Oh my god.  Life has been a blur recently.  

As you all know, there was a revolution in Kyrgyzstan.  No volunteers were hurt.  The majority of us were moved to a safe location.  After 5 days at this undisclosed location I was sent back to my village.

Upon returning to site I spent a week in anxiety, distractedly going to school and waiting for any tidbit of news that came my way through the grapevine.  That was not fun.  So I took a week long trip to Kara Kol where I worked on a WID/GAD project and mostly just relaxed.  It was nice to be in a place that was seemingly untouched by the violent, political goings ons.  

Two days later our COS (Close of Service) conference began.  There's not much to say about that, because I imagine most of you aren't interested in hearing about a 3 day party.  It was the last time all of the K-16s would be together, and it was great.  One note-worthy piece:  I DID A COAL WALK!!  We had a bonfire on the beach and once the fire died down a bunch of us just went for it.  It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.  And my feet survived unscathed, though quite dirty.

I also have my COS date.  I will officially be leaving Kyrgyzstan on August 24th (which probably means early morning of the 25th).  Get ready!

Now here are some pictures of the beautiful resort on the lake that we stayed at for our COS conference:

Hello blog reading people!

I'm sure by now most of you have seen some sort of news forum and are aware of the current situation in Kyrgyzstan.  In a nut shell, it's pretty crazy over here.  I want to assure all of you that I am safe.  Peace Corps staff and the rest of the volunteers are safe.  Many people have been relocated to safe areas to wait out the storm, but Peace Corps' official position is that we will not be evacuated, and everyone will be back to work shortly.  For more information check out any news website.  There are also some pretty intense videos posted on YouTube, if that's your thing.  I'll let you know if anything worth mentioning comes up.  As of now, we are simply waiting to see how things will turn out.

That's all!

The Russian language has it's own verb for eating a Snickers candy bar. Example: "Ya snickersnu" = "I eat a snickers candy bar".

Awesome.

On a sadder note, I've decided to end my service early. I will be registering for early termination sometime next week and coming home shortly after that. I just can't take this isolation anymore. Haha, just kidding! Isn't April Fool's Day fun?

The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful. It must’ve been at least 70 degrees. Finally, I thought to myself, Spring is officially here! The entire day I was raving about how nice it was outside to anyone who would listen to me. They would respond with agreement, and then follow it up by saying that all weather reports claimed it was going to snow the next day. Impossible, I thought.. I don’t believe it! Later that night, I realized I was definitely wrong. I was staying with Meredith, and we were sitting with her host mom, drinking tea, and chatting. All of a sudden it sounded like planes were flying overhead, which isn’t unusual as the Russian air base is nearby her village. But it wasn’t planes this time, it was just the wind announcing that a storm was on the way. We were expressing our distaste in the fickle weather when Meredith’s host mom exclaims, “Meredith! Isn’t your laundry hanging outside?!” She gets up to go retrieve it and I follow her outside to lend a hand, as she spent all morning doing laundry and there are four full lines of clothes hanging to dry. It’s dark out so she turns on the yard light and we both groan as we see that half of her clothes are now scattered across the yard, which consists, almost entirely, of half-dried mud and cow shit. We run over and frantically start picking things up. It’s the nature of wind to have the most effect on those items which are the lightest, so, unfortunately for Meredith, this means that most of the garments now on the ground are the intimate ones that you’d least like to see covered in brown splotches... We’re running around gathering clothes, and I can’t help but laugh at the situation, when the power goes out. Kyrgyz power lines are not very strong so when it gets really windy the electricity is shut off to avoid fires from fallen lines and whatnot. I am mid-crouch, with my hand reaching out to a pair of underwear when everything turns completely black.. and I can’t help but laugh a little harder. We gather the rest of the clothes by the light of my cell phone, bring them inside, and then light some candles. “That really sucks,” I say sympathetically (as I’ve been in similar situations), “What are you gonna do?” “Fuck it,” she says in exasperation, brushing the filth off of a shirt. “I’m so not washing everything again..” To make matters worse, in the rush of bringing the clothes in we leave our shoes outside on the stoop. It’s part of Kyrgyz culture to take your shoes off when entering the house, but in most houses there is a space inside the door reserved for footwear. With laundry on the mind, we aren’t thinking, and don’t bother bringing them in. We realized our mistake the next morning when we go outside to find our shoes soaking in the rain. The rain quickly turns into snow and the weather reports are proven true.. It doesn’t stop snowing the whole day. As my shoes were drenched, and I was dressed for 70 degree weather, I’m inclined to say that Saturday was not a good day. But as I’m writing this, on Sunday, it is sunny once again.. Though from the sound of all the snow melting off of my roof right now you’d think we were still in a rainstorm. ************ I wrote that at home yesterday on my laptop, but as I sit at the Peace Corps office now I realize that there is some news I should share with everyone.. I’ve decided not to pursue Jamaica. I still think it would be an amazing experience, and I realize that if I put it off and then decide to do it later in life (which is possible) I won’t have the sway with Peace Corps that I do now, but I’ve been getting really excited about law school recently. I know that law school will still be there even after another term of Peace Corps service, but I feel like I’m ready to start that chapter of my life. Everyday I’m less and less willing to put it off for another two years. This realization got me thinking about what I would do with all the time in between Peace Corps and the start of the 2011 school term. It is a whole year, after all, so I don’t want to just be sitting around living with my dad in Cameron Park (even though I love you dearly!), and with the economy as it is now my chances of getting a job that pays more than minimum wage are slim to none. Then I remembered a few other volunteers talking about doing AmeriCorps when they get home. AmeriCorps is very similar to Peace Corps, they would just be serving communities in America instead of abroad. AmeriCorps provides a modest living stipend, the opportunity to continue working with people in need, and it doesn’t require a two year commitment. To top it off, instead of offering a readjustment allowance, the way Peace Corps does, AmeriCorps gives you the option of accepting a small cash sum at the end of your service, or a larger sum that can only be used to pay for education. This sounds perfect for me! I am still gathering information about how to apply and what my options would be, but I’m excited about this idea and I hope it turns out to be a realistic possibility for me. I’ll let you all know more once I know more myself! That’s it!

So, my neighbor has two dogs. One is a small, male terrior (Bobby), and the other is a large, brindle female. For the better part of a week the female has been in heat and it’s driving me CRAZY. I swear to god, every single male dog in the entire village has been flocking to our backyard to get a piece of the action. Bobby, however, is a bit possessive.. which means that all day I have to listen to jealous growls and agressive barking as this tiny terrior attempts to ward off all of his girlfriend’s ‘suitors’. Occasionally, all the chest bulging works, and the village dogs leave. In these situations, Bobby trots over to his lady, full of triumphant adreneline, and, pardon the graphic detail, attempts to ‘claim’ her. You don’t need to be a scientist to imagine that, with a small dog and a big dog, anatomy is working against them and Bobby’s attempts are not only unsuccessful, but incredibly awkward.. At other times, all the chest bulging turns into an all out dog brawl and I, being the sensitive-to-animals person that I have been raised to be, run out into the yard to try and stop it. I know I shouldn’t do this, I should just let Kyrgyz dogs be as they are.. But I have grown quite attached to my neighbors dogs, especially Bobby, and it pains me to listen to him yelping when two or three larger males decide to call his bluff and go in for the attack. After scaring off the intruders I walk back into my apartment only to find that Bobby and his lady consistently try to follow me inside. I like them, but not that much (especially during muddy season), so I send them back into the yard and listen as the whole process repeats itself.

This has been my week. It’s only 100som to get an animal fixed in this country, that’s about $2.50, but I have heard that Kyrgyz people think it’s inhumane to do so. Maybe they’re right, I’m not interested in starting a debate about it.. All I know is that if there were ever a time when I was considering dropping a few hundred bucks to sterilize a village’s worth of dogs, now would be it..

Moving right along, I have some news about Jamaica. Apparently, I am unable to do a transfer extension. Peace Corps doesn’t approve them unless there’s two months or less in between the end of one term of service and the beginning of the next. Because there would be a 7 month break in between Kyrgyzstan and Jamaica there are too many liability issues and it’s just not possible. My only option would be to re-enroll once I’m back in America, which is only a tad more inconvenient than doing everything from here. I still wouldn’t have to redo the application or medical process, but I would have to do all the appropriate e-mail correspondence on my own, and there’s a slightly smaller chance that I will have control over which country I get assigned to. With re-enrolling, I can apply to a certain region and voice a preference for a certain country (which will carry some weight, they say), but I can’t apply to one specific country the way I could if I was doing a transfer extension. I’m still interested, but I can’t start that process until I’m home, so I guess there’s not much else to say on that front.

Winter is finally coming to a close! Besides one day of snow last Friday, we’ve had a mixture of sunny and rainy days recently. The weather is definitely getting warmer, which is very fortunate because having my heater plugged in all the time was definitely taking a toll on my wallet. One more season gone also means I’m one season closer to seeing all you beautiful people again! The countdown is around 5 months now and time has definitely started to move faster. I can almost taste all the delicious food I will soon have access to!

I will now leave you with some pictures..

The view from my backyard:

The dogs.. The little guy in the front is Bobby. The one in the middle is the female, and the others are.. gentlemen callers..

The back side of my apartment building. Classy.

Random pile of puppies trying to stay warm:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thank you for reminding me, Tilly!  

I forgot to mention it in my last post but I have recently received 3 packages and I want to give a HUGE thanks to those who sent them!!  Thanks to Tilly and co., my dad, and Cindy, I have been chowing down on some delicious American treats recently.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

On a different note, as of Friday I'm in a band!  Meredith, Laura, and I have decided to use all of our free time to be musically productive. I discovered this amazing music program on my computer so we've already recorded two songs!  Here they are:

"Down With the Nay-Sayers 'Cause My Glass is Half Full, Dammit!"http://www.posterwall.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1724

"Thumb Out on the Milky (High)Way"http://www.posterwall.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1725

That’s right, folks! Only six months until I’m back! As excited as I am it’s becoming more and more clear that there are tons of things I’m going to miss about this place. Some of them things that I have complained about in the past, but have since grown accustomed to.. Such is the irony of life. I can tell you one thing I’m NOT going to miss: WINTER! Despite winter’s late coming this year (December and January were surprisingly warm.. for winter, that is) the past few days have felt like the coldest days I’ve ever experienced. My 15 minute walks to and from school everyday have become nightmare material. I can feel my nose hairs freeze with every inhale, and then melt again with every exhale. It’s a very interesting feeling, which wouldn’t be entirely uncomfortable if it weren’t for the fact that the rest of my face feels like it’s going to break off into shards of ice at any moment. It makes me miss living in a place with little to no seasonal weather changes, like San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Know what other place has little to no seasonal weather changes? Jamaica! Which leads me to my next point.. Though it may come as a shock, or possibly a disappointment, to many of you, I’m in the process of applying to do a transfer/extension to Peace Corps Jamaica. What this means is, if accepted, I would be doing a-whole-nother 27 months of service. It would not be immediate, however. Training for Jamaica begins in March and my Kyrgyzstan service would end in August, leaving me in America for 7 months in between. I figure this is plenty of time to catch up with everyone and get my fill of life in America before hitting the road again. When Peace Corps initially offered information about transfer extensions the thought of applying was the last thing on my mind, but the more I think about it the more I think it’s an opportunity I can’t possibly pass up. Because I’ve already done Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan I’m in a position which gives me the privilege of hand-picking which countries I want to apply to, and which work programs I want to be considered for. While there are tons of amazing countries which came into mind once I realized this (Thailand, Samoa, Peru, the Philippines, Fiji, South Africa, etc.), I will explain why I chose Jamaica. There are two things that stand out in my head as being the most difficult things about my Peace Corps experience. The first is homesickness. Kyrgyzstan is kind of in the middle of nowhere, which makes it very difficult and expensive to travel here, or to travel anywhere from here. Because of this I haven’t gone home to visit, and I’ve had only 3 visitors. That’s actually more visitors than I expected, but their trips wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of my father (I love you, Dad!). Missing friends and family during my service has definitely brought me close to quitting a couple times, especially around the holidays. Recognizing this, I knew that if I was going to do Peace Corps again it would have to be somewhere closer to America, and cheaper to travel to and from. Not to mention, it should be a country that people are familiar with and would have an active interest in visiting for reasons other than just me being there.. The second difficult thing has been language and cultural differences. It has been really hard for me to make true local friends. One reason is the obvious language restrictions. My language can only get me so far in a conversation before my vocabulary fails me, or before we get on to controversial topics that Peace Corps encourages us to avoid (politics, religion, etc.). I find it hard to relate to people on a meaningful level. All those things that I can’t, or shouldn’t, talk about are the things that usually bring me closer to people. Shared opinions about politics, religion, and philosophy are important. Or if not shared opinions, than at least the ability to discuss and debate (in a friendly manner, of course) those areas in which our opinions differ. Language aside, the culture here is also very different.. and very conservative. I feel I’ve had to hide many aspects of my personality and who I am in order to integrate and so as not to offend people. Don’t get me wrong.. I’ve met tons of great people here, many of whom I’d like to keep in touch with, but no one that I truly relate to or feel I’ve made a deep connection with. Except for other volunteers.. Side note: Before anyone says something incredibly charming like, “Why don’t you just study more and then you can have more meaningful conversations?!”, I need to explain something about Kyrgyz. The Kyrgyz language is incredibly under-developed. When the Soviet union took over in 1919, Russian was made the official language of the state. At that time, local Kyrgyz people were nomadic farmers and sheep herders whose lives revolved around family and small village communities. The language reflects this. Imagine if no new words had been added to English in the last 100 years. This would be similar to, but still not as extreme as, Kyrgyz. Ninety percent of the words that were introduced to Kyrgyzstan in the 1900s were introduced in Russian. This means words relating to business, politics, technology, philosophy, the legal system, the media, society, and other topics in higher education are primarily in Russian. There are no Kyrgyz equivalents. Now, it is possible to express some of these more complex ideas in the Kyrgyz language, but it is incredibly difficult. So, you ask, why didn’t I try to learn Russian on my own? Well, maybe I should’ve.. But Peace Corps taught me Kyrgyz and that’s what I’ve stuck with Anyway, with both of these things in mind, I started to do research on Peace Corps countries, and that research led me to Jamaica. It’s close to America, and from what I’ve heard round trip flights are only around $500-$600. This means that, with the money I’ve earned from my first “tour of duty”, I can easily visit during the holidays or anytime I’m missing home too much. Also, they speak English in Jamaica! Well, Patois, actually. Some would argue that Patois is not really English but hey, it’s much closer than Kyrgyz. The culture is also a better fit for me. I realize that Jamaica is still very conservative in many ways, but nowhere near as extreme as here. Once I figure out the linguistic differences and gauge what I can say without offending people, I think I have a much better chance making local friends in Jamaica. Not to mention.. HELLO! IT’S FRICKIN’ JAMAICA!! I realize I won’t be placed in a tourist destination resembling a tropical paradise but I’ve always been much more of a forest/beach girl than a mountain girl and I know that beauty will surround me, or be within reach, even if I’m not in Montego Bay. And many other things I may have to deal with (no running water, limited electricity, poverty stricken communities, different work ethic, etc) are things that I’ve dealt with here and I won’t be phased by them. Of course there will be unforeseen difficulties, but I’m ready to meet them head on. Moving right along.. As many of you know, my best friend, Shannon, came to visit me recently. I could take you through a step by step playback of what we did but I think that would be a lot more interesting to me than to any of you. Highlights from her trip include the circus, skiing, guesting, my birthday, and.. well, basically just her being here! Pictures are posted on facebook. That's it!

