Site Visit!

So after our 17 hour train ride we arrived in our region, the East Kazakhstan Oblast. It's really pretty, with small hills, and the main city in that area is nice too. They say it's really polluted, but I like Ust-Kemen a lot. Hopefully I'll get to spend more time there. My site mate and I stayed with my counterpart for the week, and we went to our schools and got to know the town and our students. My school is just ridiculiously welcoming. I found out that these schools have been waiting and expecting a volunteer for three years. Some of the students were so excited to see me that they followed me around to clsses and, classes asked why I wasn't watching their class. It was sort of insane, it didn't occur to me that they would be so super pumped to see us.

Also, I made friends with a few of the younger teachers and some ideas for community projects and different ways I could get involved were presented, and I honestly can't imagine being anywhere else for the next two years. It's prefect... but there's this one little thing. I've been learning Russian. All my students learn in Kazakh. My new host family speaks Kazakh. Oh, and most of the town operates in Kazakh. What language did my site mate learn? Kazakh. I'm going to learn Kazakh, it seems. I'm glad I will have to learn it, because I wouldn't otherwise, but it's a little frustrating to know that the same language barriers that I've broken through in the past few months are up and waiting for me again when I get to site.

On a positive note: I've learned to be bold and daring when it comes to outhouse use. I will run in the dark through the snow, past the scary dog because that's what people do here. Now that I have that skill, I can say I have it... but I won't need it for the most part because my new family has *ta da* an indoor toilet!!! Amazing, I know. I totally lucked out there.

Going home!

We finally get to visit our sites (we leave tomorrow!) and I'm really excited to see what home will be like. I get to meet a few families that want to let me live with them, and hopefully I'll like at least one of them too.

I met my counterpart yesterday, and she is so nice. I'm really excited to work with her for the next two years. So tomorrow we get on a train (or, actually a few different trains) and we go off to our sites to visit and meet potential families and our schools. It's a little nervewracking though. I mean, I've had a comfortable cushon of americans surrounding me this whole time, and now... it's mostly just me. This is not entirely true, I have a site mate, but her school is far from mine. This next week is a taste of what my life will be like.

Excited/nervous/tired. That's about it for now.

Site Announcement!

Beginning in November I will spend two amazing years in the East Kazakhstan Oblast! Apparently it is very pretty, with mountains and a pretty equal amount of Kazakh and Russian cultures. I'm pretty pumped. My site mate is also my roommate from staging in DC. We haven't talked much over the past couple months, but I'm excited to get to spend more time with her because she was pretty neat. She is also from Hawaii, which means that he likes to hula dance... our regional manager told me I need to learn too. I'll let you know just how bad I am at it when I learn.

Saturday was teachers day which means we got lots of candy and flowers. THEN we had a teacher party, and it was so much fun, I can't even begin to explain. Anyway, teachers day is a good holiday and if I am ever a teacher in the states, I will try to bring it with me.

Oh! And I also got my package from my parents so that was exciting. That's all for now!

Happy October!

Yesterday we carried out our community project in my village and it went really well. We put together (with the help of our really cooperative schools) a "culture festical" where we sang, danced, and put on some skits to show off what our cultures are like (american and Kazakhstani). We even taught them the electric slide. This was funny because I didn't actually know the electric slide prior to this event... It was a lot of fun, and the director of the school asked us to eat lunch with him (more sheep head! I was given the ear so that I would be attentive and well behaved). ALSO I have a new host brother. But how? You ask. Well, my host brothers live in Almaty during the week because they go to University and college there. They happen to have an extra room, and PC needed to move another trainee from his old apartment to another... So on friday, guess who came home with them! Da da! My new brother Jason! Its interesting to swap stories with him, because our experiances have been so different.

Anyway, this morning my alarm rang (on my phone), I hit snooze and twenty seconds later the phone RANG. And I was really confused, but it was my sister! Seester! It was really nice to talk to her, because last time the connection was so bad that all we got in was "hello? wait I can't hear ---" This time was a full ten minutes of real talking, so that was exciting. Ok, I don't have much more time, but things are still going well. My family is still nice, even if they have mixed expectations for my language learning, they are being very patient, and they still feed me well. I hope everyone who reads this is doing well, and I want to hear from you!

Angela: I am working on your letter still (it costs so much, I feel like I have to fill the envelope as much as possible before I send it out)

Michelle: I'm starting a letter entitled "so you want to join the Peace Corps" it might get to you before November.