Last night at The Rainbow. We can't say enough about the food and friendly service (and wine) at this place. Chicken Kiev with fries, rice and a side salad. Again, they were very patient with my Russian and our sign languge. Live entertainment above, the same couple as before singing with music video behind. They did a mean version of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" (in english, sort of!)
Rainbow restaurant by day. Patio seating outside for warmer months. It is only a 3 block walk from our apartment.
More Karaganda Running
I think this a walrus with the tusks broken off. The statue I mean.
Running conditions are improving daily. Most of the ice is gone except for shaded side streets, and some sidewalks. I explored some more of the Lake Park which turns out to be a lot bigger than I thought.
Summertime beer garden and shiskabob place
Rare sighting of other running humans. There were quite a few more whom I think were again local students. They have turned in their skies for shoes for P.E.
Giant matrushka doll in the park
In the Soviet days this building housed the Karaganda Headquarters of The KGB. Today, a friendlier National Security Administration.
Today's Booze Hut is tucked away in an alley that is right behind our old apartment. All the windows are covered up, and the only clues to it's trade are a couple of beer and smoke ads by the front door.
Cecelia finally succumbed to a persitant cold that has hung on for some days. (actually several weeks) Our morning visit was cancelled today because there is a local television crew shooting a story there. We will finish child-proofing the apartment, and and do some shopping for some Baby House gifts. We are teaming up with Antonio and Julia for a going away party there tomorrow.
Live music stage
After Cecelia got up....this is payback for the picture above!
We spent most of our afternoon visit with Antonio and Julia. This was our last "regular visit" to the Baby House. Tomorrow we will not visit in the morning as we have many errands and chores to accomplish before the kids invade our apartment! The afternoon visit will include our farewell party with the caregivers. We are combining our party with Antonio and Julia as they are leaving to go back to Spain on Sunday. They hope to be back in Almaty on April 5th to pick up their son. Today, Kimba and Sally took their kids back to their apartments. They looked happy and nervous! We hope to see them again n the next 2 weeks.
We now have a timetable for our return! We were delayed a bit due to a change in court dates. We now will leave Karaganda on Sunday the 2nd of April. Then, we will spend several days in Almaty tending to embassy issues and medicals for the kids. On Wednesday, April 5th we leave for HOME!!!!!! Since we gain our 14 hours back along the way we will arrive in Seattle at 2:20 pm on the 5th! Too weird.
Artome plays the spoons
To get an idea of how tiny Artome really is, check out the spoon on the left compared to him! He looks much bigger than he really is in most pictures.
