A Day at the Zoo/Hanging out at Lulu's House

Sophia adamently calls her nanny Lulu. Her name is Ira, so where does she get it from? She's had a couple of fun days with Ira and her daughter, Dasha.

When we had a day of professional development on Saturday, Sophia spent the day with the nanny, Ira (right), her daughter, a mutual friend from work (left) and her daughter (center).
Sophia spent a day at her nanny's house. She loved the cat, Persik (peach), but got scratched when she got a little too overzealous.
Doing a little digging.
Sophia's first banya. She didn't want to go in until they made lots of bubbles.

Playing with the neighbor boys. They only spoke Kazakh, but she managed to understand them somehow.

All tuckered out after a long day.

Egyptian Tummy Bugs

(This post is from awhile ago, but I'm just now getting it posted. The computer shut off as I was working on it.)

Finally, a moment to blog, and what to blog about? Joe's back from Egypt now. Believe it or not, he met an Iowan from Independence that graduated with his cousin. Iowans, they're everywhere. He had a pretty good time, although a student lost her ticket and almost had to stay behind. They paid the extra cost and got back safe and sound. Joe got a bad stomach bug, not a big surprise, and he just finally recovered. Stomach upset is always a nice souvenir from Egypt.



Unbelievably, it snowed today. April 17 and it snowed! There is snow on the ground and it's supposed to get really cold tonight. One teacher commented that the red tulips looked pretty poking through the snow. I disagree! I tried not to look outside all day. All I can think about right now is leaving Kazakhstan and going some place warm. One of my students is taking off from school for more than a week to go to Thailand. I'm so jealous. Our students are always taking off to go on vacations. No big deal. Nevermind missing a week or two of school. Right now, some of my students just come to school every other week as it is. They just don't feel like it.



We are starting to think ahead already to Christmas break of next year. I never thought we would actually be one of those people who could actually redeem frequent flyer miles, but we have actually paid for our Christmas trips home to the U.S. from China with our miles. We have to buy Sophia's tickets, but it really helps to be able to fly us for free. We even qualify as "Silver Elite" members of NWA's frequent flyer program. I guess being far away pays off in that respect.



We have a big PTO fundraiser this weekend - bingo and raffle prizes. Joe and I are hoping to win something good. It's been rumored that the big prize would be a trip to Europe. That would be fabulous. I wonder if we'll get that lucky. You never know. That's about it for us. Hope everyone's enjoying warmer weather.

Going Back

I feel like I have less and less to talk about. In Cairo, there always seemed to be something new and interesting, but here it is much more constant. We are enjoying the change in weather. There are flowers blooming and the mountains are visible more often. That makes a big difference.

We had a good week because we hardly had school on Wednesday. I had a total of two students all day long. The Olympic flame was coming through town so our director announced that it might be difficult for people to get to school with the roads closed off. He also said we wouldn't be counting it against the students' attendance if they didn't come. In other words, he told them they could have a day off and they did! I got a lot of work done.

Joe took his Model United Nations group to Egypt this week. He left early Thursday morning. They had a ten-hour layover in Istanbul so they got to go out into the city and do a little site-seeing. He said it was a mix between Athens/Europe and Egypt/Middle East. They are in Cairo now. Joe got to meet up with a couple that we taught with there, so that was nice. He says he's really liking Egypt. I reminded him that's because he's not having to live there and deal with the day-to-day stuff. Plus, he's staying in a nice hotel. He'd also forgotten how cheap it is. It makes Almaty look insanely expensive.

Sophia and I are getting a lot of mommy/daughter time which is nice in its own way. Luckily, we hung out with some friends last night and we've been invited to someone's house tonight. Keeping busy is a better way to pass the time. Lucky for me, Joe took two of my students to Cairo. Those two students are in my class of three students, so I have just one student for two periods of the day. Let's just say it's been a productive week for me.

That's about it and I'm sure I or Joe will have lots more to report when he gets back.