Totally "Kazotic" experience!!!

We are livin it large here in Kazakhstan-and I figured out why it took our laundry hours and hours to finish washing….we don’t have any cold water!!! It’s SCALDING hot, so….no washing machine, no toilet flushing, no showers. That’s the beauty of it not being so hot here, and taking a bath with baby wipes! We first noticed it when Sean announced the toilet wouldn’t flush. Then, Joe noticed when you turned the faucet on cold…nothing came out. However, you would like some nice scalding water, it works just dandy! It was a nice shade of brown, but it’s kinda light muddy color now. A big water truck was outside and all the babushka’s were carrying large buckets with water. We were like, hummmmmmmmmmmmm….I wonder how long this lasts?
Of course, I kinda think it’s cool….I have seen and heard so much about brown water and no hot water or no cold water, I was feeling left out that we hadn’t experienced that yet. However, now we have. We figured out how to “flush”, you just pour water down the toilet. Joe figured that out, but I remember when we visited my aunt Jane and Uncle “Hunk” in Oakland, California before we came to Kaz, that that’s what they do in the water shortage they are having.

We had another totally “kazotic” experience last night at dinner. I have not heard of this happening to anyone else, in fact, it’s never happened to anyone we’d been with, including Tatiana and Eugene who live here. We went to the “Bamboo Garden” for dinner. It was a really cool open air restaurant and they were going to have a show later, with dancers, etc. We were sitting around, with Joel, Laurie, and Neil (the other couple who just arrived), and Ivan and Eugene had walked outside to smoke. I had almost finished my beer, when all of a sudden, these guys, with guns drawn, in black masks with holes for the eyes and mouth, and wearing military fatigues run past us. Now, me, being the dumb American, said, “Oh how fun, the show must be starting!!” My back was toward the masked armed men, so I couldn’t see. Loree said, “I don’t think it’s a show…there are people lying on the ground.” I got scared-we were there without Eugene and Ivan…so I grabbed my purse and got UNDER THE TABLE to call Eugene. I didn’t even notice that I was under the table. Sean asked me why I was under the table. LOL
Today, Sean told me that I dropped a couple “F bombs” too, which he didn’t approve us since we were with a 5 year old (Neil, Joel and Loree’s son is 5). As the phone was ringing, and I was cowering under the table, Eugene comes walking back in and tells us “Let’s go!” I was very happy to oblige!! Joe gave Eugene money for the beers and we drove away. The waitress told Eugene it would probably be “several hours” that they would be there. It was apparently the “Kazakh swat team” and there musta been some bad guys. I guess it’s good I didn’t whip my camera out and say, “Hey, stop, say cheese, I need this for my blog!!!!”
So, I did not get to have my chicken ka-bob for dinner. We went instead to this coffee house where I had a really yummy omelette. I love the food here. It’s really good and my tummy has been fine. I guess I am out of luck on getting skinny in Kazakhstan.

So…that was all last night (Wednesday night). Today its Thursday, and while we still only have scalding hot water, we haven’t had any men in masks or guns yet today. We did have a very sweet lil girl to play with though. It was warm today, probably our warmest day here. It’s warm in the sun, but there is always a breeze and it feels nice. I still didn’t break a sweat. I guess that’s fortunate since I am doing baby wipe baths for now. I'm glad I have low maintenace hair too....cuz NO shower for us today! We still don't look nearly as scary as we did after flying for 2 days then going straight to meet Leeza. I look at those pictures and shudder...we looked horrendous. No wonder Leeza cried when she met us....YIKES!
Since it was warmer out, we took Leeza inside the visitation room today. I really liked it. We were in there just with our family, and I recognized the plaid couches from Khadine and Bill’s blog playing with Dylan. I took off Leeza’s pants and socks and let her play in her shirt and diaper. I got to see her sweet feet. I love baby feet! (Doris…I am going to download baby feet pictures JUST FOR YOU!!)
Shannon-sorry, but I was a big 'copycat' and got a pic of my tan feet next to Leeza's white feet. :) I loved that pic of you and Alexa so I had to be JUST LIKE YOU!!!
Poor Leeza was a bit “gassy” today. You could just tell at times her tummy hurt. It would get very tight and then she’d “make some gas.”. It brought back memories of Sean at that age. She was comforted in Daddy’s arms though. She is really opening up with us…she is doing better at “snuggle buggling” with us than she did when we first met her. Every day we are here, I feel her ‘opening up’ more with us. We did finally hear her babble today. The caregivers told us she did, but we hadn’t heard much of it.
I wore some “new bling” today and she was happy. My girl really loves her bling!!!
I also noticed she has some strong abs!! The caregiver was changing her and she was lying down and lifted her head and neck up and her legs too…kinda like the “v sit” in yoga. I am thinking she will really like some “mommy and me yoga classes” and her abs are stronger than her mother’s!!! My girl has a strong core!!!

After we had to say “Paka Paka” and we spent about 15 minutes playing with all the kids in her group, we went to this restaurant called Kit Katz or something like that. It was REALLY good. I think I had my favorite meal so far. It was called “Chicken with sizzling mushrooms”. It had chicken, cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes. It was FABULOUS. Sean had spaghetti Bolognese and that was good too.
Tatiana took us to the market…which is only a 5 minute walk from our Kostanai crib. We got some salami, cheese, and the “salty cheese that is good with beer.”
Also, we are getting hooked up here with HIGH SPEED INTERNET, so we don’t have to move!! YAY! We are just getting our bearings here, and we can finally lock the door on the first try. I don’t want to move, as we are so centrally located. I just really wanted high speed internet. Eugene said they told him it takes 2 weeks, but he doesn’t think it will take that long. Of course, “he knows a guy” who works there and said he will see if we can’t be put to the top of the list. So, I am happy, as we like it here a lot.
We feel very safe, the apartment is full of other families. Plus, hopefully,Loree and Joel will also be staying in this apartment.
I am really paying attention to how to do things on my own (figuring out our bearings, locking the door myself, etc) because the more I stay, the more I don’t want to leave.
At the market today, I saw tons of jackets I can buy when the weather turns colder. I just don’t think I can leave Leeza. Plus, with the demise of our agency stateside, I don’t feel that comfortable leaving anyway. Again, this is not a “for sure” thing, but I’m feeling pretty strongly about it. Joe would come back to bring us home, plus I left all the embassy paperwork at home in Leeza’s room so he’d need to bring that. He could also bring some warmer clothes for Leeza, bottles, puffs, etc that I didn’t bring with me the first trip.