Day 12 - Field trip on foot! (double click for pics)

Sunday, July 9th---Day 12 Visitation

Once again, we were so busy today, that we are very late in posting....we left our apartment at about 10:15am and did not even get home until about 8:30pm---the internet cafe closes at 9:00pm, so we were unable to get there in time....Sorry!, but here is the story of our fun-filled day.....

With it being Sunday, we were unable to go visit Landen. We thought about just making it a day of relaxation, but decided we needed to get our minds off of not being able to visit the baby house, so we met up with the other American family and toured around Pavlodar all day! We started out at a bookstore....it is so different shopping for books here. There are certain books that if you even just look at them it cost about $.16 in US dollars. They had people in there following us all over making sure to collect our money if we looked at these certain books. It was driving us crazy, so after buying Landen a little hardback ABC book, we decided to just come back later. We then walked to a park near the beach. The girls had a blast just running through the park and looking at bugs and birds. Then we let them climb a winding staircase down to the beach. They walked on the beach for a while, and then we decided to see if our little Russian restaurant was open....it was! We were all sooooo excited! When we got there the coo-coo clock was going off, and the girls were excited .. They have waited and waited to see this, and this is the first time! Rylee had her usual chicken noodle soup (that comes complete with gizzards and all!). Rylee, Emily and Lydia say they are going fishing in their soup when they scoop out the gizzards....after they are removed, the soup is quite tasty! I had a chicken and potato dish wrapped in tin foil that Debbie and Jim recommended--it was delicious! Bobby had chicken cutlets and mashed potatoes...he really enjoyed his, too! (see photos for pictures of the food)

After we left there, we walked outside and realized that it was raining a little and was actually quite chilly again. Bobby had talked me out of bringing a jacket, and felt bad---so, he suggested we stop and try to buy me one and get an umbrella. We found a nice jacket for me and a little umbrella for Rylee...we were going to get another umbrella, but it was almost $24--we passed! We'll just use Rylee's. We then went to another small mall and purchased a wooden Russian doll for Rylee.

Then we were off to a little carnival park that is in the middle of town. Imagine yourself at a fair back in the fifties, with old metal rides that are not that safe and paint chipping off. It was quite a sight. The only ride we felt ok about the girls riding was the swings. They had a big ferries wheel--I won't go into too much detail...just trust me when I say it did not appear to be too safe! The girls then went on a horse & buggy ride. Of course, you know Rylee loved that! We heard a band playing and decided to walk over and see what was going on....I cannot find the words to describe the scene! We felt as if we had gone back in time...there was a band of about 20 men playing Russian music and in front of them were these elderly men and women dancing together. There were only about 4 or 5 men, so the women were dancing together. The band would play a song and the men would go up to a woman and ask her to dance. Then the "left over" women would look at each other and decide who they were going to dance with...after each song the band would sit there for about 2 minutes. During this time, one of the women in this elderly group would get up in front of the crowd, and start saying something in Russian (as if she was trying to motivate the crowd to get up and dance and sing) she would then start singing a song...some of the other elderly ladies would join in...They would sing until the band started again. They would wait a few seconds after the band started then the men would seek out which ladies they wanted to dance with this time. They did this over and over. We could have sat there all day and watched them. They were exactly what you would think of when you imagine elderly Russian people. They were having such a great time. I just kept wishing I could understand Russian, because I bet these men and women have some incredible stories to tell about their lives! It was part of our trip that I will never forget! We took pictures, and hope you can get some idea of what it was like. This carnival also came complete with cotton candy. We decided that it was healthier than US cotton candy, because they do not put food coloring in it! It was really, really good. It had a little more of a caramel taste. Bobby played a dart game and won Rylee a little stuffed pink pig---and Rylee & Bobby shot a paint gun, which Rylee thought was pretty cool!

When we left there, we walked through the town for a while just taking in the culture and enjoying the day. We ran across another park. It had a huge statue of John Lennon. It, also, had a ton of out dated playground equipment that the girls thought was great. All of the playgrounds are very run down compared to US playgrounds. They are all made of old painted metal that is peeling off and definitely do not fit US safety regulations. That does not matter to Rylee or her friends---they played and played....After quite a while at the park, we decided we better start thinking about some place to eat dinner....Our friends have eaten at this great pizza place called Party Pizza--it is new to Pavlodar. It was about a 20-30 minute walk from where we were, so we were off. Once again, just trying to take in our surroundings. Just walking through town today made us realize where we are...There is so much history here, and I want to be able to tell Landen everything I can about his birthplace. What an experience this has been!

We finally made it to the pizza place...we ordered vitamon salad and chicken, mushroom and tomato pizzas. The salad is a cabbage salad with cucumber, tomato, salt and oil. It is really good. I have been trying to get Rylee to try it, and she finally did! Rylee is not a salad eater at all!!! She has never eaten a salad in her life, but guess what? SHE LOVED IT! She ended up eating my entire salad....Yes, we have photos to document! Nana, you would have been so proud! The pizza was really good, too! The girls followed dinner with the Kazak version of a milkshake. It is basically whipped milk and sugar--they slurped it down!
After dinner we decided it was time to head back home before it got too late. We saw a lot of neat sights on the way home and will share them in our photos for the day!

As you can tell we had a fun day---filled with lots of culture! We are so blessed that we have gotten to meet such a wonderful American family to show us the ropes around here and spend time with! They are leaving Thursday, so we are all going to make the most of the little time we all have together. I believe they are going to come over for dinner again tomorrow night, so it may be another late post! Poka, poka!