The time finally came!  I now know where I will be spending the next two years of my life and let me just say from the onset that I have never been so excited nor happy about something that I had so little control over.  I can already tell that life is going to be a challenge but I also think that the life I’ve been given is the one that I signed up for and that I will grow so much over the next two years.

First let me tell you about the proceedings of the day and the build up to the actual site announcement.

Its been a really crazy week.  This was our last week of teaching at our training site and it was quite a challenge.  Our last test was to teach one grade for 5 days in a row and then test their comprehension at the end of the week.  I choose my 7th form because they are great kids and the material I was teaching them was interesting and fun (we’ve been doing plants and animals for about two weeks now).  On Friday (our last class) we just played games (I taught them BINGO, they were thrilled) and I brought in a cake to celebrate our time together.  They all told me that they loved me and that they would miss me.  And I’m really going to miss them. 

Then, on Thursday we got our first snow of the year!  It’s a pretty big deal here (not as much as it is in Russia) but it snowed for two days and now everything is covered in a blanket of white.  Needless to say this girl was not prepared for winter to begin so soon and I’ve been having difficulty keeping warm.  I broke out the long underwear this week and have been throwing on every warm article of clothing I brought (which was not enough).  Also, with the snow, the town lost power and we haven’t had gas since September so there was no warm place in the entire village.  People, its cold.  And the worse part:  its only going to get colder as time goes on.  This is actually nothing.  Gulp. 

So site announcement today.  We had to wake up early to catch a bus to Talgar which is another village in the region and about an hour away.  Seeing as the sun has stopped shining it takes me a long time to get out of bed so I typically set an alarm for about an hour before I actually want to be up–just to make sure I climb out of bed on time.  Today I didn’t really need that though because I was so nervous about the whole ordeal (I’ll tell you why later, wink).  But because I was up so early I decided to try and call my house–for the first time since I’ve gotten here.  It worked and I talked to my mom for the first time since August.  It was really good to hear her voice and tell her what was going on in my life.  But calling the states is pretty expensive so I didn’t get to talk to her long. 

The morning was filled with policy reviews (you will NEVER believe how many policies the Peace Corps has) and you could tell that everyone was anxious to find out where they would be placed.  I mean, this is a BIG deal.  Where you are placed determines everything about you over the next two years.  It determines who your friends will be, what language you will end up speaking, what type of students you will have, and how long it will take you to get places.  And over the last three months everyone has made friends and acquaintances and a lot of people will never really see those people again–its scary!  But they weren’t going to announce where we were going until 2 o’clock–it was torture.  I mostly just crocheted mittens for people and tried to pay attention.  The bad news:  I didn’t succeed in paying attention.  The good news:  I made a pair of mittens (much more practical considering the weather).

So at 2 they began site announcement and they had students from the local school give us this awesome, awesome dance performance.  We were all blown away–the Kazakh culture is so amazing and sometimes its easy to forget that when you are swamped with lesson plans and Kazakh lessons.  Anyways, back to site announcement.

I’m just going to say this.  I am extremely blessed.  I got everything I could have ever wanted plus some.  Here, in bullet points is my site!

I am in the Aktobe (pronounced Ack-toe-bay) Oblast (meaning “state”) outside of the city of Aktobe.
I am in a village of 3000 people called Kobda (Coeb-dah).  PS:  3000 people is smaller then Pepperdine.  Think about it.
I will be their second volunteer (their first is leaving in November) and their volunteer is said to be one of the best PC KZ has right now.  I was told that the person who goes here has to be very strong and a good teacher–which PC felt that I was.  Huge compliment and a lot to live up to.
There is no centralized gas or water in my village.  That means well water and coal/fire heating.  Nice.
It is 100% Kazakh speaking
In the winter the temps reach as low as -41C (which is -40F) but the average is -24C (-15F)
In the summer the temps reach as high as 45C (115F) but the average is 31C (90F).
AKA:  The temps here are some of the most extreme in the country.
The terrain is Steppe (aka:  flat)
The area has a wolf “problem”.
Aktobe is a 48 hour train ride from Almaty and is located in the west of Kazakhstan.
Aktobe is one of the most challenging (physically) oblasts for PCVs and they try to send really strong volunteers there–so it’s a real compliment to us to go there.  We also have really close volunteers.
I will be the most western volunteer in Peace Corps Kazakhstan!!!!!

Even more exciting then all of this information is the people that will be going with me to site.  I am so blessed that most of my training site will be within an hour or two from me.  My best friends AK and Alex will be close as well as my friend Alisha

AAAAANNNND

My boyfriend, Jon, will be 40 min from my site!  That’s right internet world/America.  I have a boyfriend.  “No Men for 2010” epically failed–but I couldn’t be happier about it.  We’ve been living/training in Panfilova and dating for a while now and today was particularly scary for us.  There was a good chance that we could have been anywhere from 5-36 hours away from each other.  But instead…he’s the nearest volunteer to me!  I don’t think this happened on accident.  I’ve got to give PC some credit for knowing more about us then we let on (Jon and I have been relatively low key over the last month).  Someone said that it was great that we were close but we must be bummed not to be at the same site and I could only respond by saying “We live in the 9th largest country in the world and we ended up 40 min away from each other.  How could I be upset about that”.

So thank you for your prayers everyone and I look forward to telling you more about my site and my school as I learn more about it.  I will also try to update my address as soon as I get a new one.  But just know that I am really looking forward to the next two years and I feel that I have made the right choice for my life.  Things are working out for me in a way that I can’t explain and I really feel at home here.  I miss you all but life is too exciting right now to want to come home.  So instead….you’ll just have to visit me!