Last day in Moscow

Sorry again for the lack of posting. Our schedule just got really screwed up in coming to Moscow and Landon can't handle it that well. He hasn't been able to take his naps like normal and we hate seeing him so tired that he can't get to sleep. We will be so glad to get home and let him (and us) adjust to our new and final schedule at home.

Today we took our excursion to some places around Moscow. I have pictures to take but won't be able to look at them until we get home, but here is a play-by-play.

FYI, I will fix the names, etc. as I have forgotten some or will get them wrong.

We first went to the Kremlin area with one of the agency staff as our tour guide. We first saw St.Basil's Cathedral which was real cool in person and a little smaller than it looks in pictures. We then walked down red square with the Kremlin walls on one side, heading towards the Russian National Museum at the far end of Red Sqaure. The architecture of all of this was cool, and the walls and towers of the Kremlin were great. Just say everything was cool, I guess.

We walked to a park nearby and saw the tomb of the unknown soldiers. It was 11:00 am so the guards were changed which was kind of neat. 3 march in a little high-step sort of walk, 2 swap spots with the ones standing, then the 3 walk away. 

We went to another Orthodox church there, I forget the name but will remember it later. We couldn't take pictures inside but it was truly amazing. There were murals painted on the walls and ceilings, big chandeliers, lots of other stuff that I will need to research on the internet to describe to you since I have no pics. Boo!!!!!

We then went to the highest hill in Moscow where you can see over the city and is next to the site of the Olympics in 80-something. It also had a huge building which was one of 6 or 7 (the 6 Sisters) that were built by Stalin(?). They are almost identical and can all be seen from the hill.

We then went to the McDonalds on Arbat Street for lunch, then off to the embassy. The US embassy was a neat looking building form the outside (like many buildings here), but we went into the bottom corner of it so was not too exciting on the inside.

We paid the visa fee for Landon since he needs a visa to enter the US as he is a Russian citizen. We waited in a room with maybe a dozen other families that were adopting. At 2:00 a guy comes out to explain some things. Each family is called up to one of two windows to verify the information like child's name, etc. We then got Landon's original info, like birth certificate, etc. back form them. We waited 20 minutes for the official documents that are opened when we return to the US and we left.

Landon was so tired at this point. His schedule here has been so wacky and he has missed his naps. We have enjoyed the city and the architecture. They have lots of parks and green spaces which is nice. Lots of history of course. I hope to feel better in a few days and write a better post about Moscow including the pics I took. I also hope to find pics on the internet of the things that I couldn't get a shot of. I'll let you know which ones they are so I don't take credit for them.

We leave the hotel in the morning at 9:30 and fly out around noon, getting home at 8:30. We will kiss the ground and be happy to be home, a new family to grow together and share with lots of others. 

Day 2 in Moscow

Today was a little better for all of us. Rest last night and an easier schedule were both good. We ate at McDonald's (MacDonald's over here) for breakfast and got some food to go and went back to the hotel. I finally found baby food at the market near the hotel. I didn't find it yesterday as it had been blocked by an employee's cart, but I bought a bunch. Landon then had a short nap. 

Later on we couldn't get Landon a second nap so we decided to go out and walk around. We went to Arbat Streeta little to the west of the hotel. Arbat Street is a long pedestrian street with lots of shops and street artists. There are artists that draw portraits and scenes, some that have paintings, some musicians along the way. A very cool (and long) street and at the end was a Hard Rock Cafe that we got a burger at (to go). We ate on the steps of some building. It was very tasty and 'real' food (and not very expensive). We then walked back to the hotel, fed Landon a snack and then got him to bed. We are tired from both the lack of sleep and the walking. The architecture here is neat and there are nice parks and fountains around. 

One thing I thought was cool was in one park-y area closer to the hotel that we walked through, it was lined with (among other things) lilacs. My grandmother had lilac bushes at her house, which was next to mine where I grew up in Brunswick. I planted some at our house for my Dad and hopefully they will one day be big also.

One other thing after today's McD's meal. Their pancakes are different and we had the village potatoes again. The pancakes were thinner and not as 'tasty' as McD's pancakes in the states. Maybe more like crepes. They also don't give syrup, just honey or jam. The Village Potatoes are potato wedges with a seasoning on them. I should email McD's to see if they will sell them in the US, they are real good.

So, sleep soon and then heading out tomorrow. Sorry for a lack of detailed posts. Not as much free time as in Kras due to the screwed up schedule and Landon having screwy naps. If I don't post much tomorrow then I will try and make u for it when we get home.

Hello from Moscow!

Sorry for the posting delay, it's been a few busy days. Here is a quick recap, more to come later.

Long day Wed. Woke at 4:00 am to leave, arrived in Moscow after a 4.5 hour flight and a 4 hour time difference. Landon didn't sleep well, his schedule all messed up. Drove through packed traffic into Moscow then to the medical visit for Landon. It is needed for the visa but was quick.

We got to the hotel, tired and needed food. We found a McDs and ate a little, walked around some. Landon didn't want to nap. I went out later to try and find baby food for him, we ended up going to McDs again for dinner. It seems Moscow doesn't want babies to live here as nobody seems to sell baby food.

We walked by Red Square and the Kremlin (pics soon). Not much else, went to bed around 8:00.

Thursday we at breakfast at McDs and I found some baby food at a market near us. Landon is napping now so we will see what happens this afternoon. Maybe go down by the Kremlin area again with the camera.

Tomorrow is an embassy visit to get Landon's visa and an excursion with agency staff.

Saturday are the flights home.

I will try and post again as we see how schedules and naps go. 

Our last days in Krasnoyarsk

Not much happened on Monday. The weather here has been overcast and cool with rain and wind at times. This limits our ability to go out and eat out, though we have gone a few times to Mick's since it is so close. Landon is still doing well but I think the weather is not the best for him. One we get to Moscow it will be in the 60s to 70s and should be better (for us too).

Tuesday was more foul weather. There was a break at lunchtime so we got a quick bite to eat and went to the mall. We both wanted to take a second look at something, inexpensive short sleeve shirts (which are clean) and then went back to the hotel. It started to drizzle. At 6:00 I went out to get the passport. The weather was overcast but while I was waiting at the passport office it started to hail. Very odd, the weather here. 

We packed today as we are leaving very early in the morning for the airport. Our flight is at 7:00 and we leave the hotel at 4:30. Hopefully it will go ok as the flight is 4.5 hours or so. Landon didn't sleep all that well last night and he didn't want to take his afternoon nap. He went to bed early tonight to make up for it, but I hope the morning doesn't really mess him up. We have been limited in the foods we can feed him, something we will be glad to change when we get home. 

So, there are some things about Krasnoyarsk that we will miss but for the most part we are glad to leave. The biggest thing right now is the bad weather which makes it hard to do much. 

We should have and internet connection in our room in Moscow, but if not they should have a business center or something similar. I believe that Wed or Thursday we go to the US Embassy to do the paperwork, then the following day we return to pick it up. Hopefully we can enjoy our time there a little better and get a chance to be out of the room.

Not too much longer now.

Where's my pot of gold?

