3-21-08 Well today was sooooooo great. The orphanage was putting on a play for the holiday of the coming of Spring. We didn’t understand a word of it but nonetheless we went early, got Emma, she sat there the whole time. Even clapped when everyone else did. Workers, administrators, etc "performed" and dr.s and director and some older children were the audience. There was a little boy and girl in it and the boy made pretend he was playing a mandolin and the girl was "supposed to be" dancing but after one shimmy, she froze..... was like a kid on stage at a dance recital. We all clapped. They re-enacted what I guess is the tradition behind this "holiday" the coming of spring....Where a baby is born and the crib is blessed with smoke/incense. Then they bring out an older (maybe 4 year old) girl and put rope around her feet. (apparently in old times their feet were bound for a period of time) then she walks down this "aisle" and at the end the director cut the rope. Symbolizing her being let free into the world Then a boy played a sax and an older girl played the violin and sang beautifully Afterward, we were invited to join in the feast..... which was a spread of all food and "milk". It was REALLY nice that they invited us up. We tried some of the bread~good. There was a little cake there, so we gave Emma some and she couldn’t get enough of it! She doesn’t get anything sweet there so she was like mmmmmm. Then they say "try this" mom takes a bite and says "oh roast beef". Lady nods happily and says "horse" LOL! I did try it after that and it was a BIT different, almost tasted like deer meat. .Not really bad. Then this stuff mom thought was chopped liver was actually a chocolate "cookie" and tasted like diet sawdust! Yum Oh, and the meat was all cold. THEN there's this "milk". They DID tell us it was horse milk....so we were willing to try it. BUT............Mom took a sip and made probably THE worst face I've seen in my entire life! Her mouth couldn’t open up any further nor wrinkle her face any more if she tried! She looked like she was scanning the room to spit it out, but I was looking at her like “don’t you dare”. Now....EVERYONE is watching her try it! I said, "STOP WITH THAT FACE YOU'RE GONNA INSULT THEM!" (mom said I said it SO sternly to her Then she said, "ok YOU try it" I took the littlest sip b/c I knew it was gonna be bad..... It was like an ounce of warm milk (I think) and 10 ounces of vinegar. It almost turned your tongue numb! Apparently the horse meat is a delicacy for special occasions and the "milk" is very good for your stomach and heart. And for a hangover! LOL It was definitely an experience and I’m so glad we were there for it. During the break b/t visits we went to the Green Market/bazarre (outdoor flea market). It was pretty nice out, not cold or windy but everything was SOOOOOOO muddy and disgusting everywhere. We had gotten permission from the director to let me take home this one sweater and the jumper she always wears... if I buy another outfit to exchange for it. I wanted it b/c its 2 of the clothing items they put on her ALOT. That’s cool to have! So, we stayed for a bit, got some things for Emma, got an outfit to exchange for her jumper and left b/c our backs were killing us! At the beginning of our afternoon visit, Olga walked in with a box and I said "oh you brought me a present?" (I was kidding) and she said "yea" (I thought SHE was kidding) Then about 15 min later, she was leaving and I was like "don’t forget your box" and she said "no it’s for you". We jumped up and were like WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Susan sent a huge goodie box. Chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, cheetos, twizzlers, skittles, girl scout cookies, doritos, Swedish fish, pink bunny Peeps, M & M’s, a pink Easter bunny and 4 toys for Emma! We started crying before we opened it. Just from seeing her handwriting! We were cracking up saying "How the hell did Susan find the address? WE don’t even know where we live!!!" hahahaha!!!! Mom video taped me opening it and giving stuff to Emma. I brought the new snow suit I bought Emma, dressed her up and took her outside for the FIRST TIME! The Dr. said it was fine (she had to approve it first). She had NEVER been outside! She was looking at the sky like, where am I? Saw a dog and don’t think she knew what it was. It was a nice day, no wind, not too cold. We picked up some snow and let her touch it and at first she didnt really like it. Then she kept touching it. She was also listening to water run down into sewer drain and couldnt stop staring at the stream of water running down road. Looking up at the trees, etc….it was cool to see her so like... what IS THIS? She was looking up at the sky like "where's the ceiling"! haha The snow suit was a little big but may hopefully fit for next year. It’s so hard to judge sizes here….their way of labeling sizes is bizarre. One minute its in 1, 2, 3, then it goes by cm 63 cm, 68cm, then 3-6 mo, 6-9 mo, and sometimes the 6 mo are smaller than the 3 mo and hence we've done a lot of returns and exchanges! I don’t think a lot of the stuff at home will fit, yet, I have a shirt from Carters 6 months and it fits fine. But other 9 month stuff doesn’t. 9 month fits on bottom but 12 month on top. I have NO idea what'll fit at home. At least I have some things that fit here that I’ll bring home and then can kinda judge against what’s there. And its so "fun" to ask for your money back, in the store, b/c they just want you to EXCHANGE not return yet dont have any other sizes. Then they go in their own personal wallet to give you money back. We’ve done our share of exchanging and returning. We’ve gotten Olga to add that to our list of phrases we bring with us to just SHOW people “Can I get my money back for this”. We WERE going to have chicken cutlets tonight for dinner but we've been home 1/2 an hour and have had a corona, 1/2 the bag of cheetos, 2 peeps and 3 twizzlers! Mom said "We can make the chicken tomorrow" it was the best dinner we've had yet!! Mom said it was like a hug for her tongue. lol Samoas and thin mints for breakfast tomorrow! Lol It was soooooooo awesome!!! We had the BEST day today and that was the icing on the cake. Got online to thank Susan (of course not BEFORE we pigged out the second we walked in the door) and this was her story about sending this package for us: ____________________________________________________________________ “I go to ShopRite and buy all of this junk food… THEN I bring it to the UPS store..not post office. I tell them I need to get a box and ship this food internationally. The guy starts laughing, so I was like “WHAT?” He said you know that’s gonna be really expensive, right? So I said "I kinda figured...what ..like $100"???? So he says "your a little off"......are you ready.......$750.00!!!! I almost fell over!!! I was like What the……….????????????????? I said" for $750.00 I will buy a plane ticket and hand deliver it myself"!!!!!!!!!!! So he said to go to PO, it will be alot cheaper...I said if they tell me $500...I'm gonna go home and eat it all myself. So @ PO, box already taped up...I had to fill out a customs form and list everything in the box. I asked what happens if i 4get to list something, she said they would, make YOU pay the duty for it!!! I was like OH GREAT...Jen's gonna kill me if their like. Here's your M&M's, you owe us $50!!!!! “ _______________________________________________________________________ So there's a fair, or parade or something tomorrow and they're closing down the streets so we can’t get a taxi anywhere. We were gonna go walk to this shindig but our backs hurt so bad don’t think we'd be able to make it. We usually go to the orphanage on Sat and NOT on Sun but this weekend, again, there’s the holiday on Sat (coming of Spring) and therefore we WILL be going on Sunday. Which is Easter and they DON’T consider that a holiday here….but WE do, so we’ll be with Emma on her 1st Easter! I didn’t think we were going to be, so it’s a nice surprise and a change of plans that worked out in our favor! Found out that Monday I have to go to a notary here b/t visits.... for passport, blah blah blah, stuff... then Tues or Wed is my interview with MOE (Ministry of Education), then court on Thurs and we leave. Next week’s gonna fly!!!! Not looking forward to leaving Emma! Amazing how I can’t imagine going thru the days without her for the following 3+ weeks. So, the day started off with horse meat and horse milk and ended up with corona and peeps!!!! Can’t get better than THAT!