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.