It snowed again today - so of course it was cold outside (what's new?). Everyone is still celebrating the holiday around here so the town is very quiet - many businesses are still closed and school doesn't start back until next Monday.
As mentioned on previous pages, our days are very routine. Our days revolve around our 10:15-11:30 and 2:30-4:00 visits each day. We try to wear the kids out on our visits, so we're usually pooped at the end of the day. No big news of the visits today except Sierra laughed the whole time and Kai was content to eat his Cheerios and carefully study the rest of us... this probably sounds familiar by now. Even so, the visits are the highlight of our day and we love spending time together as a family.
Between visits, we had Assia and Masha take us to a little souvenir shop. We plan to buy most of the souvenirs in Almaty (apparently they have the same product but it costs more in Uralsk because of the extra $ to ship it here), but we wanted to have something from Uralsk.
After souvenir shopping, we went to the Dixie Pub for lunch. It was a good lunch but we all overate so we were tired for the afternoon visit. We were ready for a nap about the same time the kids were scheduled for theirs!
As we were writing this, we had a surprise at our door - Sholpan (from Zhas Dauren) came by with a few of her friends. The girls were so nice - they brought us chocolates for New Years, which was awesome. They were near our apartment for another New Years celebration that the caretakers had for them at a local cafe, and they weren't being picked up until 8:00pm. So they spent a couple of hours with us. After looking at our pictures on the computer, we went across the hall and looked at Jason and Keely's pictures and listened to some music.
Keely gave them some Hershey kisses, which were a big hit (they like American chocolate better because it's sweeter). They also really liked Cheese Puffs. While they were getting a taste of American junk food, Jason put in Charlie Brown Christmas and we all watched it. Sholpan speaks good English and one of her friends speaks a little as well... so they could understand some of the movie.
They had to leave at 7:45 pm to catch their bus, but we invited them back for dinner sometime if they could get back in town. They are such nice girls - it was a nice surprise and it says a lot about them that they tracked us down and brought us something for New Years. Here are some pics from today:
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