Return of the Claire Bear

Our upstairs neighbors woke us up this morning with lots of drilling and sawing. Apparently, they’re operating some sort of wood shop up there. Our other theory is that they’re installing spy cameras. We’re sort of okay with the spy camera idea, because they’ll be sorely disappointed when they see what we do all day. “Are they still watching 24? These Americanskis are so boring!”

Claire was great today, and she was all about her daddy. Mommy was okay, but Daddy…Daddy was amazing. He got huge smiles and laughs from the moment we picked her up. That’s okay, though. He leaves a week from tomorrow and won’t see her for three weeks, so he has to get some extra love in. I know when she sees him at the airport, she’s going to think, “Are you serious? I get to live with that guy?! He’s better than a pony!”

It was finally clear enough to go up in the Astana tower, which actually has a very pretty name that we can’t remember (and if we could remember it, there’s no way we could pronounce or spell it). It’s named after a popular tree in this area that’s shape is similar to the tower. The views were beautiful and Asel was, as always, a great guide. We got lots of stares from little children because we’re “funny talkers.” We kept hearing “Americanskis” in hushed voices. Sometimes it’s comical how people react to us, but the children just crack us up because, just like all children, they have absolutely no subtlety.

After the tower, we got adventurous and had Alec and Asel drop us off at a Russian restaurant we went to our first day here. They have English menus, so we figured we’d be fine. Somewhere in pointing to what we wanted, things got confusing. Justin got his meal, but they told him they didn’t have tea. That’s just unheard of here, and they were obviously wrong because everyone else around us was getting tea. Since we didn’t know how to convey that without grabbing one of our neighbor’s teacups and saying, “How come they have it?!” he ordered Coke. Later on, he attempted to order tea again and they brought it with no problems. My meal was completely wrong, and I have no idea what it was. “Mystery meat” doesn’t ever bode well with me, but it’s even worse when the other menu options on the same page as what I wanted were heart, tongue, and liver. I enjoyed my mashed potatoes very much.

Asel invited us to a beauty pageant at her university on Friday. We’re really not into beauty pageants, but it’ll be an interesting experience and beats spending a Friday night having another Uno tournament. She said she’s really not into them, either, but her roommate, Nargis (who is also a WPA interpreter, for anyone else coming to Astana), is a dancer with a group that performs while the contestants are backstage preparing for each phase of the competition. If I understood correctly, the winner will go on to be Miss Astana and will then compete for Miss Kazakhstan. Kazakh women are incredibly beautiful, so perhaps Justin won’t protest too much about having to spend a Friday night at a beauty pageant. I told him he’d better get used to it, because Claire is absolutely destined to be Miss America.

The women here really are gorgeous and are very fashionable. They all wear pointy-toed boots with stiletto heels…really not the most practical shoes for getting through ice and snow (and now slush and mud), but they do it rather gracefully. Asel was taking hers off as we were entering the babyhouse, and I asked her if it was hard to walk them. She smiled and said, “Oh yes, very.” I kicked off my Merrells and thought, “These people are crazy.”

To those of you who’ve asked for Tucker and Riley updates, the boys doing well with Grandma and Grandpa Sumner in Kansas. We have no doubt that they’re being spoiled beyond belief and developing quite an affinity for vanilla ice cream (Grandma Sumner’s version of a doggy treat…poor puppies). Justin’s mom tells us that Tucker meets her at the door every day with a big grin (seriously…he can grin), and Riley is…well, he’s always been a little special. He’s given himself several concussions because he can’t figure out that their kitchen table has a glass top. When Riley comes to town, all the vets in the area all rub their hands together greedily and begin planning the ways they’ll spend all the money he brings them. The boys met their cousin, Benson, last weekend and apparently liked him very much. He’s a golden retriever, though, so of course he’s a likeable fellow. I feel badly now for buying Riley this pin: