A New Set of Wheels

Today was a relatively free day for us…..well, free in the sense that we did not have a lot of business things to do. The only paperwork thing we did was to go to the records office and sign for Bryce’s new birth certificate. Other than that, we had some adventures learning about how to take care of a 1 year old! What to eat, when to nap, changing diapers, etc, etc. Bryce is lots of fun and does not give us too hard of a time for our inexperience.

Today, we took a trip to the Green Market to buy a stroller. We ended up purchasing an umbrella style stroller for 3000 tenge. It has been great to have wheels! The stroller will also come in handy for the plane trips and our layovers in Frankfurt (just about 7 hours) and Detroit (around 2 hours). On the way back from the Green Market, we went back to Tsum (big department store) for some more Kazakh and Russian souvenirs. We were able to try out our new stroller tonight with a trip to Gorky Park. This time instead of riding the rides, we ate in a café in the park. Chuck ate lamb shashlik, and I had laghman. It was very good and also very inexpensive. We paid 1080 tenge for our main dishes, drinks, and a salad – all of the food was great. The park is so green now that all of the trees have leaves. It is very pretty and a far cry from our first visit there during a snowstorm in March.

Taking Bryce out in Almaty is kind of interesting. The Kazakhs consider children to essentially be public property, and they also believe that children, especially babies, should be dressed warmly. Most kids I have seen are wearing jackets, long pants, tights, and hats, and the weather is in the 70s. Although we have not been accosted for not dressing Bryce warmly enough, I have heard stories of other families being stopped on the streets for improper baby dress!

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we have our appointment at the Embassy, and we fly out early (try 3am) on Thursday morning.