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.