Happy New Year everyone! I just posted my New Year's photos on Facebook and I don't feel like posting them again so I'm just going to put a link up to that album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267915&id=6714291&ref=mf

I will post more details here, however, as to the actual events of the day. I suggest looking at the photos before, or at the same time as, reading this

A small group of us (many volunteers are away on vacation this year) gathered for some pre-partying at Jared's house. Jared had convinced Stephany that people wear costumes here on New Year's and had so suckered her into wearing a dog costume to go with his kangaroo costume. After some light drinking and playing around with the costumes we decided to head into Bishkek. We heard that there was going to be much excitement near the center of the city, in Ala-too Square, so that's where we went. The night started off great. We took pictures with every Santa/Ms. Clause we could find (or Father Frost and the Frost Maiden, as they're called here) as well as with other various people in costume. Stephany and Jared were approached for photos on multiple occasions. We even took a picture with the police, which I thought was pretty funny. We were chatting with locals and having a great time. As midnight approached many people started lighting fireworks. At this point, the group of us had secured a location on the steps of Ala-too Square to watch the fireworks. This is when the night started to get a bit bad for me..

Stupidly, when sitting on the steps, I took my purse off and placed it next to me. As the big fireworks show began, I stood up to take some pictures, leaving my purse on the step below me. When I sat back down, it was gone. Now, in reality, the situation wasn't so bad. My money, my credit cards, my phone, my keys, and my brand new camera were all on my person and still safe and sound. In my stolen purse was the following: my camera case, some make-up, my gloves, my Peace Corps ID, and various other odds and ends. It could've been a lot worse.. a LOT worse. But by this time I had had a bit (too much?) to drink and so it was my natural reaction to freak out and start screaming "SOMEONE STOLE MY PURSE!"

Two nice Kyrgyz guys that we had been chatting with said that they knew where the guy who took it had gone and began to lead me off in that direction. Normally, I would've been hesitant.. but at the time I felt like I could trust them and so I ditched my friends and wandered off with two strangers. Smart, no? It wasn't until they started leading me down a dark side street, saying "Your purse is down here! Your purse is down here!" that I started to get suspicious. Just then my friends called, asking where I had run off to. Perfect timing. I walked away from the dark alley and went to meet my friends.. When we had been reunited I had a brief breakdown as I was overwhelmed with what just happened, and what just could've happened, and then it was over. I accepted how much worse things could've been and I decided not to let it ruin my night. So we finished watching the fireworks and then took a taxi to the best ex-pat restaurant in town where I ordered the best hamburger of my life. We ate, danced, and then called it a night. Overall, a decent night. A bit bumpy, but far more good than bad

And that was New Year's.

I have since bought a new purse, and I plan on replacing my gloves and my camera case soon.

Funny update about my ID: Someone called the Peace Corps office a few days ago claiming that they found my ID on the floor near Ala-too Square. They said they knew nothing about my purse or the rest of my belongings, but they were hoping to claim some sort of reward if they agreed to give my ID back. I am highly suspicious. Though I would rather pay a small "reward" than pay the 1,000com it would cost to replace the ID, Peace Corps already told them that we don't pay rewards and they refused to give my ID back without monetary compensation.. Great.

On a brighter note, Shannon gets here tomorrow!!!! YAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

Happy holidays, everyone! As always, sorry for my lack of posts.. But I am here now to give you a little photo update. Enjoy!

A few shots around my village:

Surprisingly, it's been a very mild winter. It's only snowed a handful of times and most days, though cold, are bright and sunny. There weren't many of us around for Christmas cause a lot of volunteers are either traveling or in the states right now but the few of us left had a little get together: We started the night off with a little gift exchange. It was supposed to be a White Elephant sort of thing but everyone was too nice to steal gifts so it didn't quite work.. In the end everyone just picked random gifts, one of which included balloons (above). I got an avocado! That may not sound like much but I was extremely happy with it. I went home the next day and made the best guacamole I've ever eaten. Man, I miss Mexican food..

Then we sat around watching cheesy Christmas cartoons (Charlie Brown and the Grinch). The only problem was our poor planning left us with no real food. The everyone-bring-a-dish method doesn't work if everyone brings snacks and deserts. Our Christmas feast consisted of cookies, pie, pumpkin bread, cheese and crackers, broccoli with ranch dip, chips, apple crisp, and.. oh yeah, more cookies. In addition to the Christmas get together, there were a few New Year's parties at school. The first was with the upper class students: This is the decorated hall. Most of the girls dress up. This is my counterpart with our homeroom class. Every class has to make a poster and this is ours. It says Happy New Year in Russian My counterpart and I My counterpart and I with some of our students There were a few contests for the students. The one in this photo involved two 11th form boys carrying girls onto the stage. Whoever had the most girls by the end of a certain amount of time won. That white and black blur on the right side of the photo is one of the boys with a girl in his arms. Then there were a bunch of performances. Every class did a song and a skit. Then there was the teacher's party.. Two teachers dressed up as Santa (or Ayaz-Ata) and his wife There's a tradition here of people dancing around the tree while singing New Year's songs Me outside of the schools with my counterpart, the school director, and another teacher All of the teachers at my school Me with all of the foreign language teachers (2 English teachers and 2 German teachers) Then there was a lot of drinking and dancing. Good times. That's pretty much it for now! Oh, and I got my LSAT score! 166! Which puts me in the top 7%! Not as high as some of my practice tests but I'm definitely satisfied!

Hello America!  And a happy thanksgiving to all!

I am sorry, once again, for the lack of updates, but things have been rather crazy here in Kyrgyzstan.  Everyone has gone berzerk with fear of swine flu so the Peace Corps resource center has been closed for two weeks now.  I don't really understand why we can't use it if we're not sick, but I suppose it's a precaution to prevent potential spreading.  Anyway, what that means for me is that my access to free internet is off limits until the resource center opens again.  So I have been hesitant to do anything on the internet recently.  Today, however, my friend Meredith and I have ventured into the capital to treat ourselves to one of the two establishments that offer wi-fi.  That's right, folks! I am updating my blog from my very own computer!  It feels weird using my laptop for internet again, as it mostly just fills the position of dvd player in my apartment..  And by weird I, of course, mean AWESOME! It's so fast and smooth!  

Moving right along..  Things have been going along quickly here.  I can't believe I only have ten more months left!  It still feels like a long time but it really isn't when compared to how long I've already been here.  And I have some really good news to look forward to.  As some of you may already know, my best friend Shannon is coming to visit me in January!  Originally we were planning to meet in India and spend a couple weeks there but that turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought it would be, so in the end the cheapest alternative was for her to just come here.  And I'm so excited!  It's going to be the dead of winter, which means shitty weather, so we won't be able to do much sight seeing.  But we're okay with that.  I'm just excited that she's gonna be here and that I get to share my life here with one of my friends from home!

In other news, as some of you may also know, I've been studying for the LSAT recently and I plan on taking it here in Kyrgyzstan.  I'll be taking it on December 5th, which is creeping closer and closer by the minute.  I've been studying like crazy and I've done pretty well on the practice tests I've taken but I can't help but feel extremely nervous. So much rides on this test because I've been particularly picky about the schools that I want to go to.  There's only 4 law schools that I'm really interested in and they're all on the top ten list (UC Berkeley, Stanford, Northwestern, and University of Chicago).  My undergrad GPA isn't very impressive which means I really need a good score to make up for it.  So wish me luck!

I think that's about it.  Thanks to everyone who still checks this thing for updates!

Because of some issues with the previous PO Box I've signed up for a new one, in my name. Here is the new address:

Kyrgyzstan

720000 Bishkek

Glavpochtamt

P.O. Box 1915

ATTN: Serena Aisenman

Кыргызстан

720000 г. Ъишкек

главпочтамт

а/я 1915

Ф.И. Aisenman, Serena

Send me packages! Yay!

In other news..

I can't really think of anything.. Aren't you glad I started writing in here again?

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long lapse in communication. I kept putting off an update and then there was just so much to catch up on that it felt overwhelming and, well, you know the story..

A brief summary of the last few months..

- My grant is finished and the new supplies that it brought in are being put to good use. School started back up recently and things are going a lot more smoothly than last year.

- New Peace Corps policy: I don't have to teach anymore starting in January. Because my main job as of yet has been team teaching, PC wants us teachers to take a step back and observe classes, making sure that the work we've been doing with local teachers has been successful, and that they are not lost without us. I have mixed feelings about this. I am happy because lord knows there are days when I just don't want to teach, and this will give me an excuse not to. I could see observing classes for 15 hours a week getting really boring, however.. We'll see how that works out. I've still got a few months to figure out all the details..

- I went to China this summer, as most of you know, with my dad and my aunt. It was awesome. You can see pictures on facebook

- Besides teaching, I'm currently working on a couple of secondary projects. One is with a Peace Corps committee called WID/GAD (Women in Development/Gender and Development) which deals with gender issues in country. The other is a project at a local orphanage. I'm sure you will be hearing more about these later.

Those are the basics. After such a long time I realize that this short update just doesn't cut it.. but hey, it's something. And I will work hard to start updating this thing again, even if it's just a few pictures here and there

I have been away too long, I know. My apologies, loyal readers. Many things were keeping me busy recently. The main thing being my grant, which I handed in about a week and a half ago. I heard back today from the grant committee and my grant has been approved! Yay! However, it will only be partially funded. Not ideal, but still awesome. The grant was for a number of teaching supplies and new textbooks so next year's classes will (hopefully) be considerably more successful than this year's. Part of me remains skeptical, but my hopes are high.

Here's a picture (with brief summary) overview of what I've been doing over the last month or so...

At the beginning of May I went down to Naryn to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style. This very well could be the best meal I've eaten in country. We made (and by "we made" I mean two or three people cooked and I sat around doing nothing) enchiladas, nachos, salsa, bean dip, and key lime pie, all from scratch! Tortillas from scratch, chips from scratch, enchilada sauce from scratch (cheese not from scratch).. It was soooo delicious. Mmmm, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.. Decorations, key lime mix, and mole c/o Jessica's mom. Thanks!

*****

May 9th is Victory Day in Kyrgyzstan so most of the village gathered around our World War II monument (every village has one) and had a celebration in honor of those that fought. This picture was taken before the celebration started so it's not very telling of what happened that day.. Many people came, students sang and danced, the monument was covered with flowers by the end. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so this is all I got..

*****

On May 12th I participated in a WIDGAD event (Women in Development, Gender and Development) that we've come to know as Take Your Daughters to Work Day. This involved me and other volunteers taking some of our female students into Bishkek to learn about what life is like for professional career women. We started with a brief discussion/question session at the Peace Corps office (which included topics such as bride-kidnapping, the pressure to start a family, finding a husband who supports his wife working, gender inequality in general, etc) and then the girls went to speak to women who hold the profession of their choice. Those who want to be doctors spoke to doctors, those who want to be translators spoke to translators, etc. It was a very successful day and I was proud to take part in it

Erkina (PC local staff member who helped plan event), Claudia (PC Kyrgyzstan director), Meerim (my best student!), Bridgette (other volunteer), and me in front of the Peace Corps office.

Shawn (other volunteer), Meerim, me, Ainura (another one of my students), Eliza (another very good student of mine), and Bridgette in front of PC office.

*****

May 16th was culture day for the incoming group of volunteers. Many of us that live nearby decided to crash and get in an extra dose of culture for the day..

My training family got a new volunteer this year, two new volunteers actually (that's a long story), so my host mom was there. This is her with her American children, as she says :) Holo, host mom, Alex, and me, in traditional garb

Host mom then insisted that she take a picture of me holding a little felt yurt in front of some hanging shurdocks (kinda like carpets..)

Some other volunteers in Kyrgyz gear

And, of course, we set up a yurt!

Little boy dancing inside of the yurt

Haha, this picture is the first in my "Do you know what that says?" English shirt collection. It's a little blurry so just incase you can't read it, the shirt, the one being worn by the 13 year old girl, says:

B eing

I n

T otal

C ontrol of

H im

Some of my other favorites, that I could not capture on camera, are as follows:

- A 60 year old woman with a shirt reading "I MAKE GOOD BABY"

- A 40 year old woman with a shirt reading "I make boys cry"

- A mother and daughter pair, the mother's shirt reading "WHORE" and the daughter's reading "BITCH"

- A bumpersticker saying, in rather large letters, "Water makes me horny"

- A teenage boy with a shirt that said "..to get a drink around here" on the back, and nothing on the front. My friend and I decided it was supposed to say "Who do I have to screw.." on the front but that didn't make it to print for some reason..

