Wednesday, August 13, 2003
weekend
I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to update here about my fabulous weekend in Colorado.
First of all, here's the present I was working on, a baby blanket. One side was "American", a coffee cup print flannel (because the café sponsored her in the orphanage). The other side was of a windhorse (hiimori), which is a traditional Mongolian spiritual symbol for the self or spirit.
I had a great weekend. I arrived a bit late at DIA (that's Denver's airport for the rest of you) to find one of my hosts waiting for me at baggage claim (ok, the fountain by baggage claim), a big sign in his hand that read "SANDRA" with "UCHRAL*" written smaller underneath. Chuck turned out to be a wonderful, funny guy who put me at ease immediately. Since it was dark outside, and most of the roads back to their house were rural and poorly lit, I didn't see much of anything of note on the ride.
(* Uchral was the name that the orphanage gave her. They've renamed her Katherine (Katie). What's cute is that they still call her by her nickname, Uchka (ooch-ka).)
We arrived back at their home and Kelly, Chuck's wife, greeted me on the walk with the now-two-year-old Katie in hand. My heart melted on the spot. Katie was an absolute peach the entire time, and for only having been exposed to English for three months, she's catching on remarkably well. One of the highlights of my trip was getting to feed her french fries on the car ride to the airport. :D
The party was great… busybusybusy and lots of little kids, more than I've been surrounded by in eons. Her parents went for a carnival theme (the modern carnival has roots in the Mongolian nadaam, which they felt appropriate for her first birthday in the US) and they had a dunk tank, games, popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy, the works. I was recruited to do a little bit of face painting, but honestly, it was damn fun and I was happy to do it. And I went *GASP* swimming! Well, wading really, as I don't enjoy swimming much. It was bloody hot outside (upper 90's F). I did okay in the sun except for missing putting sunscreen on a 1" stripe along my back and it hurt the next day a bit.
The blanket went over very well, though everyone was treating it like it was a precious museum piece. I kept trying to tell them that it's machine-washable, that she should use it! :)
They gave me presents from Mongolia: a tee-shirt that says either Ulan Bataar or the name of a holy mountain near Ulan Bataar (in traditional script); a set of shagai (a traditional Mongolian divination tool, sheep's knuckles) in a beautiful carved wooden box; a painting of a day in the life by a Mongolian artist; and another painting, this one framed for hanging at the café, the steppes at night. I was touched beyond words. (I was also secretly lusting over the tiny, felt-covered breakaway yurt that they bought for themselves. :) )
I was only just a tiny bit bad, diet-wise: a half slice of chocolate cake with an ice cream center and butter cream frosting; pizza (not the crust, just the toppings); hot dogs without checking the sugar/nitrite content; and a chocolate malt Schwann's Push-Up. I actually didn't feel miserable on Sunday, but of course, that might have been masked by being in transit.
Plane rides were a bit turbulent, but not scary-turbulent. No, the scary part of the trip involved a late landing into Phoenix, having 20 minutes to get 2 concourses over, going to the wrong gate at first because I misheard where they'd told me to go. (You'd think that B8 and B18 would be relatively near each other, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong. Phoenix airport sucks.) After running to the plane — part of the run was out to the plane on the tarmac, not connected to the air-conditioned airport, and, oh, by the way, it was 115°F outside — I was the very last person on the plane at the very last moment. But at least I made my plane.
Some pictures:
Yes, small children were plied with sugar! Ohhhh boy!
Katie, with Mad Cake Eating Action™!
In the car on the way to the airport. I was her best friend, because I was feeding her her french fries.
