So I finally made it!  I’m here, alive, and well in Kazakhstan.  I know that in America it’s been about four weeks since I last posted but in Kazakh time (and especially Peace Corps time) it feels like its been two months.  So many things in life have changed for me and surprisingly there are a lot of things that already feel like home.  I could type up 40 pages of experiences and emotions (don’t believe me, you should check out my journal…I think I’ve hand written over 100  pages) but many of you have better things to do then listen to me go on and on about my new home.

I do feel like I need to explain a little of what my daily life looks like here and some of the things I’ve been up to over the last few days.  Getting to Kazakhstan was an ordeal in itself–it literally took us two days to get here (we left Washington on Wednesday the 18th of August and did not get to Almaty until the 20th) and while it was exciting at first–two days of straight traveling and sitting on airplanes is not all that fun.  Our first two days were a flurry of shots (like vacines…not vodka), info sessions, and trying to adjust to the 11 hour time difference.  That’s right folks, I am almost on the complete opposite side of the world from you all.  But training in a hotel was over waaaay too quickly because in less than 36 hours after our arrival we were deposited in a little village with host families to begin the next three months of intensive language training.

But since that first boot, life has been pretty serene.  While everyday brings its new challenges and experiences, every day has the same feel as the first, which has created this very odd time vortex.  It simultaneously feels like time has completely stopped while moving on at a very medium speed.  It’s notlike one of those things where you ask “where has the week gone!?”.  You know where it went and are secretly glad that another week has finished but it feels as if no time has passed at all.  Yesterday looked like today, which is also very similar to what tomorrow will look like.  I’m not complaining, don’t get me wrong, I’m just trying to explain how we all feel while being on-site.

So, my home life.  I live in an apartment with my host mom (Dena) and my host dad (Igris).  It’s in the Russian part of town (even though I’m studying Kazakh) and by Peace Corps standards…its pretty posh.  We have an indoor toilet (not a squatty potty), reliable power, no internet, and I have my own room which is pretty spacious with a des and a pretty big bed.  My “parents” work in Almaty so they are gone most of the day and give me plenty of freedom to do my homework or chill in my room.  Some of my other fellow volunteers have ranging home lifestyles.  One of us has internet in the house, a few have outhouses and squatty potties and they tend top lost power on Sundays, on of my friend’s mom’s  will not let him out of her sight and it’s really cutting into his homework time.  He finds it annoying, I find it hilarious.  My host parents, like I said and will continue to say, are simply amazing.  Igris, it turns out, is an actor and fills our dinner conversations with jokes that he’s picked up over the years.  It helps tremendously to come home after a long day and get to laugh while eating delish Kazakh food.  Deena, my host mother, is awesome, a sweet cook, and is really patient as I butcher the Kazakh language every day.

School in Kazakhstan is really different then what I expected–it’s very organized and there are a lot of expectations on students and teachers alike.  The students are required to wear a uniform to school every day and us teachers are judged on every aspect of our own personal wardrobe.  Needless to say, my hippie clothes will not make it far when I finally start to get to teach, which coincidentally is MONDAY!!  Tonight I have to go home and write a lesson plan based off of the past simple and past continuous tenses.  I’m excited and nervous.  There is a lot riding on this first lesson and I feel that it is time to really show what I’m made of and make Peace Corps proud they chose me.

The only other big event that is going on here is the community project.  Every trainee group has to put on one major community project by the end of their three months of training.  Its to give us experience planning community projects when we are out in the field by ourselves.  In a very enthusiastic mood I decided to take on a leadership role in planning Panfilova’s community project.  I will let you know how that pans out.

I promise to start writing with more consistency over the next month of PST.  I still can’t believe that my first month has already flown by!  I love you all and beg that people start sending mail!!!! E-mail, snail mail…anything!