Saturdays In Almaty – It’s Not Uralsk, but it’s our last in Kazakhstan

Yes, the contrast between Uralsk and Almaty is stark to say the least and more than perhaps we were ready for today. It seems like living in Uralsk for so long was like going to school in central Illinois – comfortable. Coming back to a big city can be a bit of a shock and especially if you are celebrating your 8^th month birthday. Happy 8^th month birthday Joseph! Since yesterday when we arrived Joseph just has not been himself and has been a bit cranky or as Laura would say – a pill. Right about now I know all of you are saying “Welcome to Parenthood”…well that helps.

As I wrote yesterday, we did not have many plans for today but the one big one was to take a hot shower and so we did. In fact all three of us, which meant Joseph had his first bath with us and it went very well. You can not really see from this photo what he was thinking but he was happy. He seemed to like the feeling of the water and splashing around. He was not even too concerned about getting his head wet which was a surprise to us. After he was done, both Laura and I had our turn and it felt great! Breakfast went well and then we decided to go for a walk.

We loaded Joseph into the Baby Bjorn and off we went. The next photo shows Joseph and I posing right in back of the apartment which, although is right off of a busy street, has a playground. For his great Uncle Bob (Sorry John) he was getting into the spirit of the Cross Town Classic by wearing his Cubs hat. We hoped it helped but we were not promising anything. We did not want to venture too far as we had to go for Visa photos for Joseph and so we just took Laura to the fantastic market at the corner. She was as impressed as I was and we picked up a few things including some more donuts before heading outside. Just outside of the store they have two counters set up – one has more pastries and pieroskies while the other one, shown here, is really elaborate. It has three huge wok like things for cooking these incredible smelling dishes of meats and vegetables. The best part though is off to the side where they crank out the bellinis! They are at it all day with 4 or 5 cooking at the same time so that people can buy a kilogram at a time! If this was not enough, on the other side of the building they have about 10 freezers lined up full of ice cream! I think we could spend each day hanging out on this corner including today but we had to get Joseph to his nap before heading to get his photo taken.

Kirill our driver picked us up to go for the photo session which lasted all of 1 minute and resulted in Joseph having a classic SHOCKED look on his face which will now become a part of his official documents! As more rain clouds were approaching we decided to get over to one of their open markets to get an umbrella stroller for our trip to the park tomorrow. Both Laura and I feel we got ripped off but alas we were a bit tired and just needed to get back to the apartment as Joseph was getting a bit cranky. We piled in and off we went to the apartment. On the way back Kirill pointed out some restaurants for us to try and a great street for walking which is lined with various artists. As we passed it was full of people and definitely made our must see for our short time here. We made plans for Gorky Park for tomorrow morning assuming it does not rain and Joseph is back to his fun self.

The rest of the evening was not exciting although a bit tiring as Joseph could not get settled after dinner. We even took a walk in the stroller but that did not help too much either. It was a beautiful evening out but that was only good for Laura and I – Joseph did not really care one way or another. We did stop in an underground mall and bought him a toy truck which he seemed to like and soothed him a bit when cranky. We passed by the belinis again but we felt a potential meltdown coming our way so we made our way back home. All I can say is that Joseph would go between laughing to about crying and it went on and on and on. Finally Laura, the Queen Soother, got him to sleep after an hour of maximum soothing power! I, on the other hand, usually stimulate him, so I retreated to the kitchen and then to the living room for a Baltica beer. The final photo here captures the soothers all of us experienced today – Joseph and his new truck, Laura and I with a Kazakhstan and a Russian beer. The Cubs hat was thrown in for good measure! We are pooped but looking forward to Gorky Park tomorrow. Today is Saturday and we arrive into Chicago this Wednesday – we are excited!

Da Zavtra