Another full day of joy with Landon. We were able to go out to lunch again today and he did fine. The 'real' food fills him up faster and allows us all to get outside. He was getting a little cranky at the end, but nothing bad. He woke up early from his afternoon nap and couldn't get back to sleep. We felt bad as he was rubbing his eyes and trying to get to sleep but couldn't. Dinner didn't go as well, but still went better than expected. We got out of the room a little later than planned, so by the time we got to the place (the coffee place as they had porridge) he was hungry and a little cranky until the food. Heather did a great job walking him around and distracting him until the food came, but we got our remaining quesadillas to go as he was getting a little tired.

We gave him his first bath tonight! We didn't know how he would act as we have heard various stories about babies having cold baths in orphanages, etc. Our shower has one of those removable  shower heads so we were able to use that to hose him down. He did great and started to enjoy it even. He is just doing so well with everything, again much better than expectations. I think that with what we were planned for asa  post-orphanage situation along with being new to us allowed us to expect for something 'worse'. I still think that the extra time we got with him was good for all of us. I wish that more people were able to (and willing to) spend the extra time during the 10 days. 

We've been here so long and with the time difference it is messing us up. Earlier I was telling Heather how I couldn't believe we were already 5 days past our court date. She gave me this funny look, so I was like 'well, Tuesday to Sunday is 5 days'. She then started laughing as she reminded me of the 10 day waiting period. Oops! The time has seemed to go fast, it doesn't seem like almost 2 weeks since we got him. With only 2 full days left in Kras and less than a week overall, it's almost all gone. We still haven't gotten used to this being our son instead of someone that we are babysitting. Now we are the ones that will need to get a baby sitter from time to time. 

We look forward to getting home and enjoying our time with Landon , family and friends. It has been fun with him here but we look forward to introducing him to the people and places of home. The weather will be much nicer so we can take him outside and down into Ashland to walk around. The weather has still been a little cold here so we have only been able to go out in short trips to get food. the weather in Moscow will be better. We are supposed to do some sight-seeing with the agency staff there which will be nice. 

We will also continue the blog with stories and pictures of how life goes at home. Maybe not daily posts but still lots of stuff. You've been with us on this journey for so long that we hope you stay with us. Thanks for being there.

Another day with a special wonder

Well, today has been a busy day. Landon slept well through the night which surprised us a little. We fed him breakfast and he ran around the room some. He was doing good around lunchtime so we took him outside. It was a little windy but he was bundled up and we didn't walk far (went to Mick's). They have food that we can feed him if he wanted some (which he did). He did well in the stroller and the heavy jacket we had to get him. People dress their kids much warmer over here than you would think they needed to be.

Heather sat with him while I went through the line and he did very well there. He was in a good mood and ate some food. He was flirting with one of the employees as she was standing in our area. We went back to the room and he wandered around in the room some more. His personality is really coming out. He is smiling a whole bunch, is ticklish and loves it. He likes to play peek-a-boo, likes to stand on the big windowsill with help and look outside. He really only gets upset when he is hungry or tired. He has filled a diaper a few times and didn't say anything about it, so no crying yet for that.

He is just very hungry. We have been feeding him jar baby food to start, just to get us all into a routine first, and he goes through it quickly. A small jar of chicken, larger jar of banana, large jar of another fruit, most of a mashed banana. He still wants more. Some of this may be from him just being hungry, some may be from the orphanage where he doesn't know he will get food on a regular basis. It is one of those things we were told about, sort of hoarding food. Depending on age they either eat lots of food or take it and hide it for later. He will begin to understand that he won't have food taken away and can get a meal later on.

Heather has (no surprise) been great with him. I'm doing ok too. I put him to bed for his nap this morning and stayed with him until he fell asleep. he was trying to fight but it wasn't that bad.

He is just a joy to be with. He is smiling, curious about everything, we just keep noticing things about him. He has been doing really well with the transition. We both are happy that things worked out the way they did and we stayed here for the 10 days. It allowed us to spend that much more time with him that really helped. We were also able to see more of the city which was nice. I also can't imagine if we went home for the 10 days and we spent all that time flying back over here, to arrive at 6 am in Kras and then 4:30 that afternoon he comes to us. That would have been very tiring and not as good for him.

We will be heading off to go get some dinner shortly. Get Heather outside and have some better food. He did well before so maybe he will do well again. If not, I'll go get something and we can eat at 'home'. In a few days we will be heading to Moscow and then 1 week from now we will be on an 11 hour flight back to Atlanta (fun, fun, fun).

Introducing ... Landon DeVane White

Well, the doctor stopped by at 4:30 and brought Landon to us. He was dressed in the outfit that we had dropped off and looked cute. Some of the orphanage outfits are not the best combinations of clothes, some even are more girl colors for boys. He seemed ok, played in the room, enjoyed looking out the window and playing with the sheer curtain at the window.

We are going to do the dinner thing and see how he does after that, but here are some pics.

We will post some more pics, probably in a linked album like the Kras pics, at some point soon.

Remember to click on the pictures for a large-size version.

This is in the room after him getting to us in the outfit that we brought for him.

This first pic is from the first trip. He was just at 1 year old. We got to feed him a little and it got messy.

We got the call!

Sounds like when we first go the referral or something, huh? Well, I just posted the last one but we got a call that the head doctor is leaving at 3:30 to bring Baby Boy here. They will arrive at approximately 4:30, though it might be longer because of traffic. We will either meet them downstairs or in our room, not sure yet. We have all the orphanage donations to give them, plus a gift for the head doctor.

Now we are going to start and clean up and do some last minute baby-proofing of the room. Another nice thing about the room, Heather was putting away what she though was matches and it was a little chocolate bar from the staff. Wowie wow wow wow! 

Ok, off to clean and get ready. I guess we will be feeding him dinner and seeing what we bought that he might like. We also got some bananas at the market so we can smash those up. 

Wish us luck (if anyone has insomnia or is on the west coast)!

Bidet, mate!

Well, we have changed rooms to the larger 'suite'. It's much nicer than our old room, but the extra money for the room over a 2 week period would have been too much. It has a sitting room area with couch and table (plus crib). This room is about the size of our entire room before (including the bathroom). We have a separate bedroom and larger bathroom. It even has a bidet. The mattress is much nicer, the bedding is nicer, the pillows are nicer, the bath fixtures are nicer, just overall a better room. This will make it much easier for the net few days before leaving for Moscow.

We got the last of the medicine and pacifiers for the orphanage after lunch. We are now waiting for a phone call from our coordinator to let use know what the plan is for tonight. She should have heard something but it is no guaranteed. Depending on what she tells us we may stay in the room or we may go out some more. 

Another example of the weather craziness. We left the hotel and stopped to exchange some money before lunch It was slightly overcast, a little cool and some wind. We go in to eat and when we sit down we notice that outside it looks like a hurricane is rolling through. Heavy rain and heavy wind. We decide to wait it out. By the time we are done with lunch, the rain and wind are gone and the sun is out. The weather not only can change dramatically day to day but even in short periods of time.

Other random thoughts and observations ...

There are many small drink/ice cream buildings on the streets. Some are multi-purpose and sell drinks (including beer), ice cream bars, candy, papers, magazines, etc. I guess a pimped out newsstand.

You need to be 18 to drink beer here and 21 for liquor. You can also drink in public (at least beer). We see people walking around with their beers and even hanging out in the plaza drinking. That is why these street vendors sell beer, as you can just drink it then. the odd thing is that we haven't had any problems with people drinking in public and having too much. 