*****

May 25th we had our last bell ceremony at school, despite the fact that there's a month of school left..

All the students and teachers gathered in the school courtyard. I've mentioned the little girls uniforms before, or the "french maid" uniforms, which you can see on the left.

These are the graduating 11th formers doing the traditional two walks around the courtyard. The 11th form girls wear bigger versions of the "french maid" uniform at last bell ceremonies as a sort of kick back to when they began school. It's what they wore on their first day, so it's what they wear on the last day.. In reality, this uniform is only required through the 5th form.

In the middle of the ceremony a large cage full of pigeons was brought out into the courtyard. The students then swarmed the cage, everyone fighting over who gets a pigeon. All those who succeeded got to release the pigeon into the air at the end of the ceremony. It's a nice thought, but rather sad in practice. Most of the students weren't very gentle with their pigeons and many tied balloons or ribbons to their legs, causing them to awkwardly fly away when the time came to release them

Not to mention the two dead pigeons that were left in the cage..

Anyway, that's about it for now! I've got a busy summer ahead of me: implementing my grant, 3 summer camps, and China! But I'll try to find time to update!

Until then..

Don't have much to say but it's been a while since I posted pictures so I figured I would give a little photo update. Here goes..

This is a picture of me and my old host sister, Kanimjan. Taken before I moved out... obviously..

Her wearing my sunglasses and looking badass

Last week was graduation for the students in first grade. I was invited to the ceremony..

Here are the girls in their traditional Kyrgyz dress. This is not what their school uniforms look like.. I think I've said this in the past but the uniforms resemble french maid outfits. Because this was a special occasion they are wearing traditional ceremonial clothes.. And hats with Kyrgyz letters on them..

These are the boys in their cute little suits

Girls doing a traditional Kyrgyz dance

Boys wearing Kalpaks (traditional Kyrgyz hats for men) and doing some sort of skit involving horse riding...

Everyone holding their diplomas.. Yes, apparently finishing first grade warrants a diploma..

Now for some pictures of my new apartment..

Half of the main room/my bedroom (There's only one room.. and a kitchen)

Other half of the main room/my bedroom

Toilet.. I know it doesn't look like much, but you have no idea the joy it brings me to be able to go to the bathroom indoors.. The flusher doesn't work, though, so I have to fill that yellow bucket up with water and then poor it into the bowl when I want to clear everything out.

Half of bathroom

Other half of bathroom. In Kyrgyzstan it's very rare for the toilet and the tub to be in the same room... Usually they're seperated.

Half of kitchen.. You'll notice that there are no pipes hooked up to the drain in the sink. The water from the faucet works, though, so that's why there's a bucket under the sink.. I just use the sink to wash dishes and then empty the bucket when it's full

Other half of kitchen

Tada! Paradise, isn't it? I love it, in any case. It's about $45 a month and it's a lot more space than I had at my host family's house!

It's been about one week since I moved and things are going well in my new apartment. My first night there I was "kidnapped" by my landlord and her family who insisted that I eat and drink tea with them because we are neighbors now, and, in their words, we are family. It was a nice little welcoming and, though I was anxious to start cooking my own meals, I was grateful for their attitude and look forward to having many meals with them in the future. Everyone has been very helpful in ensuring I get settled in and I have had many people tell me that if I need anything, or any help, that I should call them immediately.

I even had my first guesting experience this week! Well, not exactly.. Guesting is a huge part of Kyrgyz culture and I have done it many times, but I've never been the host before, so it was definitely a new experience. My host mom from training was in my village one night because someone that she knew in the village had died, so she went to their house to do the traditional reading of the Koran. After the ceremony she called and told me that she, and three of her friends, were coming over to see my new place. I raced around trying to tidy everything up before they got there and nervously anticipated their reactions to the fact that I only have two chairs, and tea, but no sugar. When they arrived I tried to give a disclaimer by explaining that I just moved in, not everything is ready, I don't have a lot of furniture, and they should not be offended. They were far from it, and happy to make the best of what I had.

After setting up some blankets and a milk crate to make sure that everyone was comfortably seated around the table, they (of course!) whipped out a bottle of vodka. It was a school night and I was tired, but who am I to refuse vodka from my guests? We ended up getting a bit tipsy and, as a result, my Kyrgyz seemed to get ten times better! (or at least I thought it did..) Imagine that! I was cracking jokes and telling stories, and, the best part, they were understanding! During training we were told that our language progress will show itself in slow and random leaps, where one day you will just be like, "Wow, I'm really improving!" This was definitely one of those times. It was a very successful first experience of being guested and I was very proud. Unfortunately there have been guesting situations in the past where I have felt incredibly awkward and out of place and just wanted to go home and hide. At times of extreme frustration I've even come to look at guesting as a chore.. but there are always redeeming experiences that make me rethink that conclusion and this was definitely one of them. I had a very good time and look forward to hosting/guesting more people in the future!

I wish I could say things at school were proceeding equally successfully, but I seem to be in quite a team-teaching rut. I haven't taught a real lesson in over a month, and my presence in the classroom seems to be utilized only when my counterpart needs help with pronunciation or at times when she is not in the classroom so I end up leading an activity by myself. Part of me is slowly giving up on classroom teaching.. which is a very depressing realization, as it is supposed to be the reason I am here. I find myself focusing more on secondary projects, like the grant we are in the process of writing to get new teaching materials for the school. I have mentioned previously that most of our classes don't even have textbooks, which can make teaching very difficult. Recently, at times when teaching seems utterly hopeless, I find myself thinking, "Well, just wait the rest of this year out.. There's only a month or two left and then you can start fresh next year, with new materials and renewed energy!" Part of me thinks this is a great idea, but the other part of me feels like a failure for not being able to make it work with the materials that are available to me. But are materials really the issue? The overlying problem seems to be attitude and motivation.. But I've convinced myself that having better/more teaching supplies will encourage students to study more and increase motivation. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, everyday at school is a struggle..

On the note of secondary projects, I've been talking with another volunteer in my area about teaming up and planning a fine arts summer camp for the students in our region. Schools here put little to no emphasis on arts so we thought it would be a good idea to organize a project that encourages creativity and individuality. The camp would focus on music, performing arts, painting/drawing, and, of course, cultural exchange. I'm also part of an organization called WIDGAD (Women In Development, Gender And Development), which is doing a 'take your daughters to work day' type of project at the end of this month. I invited three female students from my school to come into Bishkek with us for a day to shadow some successful professional women working in the city. They will get a chance to see what it's like to be a career woman in Kyrgyzstan, talk with them, and ask them questions. I think it will go well. Many girls in this country are forced to choose between being a wife and being a professional, but many of the working women they will meet have thriving marriages/families, as well as successful jobs, and I think it will be good for them to see that they don't have to choose between the two.

Anyway, it is little projects like these that really keep me going here. Even if I am completely useless as an English teacher, at least I can say that I did some stuff on the side..

After two weeks of mixed sunny and cloudy weather, spring has decided to be a bitch and start bringing the rain. April is supposed to be almost entirely rainy in the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan. I was never one to hate rain in the states, I even quite enjoyed it sometimes, but it's an entirely different story on this side of the world. Rain's okay if there are paved roads to walk on, you have a nice warm, cozy house to come home to, and a dryer to throw your wet clothes in. It's not okay when the rain turns the dirt roads into mud traps, you come home to a cold, musky house, and you have to employ every item of furniture in your room in order to hang all your clothes to dry.. Sigh

The rain has not dampered my spirit as much as it could've, however, because I have some good news cheering me up. I will be moving out of my host family's house and into my own apartment this weekend! Yaaay! That is, if everything goes as planned.. Which you never can tell in these parts.. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. After a winter full of eating bread for breakfast, bread for lunch, and soup and bread for dinner, I am definitely ready to start cooking for myself. No offense to my host family, of course. The food is not bad, it's just incredibly repetitive. And lacking in proper nutrition. I'm also just excited to have my own space! I really like my host mom and the kids, and I'm going to miss them (though I plan on visiting a lot and maintaining a good relationship with them), but no matter how good of a relationship one has with a host family here, there's still inevitable cultural issues that arise which create awkward moments and prevent people from feeling 100% comfortable in their living space. It's going to be a lot easier to deal with the stress of everyday life here knowing that I can come home to a place that is truly my own to unwind from the day.

On another interesting note, the K-17s have arrived in Kyrgyzstan! I'm excited to have a new group of Americans in country. I love all the current volunteers but we're such a small community so it's fun to have new people to get to know. There's a bunch of volunteers living in my old training community, and someone is staying with my training family, so I'm going to go visit them soon and hopefully get to know some of the newbies. Should be good times. I went to their host family matching ceremony in Kant last week so I got to see them all but the whole event was so rushed that I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone. It was interesting watching them, though. They looked so hopeful and excited, and I remember feeling the same way when I was in their position. It's weird comparing that to the way I've been feeling recently. So many altered expectations..

Anyway, that's all for now, folks!

Sorry for lack of recent updates, but the majority of what's been happening in my life recently is stuff that I'm forbidden by Peace Corps to publicly talk about. I will try to give a short version: Many volunteers, including me, were recently involved in a situation with the Kyrgyz police. None of us are happy with the way this situation was "resolved", and 5 people, people that I have come to call friends, ended up being sent home because of it. I was spared, but because of this somewhat traumatizing experience, I've been having a very difficult time. I am uncomfortable with many aspects of my life right now but I am trying to find a balance, and searching for the strength to stay and complete my service. At the moment I feel it is still worth it for me to be here, but only time will tell for sure.

On top of the afforementioned stress factors, recent events have brought me to the conclusion that I cannot stay with my host family for the duration of my service. All my attempts to move into an apartment thus far have been unsuccessful. I have one more chance for an apartment, which will be either accepted or rejected this Thursday, and how that works out will have a big effect on how I feel about staying.

Blah.

Tilly and Peter: Just got your package, thanks a ton! I've already put the brown sugar to use! I stayed with a friend last night and we made chocolate chip cookies. Well... we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies.. My friend doesn't have an oven so we tried to make them in a pan.. it didn't quite work. It turned into some scrambled egg looking version of various sized cookie chunks. Haha. Still delicious..

Darren: I have NOT gotten your package yet, but I'm looking forward to it like crazy!

To everyone else: Sorry my blog sucks so much. Thanks for reading!

Warning: There are a shitload of pictures in this post so, depending on your connection speed, it may give your computer a seizure.

So! Thailand! I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon on February 9th with three other volunteers from Kyrgyzstan. We made our way from the airport to Khaosan Rd, found a cheap place to stay, and then spent a night on the town. Khaosan Rd was very touristy, which is usually not what I look for when traveling, but after 7 months in Kyrgyzstan it was just what the doctor ordered. It felt really good to be surrounded by "westernized" people who, for the most part, spoke English. Khaosan is also a great place for people watching, which we did a lot of.

I spent a day and a half with the other volunteers, in which we did some sightseeing in Bangkok:

This is a tuk tuk, a popular form of transportation for tourists in Bangkok. We thought we had gotten really lucky because some drivers offered to take us around the city for only 5 baht each. Little did we know, the only reason it was so cheap is because we would be making multiple unscheduled stops at various shops/businesses while locals tried to sell us stuff. This eventually got very annoying... but it was really cheap.

First sightseeing stop, big standing Buddha/big standing Buddha temple:

Second stop, Golden Mountain:

Other volunteers I was with (L to R: Lynnie, Katie, other Katie)

Third stop, Wat Pho:

Reclining Buddha

I like to call this, "The Butt Sniffing Monk"

On the street in front of Wat Pho there was a guy with a snake.. I stopped to look at it, which he took as an opportunity to throw the snake onto my shoulders, take pictures of me, and then try to charge me 350 baht for it. Not cool.. But I talked him down a lot

Lynnie, Katie, and Katie then went north to Chiang Mai while I stayed in Bangkok, exploring for two more days. I then traveled south to Ko Samet, and spent the rest of my time in Thailand lounging on the beach. My first night on the island, I randomly ran into two Peace Corps volunteers from China, who were also on vacation. We ended up spending a few days together, in which I learned that Peace Corps China is the place to be. I thought Kyrgyzstan was Posh Corps because we have cell phones and semi-regular electricity... But that's nothing compared to the way these guys are living. They all have their own apartments, with hot showers, TVs, internet, washing machines/dryers, heating, AND a maid that comes on a regular basis to clean their apartments.. damn..

Anyway, after they left to meet up with some people in Bangkok, I spent a day by myself before meeting up with the Kyrgyzstan volunteers again. Then I had to leave, which was very sad. It was surprisingly hard to leave Thailand, which made me happy that I didn't go back to the states this winter because it would've been ten times harder to come back from that.

Pictures:

The boat I took to the island

Some areas were quite rocky:

Other areas were not:

Smoking hookah and hanging out on the beach:

Fire shows (quite popular on this island):

That's all, folks! Thailand was awesome but I barely got to see any of it. I definitely plan to go back someday.

Spring is here! I am happy to announce that it has been a beautiful week here in the KG Republic! I don't know if it's here to stay quite yet, but it's been nice.

I haven't been able to make it to Bishkek in a while so you'll have to wait a bit longer on the Thailand pictures. I don't know if I've explained this before but Bishkek is where the Peace Corps office is and the Peace Corps office is where volunteers have free internet access. My other internet option is in Kant, at an internet cafe that charges by the megabyte. That's where I am right now. As you can imagine, uploading a bunch of pictures uses up a lot of megabytes so I am hesitant to do my big Thailand post at this cafe. But I figured I could give a mini update.. about, like, my life and stuff..

