Waiting For Our Bus...

While in the area last week we stopped at RamStore (the spelling looks like Pamctop) and picked up some groceries and fresh bread (a huge dark bread loaf as well as a loaf of French bread comparable to the kind found in New Orleans--in other words--GOOD!).

RamStore is set up like a mall, it has 3 stories and has shops for clothes, electronics, makeup, candy, etc., but the largest store which is definitely the anchor store, is a grocery store most comparable to an American Wal-Mart. One of the things I like about RamStore is that it has a number of products (like groceries) that are made/packaged/distributed by a company based in New Jersey, so they actually have English on the package... which means I can read what it is!


We waited for our bus at a stop right outside RamStore. I decided to post both the pictures I took as they show slightly different angles of the Soviet high-rise apartments and the street.


It was fun to take the pictures because I embarrassed Chris and got all sorts of funny looks (people don't usually break out the camera in public places... unless they are tourists of course).

Internet

We have internet as of late Saturday afternoon. Hence the posts. I hope to do more soon, showing our apartment and it's uniquely Soviet features, but we'll see how quickly that happens. I have taken a few pictures in preparation, but not enough to do the posts and keep forgetting to take pictures when I should (you know, when the laundry is folded, or when there is enough daylight to help the pictures come out).

Also, I attempted to upload a video last night. It was a large video--2 minutes long--but it didn't load. I will try again with some shorter ones, but I'm not sure how it will work out. Internet is different out here and we don't have the bandwidth that we had in the U.S.

Our neighbor Andrey has been amazingly helpful in all of our attempts to get access to our connection since last Tuesday, and he was joking with Chris on Saturday that we had to come to the former Soviet Union to understand how wonderful the internet really is, because it is so difficult to obtain and it's through those difficulties and challenges which are so frequent here that we learn to really appreciate things.

On Our Bathroom & Hot Water

The view of our bathroom from the doorway. There are a few things to notice in this picture:
1-Below the black travel kit is a little door with tile on it and barely visible to the left of it (on the tub) is a door to the tub. There is actually one more door on the far side of the tub. I believe the doors on the tub are for maintenance and the door below the sink has a gauge on it which I assume is to track our water usage. We are charged for both our cold and hot water usage... both come from the city. That's right, no water heater for us, the hot water comes from boilers somewhere in town. (And more on that later...)
2-Our sink has no water faucet.
3-See the knob on the top of the toilet? Pull it up if you need to flush.


I'm not sure if the pipes are purposefully built in this way for this purpose, but the hot water pipes are commonly used as towel warmers (Chris says it is on purpose, so there you go). My favorite feature of our Soviet bathroom.

So, I'm not sure if this a generational thing or Soviet thing, but if you look at the top picture and then check this one out again, you'll see why there isn't a faucet on the sink... the faucet for the tub and the sink are one and the same... just rotate that to the ceramic bowl (sink or tub) of your choice and you are set to go!
These may not be landmark discoveries here in KZ, but I've been really interested to see the differences in a very familiar room.

Anyone for the rest of the story on the boiler issue?... well. If you're "in" for a story read on...

The first few days after we arrived here we woke up at about 3:30 a.m. ate leftover dinner, got settled in (ie. unpacked/cleaned/etc), then napped, walked around the city (to a grocery store), went home, made dinner, dropped like flies in our bed by 7:00 p.m., you get the idea. Well, the Thursday of our first week was probably the point when our schedules really started to normalize. We woke at a normal hour, ate breakfast, the usual. We were busy doing things around the apartment that morning and I took a late shower around noon. Lucky thing! That afternoon when I went to do some dishes there was no hot water. We called our landlady to make sure the bill had been paid and she said there was some kind of problem with the boiler(s) for our area. Friday we asked our neighbors (had to make sure we weren't just gullible Americans) and sure enough there was something wrong downtown/uptown/somewheretown and we (and everyone else for probably a 12 block radius) wouldn't have hot water until Monday, possibly Sunday evening.

**Let's reflect a moment, shall we?**
The hot water and cold water come from different pipes. That means the hot water must be really hot, and the cold water must be really cold. How cold is really cold, you ask? So cold that it turns your hands red and makes you lose feeling in them after about 10-20 seconds? So cold that it makes you yelp with shock when you wash your face with it in the morning? YES.

So, by late Friday morning I had become a new woman. I had become... a pioneer woman.

It started when I lit "a fire" (the gas burner), "hauled" water to a big pot on the burner (repeatedly filled a smaller pot with water and dumped it into the bigger one until the bigger one was full), and waited until the water was piping hot. True story.

We were able to get by with cat baths until this girl had to wash her hair. My hair is long enough to put back so I went without washing it for much longer than I care to admit to, but there comes a time when a girl needs clean hair... I'll skip the gory details, but suffice it to say it was something of an ordeal to accomplish that feat (I bet you didn't realize that washing one's hair was 1-an accomplishment or 2-a feat, but it really was).

This incident is directly related to two strong feelings: 1-a great love of warm water, 2-a great need/desire for conditioner (ran out before we left and was unable to purchase more... can't find any here... possibly because I can't read the language and don't know what the word is in Russian anyways). In case you wondered, I don't recommend washing your hair in a tub without conditioner. Combing it out afterwards is actually physically painful. =)

Light Fixtures

One thing I noticed pretty quickly is that the light fixtures here are rather unique. I'm not sure I've seen two light fixtures of the same kind (and we actually saw them hanging in a store/shop too). Chris has informed me that although they may look nice they aren't usually very high quality.

