Jessik!!!!!

Who knew that the girl who was in my Aunt’s house just weeks before I met her in Philadelphia for “Staging” for the Peace Corps would become my Best Peace Corps friend? And what a pleasant surprise to realize at only 6 hours away she would also be the closest Kaz20 to me! Unfortunately, she had to return to America due to medical reasons last month and won’t be returning back to us in Kaz. Although we had only been in PC 9 months (3 of them in training; the other 6 at site), we still had amazingly fun times!! This is not an exhaustive list and we will definitely add more to this list in the future –

• Nose warmers – yes, these should be a new trend!
• Our “Language Group Date” with Dasha at the Shashlik place
• Club Sexy Bar
• Your crazy H.F. stories – waiting to eat or the dog stealing AND returning you shoe!
• You purchasing a lovely coat in Almaty; us missing the first Issyk bus stop and walking home in     the pouring rain because the local bus never came
• Watching movies at Dasha’s – I think we both fell asleep
• GIRLS NIGHT – let’s all take a personality test – Question 3 1 = patient and understanding 5 = impatient…oh good times!
• Your boxing glove mittens and the ultimatum you gave your mom to get them
• Leading the group in Almaty, even though neither of us had ABSOLUTELY no idea which way to go – sorry I let you fall…
• A million trips to the store near Dasha’s everyday
• Peeing outside at Charin Canyon behind the van  
• Banya during PST
• Swearing-In
• Getting stuck in Natasha’s apartment
• You eating like 100,000 tomatoes during training
• “Dozaftra” “Poslizaftra”
• Chocolate/coffee candy
• You and Michelle “gosting” at my host fam’s house for Monte!
• Two words: Party Van!
o Never-have-I-ever
o Listening to early 90s music with Hotard’s speakers
• Introduction of “The Dinosaur” picture – a nice touch – I love the 4 pics!
• Crocheting randomly – creating “new” things – like wrist warmers…oh wait…
• My first trip to Kgan – Thanksgiving!!
o The ticket window asking us to speak to the police – weird!
o Hotel Karaganda
o A New purse!
o Christmas Tree
o Gros Beir
o The Orchestra
• Christmas in Karaganda
o Making Kool-aid
o Reindeer Crafts with Ken
o Ice Skating
o Singing Karaoke – attempting “Black or White” by Michael Jackson – what were we thinking?!
o You singing that creepy Celine song
o Eating poverty cones outside at the picnic table
• Visiting in February when H.M. was out
o Text messaging all our Kaz20s from beeline website
o Tomato “soup”
o That weird bus break down
o Me purchasing a wrong way ticket back to site
• Bus trips from Issyk to Almaty
o Playing “Who Would You Rather Banya With?”
o And “matching” everyone up with most/least compatible partners
• The Boys walking us home, even though we probably should have walked them home on a few occasions
• Baby haters club – are we bad women? I don’t think so
• Starting “Fun Club” – we REALLY do need a “fun club.” We should plan one for our rendezvous!
• Me not ENTIRELY understanding the bus system in Karaganda
• TEXT MESSAGING!!
• Naryz!!!
o Hanging out in an empty apartment eating LOTS of those yogurt covered peanuts!
• Turkistan
• IST
o Free poverty cones (by free I mean someone else paid)
o Going out the last night with CPs; which could have potentially been weird, but was VERY enjoyable
o Club SOHO
o A bazillion trips to Ramstore like everyday
 COKE LIGHT
• Attempting at every possible moment to have a Kaz20 OCAP Karaganda Oblast moment by squishing Jamie in the middle – I’m going to think of another way to “torture” him – or another way where he will “pretend” he’s being tortured, but secretly like it
• I miss you

Thank you for your friendship (future) Dr. Kolb!! Can’t wait to see you in a few years!! GOOD LUCK with EVERYTHING!!! I hope you are enjoying all the comforts of America and I promise to return with yogurt covered peanuts, just for you…