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Almaty Rocks I |
But
before I get too carried away with my first day, let me tell you about the
plane flight from Kokshetau. First, the plane was
scary, plain and simple. It was
old, it creaked, it made hugely alarming noises when
wheels lifted, but no matter. It worked
well enough that we arrived.
The
plane was also quite uncomfortable, although I’ve been on worse. It was only bad because I had Annabelle on
my lap and had to get into the diaper bag quite often and that involved
contortions worthy of Mary Lou Retton (in ‘84,
not now).
On
the plane, there was another baby about the same age as Annabelle right in
front of us. There was also a woman
and her sister (from
And Annabelle? Well obviously Annabelle forgot to read
the manual of how to act on a truly shitty plane flight. The manual explicitly says
she should drive her mother to distraction, “to the point she thinks
about throwing you and herself out of the plane”. The manual goes on to suggest ways of
accomplishing this end with screaming, kicking, wiggling, pulling hair, biting,
spitting and last but not least, pooping.
Instead she had no problem with performance anxiety at taking her bottle
as we took off. She played quietly
with her mirror when not staring at the baby in front of her. She felt asleep
about halfway through the flight. Then, as we were landing, she wouldn’t
take her bottle but (for the first and last time) used her pacifier to suck
away like mad. She seemed to know that she needed it, even though she generally
hates the pacifier. So all in all,
it was a dream performance by Annabelle.
I
was met at the Almaty airport by Sasha,
my driver-cum-California surf boy. He wears bug eye wrap around sunglasses like
Bono, board shorts, and tevas and speaks excellent English. Although he really
doesn’t talk at all. He too cool for that. He got me settled in my apartment, a two
bedroom palace that actually has the crib in a separate room, so adios! couch-a-roonie, I’m sleeping
in an actual bed.
I’m
about two blocks from the US Embassy annex and the Sister’s office and 15
minutes away from the Ramstore. The Ramstore is a huge shopping complex with an ice skating
rink in the middle. It has an awesome “American style” (meaning you
take a cart, fill it with what you want and then go to a cash register to check
out) grocery store, a food court, and lots of stores like Benneton,
Calvin Klein, etc.
Anyway,
this morning I hung around, waiting to hear from the Sister’s office what
time my appointments were scheduled. I was up at 7am so was kind of anxious to
go take a walk I hung around and not until 11:00 did I get a call. So I had a
brief stop at the office where they told me my appointments with the SOS Clinic
and the US Embassy are Thursday and Friday. That means I have all tomorrow and
Wednesday completely free. Of
course, I asked if I could move the appointments up and leave early but
apparently they are waiting for the birth certificate and passport and that’s
what is taking so long.
After
the brief meeting at the sisters, Sasha took me over
to the Lufthansa office and I bought a lap ticket for Annabelle home and
requested (and got) a bulkhead seat (with bassinet) at least to
The
weather is similar to Kokshetau, quite warm (but
comfortable unless you are lugging a baby around in a baby bjorn, then it’s friggin
hot for you and the kid) during the day but comfortable at night.
We
drove past the presidential palace which is surrounded by beautiful parks so I
think I’ll take a walk there tomorrow.
Annabelle
is getting harder and harder to put down to sleep, for either naps or
nighttime. I think it has to do
with her understanding more and more that when she cries, someone (that would
be me) comes. So why not cry a
little at each nap time to see more of mom? Anyone know how
to avoid the increasing meltdowns?
From yesterday, saying goodbye to Inna and Oleg.
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