Our Days in Kokshetau

We are half way around the world, yet our domestic life is much the same as at home. I clean, cook, make the bed and do laundry; Bob does work and plays video golf on his PSP! But to be fair, he has now been grocery shopping more times in the past three weeks then in his whole life, I know he will do a huge amount of caring for Owen once he’s at the apartment (Susan, don’t be too upset but I do have to tell you that Bob changes most of the diapers!), and I'm sure he'd do more around the apartment if I asked.

If you’ve followed along to this point you may have the impression that we have parties every night, but in reality our days are pretty routine and not that exciting. We wake, take our lukewarm on/off shower; eat breakfast, dress in layers and meet Rada and Vladimir for the thrill ride to the Children’s Hospital. There we visit with Owen for about two and a half hours, then we either go to the Internet cafe, the Tsum store (souvenirs, clothes, electronics, household items), or the pick-up store (groceries). If we go to a restaurant for lunch it usually takes at least two hours to complete the meal between Rada translating the entire menu for us – and the “salad” section alone usually has at least 20 choices – and the fact that it seems the kitchen cooks meals to order. After lunch we head home, repack Owen’s bag for the next day (new outfit, eight diapers), do laundry/dishes, etc., then have a light dinner. Most evenings we watch a movie or turn on Russian MTV and read, play video games (Bob), work on the cross stitch project Maureen gave me (Jodi) or work Sudoku and crossword puzzles (thanks Amy B!). At about 11:00 its’ lights out then we wake in the morning to do it all over again.

It’s not a bad way to spend a month and a half, but as those before and with us have said; it does get to be a bit like the movie “Groundhog Day”. But we are making memories that we will always have to share with Owen and we know that this trip, although at times difficult and very long, is so worth the end result. And we are now almost halfway home!