Victory Day

Today was a national holiday in Kazakhstan, a military celebration. We went down to the local park expecting a sort of parade, but instead found a carnival of sorts with music, dancers, soldiers and lots of bbq. There was one stage where various performances and speeches were being made and behind this was an avenue with soldiers in uniform from different eras and all kinds of weapons for the kids to crawl on.

For lunch, we got a warm beer and a few meat pastries from vendors for less than $3. They always say not to eat from vendors, but so far so good! : ) And besides, it looked and tasted so good!

Unfortunately, because of the holiday we didn’t get any visits with Hannah today! : ( We had known there would be no morning visit, but found out last night that there would be no afternoon visit either. We were very bummed but there isn’t anything we can do about it. Olga came first thing this morning to have us sign court papers. Our lawyer will be petitioning the court tomorrow for a court date. Everything was in Russian including our names so who knows what they really said. We now know that Hannah in Russian is XAHHAX. Interesting, huh?

For dinner, we are heading to the Cosmonaut Hotel where another family is staying. It will be our first time in a taxi, which we’ve heard are unbelievably cheap. Most trips will cost 400 tenge (equivalent to less than $5). For those who are curious, here is a picture of our apt. building at 1 Lenin Street.