Similar to crazy (or no) driving laws parking is crazy. There aren't really parking lots in this part of the city as it is older. The parking areas don't have lines either. Drivers decide if they want to park parallel to the curb or facing it or at some other angle. Some drivers even get up on the sidewalk to create a parking spot. We have seen areas where there are multiple cars completely on the sidewalk for parking.

The beer is sold in various sizes and shapes of bottles. Since they use milliliters and not ounces they have 500ml bottles (about 16 ounces) and larger sizes including a 2 liter bottle of beer like our soda bottles.

At the markets you pay a small fee for the plastic bags. We even paid something for the plastic to-go container for our souffle cheesecake (we got more, yum!). 

There is no 'right turn on red' law, the cars have to wait. This makes it easier for pedestrian traffic to cross the streets. The drivers still make it look like they are going to run you over, so you always have to watch for cars in just about every direction.

There are surely more but that is enough for now. It's funny how we have felt safe walking around this city in Siberia but don't feel quite the same walking in most of Richmond. Maybe we just don't know all of the 'good' areas of Richmond, but for those that live near there you understand. 

A little more waiting and we will possibly find out about tonight. For sure we will have him in several hours if not sooner. That will be so great (and we'll post pictures finally)!

A little closer

We got some things done Thursday, lots of walking was one of them. We had lunch then met Oksana to help with some of the medicine that we couldn't get on Wednesday. We got some more of that and some food to be prepared for Friday. We did a little shopping and bought a few shirts to have something clean. Washing clothes in the sink is hard, especially for larger things like shirts. One thing we won't miss about this trip.

We then met our coordinator for a few documents to sign. These are for Saturday in getting Baby Boy's new birth certificate and passport done. Nothing else much on Thursday so no post then.

We will find out soon what our plan is for tonight. Hopefully by 7:00 we will have him in our arms and that step will be done. Look for more updates later on.

Counting down the days

Wow, we're getting close. I can't believe that Friday is almost here. It seems like just yesterday we were making our way to Moscow and here we are waiting until we get him. Easing us into the new chapters in our life (and Baby Boy's).

Today was a little tiring, both for us and Baby Boy. The early morning trips to the orphanage are tough on us because we might not get much sleep and we spend energy trying to keep him form running back to this bed. The mornings are bad for him because it is basically his nap time that we are there for. That is why he is more often tired and gets restless later on in the visit. Today was a similar situation where he was more about cuddling and trying to fight the sleep than playing with toys. We certainly don't mind that sort of bonding time with him. I think that in some ways it is better than playing with a toy as it is a closer kind of bond. It also allows us to see what his habits are as far as trying to not fall asleep. Heather has been doing a good job (no surprise there) in getting Baby Boy to sleep. She did it again today, but then another crowd of children came in for music time. At least he was paying attention to that for the most part.

We had lunch again at Mick's , but we were tired and it was close and we had to meet our translator at 2:00. We were hoping to get a nap after lunch. We once again played culinary roulette as we picked our food. So far nothing has been bad, so that encouraged us in what to pick. Heather selected a small beef patty thing and I got a possibly chicken something that looked to me like the shape of a stuffed shell. We got both with mashed potatoes. I wonder if I can get a big batch of the potatoes to go when we leave town. Would they let me get that past security at the airport? Her mystery meat choice was basically a patty-shaped meatball similar to the meatballs I had previously gotten, but without the mushroom sauce. Both had rice in them to act as a filler, so that clicked in my mind. My choice seems to have been ground chicken made into a 'meatball. (with rice filler) but shaped like a stuffed shell. They were both tasty and filling (whatever they actually were). 

In the afternoon we met our translator/coordinator to get some medicines for the orphanage. Instead of trying to lug over toys and things in the luggage, the agency suggests that we bring money and buy items in the city. We visited several pharmacies to get what we were looking for, but we need to  back tomorrow for part of it. Things like cough syrup, vitamin D, iron supplements, shampoo and pacifiers. The lady at the kid's store was a bit surprised when we went in and I bought 10 packages of pacifiers. Oh well, I couldn't tell her why.

The pharmacies are quite different from ours. It is common for items for sale to be on display sitting on shelves with plexiglass in the front. That way you can se it but you can't touch it. This is what we have seen at some of the stores and the mall, but not everywhere. The first two pharmacies we went into (there are quite a few) had a small 'waiting room' area for the customers. The walls were the plexiglass display shelves of various items, with a window that you talked to the pharmacist at. They would get you everything you needed. The third place we went into was larger and more like other stores, but not as big as ours. The city is old and they re-use buildings for different purposes and the spaces are not as modular as newer office buildings like ours. The iron supplements were in limited supply so we need to go back tomorrow for more. We will give this to the head doctor on Friday.

We also found out last night that depending on the timing of things Friday, the head doctor may bring Baby Boy into the city for us. As we won't find out until the latter part of the day that the decree is final and we can get him, it might be better for her to bring him in. We took clothes with us today for him to wear in case she does this for us. She already took him to get his passport photo, so that is one more thing done. Today might have been our last visit to the orphanage. It was kind of sad, we've been there so much we've grown accustomed to the trips there and the staff. They are very nice people even though we don't understand each other's languages. They treat the children so well and it is so different from stories we heard of orphanages. Maybe the other orphanages in Krasnoyarsk are worse, maybe just other regions. I don't know, I just know that Baby Boy has been well taken care of and will be coming to live with us soon.

It seems like home is another world almost. Our hotel room is our new home and we are used to the routine here. We are actually going to move into a larger room on Friday and get a crib. We will still be facing the river, so that is nice. One more day closer.

A flock of seagulls ... err, pigeons?

Today was a good day. Got some things done and found out we will be picking up Baby Boy on Friday instead of Saturday. We had lunch at Mick's Patio at 1:00, the busy time. There was a bit of a line but it went through pretty quick. We were surprised as it hadn't been that busy before. We then walked around some and took a few pictures of some of the tulips blooming.

We then did some wandering in search of cheesecake. The place next to the hotel didn't have the yummy souffle cheesecake so we went in search for more. We found a few pastry shops but no cheesecake. At one pastry shop we tried a few things. Heather got a cookie with pink icing, not lots of flavor but cheap. I got a 'whipped cream taco pancake', at least that is my name for it. I don't know what it was, but it looks like a small pancake folded up like a taco, with Cool Whip on the inside and chocolate shavings. It was really good, too. We both liked it until we found the surprise inside. At the bottom of the pancake taco, under the Cool Whip stuff, was something like a date. We're not sure as we don't eat dates, but we spit our 'dates' out. The rest of it was good, though, and also cheap. Maybe we need to go back for more.

We walked a little further and stopped at a coffee place called Traveler's Coffee. It was like a cross between a Starbucks and a cafe in that it served food also (plus desserts). I tried a cappucino and Heather got an orange smoothie, but their menu had food that we wanted to go back and try. We actually went back and had chicken quesadillas there for dinner (along with a very good slice of vanilla cheesecake). After dinner we went into a building that we had passed several times that looked like it might have stores in it. It looked like an office building that was turned into merchant areas, similar to others where it wasn't originally built with shops in mind. Very different. We might go back to see what else they have as it was getting to be closing time.

