Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Mindless thoughts for a thoughtless mind

Events of the past week serve to highlight my state of mind, and probably the state of mind of some of the other volunteers here. I say this because one of my best friends from PST just decided to leave early, which I can understand but doesn’t make me feel that great. I talked with him a few weeks ago and though he was fine, but he was put into a difficult situation, as I’ll explain.
The hardest thing about Peace Corps Kazakhstan is twofold. Number one, we are pretty isolated in Kazakhstan. There are a little over 150 volunteers in the ninth-largest country on earth. I have it easy by being on the electric train route with 2 volunteers being within a 45-minute train ride. The fact is that some volunteers, including my good friend, are hours away from the nearest volunteer. Number two, this is not the traditional Peace Corps where you’re in a random little village in Africa where there is nothing. On the contrary, I work in a school that has computers, the internet and interactive boards hooked up to computers. We did training on having limited resources, but that is far from the reality here.
I’m not going to deny that isolation is difficult, but that’s something we could prepare ourselves for. I mean, we signed up for the Peace Corps knowing we’d be far from people. It’s hard to reconcile the fact that we’re providing a service that is not provided in the country when there are a decent amount of resources available. Even worse is when you go to the cities and have to reconcile your preconceptions even more with what you hear and see. Just a few days ago, I was Shuchinsk and me and couple other volunteers went to a bar. While we were having a beer, we were watching Bordeaux vs. Montpellier on a flat screen. Also, one of my students had an iPhone. A fucking iPhone! I don’t know about other volunteers, but when I see that, I have trouble truly believing that I am truly needed in this country. It’s this slow stream of doubt that seeps into your brain from these external factors that combines with the internal factor of being alone. It’s not easy. But it’s moments where you hash things out in venues like this blog where it becomes therapeutic. I think I’m slowly taking the view that other education volunteers have taken. We may not change much here, if anything, but if one kid gets a chance abroad, I guess it was worth it. Expectations can only go higher.

Thanksgivng for cold times sake

The time has come to update the blog. I’ve been a little lazy so it’s about time to kick it into gear, I guess. I accidentally put this and the last blog out of order, but whatever. Either way, let’s talk turkey
Being far away from home, it’s the holidays like Thanksgiving that can really take a toll on somebody’s toll. Far and away, the worst period for an American abroad is the period between the end of Thanksgiving and right after New Year’s. It’s a malaise that just sneaks up on you then slowly snowballs until all of the joy of life is sucked out of you. Of course, this feeling doesn’t persist forever, but it can make life miserable.
One of the best medications is to simply hang out with people you share the same predicament, which luckily Akmola Oblast and North Kazakhstan Oblast has about roughly 20 volunteers in the same state of being within easy train ride from each other. So, we all gathered in Zerenda, one of the resort towns in Akmola oblast. As we all trickled in, there were plenty of handshakes to older volunteers and warm hugs to all the familiar faces from PST. And then we proceeded to try and drain the town of all the beer in town…
Well, not exactly. I jest because the stores around has had only a given amount of beer and the fact that 20-odd people coming in to town and looking to buy up bottles of beer for 2 days of revelry leads me to at least that the owners of these stores were very happy with our many purchases, but maybe the rest of the thirsty populous wasn’t. Eh, we were all reasonable, so it was a good time.
So, the plan of it was very simple. We basically chatted around over a few beers, played Ultimate Snow Frisbee, which I’m glad to say the amazing team of Myles, Holly, Sholpan, Niall and yours truly creamed the other team, and made thanksgiving. There were massive amounts of stuffing, turkey shashlik (basically marinated kebabs), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, salad, fruit salad, pumpkin pie and chocolate bread. Any calories that may or may not have been lost during the Ultimate Frisbee match were officially gained back, and possibly tripled, during that feast. After toasts by everybody, some of us retired to the banya to clean ourselves and just chill in ridiculously scalding environments, which as some of you may have already divined from my previous posts is extraordinary. But literally the best part of it was just being around so many people and just talking in English with people who understand your position and can relate to you. So much of what you have to do here is diplomacy, trying to figure out if what you do and say is politically correct in new surroundings, making sure that you are understood instead of just having a makeshift human bobblehead nodding at you, worrying about whether you’re having an impact. In short, to relax, just plain relax. That’s definitely what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Look Ma, I'm a Star

