The Rest of the Trip

Day 5

We arranged to meet A and her Dad a little earlier than normal so we could get the proverbial show on the road. We went to breakfast and had our usual Corn Flakes, Pancakes (they were really Crepes) with Honey, and Tea.

So we had one more visit with the baby at the Baby Home.

So where a lot of visiting parents might take the baby for a walk or something exciting, our goal was to push his comfort level a little more each day so that he never got freaked out over anything.

The first day he was so quiet. Very serious baby came to us. By the second day, he was babbling and laughing and smiling. Atta boy!

Our goal each day was different. Fist day was just get to know him. Second was a laugh. Third was a hug, but we got spontaneous crawling instead. Fourth, was to say good bye.

When we finally had to leave, we took him back to his room that he shared with two other babies. They were both napping, and it looked like our baby soon would be, too.

We left the Baby Home and started for the long drive back to Vlad. Three hours flew! Although we came across the same herd of cows walking down the middle of the road, this time I got a picture!

We signed the intent to adopt document, then went to the notary to get more documents notarized.

Then we were done!

A and her Dad dropped us off at the Hotel where we immediately bought an internet card so we could get online and see what was going on in the rest of the world.

We came upstairs to our room, got settled in and logged on. Only we blew a fuse in the power converter that we brought. Thank god there was a back up fuse in there, otherwise we would have been skreweeeed. So we plugged it into a different socket and worked perfectly. No more fuses blown.

Ordered room service because we just didn’t have the energy … ok, so we were jonesing for our internet fix, and couldn’t be bothered to leave the room.

Day 6 and 7

Day 6 we managed to walk around a little bit, but DH was really feeing like he needed to stay close to the room, so we just walked down the street and looked in the windows of some of the shops before turning around and heading back to the hotel. There is a small gift/jewelry counter on the first floor, so we spent some time and some money there.

Mom, MIL, and Leslie are all getting amber pendants. I’ll pick up something in the Seoul airport for the Dad’s.

Day 7, DH was still feeling under the weather, so we did breakfast downstairs as usual and then went for a walk down to the water. We had a lovely time walking along the waterfront and discovered a cute little amusement park for the kids. We’ll have to remember it for the second trip and bring the baby back.

They even had some ponies, which were so cute!

We went back to the hotel and took naps, went downstairs for lunch, and once I got DH settled back in the room I went back out and looked around the shops. There wasn’t really anything in the shops that I wanted, or that I couldn’t get back home, so I just meandered around and worked my way back to the hotel.

We hit the Korean Restaurant in the hotel for dinner, which I thought was very interesting and good! DH is just starting to feel a little better and didn’t want to push it, so he just had rice. I had this really yummy vegetable soup.

Once we came back to the room, we started flipping channels. We saw a soccer game, so started watching. Then we realized that it was playing in the stadium that we had walked by this morning … and that we can see it out our window! So we spent some time with the telephoto lens on the digital camera watching the game from the window in our room and listening to it on the TV.

Last night, we actually ran across the Simpsons in Russian. Hilarious!

Today’s Observations

• Use bills smaller than 1000 rubles. The shop keepers don’t like breaking something that large, and you’ll probably take all their change.
• Cross the street with everyone else. If they’re J-walking, do it when they do. Don’t try to attempt it alone.