Saturday and Sunday in Bishkek -- Kyrgyz Independence Day

Yay!  With this post I will be all caught up with the blog.  :)

Then I just need to (finally) get stamps for the Russian postcards.  Yes, some lucky people will be getting Moscow postcards with Kyrgyz stamps and postmarks.  (The Moscow post office was too far out of the way, with working hours that were too short -- and stamps are only sold at the post office, not in tourist shops.  Silly me for thinking the whole world is like Italy and the United States.)

 

Our head rest cover on the way from Moscow to Bishkek was awesome -- Aeroflot is proud to be a sponsor of the recent Sochi Olympics.  We saw lots of Sochi stuff in Russia, though they were sold out of the mascot toys in GUM.

Manas International Airport, formerly Frunze (after a WWII general who was born in Bishkek -- Bishkek was named Frunze for a long time and the routing code is still FRU).  Manas is a legendary character in Kyrgyz epic poetry.

Seal of Kyrgyzstan on the airport wall.  Why yes, I was taking photos while waiting in the immigration line...

The outside of the airport.

 

We met our wonderful representative here Saturday night.  She treated us out to dinner in one of the nicest restaurants in Bishkek.  Here's their take on Russian Olivye salad.

Veal steak and potatoes.  So yummy.

It was wonderful to share a dinner with our representative and get to know her before we need to start dealing with the real business part of our trip.  She is a very, very kind, warm-hearted person.  She told us that she saw our kids, and they are doing well.  Frankie is cheerful and friendly as always.  Our little Marie is very happy and excited, and keeps wanting to put on her best dress to meet her Mama and Papa.  I teared up in the hotel lobby hearing that, in front of our representative whom I'd just met a minute before.

By the end of the evening, she had invited us to the mountains and to the celebration in Bishkek for Independence Day on Sunday.

 

This is the view from the landing where we wait for the elevator in our hotel.

Our hotel's beautiful lobby and bar.

 

Sunday was Kyrgyz Independence Day.  The crowds gathered in the square by the State Historical Museum and the statue of Manas.

In the center of Bishkek, in front of the State Historical Museum.  We hope to visit the museum later this week -- maybe Tuesday or Wednesday (they are closed Mondays, and there was a big crowd for Independence Day).

A poster for Independence Day.  It says 31 August.

I love the carpet style decorations on the front of the building.

The President of Kyrgyzstan made a speech.  Yes, the actual president.  It was quite amazing to think that we had been in Kyrgyzstan less than 24 hours and here we were seeing the President, even from afar.  His presence did explain why we they searched our purses on the way in.

After the celebration in the square, we went to the big Bazaar to buy souvenirs for our kids and also for family members back in the US.

This lady has a lovely booth with many Kyrgyz souvenirs.  We wound up with a nice bulk discount from her.  :P

This is the Bishkek Opera House, just a few doors down from our hotel.

TSUM, pronounced like "zoom" is a big mall with lots of little booths, each with its own vendor.  The prices are more for Kyrgyz folk art, but they have Russian and Soviet stuff that the other shops don't.

We went to have Kyrgyz food for Independence Day.  This lamp was so pretty.

Lagman, a very popular noodle dish here.  Nothing like Chinese or Italian noodles at all.

Juice, Pelmeni, sour cream, and a tomato and red pepper something or other.

Plov (a rice dish) and Kyrgyz bread.

After lunch we went into the mountains.  Here's the sign at the front of the park.

Real, live yurts!

Inside a yurt.

The top of the yurt's ceiling inspired the design on the flag of Kyrgyzstan.

Mountains and trees.

China is on the other side of these mountains.

A river of melted snow.  I hear it's very cold.

More mountains.

A nice view of the river.

A shed snake skin.

Here's as far as we got, really -- it got cold as the sun went down, and I hate to admit it but I don't have full stamina from the Typhoid pill incident in June.  I get better all the time, but the altitude made it more difficult.

Here's an outhouse.  :)

Kyrgyz horses.

For dinner we went to have more Kyrgyz food -- Shashlik, which is like a Kabob.  It's very good and is served with raw onions.

 

Papa Beast is gonna get that Shashlik and show it who is boss!

 

Moscow -- as a day trip.

