Thursday, June 1, 2006
First – Happy Birthday to my sister Susie from a million miles away!!! It’s a holiday here too. Kids Day! That means, ironically, we can only see Tristan once – this afternoon.
My cold has been worse as has Tristans so O visits have not been too eventful. He has learned to blow raspberries which pleases him and us. Very amusing. I’m including some O photos on this post so you can get a feel for it and the surrounding area.
Some more interesting stuff to mention. When the kids have a very – shall we say, “dirty” diaper, they do not get out the wipes. They put them into the sink, under the faucet, soap them up and voila! Good as new! Quite the system – we refer to it here as the “car wash”. Very efficient.
Laura and I have had to buy diaper bags to haul all the kids toys and blankets back and forth. If you leave something at the O, it immediately becomes community property. Personally, I am appalled that I have to carry this hideous thing around. It’s stereotypically bad! I wanted to buy a backpack but we had to get this thing because on our second trip to Kaz, we don’t come all the way back to Karaganda. We stop in Almaty where an escort will bring Tristan to meet us. We have to supply them with a diaper bag, clothes, diapers, formula and whatever else comes up that he’ll need. And we’ve been told that it may go missing so buy a cheap one. Thus – no nice understated black backpack for Carolyn – it must be the ugly turquoise diaper bag. Oh well – I sacrifice for the cause!
Shopping for the kids is also an interesting experience. There are a few clothing stores in the malls but everything looks alike. Tons of patterns of little rabbits, bears, frogs, etc.. patterns on shirts, patterns on pants, it’s impossible to get solids of anything. Where is Baby Gap!? They could make a fortune here! When you go into a store, everything is in a case in front of you. One of the sales clerks has to pull out whatever it is that you want to look at. There is one place on the main drag called Mickey House (no copywrite infringement here!) which has one English speaking clerk. Before you know what hit you, she’s got you over to her counter and has pulled out a million of whatever it is you mentioned you wanted. Boy? Girl? How big? Suddenly there is a mountain of merchandise in front of you that you really don’t like. But because of her effort you feel compelled to buy something! Quite the marketing effort.
On a non baby note, we went to the “opera” the other night. The opera house is only a few blocks away and it was Romeo and Juliet so we thought we’d try it. Well, it was interesting. A very large young crowd in all types of dress – blue jeans to fancy clothes (all with their bling shoes). No concession stand in the lobby, everyone brought in their refreshments. The theater was interesting. Evidently built by Chinese forced labor. The performance was not what we expected. Sort of a cross between West Side Story, and Cirque du Soleil - all done by community theater. The set was sparse and minimal, the costumes modern and the sound awful. They were all wearing mikes and some worked and some didn’t but they all had static. The music was interesting – very 80’s synth pop-ish (in fact all the music we hear seems to be of this type) but it would start and stop in the most jarring ways. The singing was quite good but rarely happened. Most was long dialogue which was obviously lost on us. Another interesting thing was that people were allowed to photograph the performance so there were constantly flashes going off. We left during intermission.
Last night we got daring and went to what we thought was the corner bar. Turns out it was a bar/café. We went in for a beer or two but Geoff decided he wanted a burger. Since the menu was only in Russian, it was a challenge. He managed to get them to understand by drawing little pictures of a burger and fries. It worked and we had quite a good time – the burger was great. This will definitely be on our list from now on.
Oh – about those gypsies. They were a bit of a surprise to us. We had heard about them but hadn’t considered the threat I guess. Geoff (as I mentioned is a professional photographer) was out alone wandering one day and gave a gypsy mother a coin to take her photo with her two children. No problem. The next day, the four of us were walking past them and the two kids literally chased us down for money. Grabbed Laura’s coke and started tugging on it until she gave it up. Then followed us into the Mickey House and sort of circled us. There were only 2 of them so we were able to shake them but it’s worth considering that if there were 5 or more, we’d definitely be in a bit of trouble. They move fast!
Well that’s all for now.
Da svida n ya! (another way to say good-bye)
carolyn
My cold has been worse as has Tristans so O visits have not been too eventful. He has learned to blow raspberries which pleases him and us. Very amusing. I’m including some O photos on this post so you can get a feel for it and the surrounding area.
Some more interesting stuff to mention. When the kids have a very – shall we say, “dirty” diaper, they do not get out the wipes. They put them into the sink, under the faucet, soap them up and voila! Good as new! Quite the system – we refer to it here as the “car wash”. Very efficient.
