Monday, December 14, 2009

English-Language Library Again - Friday, 27 November 2009

Today we went with Valerie & her fiance to the English-language library. It was so nice to have her fiance around. Really, I highly recommend finding a Russian-speaking boyfriend/girlfriend to anyone who plans on visiting Astana. It is very useful. (And, she points out, it really helps the school. He can deal with the landlord, paying the bills, taking her to the hospital, whereas the rest of us need the principal or someone else from the school for all of that.)

I had the brochure, on which I'd written the buses that would take us there, as well as the bus stop needed. Bert confidently showed this to the bus attendant, as well as talked to him, and the attendant let us know when to get off. I looked around me. I had a slight feeling that the library was across the street and down some, but I was not at all sure. Bert again took out the brochure and asked someone, who pointed us in the correct direction (the direction I was thinking about).

The library is behind other buildings, so really hard to find if you don't know what you're doing.

Valerie loves to read, and she and her fiance love to watch videos, and so this place was wonderful for them. Sophia enjoyed looking through books and eating chocolate cake.

Her fiance made a face when he saw the banana nut muffins. He just couldn't comprehend why someone would make something so disgusting.

For about $3 I got 4 "snowball" cookies, one slice of chocolate cake, and a Fanta soda. Not bad!

Sophia got Disney's "The Lion King" book, a book on painting activities for children, and a read-aloud book of folk tales from Central Asia (that one I picked out). I convinced her to get the movie "Crocodile Dundee." She's in an Australia kick right now, after getting a book about kangaroos from the library last time. And I wouldn't mind seeing that movie again.

We all stayed for about an hour, and then Valerie and her fiance headed home while Sophia and I played in the little playground that was outside the library. It wasn't too cold, but there was a light powdery snow falling, and it was nice.

Glad to have an English-language library. Just wish it was a bit easier to get to, so I could always return my DVDs on time!

2 comments:

  1. You let Sophia watch Crocodile Dundee? Mom wouldn't let me watch that when I was 10. :-)

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  2. I didn't realize just how bad it was until we were already watching it! Luckily, it's probably worse for a 10-year old than a 7-year old. Sophia was just naive as Dundee was during the sex-and-drugs scenes.

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