Not all foods are what you expect

Major events of the day: Bonding Day 12, Lunch at the apartment and a children’s show at the Metro Theater

Major accomplishment: We slept through the night and we didn’t even go to bed late!

Yesterday we didn’t mention our latest grocery shopping trek in preparation for today’s lunch with the kids. Masha offered to help us pick up the ingredients we needed and when we realized that Sasha was going to give us a lift back to the apartment, we picked up some extras of the heavy items (like water) so we wouldn’t have to make an additional trip today. Cathe introduced Masha to “Our Friends” in the little market, “The Kabob Guy,” and “The Fruit Lady.” (we’ll have to get a few pictures of them to include). They have been patient with us, and always friendly despite our limited vocabulary.

One thing we also learned is that items aren’t always as they appear on the label or at least as we’re used to them back home… Since most everything has a picture label, we’ve gotten good at making our way through the store. We’ve learned a few key words like Суп (sūp = soup), Рис (ris = rice), etc. From a previous restaurant adventure, Masha knew that Cathe doesn’t like mushrooms. Masha saw this package on our counter when we were reheating the soup today and said to Cathe, “I thought you didn’t like mushrooms?” Would you guess that this is mushroom soup? This will probably end up as another “you won’t believe what those Americans did today” story as dinner time conversation with her family… Interesting tidbit: We have not seen individual spices (like the jars we’re familiar with back home). Instead, there are a lot of complete seasoning packets for specific dishes.

First thing in the morning Cathe made the soup for this afternoon’s lunch. She could hardly wait to get started! Also on today’s lunch menu: Краб (crab) Salad. Masha also helped us navigate the market for the needed ingredients to make Краб salad (uses mock crab legs that we can find at home in the seafood dept). It’s one of the kids’ favorite salads and has become a favorite of ours as well. We will be making it back home too.

Anyway, Cathe made the soup in the morning (no mushrooms!) so that the ingredients would have enough time to blend together. It is nice to have some bare necessities to cook meals in our apartment.

Since it was Sunday and the kids didn’t have school, we got to pick them up early and were back at our apartment by noon. Most of the leaves in the birch grove by the RBS have fallen... Anyway, two hours is pretty easy, but today we would have them for five hours, our longest adventure yet. They were VERY excited to be heading off-campus again and kept asking what we would be doing today. First order of business was prepare the Краб salad while the soup was heating up. The kids were also excited when they saw the sourdough flatbread we got to go along with the meal since it is our favorite and much to our surprise their favorite too. One of our bakeries back home has foccia bread which is close. Fresh baked breads here are great and we’ll miss them! We had also gotten their favorite juices to go with the meal, so they were both very happy campers!

The table was set by our little helpers and LB wanted to take a picture of the table with all of the food, since this is our first home cooked meal. LG beat him to it. Masha asked if they liked everything and they said yes. They didn’t finish the soup but had extra helpings on the bread. Masha, also, inquired about the bread. They explained that they were only allowed one piece of bread at RBS, which explained why it was devoured. Masha also told us that if anyone at RBS wanted seconds it was first come first serve.

LB has a hearty appetite. LG eats little portions. We didn’t make them finish their food as it was probably overwhelming for them to see everything on the table and knew it was only for us and not to be shared with 10 others. We also suspect that they want to make sure they save room in case something else comes out (LG had seen a box of cookies in the back of the cabinet).

Bellies full and lunch dishes cleaned and put away, LB and LG wanted to try the Karaoke DVD on the bookshelf. Based on the label, it must have come with the DVD player. This was a lot of fun listening to them sing, but since we didn’t know any of the words to the songs they wanted to do something else that we could all do together. They both captured a few great photos, LB got one of LG looking at a picture of herself on the computer with her reflection in the computer screen (ignore all the fingerprint smudges, they like to touch the screen). When looking at the stored pictures on the camera they also found a good one of Bob who can hardly wait for all of us to come home. But what they REALLY wanted was what we would do for the rest of the afternoon. You should have seen their disappointed faces when we said that Sasha would be back with the car in a few minutes since it was only 2:30.

We hadn’t told the children about going to the theater today, keeping it as a surprise. They were very excited when they realized we were headed to the theater, not the RBS, they had seen the posters plastered at every bus stop and construction fence around town. The play was a fairy tale where an evil witch wants to marry the dragon but the dragon wants to marry the princess. The play characters features a wizard and several other assorted characters mixed in to make things interesting. SPOILER ALERT: The dragon marries the princess and then transforms into a prince.

Apparently it was a kludging of Russian fairy tales with a few twists. The confusing parts of the play were the “good characters” who were Scratch (squirrel from “Ice Age”), Pinocchio, and a few other cartoon characters that are familiar to the children here in Kazakhstan. Scene transitions were handled with a smoke machine, dimmed lighting and a laser light show. There were also a couple bubble machines. They didn’t seem to be synchronized with anything in the play, just randomly spewing a shower of bubbles. We attended a matinee show which was packed with little kids, so perhaps the bubbles were meant to keep them entertained through the hour and twenty minute play.

Our outings with LB and LG the last few days have been a lot of fun. Neither of us are sure who is having the best time: LB and LG participating in the activities or the adults watching the excitement of LB and LG participating in the activities. Once again, Cruise Activity Director Masha was on top of current kid-friendly attractions and made another great recommendation.

On the way back to the apartment for a quick wardrobe change, LB made a comment that “We’re going home to change to go home.” Bill quickly corrected his comment to, “We’re going to go change then to where you are staying until we go home.” Both LG and LB smiled with huge grins at that. They have been keeping up with the calendars Cathe created for them and know that Tuesday is Bonding Day 14. Court Day won’t arrive soon enough for them.

Tomorrow’s teaser: Bill and Cathe fly solo to RBS without Masha!!

Krab Salad Ingredients:
1 small can of corn
5 sticks of mock crab, diced into small pieces
4 hard boiled eggs, diced into small pieces
1c. cooked rice
1c. mayonnaise (may need more if the rice is dry)
Dash of salt and pepper

Although not in today’s recipe, there are a few things we’ll experiment with adding when we make it at home:
A tablespoon or two of diced red onion, celery, and green/red sweet pepper, maybe even a little garlic for the more adventurous.