I have definitely been running around so much lately, which has made me feel a little guilty. I know I’m supposed to integrate within my community, but when it’s so damn cold out everybody’s running to get home and curl up next to the pechka (the central stove in homes here). Either way, I have a few ideas, including academic teams like back home in high school. I also want to do some financial education classes to kids and adults, especially since want happened not too long ago. In my school, when there are three bell rings in quick succession, that means there’s a teacher’s meeting, which annoys the hell out of me. Most of this is because there are only 6 classes in the day, so this destroys one of them, and the kids aren’t focused afterward. Unfortunately, we just got a new director, so these kinds of meetings are becoming more commonplace. Anyway, I prepared myself for the meeting, which is in both Russian and Kazakh, but instead the director or zavuch (vice-principal), we had a saleswoman from Kaspi Bank extolling the virtues of the credit available through her bank. Something about this smacks of the credit debacle back home, so I figure I might do some financial education when I learn enough Russian.
Anyway, back to the running around. So I have been to Kokshetau and Shuchinsk to the north of me because the older volunteers are there. However, I had a chance to go in the opposite direction, to Astana to do a radio interview. Jessie, one of the older volunteers who lives near Astana, invited us to do it, and I was the only one available. So, I packed my bags and headed to Shortandy. We headed the next day to the American Counsel to do an interview for one of the local radio stations, answering the standard questions about how we like Kazakhstan, why we chose to come here, etc. I still have to laugh about some of the questions, especially about the one about if I want my career to be a volunteer. Unfortunately, that’s not a very well-paying position, but I think I deftly swept it aside by saying that I want to have a career doing economic development with developing nations. The other one is always awkward is when they ask why we chose Kazakhstan, which in fact we did not. It’s always hard to see how they take the responses to that because we have to be truthful about it. I definitely can’t bullshit a good enough reason after spending half my time as a human popsicle.
Well Jessie and I stayed there and chatted with a few people who could be contacts to do events in Akmola oblast, then headed out for pizza, which may not sound extraordinary but is amazing after about a few months of potatoes in all its forms. After another night in the raging metropolis that is Shortandy (tongue in cheek of course), the boys all headed to Shuckinsk for our monthly banya night. It’s better because we supply the drinks and Segar supplies the awesome Indian food. I think I’m getting spoiled, but I guess any radio star eventually has to be brought down to earth to check his ego. Though I’m still waiting for my adoring admirers to come out of the cracks.