School is back in session. It's been an interesting week. I find myself struggling to get back into the routine of things, but I'm sure that will happen eventually. The fact that I'm about to take two more weeks off isn't going to help, however. Next week we have our PDM workshop (Project Design and Management) where we will learn how to write grants and get some projects started in our communities. The following week I will be participating in "Diversity Week". Diversity week is a week (duh) of seminars, conducted at a university in Naryn, focusing on teaching about/discussing American culture and life in the US. While I feel bad about missing two weeks of school right when it's back in session, I am excited to get the opportunity to work with university students. From what I hear, their English is fairly advanced and they will actually be interested in learning.. These two things are definitely missing from the high school teaching environment.. I am also excited, of course, about beginning to write my first grant! My school is in desparate need of supplies (some of our classes only have one text book that all the students have to share), so it will be nice to actually have adequate teaching supplies in the classroom.

Let's see.. what else is new..

One of my host family's cows had a baby a few days ago. It was so cute and so gross at the same time.

March 8th is Women's Day, so happy holidays to all the females who happen to be reading this!

I guess that's all. More soon!

After an amazing 10 days in Thailand, I am somewhat sorry to report that I've made it back to Kyrgyzstan. I am also sorry to report that you're all going to have to wait a few more days for photos due to unexpected difficulties with my flashcard. I am hesitant to get too much into the trip without the visual aids, so the bulk of it will have to wait.. but I can say that it was incredible and I definitely see myself going back to Thailand at some point. It's a large country and I only got to see two parts of it; Bangkok and Ko Samet. I enjoyed both very much.

I have been back for a few days and in those few days I learned that my plans to move out of my host family's house and into an apartment need to be postponed. I can't do it this week because of issues getting bars up on the windows. Peace Corps is very strict about safety and security issues and I can't move until those bars are up. I've also decided that, because it's still frikkin freezing, I could probably stand to wait another month before I move into an apartment with no heating system. I am a bit disappointed, though, because I was really looking forward to having my own space and starting to cook for myself.. but being in this country for almost 8 months now, I've defintiely learned to deal with unexpected set backs. Such is life. And it's only one more month. Hopefully..

Other than that, not too much news over here. School starts again next week, which feels like both a blessing and a curse. I will be happy to feel busy again, as I've mostly sat on my ass for two months watching movies on my computer. But I know that school will be no picnic. I am in the process of mentally re-preparing myself for disappointment. Which means that I will be easily pleased. This technique has worked well for me in the past. Expect the worse, and you tend to be happily surprised.

Sorry about the delay with Thailand info. I will try to get that up soon.

Hey all. Long time no post, I know. There have been a lot of electricity issues lately and internet cafes have been really frustrating. The last three times I've gone into Kant to use the internet the electricity has shut off mid blog/e-mail. The up side: this means I haven't had to pay for the time I used. The down side: I've been behind on blogging and responding to e-mails. The internet even stopped working at the Peace Corps office the last time I was there... bad luck. But I'm at a cafe now and I'm making this blog my priority.. So if you're reading it, then the electricity didn't shut off and all is well!

Let's see.. My birthday was a few weeks ago. Thanks to everyone who sent me good wishes. I didn't do too much celebrating on the day itself, but Laura, another volunteer in my area, came to my village and stayed with me so I had some good company. We were lazy most of the day and laid around watching stuff on my computer, which was nice. No shame in lazy days. Though I will admit.. they seem to be rather common this season. Eventually we picked our asses up and made pizza with my host family. They've been really interested in American food, pizza in particular, so they finally had the opportunity to try it. Judging by how quickly it was eaten, they seemed to like it a lot. I won't pretend that it was the same as a good delivery in the states, but it was damn close. I'll definitely be making more of that in the future. Now I just got to get my hands on some avocados so I can try and make burritos... Mmmm, burritos..

The next day, the 21st, we went into Bishkek to try and catch some inauguration news on the TV at one of the ex-pat restaurants. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. They'll play sports games but apparently a new president isn't big enough to warrant turning on the TVs.. In any case, Bush leaving the white house was one of the best birthday presents I could've asked for. Go Obama!

The big celebrating came that weekend. A bunch of us got together in Kant and went out to this club/restaurant called "Crystal"... accent on the second syllable. Also joining us were a bunch of guys that work with one of the volunteers in Kant, including his boss. I'd never met the boss before but he was nice enough to pay for everything, in honor of my birth. And considering how much we drank, and how much food was on the table, this was no small gift. It was very cool. Then we ate cake, because someone had brought cake mix from America.. it was delicious. Overall, a very fun birthday celebration.. though I still missed home..

Other than that, things have been pretty low key. I've been taking Kyrgyz lessons from my counterpart which has been good language practice. I finally feel like I'm making some progress, though I still feel like a 5 year old trying to put together sentences. Actually, a 5 year old would still probably out-speak me.. maybe not with vocab but at least with grammar and sentence structure. I'm definitely understanding more, though, which is good. Aside from that, I've been keeping myself busy with semi-private English lessons. I agreed to teach the daughter of a host-family friend, which then turned into me teaching her along with all my host siblings and any other children which happen to be at the house at the time. It's difficult at times (what isn't when kids are involved?) but it helps fill the days and it makes me feel productive. There are also a few University students in the village because it's their winter break, and I've been helping them with their English homework.

I was supposed to be helping out with a winter camp this week but it got moved to the 3rd week in February, when I'll be in Thailand. I'm kind of disappointed about that, for various reasons, but what can I do? There's no such thing as a set schedule in this country, and I'm used to it at this point. On the note of Thailand, anyone who wants me to send them a postcard should give me their address within the next few days. Either by comment, or by e-mail. I can't promise a speedy delivery, but it will get to you.

What else.. I think I've mentioned before that I plan on moving out of my host family's house and into an apartment by myself. I was lucky enough to be placed in one of the few villages that actually has apartments available, so I plan on moving at the end of February. My counterpart and I went to see the apartment for the first time this week, along with a representative from Peace Corps (they have to make sure the apartment meets certain safety/living standards). There were a few disappointing things: First of all, apparently I won't have access to the whole apartment. The owner wants to keep one room locked up so that she can store some of her extra furniture there. This wouldn't bug me so much, except that she also said she wants to have that room available for her guests. So if a bunch of people come to stay with her she'll have an extra space for them to stay. This means that every so often random people will be staying in my apartment. I asked her how often this would happen and she said only once or twice every three months.. As long as this proves true, I can handle it. And I'll have a lock on my bedroom door, as well as the front door, so I don't have to worry about her guests going through my stuff or anything like that. Secondly, the running water is apparently very unreliable, and there's no alternative to the flush toilet. I can handle walking a few minutes to stock up on water but what do I do when the toilet's not working? Just poor water in the bowl, I guess.. There's also no refridgerator.. So I'm going to look for the smallest, cheapest one I can find and buy it when it starts getting warmer. Those things aside, the big problem that Peace Corps has with the apartment is that it's on the first floor and the windows are not barred. Apparently this is a big security risk, so before I move in I have to have bars put on all the windows. Those are the negatives. The positives: A toilet! Even if it only works half of the time, it will be nice not to have to trek outside everytime nature calls. I'm also really excited about starting to cook for myself. My host family's cooking isn't bad, but the diet at their house is definitely lacking in variety, as well as fruits and vegetables. It will be nice to have more control over what I'm eating. There's also a gas stove, which means that I don't have to worry about not being able to cook when the electricity shuts off. Bonus! Other than that, I'm really just excited to finally have my own space. My host family is great, and I appreciate everything they've done for me, but I can't lie.. Living in a house with 8 people plus frequent guests has been difficult at times. I mean, I'm an only child raised by a single dad, and I like my alone time. I'll still visit them frequently, though, and I hope we can keep a good relationship. They don't seem to be offended that I'm moving out, which is really good, because some families take it personally when a volunteer wants to move into an apartment.

Anyway, here's some more ideas for stuff to send me: female razors (with moisturizing strip), tuna, mayonnaise, oreos, ziploc bags

And why wouldn't I want peanut butter?

I also just added two new blogs to the "other kyrgyzstan volunteers" section. You can now read Amber's Blog and Laura's Blog, two awesome girls who are in the same oblast as me.

There is something everyone needs to know before I continue with this blog. Volunteers were recently informed that an undisclosed entity within Kyrgyzstan wants us out (because they think we are going to ignite the Kyrgyz people into revolution?), and in order to get us out they are looking for any negative information they can dig up to pass on to the government to make us leave. We have been told that it is not unlikely that all of our phone calls are being listened to, all of our text messages and e-mails being read, and all of our blogs being monitored. Anything negative that we say about the Kyrgyz government or the Kyrgyz people as a whole can be held against us. That being said, I am not too concerned about this. It is weird to think that we are being ‘watched’ but I don’t think I’ve done anything that would cast a bad light on Peace Corps. We were warned since day one about our blogs, since they are public and anyone can read them, and therefore we should be careful about what we choose to say. There have been issues in the past with volunteers writing bad things about their community/counterpart only to be surprised when someone found it and those mentioned took offense. I think I have been fairly careful but I guess the reason I am letting everyone know about this is because now I have to be even more careful. It is unfortunate, but there is no way to be completely honest in this blog.. or even through e-mail and phone calls, it seems. Keep that in mind.

Now that that’s out of the way.. We just finished our In-Service Training. This means we spent a week in a hotel in Bishkek (and told that our rooms were probably bugged) for seminars and additional training. It was really nice to be with everyone again. The K-16s have a pretty strong group, I’m proud of us. We’ve only had 9 people leave from our group, which is apparently some kind of record. Many groups lose that many people in pre-service training alone. Then even more when winter hits. But here we are mid-winter, 4 months into service, and holding strong. Basically, we’re awesome. Anyway, it was nice to exchange experiences and realize, even more, that what I’m going through is not completely unique, and everyone is dealing with similar issues. There is not a single class in Kyrgyzstan that is easy to teach (from an American perspective), and many people are still struggling with the language. There were also two days of combined volunteer/counterpart training which I think is going to make work start to go a little smoother. While my counterpart is awesome, helpful, and has a great attitude, I admit we’ve been having some trouble getting into the flow of team teaching. But the training was really good for us, and I feel remotivated to jump into things. It was a very refreshing week. I kind of wish it could’ve lasted even longer..

For those of you that don’t know yet, I BOUGHT MY TICKET TO THAILAND!!! IT’S OFFICIAL!! And, as if the caps weren’t an indication, I’m very excited! I leave February 8th, and return on February 19th. I will be gone 11 days but, due to long layovers, I will only actually be in Thailand for 9 days. I also found out that, coincidentally, three other volunteers from my group are going to be leaving for Thailand on the exact same flight as me! We are going to spend a few days together in Bangkok but then they are going north to Changmai while I will be going south. I’m going to try to spend a few days on one of the small islands off the main coast cause I heard you can get a beach bungalow for as low as $15 a night. Then I’m going to try to meet up with the other volunteers again on the mainland beach before coming back to the cold mountains of Kyrgyzstan. It will be a nice vacation. I’m way too excited to see the ocean again, who knew I would miss it this much?

To any K-17s who may be reading this: Hi! Can’t wait for you guys to join us! If you want to make a really good impression bring us peanut butter and avocados, hehe. Feel free to shoot any questions you have in my direction!

To anyone who is preparing a package to send me and doesn’t know what to put in it, here are a few ideas: butterfinger bars (or any american candy is always welcome, though we can get snickers, twix, and kit kat in country), a measuring utensil set (teaspoons, tablespoons, and a measuring cup... can’t seem to find these anywhere in country), skippy smooth peanut butter, bic lighters, scotch tape, munchies/chex mix, posters/pictures (my walls are pretty bare), american cigarettes (camel turkish royals or american spirits or kamel reds), and, of course, LOVE. There are plenty more things that I would appreciate so surprise me!

I miss you all!

Sorry I have been majorly slacking on updates. I probably owe you all a nice long explanation of how I've been spending my time, but I don't think that would be very exciting and I don't really feel like writing it so instead I offer brief summaries and a shitload of pictures. Hope this is enough..

The holiday season was definitely a downer. I didn't think it would be so hard to spend Christmas away from home but it really was. Aside from missing the obvious things, like family and friends, I found myself missing things that would normally annoy me about the Christmas season in America. I was surprised when the streets weren't lined with decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Where were all the Christmas movie marathons, Christmas sales, and constant Christmas music that I usually roll my eyes at? As the New Year approached, Kyrgyzstan did start to look more Christmas-y, because New Year's here is very similar to our Christmas. I saw a few Santas around the city and people started putting up trees. But it just wasn't the same.. No one can commercialize like America can commercialize.

I spent Christmas Day with Ann, a fellow volunteer who spent the night at my house so we could be homesick together. We watched Elf and Love Actually, the only two Christmas type movies that I have with me, and baked chocolate chip cookies. Warning: if you ever bake cookies in a third world country, DO NOT EAT THE RAW DOUGH! I learned this the hard way, and, for the first time in my life, threw up on Christmas! Thanks Santa, but I don't recall putting that on my wish list..

The weekend following Christmas Day all the Chui volunteers had our mandatory holiday get together in Bishkek. That was really fun. We ate good food, did Secret Santa, watched Team America, and had a mini-dance party. Good times.

New Year's is a big holiday here so that was pretty exciting. I spent New Year's Eve helping my family prepare food. We made borsok, which is traditional Kyrgyz fried bread, and a few Kyrgyz salads. Then I took a nap to prepare for the late night. I found this really amusing. I used to have trouble falling asleep before 2 in the morning and now I'm taking naps so I can make it to midnight? I guess Peace Corps cures insomnia, who would've thought? Anyway, after the nap was a lot of feasting and a surprisingly normal amount of vodka. I was prepared to say no to shots because I thought the vodka would be flowing like a river, but it was actually more like a slow, manageable creek. Which was nice, because it would've sucked to throw up on Christmas AND New Year's.. Then at midnight we all chugged a glass of champagne, went outside and lit fireworks. EVERYONE participates in this so it was a pretty incredible experience. The roads were filled with scattered people gathered in front of their houses and the sky was full of lights. Every direction I looked there were fireworks. Small ones, of course, but it was still really cool. My family gave me one to light and I ended up burning my finger, but it's a very mild burn. No big deal.

