Sunday - 12th November 2006 - Bonding - Day 11
Can you believe it is Sunday again – the week has flown by!! Strange really, as we are hoping the days will pass quickly so we can get to bring Sasha home to his sisters and all be together – family complete!! And usually when you feel like that the days drag by! Sometimes I do wish that yes, we could add to our family one more time but okay, I concede that Alex will be our last baby and this is our last trip to Kazakhstan, well, until we are coming back to show Elena and Alex their country of birth in eight to ten years time.
Today, being Sunday meant we only had a morning visit and we had a great day with Alex. He was so smiley and content – as has been the norm more often than not.. We tried on the little jackets that we bought yesterday and they were gorgeous on him, a little long on the sleeves but quite wearable. He looked cute. His favourite thing to play with is a packet of tissues or the packet of wipes. Amazing with all the toys we brought for him and he also has Tolia’s toys now that his Mom & Dad are gone back home between trips and yet all he wants to hold on to is a cheap packet of tissues. He quite likes the photo albums also.
Usually Aine & Alex, and sometimes Sue come up to our bonding room as their visits tend to finish quicker than ours. David, being a younger baby is usually taken for a nap or a feed and their visit is short. Sue came up and sang ‘Nelly the Elephant’ on video so Sasha will have some familiar memories of ‘bonding time in Ust’!!!!
As is the norm we (Sue & I) had to get on the computers at lunchtime and had some better luck in Pizza Blue today – at least I managed to get online… and read my emails –
Had a nice stroll back to the hotel, and it was a pleasant day, even though the temperatures have dropped quite low, must have been freezing last night as there were a lot of frozen puddles about, but… it doesn’t feel that cold. I did not even have my jacket with me when we were walking back.
Mind you, I did bring my coat and my ‘winter adoption hat’!!! with me on the next excursion. We all took off for the zoo, which we had heard was in a nearby park… close enough to the hotel. It cost 50 tenge to get in (about 30 cent) and had very few animals. T.G. There were three bears, two camels, some deer, and two wolves. Oh, and a boar of some sort. The conditions were not so great and while it was somewhere different for us to go this afternoon you could not help but feel that it is just cruel to have these animals caged up here. Mind you, you could possible say that about other zoos also.
Hmmph! Not much to grab onto here!!!!!
As I write this we are planning on trying a new restaurant tonight – not sure where yet but will tell you tomorrow what it was like!!!
Have been a bit lax in my Russian the last few days but even if I have not written of my progress?! I have been learning!! I can say quite a bit now…..
Dobryi Den …. Good Afternoon
Dobryi Vecher… Good evening
And a real useful one – Kak Dela – How are you?
Am sure the carers are real impressed with me, if I say so myself!!!!!!!! It is funny, when you recognize an odd word here and there in someone’s conversation or on the TV.
Paka Paka till tomorrow…..
Well, not yet!!! We, Declan, Alex, Aine and myself set off looking for all the restaurants that Slava had shown us on the map. We asked him which would he recommend and he said ‘I do not know, I am a poor man’ And yes, it is probably true that he does not eat out, like so many around here and we take it so much for granted.. We decided we will ask him to come out with us some night for a meal. He said he was very thankful to Declan for making the effort to talk to him and giving him a chance to practice his English!!! Declan’s English is still better than his Russian!!
We walked to a restaurant called the ‘Red Dragon’. It seems to be so safe to walk around here even at night. Turned out it was not a Chinese restaurant but Korean. We had our first wine since we got here – 1000 tenge per bottle!! The restaurant had more ambiance than the others we have tried – no fluorescent lighting, and music. There was actually a live band there and some of the diners were up dancing!! We listened and watched and did not make a show of ourselves!!! It was nice to go somewhere different even if it was quiet.
No comments:
Post a Comment