One neat thing, though, was that I bought something and had to get lots of 10 ruble coins in change. I found out that these were special coins as the 10 ruble is normally a paper note. These 10 ruble coins were like our President dollars in that each coin had one side with a picture related to each region in Russia. Kind of neat, but I won't be keeping all of these coins.

One funny thing while walking ... there are pigeons all over the city. Normally not too many in one area, although they are used to people. While walking in the afternoon we passed a little area where there were lots of pigeons. I guess they are used to people feeding them there. I knelt down to take a picture of them and they started rushing to me like they expected me to feed them. I took a quick picture and we quickly walked away.

We talked with our translator and found out we will be going to the orphanage at the end of the day on Friday. We have to wait until the official decree that the 10 day wait is over, which won't be until the afternoon. We will get to see where Baby Boy has been sleeping for his time spent there (probably a crib-filled room) and who knows what else we might see. We have a few more days to get things done until our tame is busy, but it will be worth it. We can't wait to get him and show people pictures of him.  Here are a few teasers from Monday.

A fistful of rubles

We had a busy day today. We first had an early morning visit at the orphanage. It ended up going well given the time and how Baby Boy is tired for these visits. We got there at 8:00, he started to get cranky at 9:00, and we teamed up to hold him until Heather was able to get him to fall asleep in her arms around 9:40. They had the morning sing-along time with other kids which helped a little in keeping him distracted. It is bad, though, that the kids are sometimes distracted about us being there. I hope it doesn't annoy the staff. They might be happy to see us leave on Friday, but we know that they will miss Baby Boy. He is one of the favorites there. 

We left and had a small brunch at Mick's. Other days we took a quick nap first, but it gave us a late start and were very hungry. We tried some new things again. Heather had a pasta with mystery meat in it (maybe chicken). I had meatballs with rice and sauce that were like Swedish meatballs. They were both good, we got lucky again. We took a short nap then headed back to Mick's for Part 2 of brunch. We mixed it up a little and got a slice of their cheese pizza with a 'side' of meatball and mashed potatoes. Sounds like an odd combination, but the potatoes are good. 

We went to the mall place we were at yesterday in search for an umbrella-type stroller. No luck. We then tried another small place closer to the market that we haven't been to. No luck. Heather then noticed a not-so-obvious door to a children's store and we found some. They didn't have anything super cheap, so we looked some and decided to compare to the first children's store closer to the hotel. We went to the closer one and ended up getting one there. 

We then tried to find a coat for him. The weather here is colder than we were expecting so we didn't bring one. It is supposed to be colder on Friday with possible snow, so we really need one now. We were able to find a store on the way back from dinner, down a street that we normally wouldn't have taken, and found one for him. It should be a little big so it will fit him next fall.

Next orphanage visit is Wednesday, then we pick him up on Friday!!! It really is going quickly here, but still look forward to getting home.

It's OK to eat gold snowflakes.

I had a flaky tongue earlier and boy was it good. Well, not that good but tasty still. Before you start thinking that I got overly adventurous and tried some traditional Siberian food, it was just a pastry from the shop around the corner. It is a rectangular puff pastry with sugar crystals on the top. Not tons of flavor, but good and cheap. The name translates to flaky tongue and when I asked for them I asked for 2 tongues basically. The first word in the name was easier to say than both of them. 

The day was rainy and cold so not many people wandering around outside. We met Oxsana at noon and she took us to a shopping mall thing near the California Pizza. We had seen the building but didn't know what it was. It is similar to some 'older' style shopping areas we have seen, where it isn't built as separate stores like a regular shopping center. It was a large 3 story building where there were vendors everywhere in semi-permanent stations. It was laid out well with walkways around the floors, but it was still odd. They had lots of different things so Heather and I will head back there to see if there is anything else. We didn't get to the market because of the rain. She dropped us off at the hotel and we had to figure out what to do for lunch. It was a late lunch so we just went to the patio place again. It was close and the temperature was around 40 degrees outside, we could see our breath. Maybe we need to buy Baby Boy more than just a hat. We'll get one of the big snowsuits that we saw at the kid's store.

We both got the chicken and mashed potatoes again. It really is good and better than getting pizza. We are trying to get different things so we have a little more variety. We got a fresh batch of the mashed potatoes and I tried to tell Heather that it wasn't a pool of butter sitting on top of them. It was just condensation that looked yellow in the light. Yeah, well they tasted good anyway. At dinner I tried the apple perog at the California Pizza place. It had a short crust like a tart or something. The inside was made up of diced apple pie filling, but it tasted too apple-y. Lots of green apple flavor. It was still tasty but maybe a little too much apple. The top crust was kind of neat, made up of lots of circles of the dough layered on and baked. The perog came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

We stopped by the pastry shop and got the tongues and nothing else. I want to get some more donuts. The ones we got yesterday were a peach filling and tasted good - fresh donuts, yum. I want to try and figure out what another one might have for a filling that we would want. I might have to take my dictionary there to translate on the spot.

We have switched cereals yet again. The honey nut Cheerios got a little old so we tried Gold Snowflakes by Nestle. I guess it is their version of Frosted Flakes but I don't know what the Gold is for. They also have Gold Cornflakes, etc. so maybe everything is Gold. They are a little thicker than Frosted Flakes but taste good and are not as sugary as the Kosmostars. I think the Kosmostars were screwing up our blood sugar or something.

So, orphanage visit tomorrow! Only a few more days until we get him, then less than 2 weeks until we come home. Time is going by pretty quickly. I will miss the city some, walking around everywhere, seeing the pretty fountains and tulips everywhere. The tulips are starting to bloom so hopefully we will get some sun and we can take some pictures of them. I certainly don't mind coming home. We will go out to shop more if it is nice out. The weather is supposed to remain about 40 degrees the rest of the week with a 50% chance of snow on Friday! Great!

I wanna pet the kitty!

Well, today's post will be short. Sorry for the long post yesterday and any other posts that are long (but hopefully not too boring). Sometimes I ramble, and that goes for the blog posts.

Today we took it easy and slept in. We went to a children's store looking for a hat and umbrella stroller. Something inexpensive that we can cart Baby Boy around in. The store had lots of kid's stuff but didn't have any that were in our price range. Not to say they were expensive, just not at the level for our needs. We did find a good hat, though. The temperature here has been going up and down and can get windy at times. We had brought him a jacket with a hood but no hat, but we changed our minds. The store had a few other things in case we need them. Tomorrow or Monday we will head to another area that has a department store and supposedly the umbrella strollers we are looking for. We were going to go there this afternoon but the sky got dark, clouds rolled in, the wind picked up and we made a mad dash for the hotel. It ended up raining and stayed windy for almost 2 hours. We then ventured out once it was over for dinner and some pastries. We ate at the Mick's Patio place again, but we tried some new things. Heather got mashed potatoes and chicken, I got the potatoes and a beef thing which was like beef stew meets pepper steak. Both were very tasty and we will get it again, more choices other than pizza.

We did some laundry in the sink today, mainly skivvies and socks. We had to pack light for the trip, but those are two things we packed a little more of. It is tough to pack for 4 weeks in one suitcase. We put Baby Boy's things in a suitcase of his own, which we fortunately didn't get charged extra for at any point. He has his own ticket for the ride(s) back, so no worries there.

