As my friends and family know, I am no longer in Kazakhstan. As more time passed, it seemed more and more pointless to add another post to this blog but I was then reminded of other people that may spontaneously come across this. When I became interested in joining the Peace Corps I scoured the internet for peoples' blogs. I found the stories and photos fascinating and couldn't get enough. I hope my blog has been helpful to other hopefuls, and after being home 8 months I am finally putting a conclusion to this blog.

Not wanting to get into the details, but to provide some insight on my case, I decided to leave Kazakhstan early due to health and situational issues. Because of my situation, I was not in the happiest place coming home (though ecstatic to be home) and in all honesty did not feel ready or willing to put any more time and thought into Kazakhstan and anything relating to it. 8 months later I am finally developing all the photos of my life there and remembering all the crazy moments and relationships I made.

It's pretty weird to be back and adjusted to regular American life again. I remember the days of feeling like an alien and a celebrity depending on the day and how challenging that time was but also what great stories and experiences it brought me. Life almost seems so mundane when you return. You aren't anything fresh and exciting when you get home. That is comforting at times and also boring. So good luck to those of you out there exploring your dreams and taking the bold step. Despite my hardships I am so glad I did the Peace Corps. Here's a much overdue wrap up:

Things I will miss:

-speaking a foreign language daily

-the great friends I made and may likely never see again

-living in another culture so foreign to my own

-being, almost completely alone, and realizing I'm OK

-educating people on my new home from first hand experiences

-improving people's perceptions of Americans

-seeing my little school kids speak English in their cute accents

-having absolutely crazy and entertaining stories to tell my friends and family

Things I will not miss:

-feeling claustrophobic or feeling pressured to do things

-confined gender roles

-not always being able to understand and speak the language

-feeling frightened by cops

-the food (except for lagman)

-the winters

-drinking vodka or cognac

Things I will cherish because of my experience:

-our freedom

-our hygiene

-making it into the hearts of others half a world away

-being able to explain myself completely to people (at least in English)

-knowing I took on a huge challenge, and really went for it, and feeling all the better for it

This website is to share my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan with friends and family back home and to also hopefully provide some information on a country many seem to know so little about. I would like to mention that the opinions expressed on this site are my own and not those of the Peace Corps or the United States government.

Megan Garrett

P.O. Box 121

150000 Petropavlovsk

Kazakhstan

Megan Garrett

А/Я 121

150000 ПетропавловскКазахстан

Once I started seeing through the eyes of my heart, instead of a socially conditioned lens, things started to transform dramatically.

- Jonathan Mead

So last friday was my first experience with "partying" in Kaz. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting to do much of it over the course of these next 2 plus years. The Kaz 18s are almost done with their service and one guy lives in the town we are training in. He invited us to come to his apartment and celebrate with him and some other PCVs. We were a little nervous to go, feeling like the freshmen of the bunch crashing an upperclassman's party but we were encouraged by some other PCVs we met to go. It turned out to be so much fun! Actually, I felt like I was back in college with the iPod blaring tunes, people drinking, and even beer pong! Granted, the glasses were small and flimsy and had to be taped to the table to keep from falling over everytime (yes, we taped them) and the beer came from 10L jugs (think Superbad where he empties out laundry detergent jugs to sneek away beer). Overall it was a really good time and the older vols imparted some good advice for us newbies. We are all curious about the discotheques so we'll see how that goes someday!

This site allows you to text me for free! You need to do it on the computer though. Make sure you select the (777) area code. My full # is +7(777) 323-8098. Also make sure you include your name so I know who it is coming from! When you are finished click "отправить"

Wow, didn't know shutterfly could do all this--and I've been using them for 6 years!! Love the site--keep up all the stories! Love you, Susan

So I'm going to try to update this section soon. So far I'm liking this site better than my blogger one so I may just start using this one instead. I'll keep you posted! I'm open to feedback if you prefer one over the other and whatnot.