Last night we went to a Kazakh restaurant for a traditional dish called "Five Fingers." We were a little frightened by the name, but our translator insisted it was good and described it as having carrots, potatoes, noodles, meat, and broth. We had pre-ordered the meal the day before as it takes 3 hours to cook. I got pork and Jon ordered mutton. Anyway, it was very good. It tasted a lot like a pot or pork roast. The next day our translator told us that Kazakh people eat the dish for "good health."





Other restaurants that we eat at are traditionally Russian. It's interesting to see the combination of the two cultures. It seems like the younger generation is much more interested in Russian foods and language. Our translator, who learned Kazakh, Russian and English in school, says she really doesn't speak Kazakh.

I've also included pictures from our trip to the zoo last Monday. As you can see the travel monkey had been taunting the bears (bottom right corner of second picture). No wonder he got slapped!




And, because no blog is complete without a picture of TJ, here is one of me tickling him. He kept throwing himself to the ground today as if he was trying to get us to tickle him!