Okay, so the blog control panel is back in English, which is AWESOME.  I was able to figure out where it had the place to change languages, and I feel like I deserve a gold star.  :P

I'm so glad we decided to get visas for Russia so we could go into the city of Moscow and see the sights.  It's such a wonderful place, with so many beautiful historical things to see and places to go.  Our guide was a dear friend of a dear friend of mine (and now a dear friend of ours herself), and she was so wonderful and really helped us see all the amazing things in her city.

We rode the express train from the SVO airport to the center of Moscow, where Anna met us.  She took us via Metro to the Kremlin and all around Moscow, really.  It was a lot to do in one day, but it was really worth it.

People touch the nose of this soldier's dog for luck.  We touched it and had a fantastic day -- I don't know if it was luck or if it was just that Russia is such a wonderful place to visit.

We got to see the outside of the Bolshoi theater.  Some day I would love to come back with enough time to see a ballet here.

 

The geographic center of Moscow.

We got to see the changing of the guard at the war memorial.  They call WWII the Great Patriotic War.

Kremlin walls.  We also went inside the Kremlin armory to see the Faberge eggs and other treasures.  Photos aren't allowed inside, so we bought postcards for our scrapbook (and some to send when we get to Bishkek).

With Anna, our wonderful new friend, at the Kremlin walls.  Words can't say how much of a blessing she has been to us.

Inside the church near Anna's apartment -- saying a prayer that everything will go well with the rest of our trip and our adoption.  :)

Such a pretty church!

 

The outside of the church.

 

More socialist realism in the Metro.  They have a really interesting perspective.  The other mosaics in this station are airplanes, etc -- everything is about appearing as if the subject is looking down a hole at the people passing by.

Enjoying Russian ice cream with Anna.

GUM -- pronounced like "goo" with an "m" on the end -- the most exclusive shopping in Moscow.  It is very beautiful and historic, dating back before the Russian Revolution.

Saint Basil's reflected in GUM -- as close as we could get on this side of Red Square.

St. Basil's.  NOT the Kremlin.  :P

With Papa Beast at St. Basil's -- it was the back side because we couldn't get near the front due to a concert in Red Square.

GUM lit up at night.

The inside of GUM.

The wonderful spread of salads and other goodies at dinner.  :)

 

It was so hard to leave, really, and I would love to go back to Russia and spend much more time there.  Hopefully, I will learn more Russian soon.  :)

We Made It!

We made it safely to Bishkek! 

Our bags did too!

The hotel is good, our representative here is wonderful, and the children are doing well (though we haven't met them yet).

I will have more posts in the next few days to catch up with posting -- I have so many stories to share already, especially of our one day in Moscow. 

Somehow, though, Blogger has decided to make everything be in German.  I think it's because Papa Beast was playing with proxy servers -- so it's very hard to figure how to do much in the way of posting, uploading, etc.  I'm basically just remembering where the buttons are supposed to be, and hoping I don't click something that destroys my blog somehow.

Tomorrow is Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day, so we will go to the celebrations around Bishkek.  I will of course take tons of pictures, and then I will have even more wonderful things to share.  How will I ever catch up?

Made it to Salt Lake City

 

Why yes, that is an obligatory wing photo.  So shoot me. 

The lights sure are pretty, though.

 

We had been told (via phone) that we could check our bags through to Bishkek -- nope, false.  We will be able to check through to Moscow (without having to deal with them in NYC/JFK) but we will have to deal with them here and in Moscow.  Moscow has a 24 hour baggage holding room.  SLC doesn't.  So we wound up getting a room, basically just so we could have somewhere to put our bags.

 

And, of course, we didn't know this would be happening until we got to the airport in San Francisco, and didn't decide to get a room until we got to SLC.   We were able to get a room at Super 8 with AAA discount (good thing I had a weird feeling that I should bring my AAA card) and they have shuttle.

 

The room isn't half bad, and is clean with free Wifi.  Yay.

 

Dinner wasn't so great -- we went down the street to the Doubletree.  Raw risotto isn't cool, okay?  Oh well, at least we (and our luggage) are safe and sound. 

Packing, Shopping, Packing Some More...

Well, I'm almost to a point where I'm not freaking out about all the freaking stuff that freaking needs to get done before freaking Tuesday.

Oh wait, who am I freaking kidding?

So.  Much.  Stuff.

