Other Americans!

Today was a pretty low-key day. Our driver Andrei was getting his Land Cruiser serviced today, so we spent the morning walking around the city. We walked up a street called Ablay Khan. To me, Ablay Khan seemed like a shopping district. We walked a number of blocks up to Tsum, which is a big department store with electronics, clothes, and (very importantly) Kazahk souvenirs. We plan on coming back next week with Andrei to buy souvenirs. Tsum is unlike the typical American department store in that the merchants are willing to bargain a bit - and though we have picked up some Russian, it is definitely not enough to bargain with. We would like to get Bryce some souvenirs from his home country - a book, a wool miniature yurt, matroyshka dolls, a dream quilt, traditional Kazakh hat and shoes. Outside Tsum is an outdoor market (kind of like Quincy Market). The highlight was rows of paintings - oils and watercolors of the mountains and scenes of Kazakh life. More stuff to come back and buy next week.

Today's walk was also fun because we were using Andrei's GPS (since he has the same model that Chuck has at home, Chuck has promised to teach him how to use his Garmin eTrex). We found out that we had walked about 9km total. Not bad for a morning walk. We also used the GPS to guide us home towards the apartment, although we know our way well enough that we really didn't need it. On the way home we bought a banana from our local fruit stand. Yes - a single banana. We meant to buy more, but evidentally didn't get out point across correctly.

This afternoon, we headed out to the Baby House for visit #11. Since it was such a nice day (in the 60s and sunny again) we took Bryce outside and decided to swing on the swings (which he seemed to enjoy). While we were out there, we met another American couple from Indiana. They were adopting a 13 month old boy from the same Baby House, and they had just been to court this morning. We compared notes about our experiences in Almaty so far. It was very nice to talk to another American adoptive family. They are the first we have seen in our two weeks here, although supposedly there are a few more World Partners families who have arrived in Almaty recently. For those of you who don't know, World Partners Adoption is our adoption agency, and we have nothing but good to say about them. Everything has been excellent so far. For our 1.5 hour visit, we mostly swung on the swings and talked with this other couple and their son. Probably not very exciting for Bryce, as he fell sound asleep, but he looked comfortable. He is definitely a laid back kid. After visiting him for 11 days, we figure that's just his personality. So far not very hyper about anything. Of course we realize that may change dramatically once we get him home. We will just have to wait and see.

It's about time for dinner, so we will write more tomorrow. Tonight we will go somewhere, just need to decide if we're in the mood for traditional Kazakh food or something more modern.