Settling In - Saturday, 3 October 2009

Saturday, 3 October
Settling In

Sophia woke up at 4 am on Saturday morning and was unable to fall back asleep--however, she was very good about entertaining herself with movies on the computer and who knows what else. Around noon I called Christy, who had offered to help us go shopping. We went outside to discover that is was cold and rainy (it had been warm and sunny the day before). Christy lives in the apartment building next to us, and we walked to the nearby supermarket. In the supermarket, I was more amazed by the similarities than the differences. Sure, the milk was not cold, sure the writing was in the Cyrillic alphabet. But the brands for most products were similar. I bought Aquafresh toothpaste because it was the cheapest; I resisted buying my brand of shampoo for something cheaper (but not Kazakh or Russian.) I found the supplies I was looking for, even cranberry juice for Sophia. There was no Parmesan cheese, however, that may prove more difficult to find.

We walked home, and Christy and I talked while Sophia ate vanilla ice cream. Then Christy had to leave, and Sophia painted for a while before passing out. I let her sleep for almost two hours, and it was extremely difficult waking her up.

When she finally awoke, we went on a walk. The sun was now out, but it was still cold. Astana is so very flat, I think that will take a while getting used to. The air is very crisp and clear, and you can see quite a distance. I saw the top of what looked like a Russian Orthodox church; we walked towards it for about fifteen minutes before finally turning back. Our landlady would be coming over with the extra key at 7, so we did not have time to keep walking.

Astana is a work in progress, and the road we took towards the church did not have a sidewalk on our side, rather a large stretch of dirt (mud in places.) Some of the buildings we passed looked ramshackle, some looked like rather nice houses. We passed by plenty of people, and plenty of children were wandering around.

At 8 we met the landlady, who spoke almost no English (she brought a young woman with her to translate). We showed her the items that we still needed for the apartment, such as a bed for Sophia, and she seemed a little miffed. She pointed to the uncomfortable pull-out chair that Sophia has, and explained in Russian that Sophia already has a bed. Neither did Sophia need a dresser, she insisted (once we cleared up what a "dresser" is), as I have one. I figure I will talk to the principal about it, it will get settled, and in the meantime, we have enough to get by on.