Internet at last!

Frankfurt to Almaty
The flight was pretty quick, we were glad we brought water with us onto the plane. When we got off the plane getting our luggage and getting through customs was a breeze. The in country staff met us and put us into vans to go to the Hotel Alma Ata. Chris and I thought we were staying at the Hyatt because we had booked a room on points, but that got lost in translation somehow. The driver was kind enough to put on a video in the van for one of the kids in our group. He had an interesting selection of videos, Tom & Jerry and some not suitable for all audiences. The hotel in Almaty was fine, the elevators were another test for me. We had to go up one at a time because they are so small that one big suitcacse and one body was a tight fit. We got up in the morning and had a good breakfast, although we don’t know what any of it was. One thing I really liked was like a puffy rice pudding with butter on it. Hmmm, butter rice and sugar- what’s not to like?

Almaty to Semey
The flight from Almaty to Semey was not NEARLY as bad as some have described. It was a very small plane, and it was a little cold. We had read enough about the boarding process that we were all paying attention to the board and saw when the Semey flight was boarding. We took a bus out to the plane. There are 2 American couples traveling together and two single ladies with their moms. Chris and Brian jumped right to the front of the line and got all of our luggage on first, then we all got seats together. We had a good laugh at the cockpit, it looked to be about the size of a regular airplane, but there were four employees crammed in there. Our in flight service was a lemon drop and a glass of tap water. It was the clown car equivalent to a cockpit. The flight went pretty quickly, Brian and his wife Angie brought their adorable little boy that they adopted from Semey a few years ago. Nothing like a playful 2 ½ year old to keep your mind off the flight. When we landed in Semey the in country staff met us and took us all to our apartments, where we had 30 minutes to get cleaned up and then they picked us up to go to the baby house. In typical Chris and Emily fashion, we were 90% organized and unpacked by the time they got back.
Semey Apartment
Our apartment here is much nicer than we expected. For those of you who knew us in Memphis, it beats the heck out of the Cabanas Apartments. The outside is concrete and very stark. To get into our unit you unlock a big steel outer door and then a second interior door. We have a large entry area with a mudroom type cubby, a walk in closet, bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen. Our kitchen has a small stove, refrigerator and microwave. The bathroom has an incredibly high tech electronically paneled shower that I’m afraid may launch a missile attach on Kenya if I push something wrong. We have a small washing machine in the bathroom and a towel warmer that should help since we have no dryer. The bed is relatively comfy with thick down comforters. Chris is happy because the TV gets CNN and a 24 hour sports channel. When we got here the Nashville Predators Hockey game was on!
The Baby House
We went to the baby house with fluttery stomachs, I’m pretty sure the xanax I took for the flight is the only thing that kept me from completely losing it. We had a brief interview with the baby house director, he asked about our home, interests, jobs. He asked Chris about the Nashville Predators and corrected his pronunciation of Alexander Radulov. After that, they brought Dayana in. She looked very uncertain and just sat in my lap looking at me. I had put a rattle in my purse, when I got that out she seemed interested in it. They took us to her group room to play with her a little more. After a few minutes she really warmed up. She loves being tossed in the air, likes being stood up to dance, and likes to be tickled. She has a great belly laugh and about 8 teeth. She is very healthy and solid. For the grandmas at home itching to buy clothes- I would go with 18-24 months at the smallest. She really seems to listen when you talk to her and picked up games when we played with her, patting my hand, handing me toys, etc. She is walking well, an occasional fall on her rear but seems to be good. She seems to have a mischievous streak, running into the kitchen while the nannies laughed at her and sent her back to the playroom. We got to play for about 45 minutes, then came back to the apartment. On the way back we stopped to exchange money and buy some snacks and diapers. We are supposed to take 5 diapers each day, and at the market you actually buy them individually! Our dinner was popcorn and m&ms. We tried to watch 30 rock, but I passed out by 8:00 and slept until 6. We are getting ready now for our visit at 10 a.m.. We will go twice a day, with a lunch break with the other families in between. I think that this afternoon they are taking us bowling.
Monday, December 1st 2008
Chris got up about 4, I managed to sleep until 6. We had the best pop tarts ever and some instant coffee. Chris had a nice hot shower, but none for me! Apparently hot water is centralized in the city and it ran out when I tried to take one. They picked us up at 9.45 to go to the Baby House. They brought Keira into the eating room and we got to feed her a new food, oranges! She seemed to like them quite a bit, and gulped down her tea from her tea cup, when I wasn’t busy spilling it on her leg. I’ll never take sippy cups for granted again. We got to play with her for about 2 hours in the “gym”. The gym is a large room with a mirror along one wall, a few baby swings, a small ball pit, and even some teeny tiny boxing gloves and punching bags. She seemed to have a good time playing in the ball pit, but her favorite thing by far is the picture book we brought. I think she would have been happy to chew on that all day. At the end of the visit we signed her back into her room (like a library book) and went to eat lunch with the other families. I have no idea what the restaurant was called, but Chris had pepper steak that tasted kind of like a curry chopped steak, and I had “fajitas” which were chicken and onions on a fajita type hot plate with kind of a tomato sauce and some flat bread (more like pita than tortilla). It was all good, and then we went back to the baby house for another visit. The second visit was awesome! She had just woken up when we got there but she gave us a big smile. We went to a smaller bonding room to play. She spent much of the time running between the two of us and flinging herself in our lap for hugs and kisses. She is definitely not shy and very snuggly! Her other favorite thing to do seems to be stealing toys from Charlie, the son of another American family that is adopting. The families have different visitation times, we go each day at 10 and 2 for a 2 hour visit. We’ll each lunch between and then decide what to do in the afternoon. Today after the second visit we went to the market and to buy internet access card. For dinner we are cooking some kind of frozen tortellini type thing, with bread and butter and jam. We also bought some caramel cookies our interpreter recommended.