I'm already basically done with donations to the orphanage for this trip -- though I do have $10 to Kohl's that I'd like to try to get some stuff off the clearance rack with.  The back to school sales have completely been my friend when it comes to scoring donations, by the way -- I've even scored Gymboree shirts for $5.

Luckily, Kohl's is right by the bank, and I need to go there to order foreign currency.  Bank of America can't get Kyrgyz money, by the way, and our agency advises that you travel with US money and change it over in Kyrgyzstan.

I also need to print, laminate, punch a hole through, and key ring some photos of our family, our house, Superpup, etc.  Originally, we'd planned to do a photo book from a printing service like Snapfish or Persnickety Prints but I was told that laminated is better in case the kids are more destructive.  Amazon had a great deal on a Scotch brand laminator -- it ended up costing about the same as a book from Persnickety.

And, of course, we still need to pack.  Right now, we have this great system where, when we find something that we know needs to go on the trip, we take it upstairs to one of the empty bedrooms.  If it goes in that room, it's going.  I also have sections of the room for things that need to be in our carry-on luggage.  Still, though, on Monday I will need to make sure that we both have all the clothes we need for the trip, and that all those clothes and clean, etc.

I also need to pack Superpup's bag, because he will be spending some time with my parents.

Plus there's printing out the question lists from our international adoption doctor, buying some first aid type stuff to take with us, and probably a million more things I'm forgetting.

But, honestly, compared to what's gotten done, this doesn't look half bad.

Big News!

 

We have a referral.

 

And travel dates.

 

And airplane tickets.

 

And a hotel room.

 

Yes, it's been a busy weekend -- sorry I haven't posted this on the blog, but I really wanted to get all the logistics ironed out.

The children who are soon to be ours (can we call them our children yet?) are both older than our beloved Super Pup.  So, to poke a little fun at other adoption and pregnancy announcements, I posted that picture to Facebook.  (Usually, the dog or an older child would be wearing a sign that says he's going to be a big brother.)

 

Our future son is 2.5, and our future daughter is 4.  They aren't biological siblings (we were told that there aren't siblings in our age range available), but they have been raised together. 

 

They are both absolutely beautiful children, but I'm not allowed to share pictures until they are legally ours.  I will be blogging during our trips, but the pictures I share will be of tourist sights, etc. Of course, we can't wait to share all of this with everyone, but we need to be respectful of the laws and culture of our future children's homeland.

 

At this point, we are both thrilled and completely overwhelmed.  Shopping, packing, and arranging a tourist visa for our 23-hour layover in Moscow consume all of my time and energy.  I alternate between impatience (because I can't wait to meet our children) and feeling the pressure of our travel dates being just around the corner.  So much to do, so little time -- and yet I don't think I could stand waiting any longer.

Another Trip to San Francisco

 

In early July, we went to visit my family for July 4th and my birthday all rolled into one amazing trip.  (Yes, I'm behind on the blog again.  No, I don't want to hear about how bad I am at keeping caught up.  Yes, the infamous Typhoid pill sickness was still leaving me dizzy and weak even into July.)

 

My folks live closer to the Wine Country than to San Francisco proper, but it's still a short enough drive to make for an easy trip across the bridge.  We loved what we saw of the Richmond District (Little Russia) when we visited at Easter, so we were looking forward to going back.

 

This time, we decided to try Cinderella Bakery.  They have amazing bread, pastries, etc, but they are also fantastic for lunch (borscht, sandwiches, pelmeni, etc). 

 

The beef and gorgonzola piroshky came heavily recommended by Yelp users, so we decided to give it a try.  It was even better than I expected it to be.  Even now, over a month later, (like I said, I'm behind on the blog) I can still taste the amazingness.

My husband and I also had the borscht and pelmeni, which were great as well. 

 

We wandered around a bit, seeing various shops.  One big highlight was the Russian bookshop -- we'd seen it before, when we went to Katia's at Easter, but it was closed for the evening last time.  This time, we were able to go in and shop for a bit.  We got a few alphabet books for our children to enjoy later on, as well as two copies of Hedgehog in the Fog (one in Russian, one in English).  It's  a great little place to stop by, and the ladies who run the shop are super helpful. (They explained the pros and cons of all the different alphabet books to me, and they never ran out of patience.)  The store also has the most fantastic Cyrillic typewriter in the window.  (Sorry for the glare from the glass.)

 

We really love exploring Russian language and culture -- it's something we can't wait to share with our children.