So, that was the holiday season in Kyrgyzstan. Now I just have a lot of free time on my hands. Schools here shut down for the winter unless they're heated by coal, because it's so cold and the elecricity is unreliable. My school, since it is heated with electricity, will be closed all of January and February. I do have a few things that will help keep me busy, however.. Next week (from Jan 11th-17th) we have our IST (In-Service Training). This means all the volunteers will be getting together in Bishkek for more training and workshops. I am looking forward to this because it will be nice to see everyone again and hear about their experiences. I'm also planning a trip to Thailand in February, which I'm really looking forward to! I can't wait to lounge around on a beach and eat Thai food all day. I will also be participating in some Peace Corps organized Winter Camps. They are for 9th-11th grade students and will focus on AIDS education and Life Skills training. So hopefully with all this stuff I won't die of boredom.

Now here's a bunch of pictures:

The New Year's party that we had at school. This is the school hall, or auditorium, with lots of decorations and tables set up for eating. I mentioned before that I accidentally agreed to teach hip hop dancing and this is when the routine was performed. It wasn't very good, in my opinion.. I mean, I'm no choregropher.. But the girls had fun and they seemed to like it (they didn't know any better) so I think it went well

Someone brought a plastic tree to our Bishkek get together so we put all the secret santa presents under it. It looks kind of sad in this picture, but by the end of the night the tree was covered in ribbons and random decorative improvisations.

Our New Year's feast! Very delicious..

Me and my host sister on New Year's with our new kitten. Yes, we got a kitten! Another picture of me with the kitten. Isn't he cute?

Fireworks in the streets

And again

This is random, but my host family bought/made a bunch of stuff for a relative who is getting married (I think it's like, her dowry or something) and they wanted me to take a picture with the stuff so I could show it off. Some of it is pretty neat actually. All those folded things under the pillows are hand made tushuks, which are widely used here. The big ones on the right are for sleeping (put a few on the ground for cushioning, and a few on top of you for warmth, and you're good to go) and the smaller ones on the left are for sitting on. Every good Kyrgyz household has a massive supply of tushuks

What winter at my house looks like The End!

December 5th, unbeknownst to me before joining Peace Corps, is International Volunteer's Day. For the holiday, Peace Corps arranged for volunteers in the Chui area to participate in a performance event at a local orphanage. There were many international volunteers there; a Japanese group, a Spanish group that works with the UN, and a couple of Korean volunteers, as well. Each group put on a little presentation for the kids. It was good, heart warming fun. Here's some pictures:

The Japanese volunteers doing a Japanese dance:

The Korean volunteers making balloon animals:

Kids having fun with the balloon animals:

I couldn't get any pictures of our group, because I was participating, obviously, but we did two dance presentations. We line danced to "Achy Breaky Heart", and then had a go at "YMCA", which was mostly made up on the spot. The kids danced with us and appeared to be enjoying themselves. The Spanish group was after us and I couldn't get any pictures of them either. They also did two dances; a salsa and the Macarena, which all the Americans joined in on, of course. After the volunteer presentations, the kids put on a couple of performances of their own:

Very cute. And here's some blurry pictures of us Peace Corps folks:

As I traveled back to my village the next day, a taxi driver told me he had seen me dancing on TV. People at my school approached me this week saying they saw me on TV, also. We were warned by Peace Corps about press being at the event, but I had no idea it was going to be televised. Surprise! My counterpart and I had a long conversation about the whole thing which ended with me offering to teach some students the dances. By "the dances" I meant line dancing, or the YMCA, but this was apparently lost in translation, along with a few other things, as I somehow found myself agreeing to teach a group of girls a hip hop dance routine for the school's New Year's party.. Uhh.. I don't even know how to hip hop dance, and now I'm supposed to create and teach a routine? This will be interesting..

Anyway, aside from occasionally volunteering for activities that I'm completely unqualified for, things have been going really smoothly. I finally feel as though the sanity I lost during my initial adjustment period has almost completely returned. I've been much less stressed lately.. but I also find myself asking, at what cost? I think the reason I've been feeling better is because I have significantly changed, and in some cases lowered, my expectations. That means my expectations for myself, for my role in this community, for my success as a teacher, for relationships with locals, and pretty much for my Peace Corps experience as a whole. It’s kind of sad, actually.. But the honeymoon period is over, so to speak, and the reality of my new surroundings is finally starting to sink in. The cultural differences are vast, and the constant pressure to be “productive” and “successful”, which is so common in America, simply has no place here. Things move very slowly, and in order to get myself into the rhythm of life in Kyrgyzstan I’m finding it’s necessary to not put as much effort into my work as I’m used to.. I’d even go so far as to say it’s necessary to not care so much, which is strange because I didn’t join Peace Corps to care less. But there it is.. You just have to go with the flow, it seems.. If you try to force things, all you end up doing is driving yourself crazy. And I’m tired of feeling crazy..

And last, but not least, here is a picture of a giant Christmas tree being assembled in Alatoo Square, in Bishkek. They do not celebrate Christmas here but many of their New Year's Day traditions are the same as our Christmas traditions. They decorate a tree, give presents, and Santa Clause comes into town..

I mentioned before that I was teaching my classes This Land is Your Land and As Long As You Love Me. Well, the culmination of my work as choir teacher came last Saturday, when the students put on a concert. November is foreign language month at my school so all the foreign language classes had performances.. Which just means the English classes and the German classes, as German is the only other foreign language taught at my school. I think it went pretty well, though it was not without rocky moments. Here's a few pictures:

This Land is Your Land with some of my 7th and 8th graders. We couldn't find any music for it so I just looked up the guitar chords and played with them. We did practice with the guitar, but I think stage fright excited the students in such a way that they forgot the tempo. This led to them singing way too fast, with me off to the side awkwardly trying to keep up with them on the guitar. That was funny

This was also funny... and pretty embarrassing.. Always a good combination. So, after playing guitar with the kids on This Land is Your Land, my counterpart surprised me by insisting that I play another song, by myself. All the students really wanted me to play, and she ignored my hesitant reaction, telling me to get back on stage. As I am sitting on the stage with my guitar, my mind draws a blank, and I can only think of one song to play; House of the Rising Sun, which I am far from being flawless at. I have since thought of many songs that would've made a better choice, but at the time they eluded me and so that is what I ended up playing. Poorly. I messed up the intro, forgot some of the words, and, to make the whole experience even more perfect, I dropped my pick in the middle of the song, requiring me to stop and pick it up again as everyone stared at me. I pretty much spent the whole song laughing at myself in my head.. But when I stopped playing everyone clapped and said good job so hopefully it wasn't quite as offensive as I imagined it being. I have a feeling they were just being polite, though. Oh well, hopefully my shotty performance will discourage them from putting me on the spot again in the future

And here's some of the German students singing a German song.

Ann, a fellow volunteer, stayed with me in my village on Friday night so she was present at the Language concert and able to take pictures. Thank you, Ann! After the performance we went into Bishkek because all the volunteers in the Chui area had planned a Thanksgiving celebration. All of us had to work on the actual day so Saturday was the next best day. We couldn't get any turkey but we had three roasted chickens and a bunch of side dishes so, just like on any other Thanksgiving, I stuffed myself full of delicious food! It was wonderful, and helped make up for how much I was missing home last week. The holidays definitely bring on strong bouts of homesickness..

While the days here seem to move slowly, the weeks have started to go by pretty fast. Which is nice. It's hard to believe it's already December. Pretty soon school will be out for winter break and I will have to find new ways to keep myself busy. I am trying to plan a trip to Thailand during February, we'll see if that all works out.

I had an interesting laundry experience this week. Laundry tends to be more of an event here than in the states because of the lack of machines that will do it for you. After months of practice, I feel I'm just starting to get the hang of washing by hand. Hanging the clothes outside to dry is the easy part... usually. However, a couple of unexpected difficulties arose during the drying process this time around. The first time I went out to check on my clothes I noticed that a small flock of birds seemed to find the clothes line a nice place to set up perch. After shooing them away, I found that they had pooped all over my sheets and a pair of pants. You can imagine how delighted I was upon seeing this...So I brought them in and washed them again. Not that big of a deal. The second time I went to check on the clothes, half of them were frozen. It hasn't snowed in two weeks, it's actually been pretty warm recently, but I have a feeling winter is about to start strong.

On that note, here are some pictures that I took a couple weeks ago when it was snowy:

Some turkeys wondering outside the village

This is the road that leads out of my village

This is the back of my school! It's pretty big, and also really nice, as far as Kyrgyz schools go

This is the front entrance of the school

The soccer field. Soccer is a big sport here. The biggest.

The play yard

A quick note on boredom..

I often find myself wishing that I could be as easily amused as my young host siblings. The other day I watched Milan, the oldest boy, playing with a broom and a bottle cap.. He would repeatedly whack the bottle cap with the broom, until it got stuck in the bristles, then swing the broom like a baseball bat so that the cap flew across the yard. He would then walk over to where the bottle cap landed, and start the whole process over. He did this quite a few times, until the cap began refusing to stick in the broom's bristles. I also often see my two host brothers playing a game called "chuko", quite popular among young boys here. It is played with painted sheep's bones, the knee bones I believe, and involves drawing a large circle in the dirt. I don't know exactly how it works, but it appears that some bones are simply placed inside the circle and then the players try to hit the bones in the circle with more bones that are thrown from outside of the circle. They don't seem to get tired of this. Oh, to be young again..

While I can't see myself doing such things to pass the time, I will admit that I do enjoy watching their amusement. Sometimes I just observe my host siblings when I am bored. Maxat is definitely the most entertaining. I think he must fancy himself a ninja, as I often see him karate chopping and high kicking his way to the outhouse. I even saw him karate chop one of our cows once. I felt kinda bad for the cow, but it didn't look like a very powerful karate chop and I couldn't help but laugh to myself.

Have much more to say, but no time to say it. Maybe next time!

Hello avid (or not so avid) readers!

I am happy to say that things over here have been going well recently. I finally feel as though I'm getting into a routine. Classes have been fairly painless the last few weeks. November is "Language Month" at my school so all of the foreign language classes are preparing presentations for a party at the end of the month. This means that for the last week and a half I have been teaching half of my classes "This Land is your Land" by Woody Guthrie, and the other half of my classes "As Long As You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys (at my counterpart's request). It has been very amusing.

Sorry for the super short post but I am actually in a bit of a hurry. I didn't realize it was getting so late and I have to go meet with my training family, who I will be staying with tonight! But before I go, here are some pictures from the Osh Bazaar. It is very big and these photos only cover a few sections of it but this is all I have for now. I'm sure I'll take more eventually..

The salad section. For the most part, Kyrgyz salads are quite delicious.

Rice and corn and various other grain type stuff

Nuts and dried fruits

Now into the meat house... (not for those with weak stomachs)

Rabbit, anyone? Comes with lucky feet, one still attached

Fish

I don't think I captured it very well, but this is supposed to be a picture of a butcher, with very bloody hands, scraping the last bits of meat from a cow skull This is the fat section. All that white stuff is just roll after roll of animal fat. They love that stuff here, they say it's good for your heart.. I don't have the balls, or the language skills, to argue with them. My family, however, has accepted that I will not eat fat.

I'm not quite sure what these delicious looking things are. Intestines, maybe? Try not to drool all over your keyboards.. Anyway, thanks to everyone who continues to leave comments and words of support!

I know it's rather late, but a big congratulations to the first black president in American history! It was big talk among the volunteers last week, and (for the most part) everyone seemed pleased. I certainly am.. Not that I agree with all of his ideas, but I know he'll be a nice change from George Dubuhya. Hell, anyone would be..

Now that that's out of the way..

I just had another incredibly fun weekend. A BUNCH of volunteers from different oblasts came into Bishkek and it was good times. Nice to hang out, nice to share stories, just nice to see people again. It's been about a month and half now since we all separated, so there was a lot to catch up on. Oh! And it snowed on Saturday night! Just for one night, but it was enough to stick around for a couple days afterwards. Makes me extra glad I'm already stocked up on winter clothes..

School continues to have frustrating moments but I am slowly getting the hang of the "just roll with it" attitude. I gave a test last week on the verb 'to be', which I have been teaching for the last three weeks.. 90% of the students failed. It is incredibly discouraging to see this lack of progress, but after talking to some more experienced volunteers I realized that this is normal. Specifically, because there is no Kyrgyz equivalent.. It is hard for them to grasp because their language does not have this verb. In a broader sense, progress here is slow. The school system is different, there is a lack of motivation, and I am still more of a curiosity than a teacher to these students. But I have been assured that things do get better, and I will eventually start to see results. I just need to keep reminding myself that I am only one person. I am doing what I can with what's available to me, and that's all I can do.

I was recently surprised by class being canceled so that students could "insulate" the classrooms. By this I mean that one period was spent taping old, folded pieces of notebook paper into all the window cracks. I have yet to notice this making a difference..

I am happy to say that English Clubs are going well! I definitely enjoy the clubs more than class. I just teach vocabulary and then we play games with the new words! The younger kids definitely seem to be enjoying the games more than the older kids, so I could see things possibly getting boring for the upper classes. They're at that 'too cool for school' stage of adolescence.. But hopefully things will continue to be successful.

On a funny note, one of my 11th form students gave me a love letter yesterday... At least, I'm pretty sure that's what it was supposed to be. It reads:

"Zarina (my Kyrgyz/Russian name)

I like you. You are beautiful woman. You like me very much.

Marat - 11a form

You my Frend FOREVOR."

Cute. The funniest part is I kind of helped him write parts of it. He asked me how to translate a few things, so I did. Imagine my surprise when they ended up in this note, which was hastily handed to me at the end of class while his friends stood laughing at the door. Oh dear, boys will be boys.. Or something..

I wanted to include a few pictures from my most recent trip to the bazaar but the internet cafe I'm at is being incredibly uncooperative, so those will have to wait. Bye for now. Thanks to everyone who continues to read my babbling!