The hotel has a 'house kitty', a mostly black cat that we sometimes see down in the lobby. She is usually sleeping but a few times has been walking around. For those that remember what George looked like, she has a very similar tuxedo kitty look. Mostly black, white paws, a little white on the chin that goes up a little on her nose. Heather has pet the house kitty a few times while we were in the lobby. The cat is sleeping and just wakes up enough to enjoy it then dozes back off. Kind of neat.

Don't breathe in the elevator!

Today turned out to be an interesting day. We started off with an early visit to the orphanage. They brought Baby Boy out and we just hung out a little. He was tired, but we were expecting that. He woke up a little and wanted to play, so we got the little alligator xylophone thing for him. He played with that some, then we went back to the ball pit. We were there for a bit and then he wanted to play with these little blocks. He was starting to get tired though it was only 30 minutes into our visit. It was a little early, but we both took turns trying to make him feel ok and not start crying from being tired. It started working and then they brought some children in for their time.

There were about 10 kids, looking to be form 2-3 years old. They set up a puppet show and it helped to take Baby Boy's attention so he wasn't worried about being tired. Heather was holding him while standing or sitting, letting him watch the puppet show from his comfy spot. After the puppet show they then had some music and singing time, things that Baby Boy was watching pretty well. There were a few times when he got riled up, but he then calmed down. They took those kids away and soon brought back in a slightly younger batch of children. They also did the puppet show with music and we sat there watching it again. It was cute, at one point in the song the kids are supposed to clap. Heather had held Baby Boy's hands during the first puppet show trying to get him to clap. He decided on his own that he wanted to clap during the song for this puppet show. Funny and cute.

We were able to get through the visit without him seriously breaking down. Heather is really good with him, though. Holding him, rocking him, getting him to rest in her arms. It was great to just sit and watch them sit together watching the puppet show, or watch her be able to soothe him and get him to relax. She really is good with kids and will make it easy for Baby Boy to make the big change next week. 

We still plan on going next Monday and Wednesday, even though Monday will be a morning trip again. We just don't like him to miss nap time or whatever for it being so early, but he has done well with us just holding him so it isn't too bad for him. It gives us good time to be with him, allowing him to get more comfortable with us. That is one big benefit of staying here during the 10 day period. We will see him 4 times that we otherwise would have missed if we had gone home during it. Now that we are here, I think we are glad to be here for the 10 days. It's not easy to want to do before you've done it, but now that we are here an used to things it is better. We get to see more of the city, we get to see more of him and it would be tough to fly back next week just in time to get him.

We had lunch at the Mixed Patio place again. They didn't have the pizza ready so we were going to get paste, but it wasn't the same kind. It was what they called pesto, but wasn't very pesto-y. It was good, though, and had chicken in it. I also tried on of the bleeni things. A bleeni is like a crepe or thin pancake wrapped around some sort of filling. It kind of looks like a tamale. You can get ones filled with savory things for a meal or dessert ones. I got a dessert one with an apple pie sort of filling and powdered sugar on top. We never did get the pizza as they weren't making any, so we wandered off. 

We ended up going back to the hotel to figure out what to do next. I heard a noise from the plaza and looked out. Yesterday these little 'yurts' had been built, round portable structures built by nomadic tribes. We had recently seen a documentary about some native tribes in Northern Siberia so thought it might be something like that. I see some guy banging a drum outside of one and Heather said we should go check it out. There seemed to be a big to-do happening related to a Russian region just south of Krasnoyarsk called Tuva. It is a little region between Krasnoyarsk (big region) and Mongolia. The people are of Mongolian descent so have customs, etc. of that region that are different from others. There was a man dancing around a fire banging a small drum (click for larger pictures):

He seemed to be also singing, something called 'throat singing' which seems to be something that this group of people is known for. Tough to describe, but the name gets the idea across. He said some things in Russian, so we don't know what it was, but he seemed to be doing a ritualistic dance that had some other parts to it. We then went over to some ladies standing at the front of the opera and ballet theater. They were part of the same Tuvan group, wearing traditional outfits. At first we didn't know what they were for, as it seemed that they were waiting as opposed to actually doing something.

This is a before and after photo of one of them. She had these long sleeves that didn't look so long when she held her hands together. Their outfits were very pretty and detailed. They each had individual designs and colors but the same basic look.

Here is the group of them preparing to do their thing.

We then noticed some commotion back at the spot where the fire dance was. A crowd was gathering so we went to look. We saw people flocking towards one guy, someone who had bodyguards to help. We had already seen several well-dressed and official looking people, some with little ear-pieces like security people wear. We had no idea who it was so I went to get a picture (to figure it out later). 

It ended up being the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, Alexander Khloponin. Seems this was some cultural exchange between the 2 regions. He and his posse then went into the theater, passing the ladies from above, where they greeted him before going in. We guessed there might have been a show related to the Tuvan people inside. Kind of neat, not something even a Krasnoyarskian gets to see everyday. Good thing Heather wanted to see what was going on outside.

We tried the Baskin Robbins today, each having a scoop of ice cream. Not bad, we'll go back. We also tried this little market next to the hotel which has pastries. We had checked it out earlier but thought we would go back and buy something. We got two eclairs, one with a coffee mousse and one with a strawberry and creme filling. Both very good, but the other thing was a piece of cheesecake, cream souffle. It had a chocolate layer on top with a bottom layer of ladyfingers, but was soooooooo good! It was a good sized piece and only cost $1.25. Yum, yum, yummy! We will definitely go back for more of that, plus whatever else either looks tasty or I can figure out what is in it. We are actually going to try it in the morning to see if they have any breakfast pastries.

So, that was our long day. We finally got to have some of the desserts and were happy we did. Forget gaining weight from pizza (which requires a walk of about 2 miles), we have cheesecake next door.

By the way, the elevators in the hotel are small. Maybe 4 people can fit without becoming friendly with someone. People here also like to pour on the perfume and cologne, especially the cologne. You sometimes go into the elevator just after someone like this has left it, and you almost feel the cologne settling on your skin it is so heavy. 

That darn Kopeek!

Well, we took a tour of the city today with Oksana. She is a student of our translator's who went with us to one orphanage visit. She had a car so drove us around to various places, a photo album of this is here: <click me!>

Also, a Wikipedia page about Krasnoyarsk: <click me!>

We first stopped by the statue and fountain/park area of the founder of Krasnoyarsk. It was more towards the 'new' part of the city and higher up a hill. There is a hill behind the city center, away from the river. We then stopped at the WWII memorial. It was relatively simple but very thought provoking. Russia really played a large role in WWII, stopping the German forces that invaded Russia and helping cause a 2 front war that greatly helped the Allied invasion in Normandy. 

We then made our way to Karaulnaya hill where there is a chapel and the cannon that fires each day at noon. The chapel is an iconic piece of Krasnoyarsk, a picture of it is on the 10 ruble note. Next we drove to a newer part of the city. There were lots of apartment buildings and even a new mall. We went inside the mall and it was almost like home. Heather wants to go back, maybe she can ask Oksana to take her. It even smelled like a mall, odd but it seemed like home a little. There were lots of new buildings going up, mainly tall apartment buildings. It is the place to be if you want to live there, I guess.