Laura and I have had to buy diaper bags to haul all the kids toys and blankets back and forth. If you leave something at the O, it immediately becomes community property. Personally, I am appalled that I have to carry this hideous thing around. It’s stereotypically bad! I wanted to buy a backpack but we had to get this thing because on our second trip to Kaz, we don’t come all the way back to Karaganda. We stop in Almaty where an escort will bring Tristan to meet us. We have to supply them with a diaper bag, clothes, diapers, formula and whatever else comes up that he’ll need. And we’ve been told that it may go missing so buy a cheap one. Thus – no nice understated black backpack for Carolyn – it must be the ugly turquoise diaper bag. Oh well – I sacrifice for the cause!
Shopping for the kids is also an interesting experience. There are a few clothing stores in the malls but everything looks alike. Tons of patterns of little rabbits, bears, frogs, etc.. patterns on shirts, patterns on pants, it’s impossible to get solids of anything. Where is Baby Gap!? They could make a fortune here! When you go into a store, everything is in a case in front of you. One of the sales clerks has to pull out whatever it is that you want to look at. There is one place on the main drag called Mickey House (no copywrite infringement here!) which has one English speaking clerk. Before you know what hit you, she’s got you over to her counter and has pulled out a million of whatever it is you mentioned you wanted. Boy? Girl? How big? Suddenly there is a mountain of merchandise in front of you that you really don’t like. But because of her effort you feel compelled to buy something! Quite the marketing effort.
On a non baby note, we went to the “opera” the other night. The opera house is only a few blocks away and it was Romeo and Juliet so we thought we’d try it. Well, it was interesting. A very large young crowd in all types of dress – blue jeans to fancy clothes (all with their bling shoes). No concession stand in the lobby, everyone brought in their refreshments. The theater was interesting. Evidently built by Chinese forced labor. The performance was not what we expected. Sort of a cross between West Side Story, and Cirque du Soleil - all done by community theater. The set was sparse and minimal, the costumes modern and the sound awful. They were all wearing mikes and some worked and some didn’t but they all had static. The music was interesting – very 80’s synth pop-ish (in fact all the music we hear seems to be of this type) but it would start and stop in the most jarring ways. The singing was quite good but rarely happened. Most was long dialogue which was obviously lost on us. Another interesting thing was that people were allowed to photograph the performance so there were constantly flashes going off. We left during intermission.
Last night we got daring and went to what we thought was the corner bar. Turns out it was a bar/café. We went in for a beer or two but Geoff decided he wanted a burger. Since the menu was only in Russian, it was a challenge. He managed to get them to understand by drawing little pictures of a burger and fries. It worked and we had quite a good time – the burger was great. This will definitely be on our list from now on.
Oh – about those gypsies. They were a bit of a surprise to us. We had heard about them but hadn’t considered the threat I guess. Geoff (as I mentioned is a professional photographer) was out alone wandering one day and gave a gypsy mother a coin to take her photo with her two children. No problem. The next day, the four of us were walking past them and the two kids literally chased us down for money. Grabbed Laura’s coke and started tugging on it until she gave it up. Then followed us into the Mickey House and sort of circled us. There were only 2 of them so we were able to shake them but it’s worth considering that if there were 5 or more, we’d definitely be in a bit of trouble. They move fast!
Well that’s all for now.
Da svida n ya! (another way to say good-bye)
carolyn
5 Comments:
I love reading your updates....It is so wonderful. I get teary eyed...We miss you guys....
I have finally caught up with reading the blog myself. What an experience. Glad you are updating - it's great to have the news and pics so handy! The kitties are doing just fine. Addy is a big bully however and taking the other cats' lunch money. All in all, all is well. Will update Dallas when I see him. Haven't seen him yet. Trying to book a trip to L.A. for mid June - when will you be back in NOLA? I feel like a nutjob or else a senile old woman as I spend my evenings talking with/at the cats all alone in your big ole house. thought I'd share that....
miss you both!!!
Caro Love...
At least you have enough sense to know that the aqua blue diaper bag is just not for the Sinclairs!
B.
for some reason the two comments I posted haven't posted! Bah! But HI! thanks for the card! where are you registered, if at all, for stuff? I want to get you out of that hideous bag. but at least it's not pink. feh.
Nice to get some local color reporting. Romeo and Juliette sounded interesting... David Cassidy could clean up there.
Emily has been moving in with me incrementally for the past two weeks, but her final day is Saturday, when she has to be out of her place. We're shuffling stuff around (like the puzzle that has one square missing) to move in the meantime. We visited Mom last weekend and had a nice time. We hope we can visit you two and the family soon.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home