May 11

Our visit with Symbat was in the morning today. We like the mornings better from a schedule standpoint, but we did notice that Symbat seems to be more full of energy in the afternoons. Today was beautiful outside so we took her out. Of course we had to put her snowsuit on, which was her fourth layer of clothing. Never mind that it was in the mid-70s… we wanted to make sure she was bundled up enough that we didn’t get chewed out.

After lunch we went with Zema to get our pictures developed for Guardianship Council tomorrow. We had been told that we needed three pictures per day for each day of bonding, but today we were told that we just needed one per day, but three copies of each. Minor miscommunication. We got the right number (we think, we’ll find out for sure tomorrow) and went on our way to lunch.

Bosfor was our choice, as it has pretty good food and was close to the photo shop. Waitresses in Kazakhstan will stand there impatiently at your table until you order, so we were somewhat rushed in the process. Their English menu was of little help as all of the descriptions were still in Russian. I tried to order Adana Kebab, which I’ve had before, but was told there was no kebab today. After fumbling through the menu while the others ordered their pizzas, the waitress helpfully suggested Shashlik. I was happy to hear that, and pointed to the lamb shashlik in the menu.

She followed with “skolka,” which I know means, “how many”? Thinking that I was fairly hungry and that we usually don’t eat dinner, I replied with “tree,” meaning three. All of this made sense to me, as shashlik is generally served on the skewer and I can put down three with no problem, unless they’re the monster kebabs at Antalya. My food took a lot longer than the pizzas. When she finally brought out my lunch, she has three plates of shashlik, each complete with garnit (fries, rice, onions, and carrot salad). I was officially an American Idiot.

I decided that since I had paid for them, I was going to do my best to eat them. Wayne had a few pieces of lamb, and Kara ate one of the sides of rice and fries, but other than that I polished it all off. In hindsight, as I sit here on the couch three hours later still stuffed to the gills, perhaps that wasn’t the brightest idea. I went from the “American Idiot who Ordered Three Meals” to the “Prideful American Idiot who Decided to Eat the Three Meals Because He Ordered Them.” It’s okay though. It lets Kara tell me “I told you so,” which she likes to do periodically. I did it for the harmony of our marriage. (Well, that and because I am an idiot.)

Advice: I’d love to be able to give you some tips on how to avoid ordering three meals, but I still have no idea where I went wrong. She asked me how many and I answered. The best advice I can give is learn a bit more Russian than I did before you come over here. You might also want to learn how to say “give us five minutes” or “come back in five minutes” to give yourself a bit of time to study the menu and translate as needed.

We went back to Tsum for one final round of souvenirs. We picked up some kids music and popular music on CDs and some more stuff for the girls. Now, we just need to prepare our pictures for Guardianship Council tomorrow. Kara is armed with her glue stick, so I think we’re ready to go. Two more days and we head home!