We then made our way back to the city center, the old part of the city where we are. We went to the train station, but their fountains were not on today. We stopped at the Revolutionary Park where the Lenin statue was and walked to the clock. Oksana explained what it was for, a pretty neat clock. We had just missed the most recent chime, but we can always go back. Next was the city gate and the Rezanov statue. The foot bridge that is in the picture form the hill at the Dubenskoy statue, it starts here. It is for bikes and walking, going over the river to an island devoted to bike trails and walking trails. We didn't go there as it was a windy day and a long walk (plus we were getting hungry). We then went back to our hotel and Oksana left, then we went to lunch.

It was a chilly day today, very different form yesterday. When we left for our excursion it was snowing small flakes and was windy. It got better later on, but then around 4:30 it was snowing again. Very odd weather. We ate at the pizza place, Mixed Patio. We actually at there this time instead of getting a pizza to go. We did have a few slices of pizza, but tried the pasta, a slice of cheesecake and a small pastry. The cheesecake was good, but more spongy than creamy with a cake-like crust. It was all tasty, though. We did eat dinner at California Pizza, but we tried the 'California' pizza which was the BBQ, also good.

A quick primer on Russian currency. They have paper notes in denominations of 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and coins of 1,2,5 rubles. There are also coins that are partial rubles like our coins called kopeeks, 100 kopeeks in a ruble. The coins are kind of a pain because you start to collect lots of them and the ruble coins are heavy. It's not fun to get change and have more coins to carry around. I had gotten some 10 kopeek coins and thought that they were mostly worthless, but when I got change at the market today I was surprised to get a 5 kopeek coin! Great, more of them, but at least the kopeek coins are small and light. To put it in perspective, 1 US dollar is about 32 rubles (it fluctuates). That means that 1 ruble is about 3 cents or .03 dollars. That would put the 10 kopeek, at 1/10 of a ruble, at about .003 dollars (a third of a penny). Now the 5 kopeek coin is half of that, .0015 dollars or 15/100 of a penny! Scary math, but the kopeek really isn't good for much. I try to pay with lots of coins to get rid of them.

Anyway, enough of that. We are actually going to be going to the orphanage tomorrow. We will still go Monday and Wednesday of next week. At first we weren't going tomorrow as we were worried about Baby Boy and being tired during the early visits. Ludmila talked with the head doctor and things will be fine, so it will become a visit to hang out with him more than lots of play time. Now that he is comfortable with us, we don't need to play time to 'bond' so much, so we can sit and have cuddle time like Wednesday. Sounds god to us.

If the light is blinking, RUN!

A little bit about the traffic here. It's crazy. I wouldn't want to drive here. We are surprised to see nice newer cars, even some expensive cars like Mercedes and BMW. Most of the cars are smaller and a few years old. Some are unusual makes like a Russian one or European one. Some are variations of things like Toyota, some are imported from Asia and are right-hand drive models. 

All in all, the driving is crazy. There aren't really lanes marked like we know, maybe suggestions at times. Drivers are not so much aggressive, but try to 'butt' in line so to speak. If a lane is a right turn lane, then you get 2 cars side by side trying to get through. If the light is about to turn red, you see cars (especially at the end of the work day) push through the intersection (and possibly block it).  The drivers don't normally like to yield the right of way to pedestrians. Even when the light changes and they are turning your way, even though the pedestrians have the right of way, the cars get as close as they can until they have to stop. Even worse if the light is about to change and you are still crossing.

Their traffic lights make the situation a little worse. They are green, then the green blinks when about to change, then yellow then red. If you have a red light and it is soon to go green, both the yellow and red light up. This lets the drivers prepare to go like it is a drag race or something. They roll forward and try to get a jump on the traffic, or the pedestrians if they are 'in the way'. It leads to a situation where you sometimes need to really watch out for yourself, as some drivers can get close to you as they go by.

We ended up eating at the Italian place, Mama Roma's, which was very good. I had spaghetti bolognese and Heather had a grilled pork chop. Both were very good and we will surely go back for more items and dessert. We tried their lemon sorbet (server in a hollowed out lemon) which was good. We then went to another little market next to it and bought some Dove soap, a little more of home with us. Simple things, but god nevertheless. 

A few pics now for your enjoyment ...

This is our 'after court' photo. The far left is Galena, the head doctor at the orphanage. She was very nice and we saw several times at the orphanage. Heather next, then me, then the rep from the Ministry of Education. Far right is our translator/coordinator Ludmila. (Click picture for a larger one)

Here is a shot in the morning from our hotel. The theater is to the right, the other half of Krasnoyarsk in the background and then the mountains. 

Here is an electric train we drove by on the way to the orphanage. We follow train tracks for a portion of the trip, but didn't realize until today that the two lines were for electric trains. I don't believe I have ever seen one of those before, and this shot makes it look like a little model train.

Tomorrow is our excursion so more pictures then. We will first be going to a famous church I believe, somewhere that they fire of a cannon at noon each day. We have heard it from our hotel but didn't know what it was until recently. It sounded like someone closing a door down the hall. It is near the California Pizza, so maybe we can suggest that we should eat at California Pizza! We actually might try their California 'flavor' which is a BBQ pizza and then get some dessert. Maybe we can get her to suggest a more Russian place that we wouldn't normally go since we don't speak Russian. More on all of that tomorrow.

Orphanage visit with our son

We had an early morning visit with our son. Although we haven't gotten custody of him I think it is ok to call him that. At first we were the only ones in the playroom and he seemed a little tired. Not really wanting to play, just being more cuddly. Not really a problem, though. He has been active so a little cuddle time is good. A little later they brought in some 3 or so year old kids to have music and fun time. Baby Boy was interested in that, so he would sit on Heather's lap and watch some. He is just so curious about what goes on, it's cute.

They left but a little later 2 visitors came in, one guy and one girl, the guy with a (real) video camera. We didn't know what it was, but then realized as they laid out a blanket and baby toys that it must be for some new babies. To explain a little, when new children (or babies) come into the orphanage, the staff tries to find a Russian family. The first 8 or 9 months are reserved for domestic adoption, then if there are no families the child is opened to international adoption. They have a website of pictures and information, have adoption listings in magazines and also have some televised information. This must have been the televised portion of it for the babies. There ended up being 4 that they brought in, all no more than 2 months old. Baby Boy was 2 months when he went to the orphanage, so it is about as early as they can be. They were cute and hopefully they will find a family soon. It reminded us that there are still children here without families and more that arrive, though this is the first time we had seen new children.

We had lunch (again) at the California Pizza. Hawaiian pizza again, but we will try a dessert next time. An apple perog (pastry with apples inside) and a scoop of ice cream for 60 rubles, just under $2. There are several places we have eaten that have good looking desserts we haven't tried. The other pizza place had various cheesecakes that looked good, plus we found a dessert shop on the way to one of the markets

It's the final countdown ... (Cue Europe!)

Well, court went well, we passed!!! Yay!!! It was warm in there and nerve-wracking, but it went easier and better than we were expecting. We both did our parts, others did theirs, and the judge liked it all. Afterwards, the head doctor at the orphanage and representative of the Ministry of Education said they liked us and would like us to return so they could work with us again. Very nice of them.