A little more about Makinsk

I can’t remember if I ever updated about my life here in Makinsk, but this sounds as good a time as any. I live in a home with Tatyana Pavelonvna, the psychologist who works at School #5, and that’s not just because she helps with the voices in my head. ;-) She is much more patient than my old host mom in Issyk was. I still don’t understand everything, but it’s easier and I’m a bit more motivated because there is a light at the end of the enormous tunnel that is the Russian language. Anyway, it’s her, her son Dema and Baba Vera, Tatyana’s mother. Dema is basically like my brother back home: obsessed with rock music, addicted to the computer and lacking in some maturity. But, I guess that should be considered standard for a 15-year-old. Baba Vera is kind of cool because she loves talking about Soviet times and the past. On the flip side, like old folks back home, she loves to talk about the various illnesses affecting her at the time. We live in a 4 room house that wraps around the central heating system that is the pechka, or a coal-burning stove that heats a central wall. When it’s baking, the house is hot, but otherwise it is cold.
I work at 2 schools now. The main school is School #5, which is a 15 minute walk from my home. It’s half-Russian language, half-Kazakh language, which gives it an interesting dynamic. It’s funny because some of the Russian classes have a lot of ethnic Kazakhs, but the Russian classes are much worse behaved than the Kazakh classes. Still haven’t figured out why. I have 4 teachers to work with, but mainly I work with Sara Amantaievna, who is very enthusiastic about the Peace Corps lesson plans. If she could just be a bit more forceful, I think she would be the model English teacher here. Guess that’s a project to work on. I haven’t worked with the other 3 that much, but they are young which is probably better than a bunch of old-school teachers who just work by the book. Unfortunately, that book is by a guy named Ayapova, and it is a monstrosity of a language book. There is no methodology and it repeatedly uses vocabulary that is over the students head. The other school is School #2 with Elena Yurievna who is a force of nature. In a nutshell, any stereotypes that you have ever heard about large, loud Russian women, that is Elena Yurievna. That’s not a slight against her because she is a very effective teacher and person to work with, but she is intimaditing.
The town isn’t small by village standards, but it is boring. Part of it may be the ridiculously cold temperatures. At night, it can get down to –35 and possibly –40 C, which is well below 0 F. But there’s a bank, a bazaar, some cafes and a train station on the electric train that goes between Astana and Kokshetau, which I can’t emphasize how important that is. It is very cheap to go in both directions and a lot of volunteers live on the train line, which allows us to all visit each other. I just need to make sure I don’t abuse that too much. Anyway, this is probably not as comprehensive as it could be, but that’s pretty much my life here.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Banya thoughts

There’s something about roasting in a banya that’s as hot as a roasting oven, except for the fact that there’s nothing dry about it, that gives you a clear mind to have completely erratic thoughts. I guess me being a dim sum would be a more apt metaphor. Anyway, maybe your brain gets addled by the heat or something that just puts the most random thoughts. Anyway, I’m just starting teaching classes in a few days so here a few of my banya thoughts, the horror, the horror.

First of all, I’m still having trouble coming up with an idea why Kazakhstanis are able to fully insulate their banyas so that the hot air stays inside it, but they haven’t quite gotten to insulating their houses effectively so that the hot air doesn’t leak out. But, it definitely is better up North. But, for all their blustering about cold weather, Kazakhstanis can be babies about the cold whether.

Food here has been pretty good, but I say that about the North of Kazakhstan. As my friend Nikita pointed out, it’s a lot of variations of meat and starches, which is fine right now, as long as I don’t balloon up, which my host families have definitely been trying to do. Either way, there has been less oil up North, which has been great. Surprisingly, I’ve been getting a decent amount of fruit, though that’s bound to clear away. I have had the pleasure to have a persimmon for the first time, which are delicious, and pomegranates coming out of my ears, which I’ll happily take.

Technology was also on my mind. I work at a school that has seven interactive boards, mostly because this is an initiative by the president here, Nazarbayev. Now these boards are useful, and once I figure out how to use them, they will probably be a valuable tool. At the same time, I think the English textbooks they use could definitely upgraded, especially under the prices of the interactive board. This kind of reminds me of my classes at Carthage on development and the discussions there of how to develop a country. Do you build up the technology or do things that are more basic, such as the textbooks? There are examples for both sides, whether it’s just cell phones versus slight changes in basic services. I’m still undecided on which is better, though I lean towards the replacement of horrible textbooks, any new resources are probably good in whatever capacity, especially since there are so many young people making education an important part of government.

I probably had some more thoughts rolling through my head, some more profound than others and some down-right stupid (come on, it’s me) but it kind of got too hot. So if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the banya.

