Today we printed photos for the Dept of Guardianship (D.o.G.) Lady (we still love that acronym) to document that she did monitor some visits and some to submit with our formal court application tomorrow. We’ll also bring a photo album to court with many that were not included in today’s packets. Our pictures have been a mix with and without timestamps since there doesn’t seem to be a consensus regarding whether or not they’re required (we have heard both). We think it has to do with documenting that we visited for the entire required time… If nothing else, our first and last day of bonding will have date stamps.
After searching through more that 850 pictures we’ve taken since our arrival, Bill selected 89 pictures to print, two sets each. Today we got the volume discount, 25 kzt/print for glossy. Many went in an envelope for the D.o.G. Lady and 15 to be submitted with our application. The rest will go in our photo album for court or to the kids for their albums.
We have taken a lot of photos of the kids with teachers, staff and friends, so they want to share them. We also picked out a few which we will enlarge and frame as part of our gifts. While waiting for the photos, Bill picked up some groceries and discovered that there are 3 new flavors of the “For Men” chocolate bar. Tonight we will try the one with almonds.
Many foods here are the same, but many tastes are different, such as the Bacon flavored potato chips we had with lunch today. Cathe got a good laugh because we had leftover hard boiled eggs from yesterday’s salad and made egg salad sandwiches. With the exception of not having the sandwiches on toast, you could say we were sort of having breakfast foods for lunch.Today we flew solo during our visit. Masha and Sasha were on a mission to retrieve another couple’s final court documents from a town about 60 miles away. The couple (who we met in passing in the airport café in Almaty) adopted a child from the Poludino orphanage 35 miles to the east of Petropavlovsk and went to court in the further town because it was closer to the orphanage than Petro. So instead of our usual company, we were chauffeured to the RBS by Masha’s sister and her boyfriend.
This was Cathe’s first time riding in a car with the driver on the right side (about a third of the cars here are right-hand drive). She wanted to take a picture but was afraid to ask. Right after leaving the apartment, we encountered a brief delay at an intersection due to overhead power line work which had the electric buses at stand-still. Andre deftly navigated his big car (ok, at least big compared to the Lada we’re used to traveling in) through the traffic and even cut off a bigger truck just in time to zig around a stopped bus, ignoring all laws of gross tonnage, with just enough room to complete an immediate right turn. After navigating from the back seat (could be a few good jokes here…) we finally arrived. Once we climbed out of the car, we were fully on our own.
The first order of business is to review basic English. LG is struggling with the letter “J” so Bill was determined that she would get past that today and learn the rest of the alphabet too. Of course, there was bribery involved. After a few times through the flash cards in order, Bill shuffled the cards and opened a package of sweet-tarts. LG received one each time she got a letter correct. But there is risk with reward… Each time she missed a letter, LG had to give one back which helped her stay focused. It was a lot of fun and LG soon depleted the day’s candy supply. She was almost as proud of herself as we are. Several families who have adopted older children have recommended “Rush into English.” We’ll be picking up a copy as well.
Meanwhile, LB knows a lot of basic sight words. He even has great word attack skills. Cathe worked with his comprehension and introduced something new today: dictionary drills. Knowing that we can’t be in class with the kids once they start school back home, the next best thing we can do is teach them to figure things out. Looking things up in the dictionary will be time consuming at first but will help both become more comfortable and less likely to just guess at the meaning of words. With the right coaching, we can even make it fun and increasing patience at the same time.
After all their hard work, it was time for some fun. The kids got to alternate computer time and drawing time. We asked LB and LG to draw a family picture. They both drew everyone smiling and didn’t forget to add Bob! Both LB and LG also drew LG with long hair (it’s in a bob cut now), so we asked if she wanted to grow it long. No hesitation in answering, “Yes!” We are thankful that our computer came with a couple kids games that focus on matching and memory. The memory skills games are fun and will help LG increase memory skills. We concluded today with a game of Uno, calling out numbers and colors in English, except Bill, who was calling them out in Russian.
Today was a good exercise in communication since we all had to work equally hard and only had ourselves to depend on. It won’t be long before we’re on our own. We survived today on our own and know that we can, with the patience and effort of all, get through the language barriers. Another Great visit on the books.
After dropping off our book bag back at the apartment, we headed out to take a few pictures. It rained this morning and our days are getting shorter, so we won’t have many more days to catch the trees in fall colors. Cathe also wanted to take pictures of the festive tulip flags set up a few days ago in anticipation of a visit by the President of Kazakhstan. 
We were fortunate and got a few photos of the few remaining marigolds and petunias. Groundskeepers around town have been pulling them up the past few days, so most flowerbeds are now empty. While out and about, we saw a remnant of the old soviet days: A Hammer and Sickle. It was etched in the stone surrounding a memorial statue not far from the Dept of Education.
Yesterday we watched “The Devil Wears Prada.” At one point in the movie the main character refers her model co-workers as “clakers” because of the sound their stiletto heals make when they walk down the hallway. Cathe got a good laugh when Bill commented the clakers are out in full force this evening. As we shared in a previous blog entries, boots with high heels are the most popular high-fashion item and most common footwear for women under the age of 60. 
Even the young girls are getting into the act. They even leave distinct tracks in the dirt pathways. Cathe really stands out as “not a local” not only by her accent but also in her non-claking Nike cross-trainers!
A few friends have asked about the cars here. In addition to all the older eastern European models, we have also seen several newer US, German, and Japanese cars in the past few days. Yesterday we spotted a PT Cruiser. Jeep Grand Cherokees are also popular. Today we saw a car with temporary tags from Virginia. It even had a current Virginia Inspection sticker in the windshield. Today’s driver told us that there are a few businesses in town which import cars from the US to re-sell in Kazakhstan. We’ll have to pay more attention to the prices on the occasional “For Sale” signs in the windows…For dinner tonight we finished up yesterday’s soup and watched a little TV. We have not picked up any Kazakh, but enjoy the Russian channels. In addition to dubbed Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, we have started watching some Russian sitcoms. One of our favorites is a show called “Счастливый Вмѐсте” (“Happy Together”) which is a direct knock-off of “Married with Children.” The opening song is very different but has a catchy tune. The opening slide show follows the same sequence as the US show with the father handing out money to everyone, including the family dog. Even the characters resemble the American Show with big red hair, heavy makeup, scantly clothed daughter, shoe’s salesman father, an older and younger brother and Marcie and her husband as the neighbors. Marcie’s name is Masha and Natasha is the name of Peg Bundy.
We have also enjoyed watching “Just for Laughs,” a take-off on “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Russia’s Funniest Home Videos,” “ТАКСИ” (“Taxi,” aka Cash Cab). There is even a reality show called “ДОМ” (“House,” which we have determined to be the equivalent of Big Brother). Cathe has also enjoyed watching the Sports Channel this week since there was great coverage of the Kremlin Cup games. When you are watching Gymnastics, Hockey, or Synchronized Swimming you really don’t need to understand what the announcers are saying. (Her dad would be proud).
There are a lot of dubbed US movies on TV. If we have seen it before, we’ll go ahead and watch. We’re only picking up a few words of Russian here and there, but we can follow along. We have almost worked our way through our supply of movies and have been swapping with Masha. Looks like we’ll be trading a few with Suzanne and Hilton as well.
Tomorrow is the last day of our required 14 day bonding period. If it’s nice outside, we’ll try to do something outdoors. There won’t be many warmish days left and the days are getting much shorter. In the time we have been here, we’ve lost an hour of daylight per day.
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