take a hot shower!!! It will feel so good but now the bed is looking better. Sorry again for yesterday and for the slow day today.

Da Zavtra!