Quick update

As it always seems in this country, I’ve had plenty of new things to happen and far to little time to reflect upon it. So, as per normal, this’ll be a hack job on way too much information to filter down.
So, we said goodbye to our host families and saddled up towards the actual part of our service. First, there was fact that we had to swear-in as official volunteers, as we had been only trainees for the past 2 and a half months. After many speeches and song and dance numbers, we became official Peace Corps Volunteers, as opposed to unofficial volunteers. Either way, this was the beginning of what is our real service. Most people got on the train right away, but the group going to Akmola and North Kazakhstan. This was kind of fun, because it gave us time swap music and movies and bottles of beer. Never anything wrong with that.
Anyway, we boarded the train for a whole day’s journey. Luckily it was with Patrick and Sidd, a couple of my best friends. Sidd was actually scheduled to be in another room with Becky and her counterpart, but he was kind of smoked out by the counterparts BO. We basically passed the time by watching movies, listening to music, playing cards and eating ramen. Though that may sound like a dream to most guys, doing it in a room the size of a closet that is normally meant for 4 people is not necessarily nirvana. But I was fine.
Anyway, so after a day, I arrived in Makinsk where Sara, my counterpart, and one of her friends, Asset, picked me up immediately and brought me to my host family choices. Though I would have liked to have a little time to think about it, I guess it’s best to get that choice out the way. There was a choice between a pensioner and the psychologist at my school. I eventually chose Tatyana, the school psychologist, mostly because it was a family, with her, her son Dima and her mother. The grandmother is kind of hilarious because every once and a while, she spouts off random Soviet sayings. Anyway, so far it’s been pretty good. She’s very patient with me, which is definitely different than my host mom in Issyk. I’ve had the chance to meet with Sara and the other teachers at School 5 along with Yelena Yurievna at School 2, the other school I’ll be working at. However, the teachers in my district are furloughed right now, so there really isn’t much I can do right now. But this next week coming up, I should hit the ground rolling.
As for a little anecdote, it is absolutely freezing here. Today’s temp was hovering around 0, which is bad enough in normal circumstances. However, there is no running water here, so anytime I need to go to the toilet, I have to don boots and a jacket and run out to the squat toilet. And also pretty much pray to good that you don’t get any stomach ailments. The flipside is that your cleaning choice is the banya once a week. Now once a week may sound like not very much, but there’s something about sweating for 15-20 minutes and then washing it all off. It actually makes you feel cleaner than just a straight shower. It reminds me of taking a sauna and then washing off in the lake in Hackensack at Lac du Bois. It’s definitely refreshing. Anyway, this is enough rambling for today. The internet connection is less common here, so posts may be a little less often. Anyway, tata for now.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Last week

Welcome to the last week of my training here in lovely Ecik. Actually, today I felt like I was back in Wisconsin, outside of the fact that there are no trees, mountains right in plan view, and everybody is trying to run each other over with cars. It's always the little things.
Anyway, this last week was a conference in Almaty to meet with our counterparts, with a little side project of spending a few tenge on supporting the Russian and Kazakhstani vodka industry. Everybody's hurting so every little bit counts. So my counterpart is Sara Ustazhanova and should be a good counterpart. She speaks English fairly well, has a law degree, but is pretty shy, so that will probably a slow building of trust. It will also be interesting because most of the English teachers at my school are 25 and some of them are single, so the hope is that this doesn't descend into a Kazakhstani game of the Bachelor. Well, maybe if they're cute. Haha.
Anyway, it was a lot of meetings and meetings in meetings, which can be extremely frustrating, but the fact that we're having means that they were deemed important by past groups of volunteers. It was nice to get out of Ecik for a while and just be pampered. Taking a shower everyday almost made me feel like a lush. I was dirty for being clean, which is the most ridiculous oxymoron out there, but it had some relevance.
It's actually kind of sad to think that we're all going to be scattered to the 4 ends of Kazakhstan in a week. I mean, I got lucky since I'll be in Akmola oblast where everybody is a few hour bus ride away from each other. But there are so many people I get along with who are going to be in the middle of nowhere or a 2 day train ride away (I'm not kidding, there are 2 day train rides here). But this is what we signed up for, being the only American person and helping develop this country in anyway possible. Well, there's not much to add, because I've been lounging around the hotel in useless meetings with a not very talkative person. Pretty soon I'll be in a new place with new stories. And maybe I'll post pictures of my clean-shaven self since I can't really have a beard in my region. Sucks. Well, I could be in the Domican Republic.

