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. :-)