Shopping/Scavenger Hunt

With our court appearance just a couple of days away, the anxiety of the past year is gaining some serious steam.

Today, we woke, cleaned the apartment (not much space + not many things= not a lot of cleaning). At about 2, we were picked up by the translator and driver. We were in search of a stethoscope with a small clock for a gift for Wyatt’s doctor. We found the gift after driving around Astana for about an hour and visiting 4 different drugstores. At the checkout, we were offered Vitamins as part of our change (at restaurants, it's not uncommon to get gum as a portion of the change due you). We declined and the clerk went to another register to get us appropriate change.

After the drugstore scavenger hunt, we asked to be dropped off at the mall (the one with the Maximus fast food restaurant from a few weeks ago). We needed cash as the shops in this mall typically don’t accept credit cards. We drove to 3 different locations before finding a working ATM (not a typical problem here).

We shopped for about 40 minutes and then were dropped back at the house, dropped off our merchandise, and then went for dinner at Shymkent. We shared white rice, steak shish kabob (Shashlik in Russian), and a small pizza with tomatoes and steak. All of this was good and all of it came to less than 10 dollars.

We then walked to the Ramstore for a few essentials (including Jack Daniels Barbecue Sauce), and then back home.

Tomorrow (court day eve), is a holiday here in Kazakhstan. It’s officially called “May Day” but is a hold over from the Soviet holiday which was a 3-day celebration for Labor Day/Workers' Day. So no visit with Wyatt tomorrow, but hopefully there will be a time to visit him after Court Tuesday.