Last week in Astana

This is our last week in Astana. Sunday we went to the Presidential Cultural Centre which is an awesome museum. The museum is free but they have this weird pay for each picture you take policy, so we didn't take any pictures. The exhibits ranged from historical Kazakh clothes and jewelry, along with a full sized yurt (Kazakh tent, they were nomads) to Soviet era and then independent Kazakhstan. The most interesting exhibit was the Golden Man room. Here they displayed a recreation of a 3rd or 4th century BC Saka prince along with some of the original gold decorations found at the archeological site. There was another golden man found later who was also recreated, and a third golden man, who was not actually adorned in gold, but his horse was. This museum is the best thing we have seen in Astana.

Monday we did a little more shopping. In addition to souvenirs and books, we are also buying some gifts to give Miranda at special times. Ben and I both have colds, so Tuesday after our visit we just stayed home.

Wednesday was a busy day. After our visit we went for a walk to get some better pictures of some bronze statues near our apartment, and we hit the far away grocery store for the last time. In the evening, we went to the hockey arena so Ben could get a jersey for the Astana team. The really nice thing about their hockey arena is that it is open to the public for skating and practice when the team is not playing. I wish it was that way in the US, but I'm sure they wouldn't want anyone messing up their precious ice/field/court/etc. After that, we met the other two families at a Kazakh restaurant. It was strangely the first time we had Kazakh food since we've been here. I've been cooking a lot and the other places we've eaten have been American, Uzbek, or Russian.

Today was our last visit with Miranda before court tomorrow. The doctor said we could take her outside for a walk because it was warm enough (27F degrees) but Miranda didn't really enjoy being all bundled up in her snow suit. Also, she hates the sun, so I'm going to have to find some baby sunglasses for her.

Tomorrow is court and if all goes well, we leave Saturday night for our roughly 36 hour return trip. Luckily we get to visit with Miranda on Saturday morning before we leave. The family from GA is staying in Kazakhstan for the waiting period so they said they will check on Miranda and take pictures for us while we're back in the US. Also, our translator Zhana said the baby house will let her play with Miranda while we are gone, so we are going to leave the picture book with pictures of Ben and me and some of her favorite toys with Zhana.

It will be hard to leave without Miranda, but we are looking forward to being back home after 4 weeks out of the country. There could be a future blog post about things we missed from home, which may or may not include a picture of Ben french kissing the dishwasher.

We'll try to blog tomorrow after court, but it could also be a whirlwind from here until we are back with paperwork, visits, packing, cleaning, etc., so I'm not making any promises.