We now have the 10 day appeals period, a standard thing from the law. We won't change our minds, and there is no family to say anything, so we can ease up a little. We are going back to the orphanage tomorrow morning to see our son, that will be cool. Our first visit after court.

Court started at 3:00 and as of 4:20 we were given the favorable decision. Thanks for everything from everyone. It certainly has helped us while being over here, knowing that everyone is behind us. It will be so great to get home and see everyone and let you meet our son. Very cool.

We are going to eat at the German restaurant tonight then will try an Italian place tomorrow. We need more options for eating, so are trying to branch out.

Anyway, that's all for now. More posting soon and maybe we'll have more visits to write about.

The Mullet has (not) left the building!

Another day in Kras, another visit to see Baby Boy. Today was special as it is not a work day so the orphanage was sort of closed. We were allowed to visit, though, which was very nice. I don't know if all Mondays are like this or just today, but we'll be here for a few more so we can find out.

The visit went well, just us there playing with Baby Boy. He came to Heather when he was brought in which was good. He enjoyed playing with us, playing in the ball pit, exploring in the room. It's funny as he likes to try and climb into the ball pit, then he gets in and just tries to climb back out. If we aren't watching, he might plop over the wall with his feet going up into the air as he goes head first into the pit. He is fearless. He is also very curious. They have these 2 little stationary bikes in the room, kid sized. He was exploring near then and was looking at one of the handle bars. It has foam grips and little plastic caps at the end, on a metal tube bar. He noticed the end of one, then went to look at the other end and saw that it was the same. He went back and forth a few times looking at them both, pushing the caps to see if they were a button that did something. Very cute. He then noticed the other bike and it's handlebars and made the connection there. 

Another time he ha this little alligator xylophone thing, with bars of different colors to hit for sounds and a plastic stick attached by a string. He wanted to turn the thing upside-down to try and figure it out, along with trying to take the stick off of it. He is just curious and smart. Very cool to see him that way, to get a better sense of what he is like. Although we missed his first months, we are seeing differences in him now and what makes him 'him'. They have these mats and other shapes of mat stuff, for playing, etc. There is one that is a tunnel. I was holding him on one side, Heather would play peekaboo on the other, Baby Boy would be excited then he crawled through to Heather. Later on we did the same thing, but him coming to me. That was cool for both of us. 

He is really taking to Heather. Not that he doesn't like me, but maybe because she is female and he is used to only females there. Heather is also good with kids, so that plays a big part. She was singing him by his arms, throwing him up in the air, making him laugh and smile. It was nice to just sit and watch just the two of them playing together. She will be great with him. 

Of course, it also gave me a break so I could rest. He is tiring, but he also tires himself out as he is not used to this kind of play. He was doing the thing where a kid tries to fight off the sleepiness, doing anything to keep moving. At one point he was laying Heather's lap, kicking his right leg up on her leg, then taking it down, then kicking it up, then down, on an on. Very fun.

Tomorrow at 3pm here is our court time. The judge will ask me most of the questions, but we talked with our translator/coordinator about what to expect and how to prepare. We should be ready for tomorrow and know our stuff. The pictures in the photo album will also help to show the bonding we are doing. This judge seems to worry more about the bond you make with the child as opposed to repeating facts that she already has in paperwork. Describing our visits and showing the pictures will help her understand the bond we have and will continue to grow. 

After that is the 10 day period which is just a formality by law. It does allow any random family members to appear, although it won't happen in our case. We already have signed documents from them saying they won't interfere, and most wouldn't be allowed custody for various reasons. If all goes well we should pick him up Friday 5/22.

Last thing, the sour smelling milk that I bought was actually sour milk on purpose. Spoiled milk in a jug, why would you buy it! The smell made me almost ill. Just another part of the culture shock, people wanting foods that we wouldn't want. No biggy, just get me home for some regular milk and foods that are 'normal' to us. We are hitting up the California Pizza lots for their Hawaiian pizza. Very good, but it seems like people here don't get more than 1 slice at a time. Too bad for them, that's how we roll!

Walking around

Today we spent more time walking around the city. Not much else for us to do, not much on tv (especially in the morning) and we weren't really able to get out before. We had lunch at the California Pizza then walked around some. Headed back to the room, rested and relaxed, then in the afternoon walked some more. We then had some food at Subway, made a quick stop at the market then back to the room. It was very nice out and Krasnoyarsk is a nice place to walk around (at least the areas we were in). Most of the sidewalks are brick, the streets are clean for the most part, they put up lighted trees and tulips are everywhere (almost ready to bloom). There are lots of little parks and mini-parks, lots of fountains, just a neat place to see.

I have created a photo album of the pictures so they do not fill the blog up. Lots of the architecture looks neat so I took pictures of some buildings without knowing what they are.

Here is a link for the album: photos

In the morning we started off down to the California Pizza for lunch. The Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple) is very good. We then explored some new areas but didn't find anything real exciting.

In the afternoon, we started off going down to the river and turning left. As we went past the plaza I took a picture of one of the carriages there. There are people with horses to give horse rides (more for kids) along with various horse-drawn carriages. I don't know if these along with the food/drink stands are normal or form the Victory Day weekend or what. Down at the river there is a river walk type of area, really just a paved pedestrian area to walk along the river. Lots of people walking, food and drink stands near the river. We headed back towards the hotel and went past it to the park near the Lenin statue. Another neat park with lots of tulips almost ready to bloom. If we are still here when they all bloom I'll take some more pictures of the various tulip areas. 

Although we are limited in what we can do this is still a nice city, for the areas we have been in. It's been fun spending time with Heather here. It will be interesting to see what the week brings with another orphanage visit and the court trip, then whatever else we are going to do. I don't know how many visits we might have during the waiting period. It will be nice to get home, but it isn't too bad being here. 

Rain, rain, go away

Well, the weather did clear up a little. It then started to drizzle again and got overcast, cold and then some thunder. Then the clouds moved off and the sun came out and it got warmer. We then took a walk through the crowd (that would grow and shrink based on the rain) at the plaza towards the river. We walked down the river some, then turned back into the city. Not really looking for anything specific, just walking around to see what we would find (without getting too far). We ended up getting near to where our previous walk was, one street over, and we at the other end of a park that has a status of Lenin. There were some construction things in the way so I couldn't get a picture, but we will walk more tomorrow if the weather is ok. 

We ended up on the 'main' street that we were on before and I spied the reclusive 'California Pizza' on a side street, actually near the Subway. We headed there for dinner and had a few slices of pizza which was actually good and still cheap. I was able to get the food without too much difficulty with my limited Russian, so that was also nice. We left there and headed back and it started to rain again. It was the type of rain where all of a sudden there are large drops of rain slowly coming down, then turning into more and more large drops of rain. We got back to the hotel as it slowed down so we didn't get too wet. We watched a movie (The Wedding Planner) and the rain did it's dance of increasing then decreasing, back and forth. As the evening went on the rain got worse and more thunder and the whole off and on thing.

We just got done watching a 15 minute or so fireworks display over the river, marking the end of Victory Day. The grand finale was 5 or more minutes. Pretty neat little extra.

When in doubt, smell it first ...

Ben Franklin had some good and timeless sayings in his 'Poor Richard's Almanack'. Just a few of them are:

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Fish and visitors stink after three days.