A couple of people have asked what my days consist of so I thought I would post a little schedule up here:

Monday

8:00 - 10:25 : I teach three different classes

10:30 - 11:25 : Short break

11:30 - 12:15 : One class

12:20 - 1:05 : Another break

1:10 - 1:55 : Another class

2:00 - 3:00 : English club for 5th, 6th, and 7th graders

Tuesday

No class. The school is lacking in space so a different teacher uses the English classroom on Tuesdays.

Wednesday

8:00 - 8:45 : Class

8:50 - 9:35 : Break

9:40 - 12:15 : Class

12:20 - 1:55 : Break

2:00 - 3:00 : English Club for 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders

Thursday

8:00 - 9:35 : Class

9:40 - 10:25 : Break

10:30 - 1:05 : Class

1:10 - 1:55 : Break

2:00 - 3:00 : English Club for advanced students

Friday

8:00 - 11:25: Class

Saturday and Sunday

No class

As you can all see, I have a lot of free time. Breaks at school are usually spent at my house, because I live only 3 minutes from the school, either drinking tea and eating with my host family, planning lessons, or reading. After class, and on my free days, my schedule, and what I do, varies a lot. Sometimes I will go into Kant or Bishkek to do some shopping at the bazaar, other city chores (like use the internet or go to the bank), or meet up with other volunteers. In the village I take walks (when weather permits), read, write lesson plans, study Kyrgyz (I should really be doing more of this), watch movies on my computer, play guitar (I recently bought a really cheap one), help/hang out with the fam, and pretty much anything else I can do to keep myself busy. I’ve recently been grabbing any magazines I can find in English and making collages. Life here isn’t very busy, though it can feel very overwhelming at times.

Last weekend was really nice. A bunch of volunteers in the Chui region, and a bunch of volunteers visiting from other regions, got together in Bishkek for a late Halloween celebration. I was surprised at the group’s creativity, many people were able to whip together some pretty simple, but fun, costumes. I ended up just putting my hair in a bun, borrowing someone’s glasses, and saying that I was a librarian. Not my most creative moment, but hey, it was something. And, what can I say? As the years go on I’m less and less enthralled by the concept of Halloween. But any excuse for a get together is much appreciated, and it was really nice to see other Americans. And a Dutch person! Shawn and Lee, two married Peace Corps volunteers, somehow met a volunteer from a Dutch organization who is in the city working with street kids. He has only been in the country for a week and speaks no Kyrgyz or Russian (but good English), so he was happy to accept when they invited him to hang out with us for the night. Talking to him made me very nostalgic, and I’ve been thinking a lot now about the semester I spent in Holland. I really need to try harder to stay in touch with everyone I met over there.. They were awesome people.

Anyway, we rented an apartment for the night and went out to a local club, where foreigners get in free. It was my first real taste of Kyrgyz night life and it was pretty fun, though the music choices were questionable at times. I also recognized one of my students at the club, so that was awkward. Imagine seeing one of your teachers at a crowded night club, slightly drunk and dancing with a big group of people who obviously don’t fit in, and this is what I imagine the night was like for him. Amusing, I’m sure.

Here’s a few pictures:

Bridgette, as an irresponsible, unwed mother-to-be. She's awesome

Irresponsible, unwed mother-to-be with the Devil, who appears to be anxiously waiting for her damaged baby. Devil played by Shawn, whose husband, Lee, was an angel. They made a cute pair.

Kelly and Alex. I'm still not sure if she was supposed to be a bunny or a cat. Either way it works, so you decide.

And Amanda, our local gypsy.

The night was incredibly fun, but, as tends to be the pattern with incredibly fun nights, the next day was kind of miserable. Lack of sleep, mixed with a slight hangover, left me out of it, to say the least. A bunch of us went out to a nice breakfast, so that helped a bit, but I was still feeling like crap. And it was raining. Luckily, I recently bought an umbrella, so walking to the bus stop and waiting for my bus was not as bad as it could've been. The bus, however, was worse than expected. You would think that when in a bus you're going to be safe from the rain.. This is not always the case in Kyrgyzstan. The roof was leaking all over the place. I liken this bus ride to a mild experience in Japanese water torture. On top of this, the drunk man sitting next to me kept falling asleep(/passing out) on my shoulder, and he smelled awful. Fortunately it was a short bus ride.

Quick note: There is no daylight savings time here which means that Kyrgyzstan is now 14 hours ahead of California, as opposed to the previous time difference of 13 hours. Just something to keep in mind if you're thinking about calling. (This also means that it's really dark in the morning, which sucks.. There's something unnerving about waking up when it's still dark outside. Makes me feel strange)

Winter is approaching and we’re really starting to feel it here in Kyrgyzstan. What I mean is: IT’S GETTING COLD! My family has moved from the outdoor summer kitchen, which is where we were eating before, to the indoor winter kitchen. They have also started using the coal powered central heating system, which seems to be working pretty well so far. But I know that it’s going to get much colder, and I worry that the coal heating won’t be sufficient. I am from the California coast, after all, and I must admit that the thought of a snowy winter, especially a snowy winter without electricity, scares the hell out of me. How will I survive this? I may have to adopt the locally popular “warmth by vodka” approach. Time will tell. I went to Dordoi (BIG bazaar) this week with Ann, a neighboring volunteer, and we blew a lot of money on winter clothes, so that should help. The hippy side of me is actually a bit ashamed.. I bought leather boots! With fur! ::gasp:: But they’re sooo warm! And they smell really good.. And, as I say to myself almost everyday, this is Kyrgyzstan.. the standard rules don't apply!

I also spent the night with my training family this week. I miss them. They were (are) awesome. Here's a couple of pictures:

Me, Aliya (old host sister), and Gulnara (old host mom)Amber (other volunteer in my area who visited with me), Aliya, Me

And just for the hell of it here's some pictures of a few key winter items that I purchased:

Jacket. On my bed.Leather boots.And these beautiful creations are very popular here. They are knitted sock booties for wearing around the house. I love them, they are awesome.

For those of you who didn’t get the e-mail about my address (because I inevitably forgot a bunch of people, and don’t think I have everyone’s correct e-mail address in the first place) it is as follows:

Kyrgyzstan720000 BishkekGlavpochtamtP.O. Box 1889ATTN: Laura Hancock (c/o Serena Aisenman) It will help to also write the address in cyrillic, if you are brave enough to try:

Кыргызстан720000 г. Ъишкекглавпочтамта/я 1889Ф.И. Hancock, Laura (Aisenman, Serena)I am sharing the mailbox with Laura Hancock, another volunteer, and it is registered in her name, so that's why you should put her name in the attention space, and then mine in parentheses.

It was also recently brought to my attention that all of you can send me free text messages through the internet! Nifty! Of course, I won’t be able to respond to them, but it’s still neat! Here's how to do it:1) Go to megacom.kg2) I think the webpage will initially be in Russian, if it is no problem. On the left part of the screen, in the purple area underneath the MegaCom logo, there will be a little link that says "Eng". Click this and the page will be translated into English.3) Now that you can actually read the webpage, look on the right side of the page and click "Send SMS"4) This will take you to the text page, where it will ask you to enter my phone number and your message (and also some security code based on a picture that's on the page). For the telephone number there is two area code options. Mine is the second one, "+996 550". Then type in my phone number, 43 23 30, and then your message! Nice and simple! 5) OH! And don’t forget to include your name or I won’t know who the message is from!

Okay, well that's all for now. I've got to go catch my bus!

Hope everyone's doing well!

I have now been at site for over a month and I wish that I could say everything is going perfectly. Unfortunately, perfect is not a word often used in these parts. In fact, I just looked in my Kyrgyz dictionary and they don't even have a word for "perfect". This is not the first time my dictionary has let me down.. I find myself constantly baffled by this language's limited vocabulary. A small example.. "Jakshuh" is the word for good. It is also used for nice, well, fun, pretty, wonderful, amazing, excellent, well-behaved, good-natured, kind, enjoyable, perfect (probably), and many other concepts along these lines. Another example.. The word "koi", depending on how it is used, means sheep, to put, to stop, to punch, please, absolutely, and, when said twice in a row, takes the soothing meaning of "there, there".

The basic simplicity of Kyrgyz is both a blessing and a curse. It's pretty easy to learn, but on many occasions I find myself reaching for a word when it turns out there just isn't one, or there's a much more basic word that should be used in it's place. Being a native English speaker I don't often think about the fact that English has the largest vocabulary in the world. But switching to a language which could, quite possibly, have one of the smallest vocabularies in the world, I am faced with this fact almost everyday. I am used to being able to express myself accurately and eloquently, so Kyrgyz (especially my broken Kyrgyz) can be frustrating at times.

Other things that are frustrating:

- School. For a number of reasons..

1) The textbooks. First of all, there aren't enough of them. In many of my classes there is only one, which the teacher uses to teach out of while the students listen in confusion and boredom. Secondly, the books are far too advanced. They contain texts about different English speaking countries, but the level of English at this school is far from appropriate for students to be reading texts, let alone texts as advanced as these. For example, yesterday we read about The United Kingdom and Great Britain. The new vocabulary for the day was parliamentary, House of Commons, majority, elect, government, power, and monarchy. These kids can barely introduce themselves but they're expected to comprehend monarchies and parliamentary elections. If it was up to me, we wouldn't use the textbooks at all, but the director requires that we teach out of them. My counterpart and I came to an agreement, however. We teach 9 classes together, each of which meets twice a week for 40 minutes. Once a week she will lead the class, teaching ineffectively from the books. Once a week I will lead the class, using my own lesson plans. This means that 40 minutes a week the students will struggle to understand a very pointless, advanced text, and 40 minutes a week they will learn the basics, like the verb "to be", possessive pronouns, and present tense. Learning English will be a very slow process..

2) Cheating. My counterpart and I have given two tests since I started working here and both of them were major cheating fests. I have probably mentioned before that this is a community culture, which means that people share everything and take care of each other. Apparently this transfers into the classroom as well. Judging by the blatancy of the cheating, and the lack of reaction when I talked to my counterpart about it, cheating is just an accepted part of the school system here. No one really cares, or makes much of an attempt to stop it. On top of this, teachers here are hesitant to give bad grades because it makes them look bad if their students don't do well. It's actually assumed by many that if a teacher fails a student, she/he is expecting the parents to offer a bribe for a better grade.

3) The differing concepts of professionalism and keeping to a schedule. Classes often start late, and many times are just canceled altogether without previous notice. My counterpart often leaves the classroom for long periods of time with no explanation. Students come late, or not at all. In every class that we have at least 10 students will be absent on any given day. The classroom door, which I close at the beginning of every class, will be opened multiple times throughout the lesson as various people stick their heads in for the hell of it. During training a volunteer who has been here for a while warned that if a door is closed in Kyrgyzstan, people just have to open it. I thought this was an exaggeration, but apparently it isn't.

4) Motivation. I can really only think of a handful of students who show an interest in learning English. The rest of them don't really seem to care. I did start English Club last week, however, and I enjoyed that much more than class because it tends to be only the most motivated students that come. There are exceptions, of course.. Some kids just come because their friends are there, but overall I think the club will be more productive than class.

- Some of my host family's habits: There is a baby in our family and apparently milk just isn't enough for it anymore. Nearly every meal we have together I get to watch my host mom feed the baby her chewed up food. This is done in two different ways; Sometimes she spits her chewed food into a spoon and then spoons it into the baby's mouth. Other times she just skips the spoon and, much like a mother bird, spits her food into the baby's mouth.. yummy. Then there are the outhouse issues. We don't have lights in our yard where the outhouse is and at night it gets pitch black. For me, this isn't an issue because I have a flashlight. I can always make it to the outhouse. The other people in my house don't seem to bother trying, however, which means that if they have to go to the bathroom when it's dark they just pick a spot in the yard and do their business there. This means that atleast once a week I wake up to find myself avoiding a big, juicy pile of human feces. A few days ago I woke up to find one pile, and two puddles (the locals are not immune to diarrhea, in fact, it is an expected part of life here).

What all of this boils down to is that I'm working on my "brush off" skills. The only way to survive in this atmosphere is to be able to casually brush things off and not worry about them. I thought I was pretty good at this, but my recent stress levels would suggest otherwise. I'm learning to accept the previously unacceptable, and trying to just go with it. The more I adopt this attitude, the better I feel. This doesn't mean I plan on leaving my own piles of waste in various spots in the yard, or that I will completely turn my back to the rampant cheating problems, but I'm finding it's important here to choose my battles.

On a different note, I found out last week that my school will be closed from January 1st-February 28th. Two whole months, because winters here are ridiculously cold, and my school doesn't have a sufficient heating system. I am going to try to plan a trip somewhere, or I may fall victim to toxic boredom.

That's all for now, folks!

It’s been a busy week! Two holidays! Wednesday was Orozo Ait, which is the end of Ramadan. Everyone stops fasting (though if I’m honest, I didn’t actually meet anyone who practiced the fast) and goes guesting. It’s tradition to visit at least 7 houses for Orozo Ait, I went to 9. It was fun, though I ended the day incredibly tired and extremely full. Thursday wasn’t a holiday but it was special for me because my training family came to visit me in my new village! Seeing them again reminded me just how much I miss them, especially my sister. I didn’t realize we had gotten so close until I stopped seeing her, but I guess living with someone for two and a half months will do that. I'm glad we don't live far from each other.

That brings us to Friday, which was another holiday; Teacher’s Day! Why don’t we have this in the states? Classes ended early and the 11th grade students (oldest in the school) put on performances for all the teachers. They also gave out flowers and then there was a mini-dance party. After the at-school festivities all us teachers took taxis to a cafe in the neighboring town and had a party of our own. LOTS of vodka, LOTS of food, LOTS of singing, and then, when the electricity finally started working so we could play music, LOTS of dancing. It was a good time. I made a short toast in Kyrgyz and was pressured into singing twice, one Kyrgyz song and one English. This is not the first time this has happened and I always seem to blank when it comes to picking an English song to sing.. Which means that I inevitably end up singing Backstreet Boys (not my proudest moments). So I’ve decided I’m going to go through my iTunes and pick out some good songs so I’ll have them ready the next time this happens. Better to be prepared.

