up late

And it's not even jet lag. I had black tea after dinner and now it's keeping me up. Oops. I've been drinking a lot of tea. Oh, and watching the European Championships in football. The Netherlands beat Romania last night, and Russia beat Sweden just now. Both 2-0. The commentators were ecstatic, of course. Go Motherland.

So, the last few days have been good. Hanging out with the kids, laughing at Isaac's antics, running various errands with the parents as a way of seeing the city, trying to speak more Russian...the usual, you know?

And, of course, taking pictures. Here is Carrie wearing new sunglasses, all set for the trip to the bazaar (outdoor market) with Mom and I:
The bazaar was great. Crowded, hot, noisy, narrow aisles, stall after stall of the same thing, fresh food, disgusting food, all sorts of people and smells and sights...carrying purchases back home, a 15 minute walk away...just like old times.

Selling various brightly-colored salads:
Fresh vegetables:
Nuts, dried fruit, etc:
We ate genuine Uzbek plov. It's better than what I make, of course, though mine has less grease:
Towards the center of the city they have this display which they rearrange every day to show the date. Seems rather labor-intensive to me (with little tangible return on the investment), but I guess nice to look at:
Coming up on the White House. There was a good number of security guards around and in front, so I took this from a ways off. I may try for a better one from across the street:
Saw this one on the side of a building. It says "in this house lived a true son of the Party, Director of the Kabardino-Balkarian Bolsheviks, Betal Kalmykov." I thought it was funny.
Now some shots of the kids. Tall, twelve-year-old Emily and I being goofy:
A lot happening in this one:
Crazy, hyperactive, lovable, autistic, 4-year-old Isaac hamming it up:
I was trying to get one of the two of us and he kissed me. haha. Confused, I think. I'll take it.
Ten-year-old Dina takes one of herself, kitchen-side:
She also got one of Carrie and some neighbor friends:
I don't remember all their names yet, but I'm working on it.

So far things have been good. I'm sleeping on the living room floor (trying not to think of what might be crawling over me at night), reading books, relaxing, and talking with people. Family, neighbor kids, other foreigners, local acquaintances. It's strange how things are different, yet so normal. I'm not experiencing culture shock. It's not weird to be here. But at the same time my life is in the United States, and I'm separated from that. I don't live here, and I don't really belong. I guess that's the weird part.