I think that a new one should be added: When in doubt, smell it first. I've had a tough time trying to find milk, at least something that resembles what we are used to. First we could only find higher percentages of milk fat, but we then found one that was 'only' 1.5% (we normally drink 1%). This didn't end up tasting too good. I was the guinea pig and poured a little into a cup, it smelled a little different, then I tried some. It wasn't so awful, but it had an odd taste and a little bit of an aftertaste. More than just it being 1.5%. Yesterday we got what I thought was 1% milk at the larger market. It would be nice to have some milk with cereal. I asked Heather to try it, she wasn't too sure about it, but she poured some into a glass and smelled it first. I guess I missed part of the label on the milk, because it smelled like spoiled milk. The carton had the word for milk, but also a word for yogurt that makes me think it is some sort of spoiled milk like yogurt kind of liquid.

This is part of the culture shock of being here, things seem like they are going to be 'normal' other than the language, but the customs and things that are normal here are not the same. It is an old country and an old city, a far cry from the modern, rich life we take for granted. They don't have the same government assistance for everything that we have. The market has odd things for sale in it, not the same types of things that we are used to. 

We felt more like ourselves today, though we still didn't get much sleep last night. The mattress is terrible. You can feel each coil while laying there. We are going to try sleeping on top of the covers to give us more padding and see if that helps. It rained in the morning but cleared up around noon. We spent time trying to find out where a KFC was and also a 'California Pizza' (knock-off of California Pizza Kitchen). We had no luck, so headed out into the city. There is a plaza outside of the hotel where many people were for the Victory Day celebrations. Souvenir stands set up, food and drink tents (shish-kabobs are big here). We walked to one of the main streets and just went down to see what we could find. We found the Baskin Robbins and the Kodak 1 hour photo and stumbled across a Subway. We walked a little further then headed back to the Subway. My minimal Russian allowed us to get a few sandwiches and drinks which were good (and cheap). We then walked around some more and headed back the plaza in front of the hotel.

Here is a photo of a statue in the plaza. Behind it is an opera and ballet theater.

Heather ad the Russian flag Heather wanted to buy for Baby Boy in front of one of the lions guarding the entrance form the street.

Here is the clock tower that tolls every hour, along with a short song every half hour.

The weather seems to be clearing up (it started raining again) so we will try and walk around some more. We want to try and find someplace different for dinner, but I don't know if that will happen. Maybe we can get some more pictures since these aren't that exciting. It was just nice to feel somewhat normal today and to get out and walk some in the city.

Friday is here, although for us Saturday is almost here

This whole time zone thing is just tough. Even being out of town for almost a week, we still aren't 100% caught up here. I thought we would be, but I sure was wrong.

Today started off early with a morning visit to the orphanage. We met one of our translator's students downstairs to act as our translator today. Our normal one is working on translating the recent document we brought for the court and hopefully submitting them to the judge today. We found out that we would be going to the orphanage with another person adopting. A single woman and her out-of-town friend were heading there also. She is actually adopting 2 girls who are sisters, but one is at the same orphanage as us and one is more in the city. This is her first trip but was busy making trips to two orphanages. 

We get there and Baby Boy comes out relatively quickly. These early visits are hard on him, he seems to get tired more quickly. It was also busy in there so he was curious about all that was going on. Not only did this other lady have her girl in there, but a little later on the caretakers had 'fun time' for some of the children. They did this when we were here last time (they do it each Friday). They were having a puppet show for the kids and Baby Boy was interested in what was going on. That in addition to his being tired made him a little cranky. He wanted to watch the puppet show and then started to break down from being tired. He didn't want to be held and sleep or even sleep on a mat, I guess he just wanted his bed. Heather was able to get him to sit with her and watch the puppet show some, but then it ended and it was getting close to when we were leaving and he just cried. Nothing we could do, but then his caretaker came in to get him and he stopped crying a little. Whether because she had him or he knew that he was going to his bed, I don't know, but it was nice that he was feeling better. We did get some good play time and pictures and he was laughing some. 

His laugh isn't quite what a kid's normally is, not as loud or 'external'. I guess he doesn't get the one-on-one contact as much so doesn't laugh as much as normal, so he hasn't gotten to the laugh out loud type of stage. That will change, he will be in for so many changes it will probably be hard for him at first but hopefully he will adjust quickly. 

We got back to the hotel and rested a little before heading out for lunch. We went to get the same pizza as before, it's a nice lunch meal and actually very good pizza. That and 2 cokes makes for a good lunch. We went there at about 2:30 and it was real busy. I don't know if the normal lunch time is later or what. We watched a little more hockey on tv (the IIHF world championships in Switzerland) and then headed out to a different grocery store. It was supposed to be bigger and have more options. It was about 2 blocks from the hotel and had more things to choose from, including baby food and diapers, etc. so we will be heading back there after we get Baby Boy. We had dinner in the restaurant and that was it for us. The time change monster hit us again, though we had hoped it would let us get through the day. We almost made it without hitting a wall so that was nice. 

So, tomorrow is the Victory Day celebration. It will be interesting to see if there is a parade or other things going on. Hopefully we can get out and see it. I promise to get some pictures but it has been a little overcast and we are having issues with the time change so don't hold it against me, please. Orphanage again on Monday, then court on Tuesday. Fingers crossed! Although the judge shouldn't say 'Nyet!', she could still give us a hard time.

Nothing too exciting today ...

Well, today was a day of nothing super exciting. We are getting more used to the time zone, but the sun is up quite a bit longer here so that still messes with us. It makes it seem earlier than it really is. Right now the sky is still blue and pretty light out at 8:30 pm. The sun doesn't really go down until about 10 pm.

We had lunch today at a little German restaurant near the hotel. We were not 100% sure what to expect as we hadn't gone there before (during our very short first trip). It was surprisingly very good. They served a basket of bread and soft pretzels (the pretzels were good). The menus are in Russian but have a shorter English translation of each dish. I ordered grilled chicken and Heather got 'backed' chicken (meant to be baked chicken). I also ordered a side of mashed potatoes with apple, onion and bacon to see what they were like. Both chicken dishes were very good, although my mashed potatoes were only ok. We'll probably go there again now that we know there is at least one thing we will each get. We will probably stay away from the meals revolving around rabbit or reindeer or tongue of something to be safe. They had some tasty sounding desserts like apple streudel, so maybe we'll go there for a snack.

The temperature here is a little cooler than Moscow, usually about 50 F with a breeze at times. Given the late nature of the daytime the warmest part of the day is later than we would normally have. It hasn't been the best weather to walk around the city, but we are going to look at doing that tomorrow or this weekend as the weather is supposed to warm up. On our way to the orphanage it was actually very windy. We stopped at a supermarket near the orphanage so our translator could run in and get something. We were sitting in the car waiting and the wind was rocking the car around. 

We were actually told yesterday that if the weather is nicer (warmer) when we visit that we could take Baby Boy outside. That would be neat. It might not happen tomorrow since we are going so early, but maybe on Monday.

Well, that's it for now. More to post tomorrow after our visit and maybe with the Victory Day celebrations going on. They celebrate both May 1 (May Day) and May 9 (Victory Day for WWII), although Friday will be for observing Victory Day. Hopefully we can get out and wander around and take pictures. Sorry for nothing much so far in that sense.