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.