Monday, October 19, 2009

соль food and other musings

So, after a long delay, I have returned. There is a decent explanation for the fact that I haven't updated this. I've been sick and I am just a slight bit lazy. But that has been remedied and I've taken time out of my day to try and update my life as it stands.
First of all, since most of you don't speak Russian, the pun up there has to do with the fact that it's really starting to annoy me how much bloody salt they put into the food here. The two main condiments are salt and oil, which I like to think of as part of the reason why healthy living has become more difficult as of late. That and cravings for junk food have become more prevalent. Even with that, I'm pretty sure I've lost something like 15 pounds, which I have absolutely no qualms about.
We just finished up our classes at Tereshkova, which was a kind of sad event, though it was a hectic week. Last week, I was banned by Dr. Victor from teaching class, so instead of 4 classes one week and 5 classes the next, I had to teach 9 classes. This wasn't terrible since that is closer to my normal workload at site. I definitely enjoyed my 7a class, who blew me out of the water on all my lessons, which is much better than the alternative. Though the teachers may have been difficult to work with sometimes, the enthusiasm by the kids always made it better. We even got a decent showing to our community project, which was a job fair. The kids around here just simply don't know they're options, so we made sure to present some alternatives to them. It was definitely a good idea on Charlie and Janelle's part.
A week or two ago, we also found out about our future sites we will be working at, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. After 2 months together, it's easy to see that some of the nerves are starting to fray between the volunteers. That's one of the problems with being such a small community in difficult circumstances. Anyway, I'll be going to Makinsk and replacing a volunteer there, though I will be working at a different school. Makinsk is near the capital city of Astana in the North, so I'm already preparing for frigid winters. From the information I have, it's a fairly quiet town of 25,000 people, which is fine for me. Outside of the possibility of no running water, it seems like a nice place. As much as I'd like to give more information about it, I just don't have very much. The good thing is that the people in my area are awesome. Hannah, Holly, Molly, Miles and Audrey are all going to be near me and they are awesome people. Funnily enough, we're all from the north or the mountains, so I think we'll survive the weather.
So, next week, we meet our counterparts, and the week after that we do some teacher training, and then we have swearing-in, after which they boot us onto a train to our respective villages. Honestly, I'm excited to get there because we've had so much training, I think we just need to get to where we need to go. Ecik has been a great city, with some nice people, but it hasn't left much of an impression on me. There are some stand-outs, like the shashlik guy at Cafe Anna, who would always take time out of his day and practice Russian with us. Otherwise, the people I'll miss most are Peace Corps staff, like Olessya our technical trainer, and other Volunteers who will be far away, like Becca and Nick. Either way, I'll be here for a little longer, and hopefully I can have at least one more deep thought before I leave. :-)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Dog Days of Autumn

This post is just difficult to know where to begin because this whole week has just been a roller coaster, which is a cliche that is used far too often. I had my first class, which was terrible, mostly because I kind of caved in the middle of it. The second class that I taught went fairly well, but my perfectionist mind says there is plenty for me to improve upon. Then, Russian language class is just kicking my ass from here to Moscow, though I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it. It really hasn't been eventful, except for the fact that I've been going between hating being here to being happy that I'm here.
I think Friday definitely helped out, which was when we went to a waterfall nearby with all the Trainees. There were tons of people I hadn't seen or heard from in a few weeks, so it was complete sensory overload. The waterfall wasn't Victoria Falls, but there were plenty of hiking trails, and Mark, Becca and I ended up hiking to the top of the mountain, which wasn't necessarily the safest thing to do, but it was worth it. Life's all about living on the edge, or at least leaning over it for a look.
We also had our first English Club, which went better than I could imagine it. We ended up taking a group of 20 or so kids, and the fact that they wanted to sit there and practice English made it far more enjoyable than any class I have taught or observed to date. There skills are still lacking, but I guess that's why I'm here.
And for Nikita and Axel, I finally met the Wad. Frankly, you all wouldn't recognize him from your Ripon days. Well, at least physically. Well, my brain is mashed potatoes right now, and probably will be for a while, the wittiness will have to wait for later.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

