Monday

It’s Monday and the start of our second week in Uralsk! Already it’s hard to imagine life without Aidan. He’s just the cutest kid on earth.

Before I relay the day’s events, I’ve had a request to talk about a few topics of interest to those who are following our site. Today I’ll address “travel in Kazakhstan.” A broad topic, to be sure, so I’ll refine my comments to, perhaps, “how we get around in Uralsk.”

While in country, each adoptive family has their own driver with their own vehicle. Most cars that we’ve seen in Kazakhstan are used, maybe 5-10 years old. There are VW’s, Audis, Mazdas, as well as some smaller European cars. The majority of cars have the driver on the left side, like at home, but you can also purchase cars with the steering wheel on the right. We understand that those cars are cheaper to purchase over here. Our driver, Mischa, has a Mitsubishi Galant, a good car in nice shape. The other families are driven in a VW Passat wagon and a Mazda 626, which are obviously well cared for.
Typically, our three travel partners and we all go places together, although anyone is entitled to use their driver for their own trips or errands if they like.

The traffic laws here are not very strict. There are no lanes and no apparent use for turn signals. The drivers turn against traffic, make u-turns, and pass on both the left and right. The traffic isn’t heavy as in New York style heavy but there’s plenty of people going plenty of places. That includes walkers. Pedestrians are everywhere. They are carrying groceries, books, and backpacks. The women have beautiful outerwear, in every color under the rainbow, with matching hats and scarves, and the men typically wear black leather coats with black skullies. Walkers, from children to the elderly, travel on icy sidewalks in stiletto heels without issue and cross the street often and at random intervals, but never seem concerned about the cars weaving in and out and around them. Obviously navigating the weather and traffic in Uralsk is just a part of life.

On to the best baby in the world!! This morning we had a great visit with Aidan. He was happy and content and in a good mood in general. We had to stay upstairs near his room again because the doctor thought it would be better since it was warmer there, considering his runny nose yesterday. He was feeling fine though and happy to play with mom and dad. Today he liked looking at the family pictures of his cousins Margo and Audrey and chewed a lot on his photo album. He also liked to be cuddled and rocked a little, which was great. Near the end of the visit, the passport photographer came. Our interpreter, Assia, held Aidan in a little white chair so his picture could be taken. We tried to make him laugh for the picture but he just looked around at all of us, and the big camera, very curiously. We still think that we’ll have a good-looking passport picture.

During lunchtime I was on a mission to find a warm hat so that we could walk places to explore in this cold weather. It’s been in the twenties the past few days and our ears and faces turn to ice after a few minutes outside. Our driver took us to the Atrium, where I found a cute little shop with a sweet older woman shopkeeper who read my mind and with little to no discussion found a hat to match my coat with thinsulate lining. Perfect. We stopped at the self-service grocery also for a few provisions and walked with the Costellos back to the hotel. It feels really good to be outside but both Scott and I were very glad that we had our head warmers!

In the afternoon Aidan was a little fussier. We are pretty sure he naps/has a bottle after our visit, and today he yawned outright several times during the hour. We tried to coax him to sleep but he would lay his head down for a few minutes and then pop up really quickly as if he was missing something. We could tell he wanted to sleep but didn’t want to give up on playing with us or his toys. When the visit was over, he seemed more reluctant than usual to go back to his caregiver. She’s really kind and when he wouldn’t go back to her, she laughed and kissed him big on the cheek and teased him in Russian. We all laughed and took a picture of him with her. It’s no doubt that this women love these kids, which really is a great thing to see.

We relaxed for a while in our hotel room after the visit (Scott is teaching himself to play Sudoku) and then figured out how to take a cab from here to the pizza place with Ann for dinner. We each had pizza and a beer, which was fun and hit the spot. While we do have our drivers, unless we go somewhere right after the afternoon visit, we typically don’t ask them to drive all the way to our hotel (far from where each of them live) for evening jaunts. Cabs are very cheap and, now we know, are easy to come by. This week we plan on locating and exploring more Kazakh places of interest and restaurants as well. In fact, tomorrow we are all scheduled for a tour of Uralsk with our interpreter.

See you tomorrow!