Selected Commentary

Well, having fallen into a routine, there seems to be less to report on a daily basis. So, in the spirit of the David Sedaris & Stephen Colbert that I’ve been reading in the evenings, here are some random observations:

Comments on Aliya: We were asked to give a definitive spelling of her name, and our translator felt that Aliya was most consistent with the Russian spelling, so that’s what we chose. So, she can now be formally unveiled as: Aliya Lucia. Our baby house visits have been extended to 2.5 hours each morning. She has really loosened up with us, and greets us with a smile each morning. Overall she’s a serious, quiet, contemplative kid (like her mom), but prone to abrupt bursts of cackling (also like her mom). She’s ticklish. She smells like baby and sweetened gruel. She loves music, and cannot listen without kicking her feet in excitement - a dancing fool in the making. She loves books, and tries to grab the pictures out of them. She looks, (and at times acts), like a sumo wrestler. She feels that I need a nose-ectomy, and I have the scratches to prove it. She needs her nails trimmed.

Comments on the weather:

When we headed out to the market this morning, it was about 30F, overcast, with a light flurry. We all got excited and exclaimed, “Wow it’s so nice out today. I can’t believe how warm it is!” That pretty much says it all. I have learned the hard way to not go outside without tights under my jeans. Never again do I want to experience the feeling of walking on numb stumps. Tangentially – the sun begins to rise ~ 8:15AM, and sets ~ 5:45PM. Which gives us an extra disadvantage in the fight against jet-lag.

Comments on the food: We are eating well. Breakfast is Daily Cereal and Bread with Cheeses at the hotel restaurant (if we win the daily battle against jet lag) or instant oatmeal in our room (if we lose). Lunch is typically an epic affair with the entire group. All the restaurants (or at least the ones that will have us) are equipped with a hidden parlor style room, in which the group of awkward and unfashionable Americans can be sequestered. There is always a coat room, necessitated by the fact that while it is always frigid outside, the city steam plant makes sure it is always ~ 80F inside. There is one menu, always 6-10 pages long, which is typically read to us in its entirety by the translator. That, and the fact that we are neatly tucked away out of sight, means that we don’t even order our meal til ~30 minutes after our arrival. Meals always start with a salad (yesterday I tried “vitamin parade”, which was shredded cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes, + kernels of corn, with oil). For Sal & I, the salad is typically followed by a “garnish” (fried potates, mashed potatoes or rice pilaf) or soup (borscht, salmon soup, mushroom soup). Occasionally, we get a salmon kebab, which is incredibly tasty. For the rest of the group, salad is followed by garnish, soup, and large chunks of mutton, horse, or beef, either stewed, dumpling-ed or kebab-ed. And then dessert – either ice cream (served in neat cubes) or a pastry, often cake drizzled in condensed milk. So far our clothes still fit, probably because much of what we is unfamiliar that it goes shooting through our systems in record time. Most of the restaurants have MTV playing in a corner, and at least once per meal we’re able to enjoy the site of Britney Spears doing her pole dance. Due to the enormity of lunch, dinner usually consists of in-room snacking. We’ve amassed a large pantry of munchies from the open market – dried apricots, apricot cookies, apricot tea, apricot yougurt, cherry juice, olives, ramen noodles, black-bread crackers, fancy chocolates, pickled cauliflower, pickled cabbage, pickles, mushroom chips, cottage cheese bars, cans of tuna. And lots of chechel (the smoked, salted string cheese that we will be importing on our return, to fund our early retirement). Alas, the 16 oz jar of peanut butter brought from home will not last the trip.

Comments on drink: Vada with gas, vada nyet gas. Depending on the mood. Baltika 0-9. Any given establishment will likely only have a few different numbers at a time – but the grocery store has the full assortment. I can’t even drink more than half a glass of the 7 without getting a little loopy. Sal on the other hand, can hold his Baltika 9. The grocery store also has an entire aisle for vodka. We have been using it to clean dishes & toothbrushes, as it’s cheaper than bottled water. We also indulged in a few shots, (well, only a half-shot for me) at one of the fancier dinners, and it was icy smooth.

Comments on the Sal Phenomenon: (Poor Sal does not want me to include this – he’s bashful about his Phenomenon & speculates that it may not exist at all – but I can’t help but include it, because it’s too adorable). It appears that the Sal Phenomenon transcends cultural and language barriers. For those unfamiliar with it, the Phenomenon refers to Sal's unique ability to make women in general (and especially me) gush, giggle and babble when in his presence. Here, the phenomenon means that he gets extra attention from the bellydancers at dinner; he and he alone is predictably able to get a zerberty belly laugh out of Aliya with each visit; and he has accrued a fan club of Kazakh women at the open market, who eagerly rush out to see him when one of them notes our approach. The first time we met them, one of the older women rushed behind her booth and dragged out her young daughter, for Sal’s approval, then forced her to speak the 3-4 words of English she knew (poor thing). I am fairly certain I know the source of his transcendant Phenomenon, but can’t prove it because our Russian dictionary has omitted the word for “dimple.”

Well, there it is, an extra-long entry to make up for the days of blogging I missed. At this point, we are waiting to be assigned our court date, most likely in early December, though we’d admittedly be thrilled if it was sooner. After court, we are legally Aliya’s parents, but have to come home without her and await the processing of all the paperwork and the obtaining of her paperwork.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments. I’d like to send individual emails, but the dial up internet (31.2 kb/sec) is so frustrating that I end up giving up each time I log in. So let me say here that we love and miss all of you back home, and are so grateful for all the love and support you’ve been sending us during our adventure. We are so blessed in so many ways!!!! Best wishes to all -t