Spring Break and Easter

Spring Break was quiet for us. We just hung out, went to the park, and took naps. I went and had a Jane Austen movie night at a co-worker's house. We watched The Jane Austen Book Club and Becoming Jane Austen. That was probably the most that I did. Sophia had fun decorating Easter eggs. She would demand an egg, scribble on it, and then smack it on the table. Time for a new one. For Easter we were supposed to go to an Easter egg hunt, but the hostess got sick, so we just "hid" the eggs around our house. She likes running around to find them. She's been saying tons of new words like "monkey, honey, milk, necklace." Our favorite was when she suddenly said, "shit," clear as day. Hmm...maybe she heard that on T.V. or maybe it's time for Mommy and Daddy to clean up their language. It was amusing all the same.

Dying Easter eggs and shoving them into her mouth whole.





A decorated yurt-like building up at the park.

Playing at the playground. The weather was great.



She liked riding the cable car up to the park, but the highlight was the "wa-wee," the water in the fountain.



Every seen a camel trash can? Actually, this was the first trash we've seen separated for recycling.

Pics from our Courtyard

We came upon a "real" soccer game complete with jerseys in our courtyard.
This is as clean as the dumpsters ever are. On the weekend they are brimming and overflowing with trash. A lot of people don't bother to put the trash in the dumpster.
The community laundry area.
This van is our number one parking lot annoyance. Who knows how long it's been there. The windows are gone. The seats are gone. There's a bunch of junk inside and flat tires. In an already miserably crowded and non-existent parking lot, why won't anybody move it?
The ubiquitous Niva, a Russian-made 4-wheel drive.

Lots of New Words

When we had conferences awhile ago, Sophia stayed in the evening with one of our students. We came home to find that Sophia had demanded that the babysitter fix her hair like this. She then had to put on her two favorite dresses. Very stylish.

A Kazakh camel.
At the zoo, checking out the ducks.
Mmm...holidilnik
This is the first time she smiled when I took her picture.
See any resemblances?

Pneumonia and Meat Jello

I've been silent these past two weeks. Things have been too hectic for me to find time to sit down and write, but now, the weekend is here and we are actually not doing anything tonight. Finally, a minute to blog.

First off, Sophia had pneumonia last week. Her cough was terrible on two Sundays ago, and I commented that it sounded like a teacher who had come down with pneumonia a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't too surprised when I took her to the clinic on Monday and the doctor said that she probably had pneumonia. Thanks to the "great" healthcare here, the doctor at the international missionary clinic I went to said there was a dilemma. He couldn't give her a chest x-ray there, but if he sent me to a Kazakh hospital, they would keep me for a week. He said I would probably have to go to the S.O.S. which is the best international clinic here. The only unfortunate thing is that S.O.S. charges a membership fee of like $1500 U.S. just to get treatment. I was in luck, though, and they have a special emergency kind of week-long pass where you can pay $350 and get their services for a week. Needless to say, I went to the S.O.S. clinic where we could see an overseas, English-speaking doctor and get proper x-rays.

Poor Sophia, I dragged her around to both clinics in taxis, while she could do nothing but sleep on my shoulder. She felt terrible and sounded terrible. I stayed home with her for a couple of days, and as soon as she started her antibiotics, she was better in no time. Thank goodness for kids' quick recoveries. She's back to her usual rambunctious self this week - skipping naps, dancing, and playing all day. She even surprised me by saying "Cheese!" when I took her picture in the bath tub the other night.

We went on Saturday to the zoo. The grand total for our entrance? About 600 tenge or 5-6 dollars. Let's just say, you get what you pay for. Imagine old cages with bars and heavy iron-looking, old-fashioned padlocks. Most of the cages were metal slabs. If the animal was lucky, there was an outdoor scene painted on the walls. I think Joe referred to it as a Curious George zoo. We did have a good time, though. It was nice to get out and the weather is warming up, so we slip-slid along the melting ice. There was a dancing elephant and roaring lions. I think Sophia liked the hippo best since that day she started saying "hippo." Of course, she also started saying "sheep" and "goat" which we did not see.

This week Joe got pulled over for no apparent reason at all, just like in the good ol' days of last year. He told the cop this time that he didn't have any smaller bills than 10,000 tenge (roughly $80). The cop told him he could make change, and proceeded to do so. So convenient and helpful, the policeman are.

I'm also posting a picture of a delicious Russian dish. I have to laugh because it's really paying off to be vegetarian in this case. Our nanny is under the impression that Joe likes this holidilnik dish, and she brought some extra over just for him. Hee, hee...we have to take portions to school just to dispose of it. You'll know why when you look at the picture. Imagine - cold gelatin with shin meat and a nice cold fatty layer at the top. Mmm... We can't tell her he doesn't like it because she first served it when he was a guest at her house and he lied and pretended it was good. Don't you love these social nicities?

That's pretty much what we've been up to. Tomorrow's International Women's Day, so we celebrated today. Apparently, it's a big deal here. I got some chocolates from a student and a rose, chocolate and cheek kiss from the maintanence guys. (To clarify, that's one cheek kiss from one guy.) It's nice to be appreciated, although they should do more for the International Men's Day. Tomorrow we'll have Mexican night with friends. We were so excited the other night at the grocery store to find tortillas and litle corn tortillas we were inspired to give it our best try. Spring break is finally upon us. Just 2 1/2 days with students and a day and a half of conferences. Almost there. Can't wait. Enjoy the pictures. I was showing a student baby pictures of Joe and I, and I couldn't resist Photoshopping Joe and Sophia's picture together. Seriously, they could be twins.