School Days

I'm actually about an hour away from teaching my first class, which should be fun but is completely nerve-wracking. I feel that I'm unprepared, but being the perfectionist that I am, that's pretty much normal. The main reason is that I've hit a low point. Minor conflicts with the host family coupled with being away from home for almost a month now means that my morale is at a low. It's something to be expected from living away from home, but it still sucks to have to plow through the low point. Luckily, everyone here seems to have hit the exact same point at the exact same time, so we all hate the world together.
That's not to say that things are bad. Saturday I went with Becca and Athena to Almaty and had an enormous meal at a relative of Becca's friend. There was a huge plate of beshbarmak (Kazakh national dish, horse, beef and noodles), baursak (fried bread), fresh fruit and tons of sweets with tea, including an apple dish that was so similar to Grandma's apple kugen, I wanted to cry then and there. But I'm a guy, so I'm contractually obligated by Man-law not too. Haha. But it was delicious, and then we met up with some people who have been here a while. Honestly, I think I just need to get past this on my own. Life is all about ebbs and flows, so I just need to get past the next couple weeks, and hopefully my teaching and Russian will be exponentially better. Anyway, time to teach the kiddos about introducing themselves in English. Ciao

Friday, September 4, 2009

Animal, Vegetable or Mineral

It's been kind of annoying to me that so far most of my blog posts have been pretty much just a narrative and nothing substansive, so I thought I'd try and expand on a few things, in particular the food and the people.
For all the warnings of the food before we arrived, it hasn't been too bad. It's pretty much been mostly combinations of pasta, rice or potatoes with some kind of meat (most of it has been mutton, I think) and some vegetables, like carrots, peppers and eggplants. Frankly, it's been better than any warnings, though this is summer so the fresh produce will probably dry up soon. Guess that will just leave meat and potatoes later. The vodka has also been few and far between, but the combination of Ramadan and the fact that I don't live with any males probably explains the lack of alcohol. Once I get to sight, it will probably be more present. As for drink, it's pretty much chai, chai, chai, and a little more chai. Frankly, I'm not sure if they drink water without a teabag in it. The one thing I have to write about is kumis, or horse milk. At least to my palette, it tastes horrible. It's basically if somebody mixed sour buttermilk and beer together. Not a pretty combination, they probably think I'm the weird one.
As to the hospitality, it has been extraordinary. There are always sweets on the table in case somebody comes, and a teapot at the ready to make some chai. Hell, sometimes I think they treat guests better than their families, even though that really isn't true. They have something here that they call ghosting, which is basically going over to somebody else's house. I did that and they brought out almost a dozen plates with different food and various drinks, including some vodka (luckily only a small bottle) And they'll sit with you and chat for hours, even if the only Russian you speak is broken Russian. I truly don't think you can get this kind of treatment in a 5 star hotel.
So pretty much all I've been doing is eating sleeping and studying. The only day we have off is Sundays, which last Sunday I hiked up into the mountains around Issyk with Mark and Athena (two volunteers) and Athena's host brother, sister and friends. The climb was damn near vertical, but the views in the end were worth it. I hope to get pictures up eventually, but I don't know when I'll have time. Anyway, tomorrow is Almaty and then a free day, so hopefully more adventures and stories to come.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Just Call Me Alice

This is the first official post from abroad, but there really isn't enough time and definitely way too much information to speak of, so I'll try and keep this to the basics of what has happened so far. When I have some more time, I can probably elaborate on some other random thoughts.