The fixture in our kitchen (don't worry, we knew we needed a new bulb before I took this picture):
The fixture in our bedroom:

You may notice that there are only four working bulbs (of twelve). Chris checked them out and it looks like the bulbs are not replaceable. Yep that's right, and it means you have to replace the entire fixture once all the bulbs burn out... (Isn't it interesting to think that some people concern themselves with buying bulbs that last longer...)
The fixture in our living room:
Don't worry, we do have lights in our bathroom and entry, they just aren't very interesting... plain old bulbs sticking out of the wall.

A Little Development

It seems we arrived in KZ in time for some real development... Our first week here she really took to finding and holding her hands and she started waking up and peering around propped up on her little arms (as seen below). There seems to be more, but I can't remember it all!

Watching Us

I think Addie watches us as much (if not more) than we are watching her. It's interesting and fun to catch her doing it and see the different facial expressions that correspond with her observation of us.

Sometimes she just seems a little bewildered by us.
Chris took these pictures, but I can tell you exactly what she was doing without having actually observed it... she was kicking her legs in this funny little Addie way...

Dressing Addie

You may have noticed in a previous post that Addie is being dressed quite warmly these days. It did cool down last Friday and has stayed pretty cool until yesterday (or so). Regardless of the temperature we are scolded if she is not wearing a hat, stockings, jacket... you get the idea.

This past Sunday was Addie's first time wearing stockings, but not her last. We ran out of clean pants/long onesies, so I dressed her in stockings and onesies today & yesterday (it takes a little while to do laundry when the washer takes almost 3 hours for one load and you hang dry after that...). She looked like a regular Kazakh/Russian baby! (I haven't taken pictures of said outfits yet, but will follow-up with some in the days/weeks to come.)

For some reason I really love this pose! She looks like she's trying to model or something! Gotta love those rolls!
Chris thinks her legs in stockings are reminiscent of Olivia the pig (a children's book series).

In Kazakhstan

This is Addie recovering from jet-lag...

This is us on a walk to get groceries (pretty much a daily thing...)

Ahh... sleep!

A Little Catching Up

I'm having some technical difficulties, so this is out of order... but this is us the day before we flew out, I wore Addie and tried to pack...

We are spending some time at an internet cafe as we still don't have access to our internet (it's a software issue).

These are a few pictures from our trip to VB before we flew abroad. Addie was a champ and slept often... which is pictured here... the third picture shows her pushing her lips out while sleeping, silly girl!

The Flight Over

Our flights to Kazakhstan went remarkably well. We attempted to get the bulkhead seat on our way to Germany, but had no success. Instead we took turns holding Addie and attempting to sleep. I think Chris managed to get some sleep (albeit very little), but I was completely unsuccessful, and Addie didn’t sleep much either. We had a six hour layover in Germany, which could easily be described as painful. =) As there was a shortage of comfortable chairs to rest in, we did our best to make do, and succeeded in getting a few “cat” naps… Addie slept more comfortably in her stroller than we were able to manage, but I suppose that’s life when you are less than 24 inches long!

Our flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan was much better! The quality of flight and service were better than the American Trans-Atlantic flight—we were given warm cloths for our face/hands (reminiscent of The Wedding Singer), little baggies with socks, eye masks, water, and crackers, and frequent drinks and good food. We were able to secure a bulkhead seat for this leg of our trip, which made life so much more pleasant and comfortable! Why, you may wonder, is a bulkhead seat so important? Well, Addie was able to utilize the bassinet that can be attached to the “wall” of the bulkhead directly in front of our seats. She nursed as we ascended, and fell asleep—and slept until we woke her up shortly before we began our descent. While we are sure Addie enjoyed her sleep, we may have enjoyed it even more as it gave us the opportunity to get some rest too! We were able to sleep much of the flight, with a few wake-up calls for food and beverages.

Addie & her daddy in the Germany airport, those are some tired eyes!!

Addie asleep in the bassinet!

Biting Your Nails Yet?

We made it! We are alive and well. We don't have terribly easy internet access yet, so that's the update for now. There will be many pictures and stories to come...

Like A Bean Stalk

We just had Addie's doctor's appointment today... to receive her second round of shots (never a pleasant experience). We learned that she is now 13 lbs 15 oz and is in the 90th percentile!

Busy Bees

We've been super busy the last few days! We just returned from Virginia Beach and the count down is really on! With few enough days left in the states to count on one hand, we have a lot to do!

I will see about posting a few pictures in the next days, but thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of Addie now. Follow this link to our favorite photographer's website and click on the "here". At the bottom of the next page is an album of 22 pictures. We were able to arrange Addie's first photo shoot while we were in VB and although there are a ton more pictures than those in the album, but we liked those you'll see the best.

Addie's Announcement

This is the announcement I put together... a friend sent out one similar to the one I initially designed, but I think this attempt (albeit imperfect) turned out better than my first. If I can get some more designs maybe I'll make a little website/business.... =D

(Almost) Naked Baby

Hanging Out in the Hammock

Because yesterday was Labor Day (and more like a Saturday than a weekday), Chris worked during the day... and came home to a fun bbq. He had some quality time with Addie and was able to introduce her to the hammock in the backyard.



She really liked this position...


This is our friend Seth with his son Joseph. I met his wife, Amy, in the mother's lounge our first Sunday here and we've become fast friends.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall...

If this mirror could talk, I'm pretty sure it would be all ga-ga and googly like me and Chris...

Did you notice those michelin-tire-man arms in the mirror??

Here's that cute baby in the mirror....

Bonney-Girl

On Sunday we dressed Addie in another dress that I wore as a baby... gotta love that bonnet!