Another fine day in beautiful north Kazakhstan began with fruit salad and fried eggs and the requisite tea. We went shopping at the grocery store on the lower level of the Iceberg mall where we found such delicacies as Diet Coke and Mountain Dew as well as doughnuts, peach juice boxes, and other fabulous items. Having completed viewing of the first season of Grey’s Anatomy, we returned to reading books to pass the time between visits to Arkhangelskaya.
Today we played outdoors as the weather was quite nice except for occasional bursts of severe windiness. We played a game of rings (throw the plastic ring on the stake, like at a carnival) and that was fun but slightly difficult on account of the wind. We also played with a purple kick ball and a yellow fun bouncy ball that the children really enjoyed.
We had some balloons that made squealing noises when you blew them up and let them go. The kids liked that too after Sholpan (vowels pronounced like in “Cole Haan,” for those amongst you who are shoe enthusiasts) and Zarina were finally able to get theirs’ inflated. We also tried blowing bubbles for a while and that was a good bit more fun than I expected. Even Rinat (sounds like “re-knot: to tie a knot again,” accent on the second syllable, for those of you who love Russian phonics) seemed to have a blast blowing bubbles. Hey! Who doesn’t? It was pretty windy, though, and Sholpan kept laughing because most of the time the wind blew her bubbles before she even got the wand to her face. Whatever works…
We took a snack break for doughnuts and juice. Rinat loved the doughnut and made that quite clear while he rapidly consumed his. The ladies also enjoyed it. We were then visited by local wildlife as a family of piglets wandered through from the yard next door, apparently wondering if we had any more doughnuts to share; they were tragically out of luck.
Director Sandi came by for a short visit and Yura, our stand-in translator, took a picture of us all together on the playground. The boys spent the rest of the day playing soccer while the girls started to assemble a challenging jigsaw puzzle. Alas, the puzzle must wait until tomorrow, as must we all.
The pigs got the word that this is the location of donuts, mambas,moonpies, m&ms and they have applied for adoption to the Thompson's house as well. Bring 'em on, they can't be worse than the chickens.
ReplyDeleteSince the New Thompsons love bubbles, do not fail to tell them Lawrence Welk Village (and all the bubbles that that implies -- just ask toots and pawpaw) is just thirty minutes from downtown San Diego!
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