DC:
So, afer a couple of flights that I completely passed out through, I got to DC and found there were not a single bus to my hotel, so there goes 20 bucks on a cab. Nice Ethiopian driver though, so nothing wrong for a tip for conversation. There I pretty much realized that none of my paperworkwas finished, but luckily I wasn't the only one. Good to know that I'm not the only procrastinator in the group. We continued through a long meeting and then proceeded to get our last meal in the states. Hopefully it's not odd that my last meal was soft shell crab panang curry. It was good, so screw it if it wasn't American. A long sleep in a plush bed and then off we were to Kazakhstan.

Flight and Kok Tobe:
Two long flights and a couple of beers later (come on, the layover was in Germany :-)) we got to Kazakhstan and proceeded to Kok Tobe, the hotel. This was our location for a ton more meetings. Something about turning into an adult means you have to sit around and listen to random people, whether it's pertinent information or not. It's not up to me, so I have to listen. Luckily, I lucked out and was put into the room with the jokers, Johnny, Mark and Nick. Outside of bonding with other people and listening to the hilarious storied of Angola, Moldova and Madagascar from Dr. Victor, Kok Tobe was just chumming around with people, trying to figure out who are kindred spirits and who's full of it, though most of you probably think I'm the latter.

Now in Issyk:
Now we've been split off into different groups into different cities for pre-service training. This involves training to be a teacher and most importantly, the language. More on the Russian language to follow, but suffice it to say, it's not easy. I now have an appreciation for the English language. So far, I'm with a nice Kazakh family: a mother Sagadat and a daughter Anara, who should be going to university soon, and I'll have to sink or swim with my broken Russian. After this month, I should be able to become professional mime. The food has been pretty good and copious. Apparently, the goal is to transform all of us into marshmallow men and women, but all this walking around means I have a chance. As long as it's good, I won't complain. I know this seems to be a completely uncreative narrative, but time isn't really available that much. There's just too much language and culture to learn. In the net couple of weeks, I hope to do a few posts about specific parts of culture and life here. Hopefully I can also post some photos later. That and I'm doing this after Russian class, so my brain is a mix between sludge and ooze. Anyway, I'll keep this up and hopefully talk to you all later.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Inching Closer to the Rabbit Hole

I must say, this is definitely a post of mixed emotions. Life has been eventful and will get even more eventful, but I can't shake the feeling that I still haven't done enough before leaving. I have a feeling ironies will be starting for a while. Anyway, I should probably start with the road trip.

First off, I horribly miscalculated the amount of travel time. Nothing like 8 hour driving days to lull you into a coma before driving into random cornfields or off the face of Appalachian bridges. I must say that seeing friends and seeing parts of the U.S. was definitely nice. You don't realize how diverse of a country we are until you drive through the massive city of Chicago straight through to unending cornfields in Indiana, on through rolling hills of Tennessee and Western Virginia, up through intimidating scenery of Appalachian West Virginia, up through small town Ohio with closed restaurants and decaying, opulent farm houses, up to Rust Belt Michigan, and back to Chicago and Wisconsin. We are literally a schizophrenic country, but it makes life more interesting.

Now I'm in my living room, unable to sleep, or possibly starving myself of sleep, wondering what will possibly come of this long flight. There is doubt, but it's almost like the doubt is possibly a good thing. Doubt gives more meaning to perseverance. As it stands though, I've said good bye to friends and family. The only thing that is left is leaving my mother, father and brother. Honestly, as it stands, my mind is ceasing to function. Time to pack up the rest of my life into a few bags and see how deep this rabbit hole goes.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Virgin post

No, there is nothing immaculate about this, but it is definitely inaugural. As normal, I'm putting off paperwork and language learning things to do something that is vaguely important, but that isn't as pertinent as I'm making it. Anyway, this is the blog that I hope to be making semi-regularly from Kazakhstan. As to that country, I've been reading up on it and trying to learn about it, but I've resigned myself to not expecting much. The idea behind that is to just keep myself open to whatever will pop up. Creating too many impressions beforehand will just make it more difficult, so malleability is key. So, the plan for right now is traveling around and visiting as many people as I can before I leave for the Peace Corps. Should be fun.