And now I will bombard you all with photos because I’m using the computers at the Peace Corps office and that means FREE INTERNET!

First of all, here is my room.. well, one side of it anyway. You can see my bed, the chair where I keep my computer, and on the ground on the left is my water distiller. Cheers to staying giardia free!

And here’s the other half of my room. Table is messy, I know.. But give me a break, it’s the only surface area I have! Hanging over the windows on my door you will see two joluks (headscarves, very popular here). I recieved them as gifts, the left one from a family friend and the right one from my language teacher at the end of training.

Here is the front of the house. Behind the sheet metal is the door. The two adorable girls are my little host sisters, but we’ll get to them later

This is the side of the house, lined with grape vines

Here’s the backyard type area. The little shed looking thing is the outhouse. On the right where all the tires are is where the kids usually play. It’s also where I like to sit outside and read on sunny days

Close-up on the play/reading area. You can’t see it but the trees have little rope swings on them. What you can see, in the bottom left hand corner, are drying patties of cow shit. This is very common here. My family will later burn these to heat the banya (shower room) and also to heat up the kazan (big cooking pot, stone oven type thing... I posted a picture in one of my first few posts.. we made french fries in a kazan)

Here’s the backside of the house. The middle window is my room! The little cement shack on the left is the banya. And on the bottom, more dung patties drying in the sun

This is the stable area, where the cows live Baby cow! Now for some pictures of the fam. Like I said earlier, these are my host sisters. The baby is Akulai and the one who can actually hold herself up is Anjan Here’s one with my host brothers. Holding Akulai is Milan, and in the back is Maxat.

Anjan and Maxat having fun with my flashlight accessories after a blackout A good one of me with the kids

And one with my host mom, though I feel weird calling her that because she’s so young. Also living in the house are her husband, my host dad, though he's rarely here, and his mom, my host grandma. Eight people including me. Last but not least, a picture of the view from behind my village. We had some rain recently, which means snow in the highlands, so the mountains are looking particularly beautiful lately

It has been quite a long week! Finishing our community project, packing, swearing in, counterpart training, and moving left me too busy to use the internet. But now I've had a day to rest and, of course, internet cafe was the first thing on my mind (very American of me, I know).

So, I am no longer in training! Our swearing in ceremony was on Thursday which means that we're all official volunteers now! This also means that we had to leave our training communities and move to our permanent sites to finally start settling in for our two years of service. I am very sad to leave my training family but I know that I will still see them often because I am pretty close to them. I am more sad to say goodbye to other volunteers. It's not as though I will never see them, but we are so far from each other now. I think I got a little too used to having a mini-American community at my finger tips and I know it is going to be hard for me to adjust to being alone. There are still a few volunteers within an hour of me but that's far different than being in the same village. It is also hard to be in new surroundings. After growing comfortable in my training village I now feel like a stranger again. I know it will get easier as time goes on, once I find a routine. I start teaching on Monday, which is very exciting! I can't wait to start working and feeling productive.

On a separate note, I am still working on getting a mailbox set up. I should have it all figured out soon and I will let everyone know as soon as that happens. I will also try to get some pictures of my new house and village up soon. For now here are some community project pictures that I promised in my last post (many of them are stolen from Leslie’s camera):

As I said before, our project was to fix up one of these little play shelters in the local kindergarten. Here are a couple pictures of what it looked like when we started.

Chris and Mike working on repairing the floor boards. While we only had enough money to paint one of the shelters, we made sure that the floor boards were fixed on all of them (four total) since this was a pretty serious safety hazard.

Some neighborhood kids who offered to help us scrape paint and such.

I think one of them stole some money out of my purse, but aren’t they just adorable? Everybody hard at work. We started in high spirits... But scraping paint can be very tiring, and after a few days we were sick of it, as you can see here But once we started painting we were happy again! So happy, in fact, that we had a mini photoshoot..All for one, and one for all

And once we finished I think it looked pretty darn good! We decorated the walls with traditional Kyrgyz designs (you will see these types of designs on carpets/rugs, clothes, and other local items/souvenirs) One more thing, to all my friends and family:I know I have been using this blog as a replacement for sending e-mails but you guys can still e-mail me! I want to know what everyone is up to and I love hearing from home, even if it's nothing important. Just a quick hello and a recount of your day would be appreciated. I miss you guys!

Training is approaching an end and I am full of mixed feelings; happiness, sadness, fear, excitement, anxiety, relief... you name it and I’ve probably got a little bit buried somewhere deep inside. I am going to miss being so close to everyone and seeing other volunteers regularly but I am also ready for the next phase of Peace Corps. I am ready to become a real volunteer instead of a “trainee”. I want to start teaching and integrating into my new community but I am also incredibly nervous. Normal, I suppose..

I have so much I wanted to do before moving to my permanent site (shopping for supplies and much needed items) but most of my free time, and that of the others in my village, has been spent finishing up our community project. Aside from English Club, Peace Corps also requires that we do some sort of secondary project in our training villages. While many groups do something simple like pick up trash, our group was a bit more ambitious and elected to repair and paint some of the play structures (shack type things) at the local kindergarten. The budget was only recently approved and provided so we had no choice but to start later than we’d hoped, and now we find the deadline creeping up on us much too quickly. I complain about lack of time to shop but I’m also very lucky because my site is so close to Bishkek. Bishkek is where volunteers stock up because, it being the capital and all, Bishkek is where the most selection of “stuff” is available. I guess I don’t really need to be in a hurry, but it would’ve been nice to not have to worry about supplies once I’m at my site.

Let's see... what else is new.. Oh! At the end of training we are required to take a test to see how our language skills are coming along. Our group took it yesterday and I did pretty well. I got intermediate high, which, to put it into perspective, is a 6 out of 10. Considering that 10 means completely fluent I think a 6 is pretty darn good after only 2 and a half months. It is also the minimum grade that Peace Corps requires before agreeing to pay for a second language tutor. This means that I now have the option to start learning Russian, on top of Kyrgyz. I am very interested in doing this but I think I'm going to wait until I feel more comfortable with Kyrgyz before I start confusing myself with a second language.

Anyway, I think that's about it. I know it's been a while since I've posted pictures so I will try to get some up very soon. For now, here’s a few more tidbits:

In Kyrgyzstan..

- Married people wear their wedding rings on the right hand, instead of the left.

- Women are very open about breast feeding their babies, which I was not expecting in a Muslim country. Also, if two women in a family have a baby at similar times, so that both are breast feeding, there seems to be no issues with one woman breast feeding both of the babies while the other is busy. Or maybe that’s just in my family... not sure.

- Drunk driving is not an issue, it’s quite normal here. In fact, if you refer to it as a bad thing people will think you are strange. Probably one of the reasons car accidents are so common..

- Santa Claus lives in Kyrgyzstan. No, seriously. There was some study done in Switzerland that came to the conclusion that if Santa Claus was real (and he is, of course), this is where he would live. Because of Kyrgyzstan's convenient central location, living here is the only way Santa could make his yearly, worldwide present delivery trip in one night. Really. Google it.

- On the note of holidays, New Year’s here is kind of like a combination between Christmas, 4th of July, and Halloween. Trees are decorated, Santa comes out (or Ayaz Ata in Kyrgyz), and, as if that's not enough fun already, people dress up in various costumes. Then there's tons of firework action at night. I can't wait!

End notes..

Darren - of course I enjoyed that phone call, you made my day! And I checked out your myspace, I love the new mattress art. Dory really is a genius

Guia - I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cara - Wow, hi! What have you been up to?

Candis - Yes they are very much into western movies and music here. American movies are on TV all the time, but they're dubbed in Russian so that doesn't do me much good.. They also really like american rap and pop music. 50 cent and Puff Daddy are really big here. I have heard from other volunteers who have been here a long time that often times the kids in class will ask you to translate rap lyrics, most of which are incredibly inappropriate. I don't have a lot of downtime during training but when I do it's spent reading or watching stuff on my computer. The volunteers in my village also have little get togethers sometimes. It will be very different once I get to permanent site, though. I'll let you know!

I miss you all!!!!!!!!

The first day of school was quite an event. It's actually considered a holiday by many local communities. The whole school gathers outside in celebration of the coming year and there are ceremonies to welcome the first grade students, as first grade is when children start attending school. All the 11th grade students (due to graduate at the end of the year) give the first graders flowers, pens, and notebooks, and one lucky child is selected to carry the “key to the school” around the crowd in triumph. I gave a very brief speech, it went well. Everyone said my Kyrgyz is very good but they were probably just so happy to hear a foreigner speaking their language that they would’ve said that to anyone :P

All the children were fancied up in typical school dress. Up to the 5th or 6th grade the uniforms much resemble a French maid Halloween costume; black dress with lace trim and lacy white apron. I really wanted to take pictures but my camera is out of batteries and I forgot to pack the charger for the site visit (stupid). For the older students the only requirement is black bottom and white top. The style is up to the students and I was surprised, upon arriving in this country, to find that the youth is incredibly fashion oriented. About 80% of the clothes and accessories found at bazars are fake Dolce & Gabana, or Versace, or Prada, etc etc. In fact, just a few weeks ago I purchased a very nice “Miu Miu” purse at the bazar for only $10! The purse I brought with me has very thin material (easily cut) and it does not zip (easy to infiltrate), both things that could become problematic with all the pick pocketing and theiving that Peace Corps constantly warns us about.

Anyway, back to school. The first day was pretty much just a celebration and a party. A big lunch was prepared for the staff (I don’t think that will happen everyday, but it was delicious) and many toasts were made, which meant that many bottles of vodka came and went. The second day was a little more school-like but we were told that it really takes a few weeks for Kyrgyz schools to get into gear.

My counterpart (or co-teacher) is very nice and her English is pretty decent. All the TEFL Volunteers will be participating in co-teaching programs this year, though many volunteers in the past have not had that option. I can’t imagine that.. I’m terrified as it is, if I didn’t have an experienced Kyrgyz teacher at my side I think I would hide under my desk as soon as the students arrived. I’m sure it will get easier as time goes on, though.. And as my language improves.. I actually didn’t even do any teaching yet, I just observed, but I know this year is going to be a struggle. There is only one textbook for the entire class. I will be teaching 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, from what I can see at this point. This means students will have had a few years of English lessons but I can tell that the level of English is going to be very low, and non existant for some. Because of all the corruption in the school systems here many students advance to higher levels without doing any of the required work.

My co-teacher also teaches German and it turns out that for some of our classes we will be teaching German and English at the same time, because there is not enough time/space to split the classes.

It was very hot the second day and two students were working on jimmying open one of the class windows when it shattered on top of them. No one was hurt, luckily (and miraculously), but it is a testament to how things here are a bit less reliable than I may be used to. While no window may be nice during the sunnier months, I’m hoping it will be fixed before winter comes along. Unfortunately, repairs are not a guarantee.

I know I just mentioned a lot of seemingly negative things but I’m actually quite excited to get started. And from some of the stories I’ve heard the students at this school are actually pretty well behaved. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in a few weeks!

Love to all!

Yesterday all of the K-16s spread out around the country to see the villages/towns that we will be living in for the next two years. It is only a 5 day visit, and then we travel back to our training villages for a few more weeks of training. We will be in our permanent sites for the first day of school, however, which means all the TEFL people will get a chance to check out the classes we will be teaching, meet the staff, and all that other good stuff. It also means we will be making very awkward speeches introducing ourselves in broken Kyrgyz. School starts tomorrow, September 1st. We swear in as real PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) on September 18th, and that is when our actual service (and teaching) will begin.

I have not had a lot of time to explore my village at this point but I did check out the school and it’s very nice. There was a recent project organized to set up a room for computers. This means that sturdy bars were put on the door and windows, to prevent the obvious, so as soon as I’m ready to start some secondary projects I have a wonderful place to set up a computer lab! Other than that, it’s a pretty standard village.. Various farm animals roaming the streets, a few run down buildings, large fields of corn and sunflowers, and lots of kids with no supervision.

I had an awkward moment when guesting with my new host family yesterday. We were all seated around a large table of food and the hostess started to serve tea. As she started, her husband began singing/chanting very softly at the end of the table. His very young son was next to him, clinging to his arm, so I did not think much of the singing, assuming he was trying to calm his son, who had been crying a bit earlier. As soon as I got my tea I put sugar in it and started mixing, the spoon making soft clinking noises as I stirred. A few people looked over at me strangely, but I did not think much of this either, as most people here in Kyrgyzstan look at me strangely. I then notice that no one else is touching their tea... A very strange thing when sitting at a Kyrgyz dinner table. Then the host becomes quiet, and everyone raises their hands in front of them, palms turned up, like an open book (the traditional sign of prayer in Muslim families). It is at this point, of course, that I realize my daftness... Everything clicks and I kick myself for not recognizing that the host was praying and not singing to his son. How rude it must’ve looked for me to immediately start stirring my tea, looking around with a big ignorant smile on my face.. This form of “grace” was new to me, not practiced by anyone I've met in my current village, but now I will recognize it if it happens again. I also think it might have had something to do with Ramadan, which starts really soon . In any case, I don't think I insulted them too much because they gave me a joluk (head scarf) as I was leaving! That was a nice surprise, and a very traditional (and pretty) gift.

A brief description of my new family: Very big family! I believe there are 10 people living at the house, including me. This includes 5 kids, which is exciting because I requested a family with children. One of them is only 5 months old and he is so adorable! But I may have some noisy, crying filled nights in the near future.. All of the kids are really cute and the family is very nice. My only worry is that the only furniture I have in my room is a bed, a table, a chair, and a coat rack. I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to put my clothes.. I'll figure something out, though. Maybe just live out of my suitcase for the next three months? The set up of this house is a bit different than my training house so it may take a while to get used to but I'm excited to finally start cooking for myself!

