Tonight we had Chris over for dinner. Because she is alone and it was after dark by the time we finished dinner, we happily walked her back to her hotel which is about 40 minutes away. Julian and I have been walking this route almost every day for the past week and have discovered some pretty back lanes and quiet pathways through parks that serve as shortcuts. Nothing makes a city feel familiar more than knowing a good shortcut.
However, while we have no trouble leading Chris home through the back lanes, we remain hopeless at providing verbal directions to someone as unfamiliar with the street names as we are. We gave Chris directions to our apartment on the phone and, well, let’s just say she got the bonus of an extra tour of the environs beyond our neighborhood. (Sorry Chris!!) The biggest problem is that the map we use (from Lonely Planet) has the street names printed using the Latin alphabet. When walking around town, the street names are posted in the cyrillic alphabet (can you believe the nerve of these people?). Even if you familiarize yourself with the cyrillic alphabet, the street signs are small and hard to locate (if they are there at all). As a result, we generally find our way around by using landmarks and have not learned many street names. We truly remain strangers in a foreign land.
If the weather is good tomorrow, our handlers have offered to take us up to the mountains before we go to the baby house. We look forward to it!
Speaking of weather, it was 17C (60s F) today. Definitely spring! We are noticing a lot of “spring cleaning” taking place in the city. We think this is in preparation for the upcoming big spring holiday. People are sweeping walkways, washing stairs, grooming parks and green spaces and doing yardwork. They were doing a lot of raking and sweeping outside at the baby house as well.
A quiet moment at the baby house.
Getting ready to play airplane. (That is a pink hair clip in Julian’s mouth. Some things are best not to ask about.)
Let’s do that again, Daddy!
5 comments:
And here I thought your "hump day" post was going to be about further adventures with camel milk!
Glad you are all doing well over yonder.
:) KH
so good to hear from you. Glad it's getting spring like there! :)
Zoe and her Dad are too cute!!!
Too bad her dad can't wear her barrette--it would look so stunning in his hair!
Good to see the update. Sad to hear you wont get Zoe as soon as you expected.......I can only imagine how you feel! You are great at keeping your spirits up and soon your little pet will be with you fulltime.
Mary K.
Now you really do sound like locals - that's how they probably get around too by landmarks not street names! Yes, it does seem to be warming up fast there. I'm going to have to replan my entire travel wardrobe and possibly do some shopping this weekend. Hopefully it will make me feel better about the long wait. We were really hoping that we'd be there in time to celebrate Nauryz as I hear it is a big deal. And one of the holidays that I wanted to celebrate as a new multi-cultural family. If we happen to get our LOI (crossing as many fingers as I can now!) in time to travel next weekend, we may try to go a day or two early just to celebrate in country. If so, we'll look you up and ring in Spring with a toast of fermented yaks milk!
P.S. I think I know who the photographer is as she is never in any of the photos! But look at how Zoe loves her Daddy - very cute!!
No problem with the extra tour of the city, in my next life I think I'll provide walking tours of Kazakhstan. Thanks again for dinner! Chris
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