These photos are from the lower floor of what is referred to as the Eurasian Mall here in Astana. The upper floors have any number of stalls selling commercial goods such as clothing, electronics, and household items.

As you enter the food section from outside, you first see the Korean women selling their special recipe salads. They are very willing to give you a try of anything, and to be honest, if you so much as look for more than a split second, a sample will be presented to you without even saying a word.



Surrounding the walls of the large market floor are a number of shops specializing in various things such as this bakery/ candy shop. We bought a number of different cookies and pastries here as well as some candy, but really just a few of each as samples.



The open floor of the market is divided into rows of vendors arranged by product. First behind the Korean salads and the cheese and salami vendors, then vegetables, then fruits, then spices and dried fruits. The back wall seems mostly to be small shops specializing in shelf upon shelf of different vodkas.







Along the back wall was a group of sellers all from Samarkand in Uzbekistan who were selling dried fruits, nuts and candies. We sampled a number of things and ended up buying some wonderful dried apricots as well as a mix of white and dark chocolate covered cherries.



This shop had fish of all varieties. There were dried and smoked fish stacked in the open, frozen fish of all shapes and sizes in the freezers, tinned and jarred fish, lining the walls, and a case full of dozens of different red, and black caviars.



The meat section at the Eurasian Mall is a large room with numerous stalls selling meat from a variety of animals in a wide assortment of presentations. You can find every part of the animal here and are likely to find it either raw, smoked, ground or in sausage form.

Around the room you will find signs on the wall that tell you what animal is featured in that section of the market. Can you tell what section this is?



She has such beautiful eyes, I couldn't resist cropping one tight.

You may have noticed that I crop most every photo fairly close to square. The reason for this is that Blogger gives equal vertical and horizontal limits for photos, and so whereas a typical rectangular photo will meet one limit before the other, a square photo will maximize the viewing size(footprint) as it appears in the blog.





Aitugan was again relieved of her pants and took ample opportunity to grab and play with her feet. It will be so liberating to get her home and just let her explore the world beyond walls, layers, and general confinement.



Aitugan spent a good five minutes sitting in KJ's lap in the windowsill looking out upon the snow-covered parking lot and playground. Several cars came and went, and bodies moved about all under her watchful gaze.

The light was really great coming in. The snow outside, and the northerly facing window gives it a very full and even quality.



Today was a great visit day. Aitugan was in a particularly good mood for almost the entire two hour visit, and the giggles and laughter just kept coming and coming.

We were all alone in the playroom and took a fair bit of time to videotape her standing and moving about so that at some point in the future we will remember a time when all of this was new.

More and more we are moving our hands away from her and giving her space to sway and fall a little more before catching her as she stands and balances on her feet and reaches for various things.

When she loses her balance, rather than holding her up, we guide her to the floor and let her get herself back to a stand. It could be just my own wishful interpretation, but I feel she is enjoying this new freedom to explore on her own terms.

We got her 8 month measures and each of them put her squarely on 50%. Her current height is 69cm, weight is 8.3kg, head is 44cm and chest is 47cm. All that means that she has grown over an inch and gained a pound since we met her a month ago.

The cleaning efforts continued at the Baby House today, this time washing the walls and carpets in the hallways. At this point it sounds as if the Chicken Pox is still contained to just one group, though children from a second group were kept out of the Playroom today because of fever - potentially developing into Pox.

It seems a crap shoot at this point. It either will or won't effect us, or more precisely Aitugan. I'm not sure whether I hope she does or doesn't get them. I only hope that she is not in a contagious stage at the time of our flights.

Tonight is one of Aitugan's six remaining nights in the only place she has ever known as home. If all goes to plan, she will sleep here with us beginning next wednesday night.

KJ and I will visit her tomorrow, then go Saturday morning for the first hour of the visit before hopping in a train and heading off to Karaganda for two nights, returning Monday in time to get to our afternoon visit.

So what is in Karaganda? Well Kj and I really wanted to get out of Astana at least once to see something of the region. The train will take about 3 hours and we are curious to see what it shows us in terms of topography and landscape.

Once in Karaganda we will be staying with Elena, our translator here in Astana. Elena lives in Karaganda and leaves her son(11)and daughter(19) every Monday to come to Astana and spend her week assisting us, returning home friday evening.

She has offered to host us and has a number of things planned to show us in our quick trip. We are very excited to spend our last weekend before becoming full-time parents with Elena and are grateful for her invitation and friendship. Of course we will post photos and stories upon our return Monday.

Before that of course, we still have tomorrow, so join us back here for the next installment of Aitugan - the series. Take Care.