We are required to live with host families for the first three months of service and then, if apartments are available in your area, there is the option of moving into an apartment. Peace Corps has informed me that I already have an apartment ready and waiting for me, which is super incredibly awesome! It has a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and.. wait for it... a toilet! No hot water but that's okay, just running water feels like a luxury. The only issue is that the apartment doesn't have central coal heating. Peace Corps gives us electric heaters for the winter but there's supposed to be a lot of black outs this winter so no coal heating system would be very bad. This just means I may have to stay with my family through the winter and then move out closer to spring.

A special shout out to any relatives of K-16s that may be reading (ie. Leslie’s mom.. hi! your daughter is awesome!). I’m glad you are all reading and enjoying! I also recently added some links to blogs of other volunteers that I'm training with (on the left side of the page). I encourage my own relatives to check those out for more/different(/maybe a lot of the same) info and to get different perspectives about the training process, the village we live in, and perhaps Kyrgyzstan in general.

Happy Kyrgyz Independence Day!

I thought it might be fun to let you in on a bunch of little stuff about Kyrgyzstan. These are all things that I found interesting/funny/noteworthy:

- Some Kyrgyz families believe that both drinking cold water and sitting on cement will cause women to become sterile.

- 81 in the Kyrgyz language is pronounced (literally) “sex n’ beer”. We can’t help but giggle whenever it is used. Juvenile, yes, but we’ve gotta get our kicks somehow! On a similar note, the word for diamond (as in diamonds, clubs, hearts, spades... I don’t know if the stone is the same) is “booby”... (giggle)

- Cigarettes range from 40-70 cents a pack and you can get a decent size bottle of vodka for under $2.

- There are no traffic laws here (well, I think there are, but they are not enforced) so the roads are CRAZY. Lanes mean nothing, and stop lights often mean nothing as well. Not to mention that it’s fairly common for herds of cattle, sheep, and goats to be blocking the road. I have been in a taxi when this has happened a few times and they tend to just honk their way through, slowly bumping animals out of the way as they go. No wonder Peace Corps won’t let us drive.. I think I’d be too scared to, anyway. As it is, I’m scared just crossing the street.

- If there is a red sunset and/or there are a lot of stars in the sky it means that the next day will be hot.

- Tea is so popular here that it is given to babies in their bottles.

- Salt is a bad omen. One of the volunteers in our group learned this the hard way.. Every year the group of incoming volunteers has a “culture day” on which varying skits about Kyrgyz life are performed. Our group did a Kyrgyz marriage/wedding. The aforementioned volunteer thought it would be clever to throw salt all over the place, pretending that it was rice, a common tradition in American culture. Unfortunately for him, this did not go over well with the locals. All the host families saw the salt and some came to the conclusion that he was performing black magic, and now think that he is dangerous. Hopefully this will blow over quickly. Conversely, sugar is a good omen. If only he had thrown sugar instead of salt..

- It is good luck if a bird flies into your home. This means your family will come into some money in the near future.

- It is the responsibility of the school kids, as part of class, to clean the school/classroom once a week. Also, I hear it is normal for teachers to hit their students, and not uncommon for students to pay for their grades.

- There is no daylight savings here. Our clocks will remain the same all year long.

These are just a few of the things I have experienced/heard about since being here.. I’m sure the list will grow as time goes on.

On a more exciting note, we found out our permanent site placements today! I will be in the exact same area but in a different village, one hour outside of Bishkek (the country's capital). The village is actually currently being used as a training village (so they will be semi-familiar with Americans), however I will be the first volunteer staying there for my two-year service.

More later! I'm in a rush (as always)

Thanks to all who offer encouraging words!

Hello all! Thought I would make a quick post containing my contact info. I sent an e-mail out a while ago containing my address but it will only be my address for one more month and, seeing as how it can take up to a month for stuff to get here, I figure I'll wait until I have my permanent address to post it up here.

I did get a cell phone, however, and phone calls are always appreciated! For those of you in California/other west coast states I am 13 hours ahead, so keep that in mind. Though I'm sure I won't mind getting woken up by a familiar voice. It is free for me to recieve calls and it would be cheapest for you if you get a phone card or if you use Skype. Skype is a computer telephone program, very easy to download and use, and I hear it costs only 15 cents a minute to call Kyrgyzstan. My phone number is: (011) 996 550 432330. The 011 is to get out of the states (or so I've heard, you might want to play around with it), 996 is the country code, and the rest is my cell phone number.

I find out my permanent site in 3 days! I'm so excited!! I'll try to let everyone know what area I'm going to be in as soon as I find out! Bye

It's wedding week in my host family (2 different marriages) and so it's been pretty busy. Not a lot to say at the moment but here's some more pictures!

English Club! Playing memory with the boys

And Leslie with the girls. Everyone here can squat like this for hours, it's incredible

I helped make some preparations for one of the wedding parties. Sitting next to me is my apa (host mom) and everyone else is extended family

Me and grandma showing off some samsi, which i helped make, very delicious.

Cute kids. They love having their picture taken

The volunteers in my village decided we would try to make an American breakfast..

Which meant french toast made in a toaster oven..

Because the pan was occupied with omelettes

It turned out very delicious

And then we did dishes the hard way

Thanks to everyone who leaves comments! I read and enjoy them all! I think i have raked up quite an internet bill now so I must be leaving..

So, I bet you're all wondering what I'm actually doing here. Well, I shall tell you.The big group of K-16s (depicted in my last post) has long since been split up into smaller training groups. Different groups live and train in different villages, all of them within easy travel distance of Kant, a larger city in the area. There are 9 people in my group, and we are all getting along surprisingly well. Or perhaps not that surprisingly.. A shared experience such as this can be quite a bonding device, after all. But that's a discussion for another time.We train six days a week, with Sunday as our day off. Our days begin at 8-8:30am and end anywhere from 3 to 5pm, typically. On Wednesdays all the groups from different villages meet up in Kant, we call it "Hub Day", and have training sessions together. Saturdays are half days, usually ending after lunch, at 1pm. The mornings are reserved for language training, while the afternoons tend to rotate between cultural and technical training. Additionally, all the groups are supposed to have started their community projects this week. For my group, this means English Club, which we hold two days a week, for an hour each day. We had our first English Club on Monday and it went really well! Slightly awkward and slow at times, but I had a good time. It's mostly young kids, which is fun, and it's definitely good training for when we are actually teaching a class.So that's my schedule, pretty much. Here's some more pictures (because I know that's everyone's favorite part, anyway..):I'll start by introducing my village a bit more. This is the new town mosque. Men only. Supposedly there is an older one for women but I have yet to find it.

This is the high school. And yes, that IS a cow grazing out front. Sometimes there are also donkeys. And chickens. Not to mention the village's abundance of stray dogs and cats.

This is the school playground. Also a popular grazing area for the village's farm animals. In the afternoons it is usually filled with children playing various games, soccer being a big one. I must admit that I worry when I see lots of kids here. As you can see, the equipment is not the most sturdy and most of the structures are covered with sharp, rusty pieces of metal. Not to mention that this becomes a popular drinking area for men after dark. Translation; there is glass EVERYWHERE.

The post office/barber shop. Bet that's a combo you never expected to see!

This is what I see across from where I live. The first thing you will probably notice is the old, rundown, Soviet cafe. In the foreground you can also see a well/water faucet. This is where most of the town gets their water. I am lucky to live so close to it. Now some landscape pictures..

This is a picture taken from the beginning of the main road that runs through the village. You can see the Tien Shen mountains in the background.

Mountains to the left of the village (we are in a valley)

More of the Tien Shen mountains, taken from behind the village (by another volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous. In any case, I cannot take credit. Nice pictures, you!) As you may notice, sunflowers and corn are the crops of choice in this area.Miscellaneous pictures:

A popular brand of detergent in these parts (tehe)

A few of us decided to try and make french fries. Unfortunately, the electricity went out right as we finished chopping the potatoes, so we couldn't use our stove. It all worked out, however, because we got a chance to use our wood-burning, stone stove! L to R: Joni, Leslie, Frank, Deanna (all volunteers in my group) and then you can see my host sister, Aliya, helping us by preparing the fire down below.

Mmmm, the fries turned out sooo good

Who said you don't eat well in the Peace Corps? Haha, Kyrgyzstan is obviously an exception to that rule. (I should also mention here that feasts like this aren't necessarily typical, though not completely uncommon either. Everyday for lunch our groups eats at a different volunteerХs host family's house and I think they pull out all the stops for us. We have been getting prime treatment, and oh man has it been delicious. It will be different at our permanent sites, though. Bummer..)

And here is my host brother preparing to partake in the slaughtering of a goat. That's right folks, I witnessed my first animal slaughtering last weekend. It was a birthday and it is typical at such celebrations for the main course to be slaughtered immediately before the meal. Joni was with me, thankfully, so I wasn't the only uncomfortable, squeamish American in attendance. After it was over, however, we both agreed that it wasn't as traumatizing as we thought it would be. The family prayed first, thanking god for the animal and, I believe, thanking the animal for giving up it's life so they could eat, before finally slitting it's throat (I have a much more graphic picture of the actual process but I thought it more polite not to post that one). Anyway, it was a very personal procedure. Much more respectable, I feel, than buying packaged meat that came from a slaughter house..

Wow, this actually turned into quite a long post. Hope you enjoyed!To my friends and family: I love and miss you all!

Look! I finally have a chance to update my blog!

Peace Corps is keeping us on a pretty tight leash during training (for our own safety, of course) so I'm sorry to everyone that has commented/e-mailed and has not gotten a response. I'm thinking this blog is going to be my best form of communication since everyone has access to it

There is so much to say that I don't know where to start... I guess a brief photo description would be appropriate to start with:

This is our group. 62 of us to start, though, to my knowledge, three have already decided to go home. 59 left. Can you find me?

This is the hotel in Bishkek where we spent our first two days in country attending orientation meetings and taking care of medical necessities (which means LOTS of shots!)

Behind the hotel was a crazy sculpture park which included this giant tower.

A bunch of us climbed to the top of the tower..

And watched the sunset over Bishkek..

This is my house! Or rather, my host family's house. I'm not allowed to say where it is but it's a very cute village! On the left is the main house, on the right is the summer kitchen, washroom, and food preparation room. Washroom depicted below:

Bucket baths aren't so bad..

And here is the dreaded squat toilet. Ours is deceiving because, as you can see, there is a bit of a seat. You are NOT, however, supposed to sit on this. What we do is climb on top of the seat, and then squat.

This is my host mom! She's wonderful, and patient. I don't think people smile in pictures much around here..

This is me, my host sister (on the right) and a family cousin (on the right). My host sister, Aliya, spent a year studying in Wisconsin and speaks excellent English, which has been a huge help. Also maybe a bad thing, as I haven't been using Kyrgyz as much as I should be. Yep, I'm learning Kyrgyz, not Russian, for anyone who was wondering. It's a pretty tough language starting out, but pretty basic when it comes down to it. It's all about word endings.. Words here can be SOOOOO LONG

Well, I was hoping to get more on here but, as I said, not a lot of time. A few highlights:

-Horse meat is delicious

-Horse milk is not.

-Two shots of vodka with salt will cure all my stomach problems

-Animals are not treated nicely here. I have seen a lot, right down to puppies and kittens being kicked. It's hard for me, being such an animal lover and all, but I know that I can get over it. As far as cultural differences go, this one is very minor.

-Most of the time I have water and electricity.

-The mountains/country side are beautiful here... Not to mention the stars

-I have drank more tea in these two weeks than I have in my entire life

I'm totally blanking and I'm almost out of time anyway. More later!

July 2nd - July 4th = Training in Philadelphia

July 5th - July 7th = Travel to Kyrgyzstan

July 6th = 7.5 hour layover, Istanbul, Turkey

I never would've expected a Turkish airport to have free internet, but color me happily surprised!

I am currently at a rather upscale restaurant in the Istanbul airport. They are playing some pretty raunchy hip hop, which I am totally digging, but I strongly doubt they would be playing it if they could understand the lyrics.. quite amusing.

Anxiety and change in routine have led to only 6-7 hours of sleep, tops, in the last 3 days so I have opted not to try to go into the city, despite my original intentions to do so. But hey, that means I get to update this thing!

The last few days have been everything you could imagine them being; incredible, amazing, busy, draining, informational, etc. I have met so many awesome people already and I haven't even gotten the chance to talk to everyone yet.. After all, we are a group of 62! I think they send so many people because the drop-out rate in Central Asia is so high... I can't help but look around the group and wonder who will be the first to go.. Morbid, I know, but a natural curiosity. So long as it's not me..

We will arrive in Kyrgyzstan soon enough, at 3:30am, and then bus to a hotel. We then start training at 11:00am. (I have a feeling I'm going to get very good at not sleeping.) After three days of very basic language and cultural training we will meet with our host families and, if all goes well, move in! I have a feeling that being a guest in someone's house without knowledge of the local language is going to be a very humbling experience.. I will soon be an expert at communicating in facial expressions and body language

I leave in two days! I can't believe it! It's so overwhelming that I'm practically numb..

I wish I had more information to share but I still don't know much about the details, at this point. I know that I fly to Philadelphia on Wednesday where I will spend the next 2 days attending various orientation and staging events. Then on Saturday I begin a two-day flight to The Kyrgyz Republic!

Ah!

I got my invitation! I will be serving (in)...

Kyrgyzstan!

No, I didn't just virtually sneeze, it's a country! A little one to the west of China (officially known as the Kyrgyz Republic), that I had no idea existed until applying to the Peace Corps. So yay to a completely unimaginable experience!

I leave in a month (July 3rd).. Not a lot of time to deal with stuff, but I don't think I could handle waiting too much longer than that so I guess it's for the best.

I'm excited!

I am officially a Peace Corps invitee! Well, I guess it's not quite official, as I haven't received it in the mail yet, but knowing it's on the way is official enough for me. It was enough to get me to start a blog, in any case.

Maybe in the next entry I'll actually know where I'm going!