I think it's time to retire this blog

....mostly because it's about PC and it's over and I live in America now --

BUT...I did start a new one -- I don't know how often I'll update it, BUT check it out --

www.justagirlandadognamedmeeko.blogspot.com

I don't know what it was about today...

...but today was the first day that I felt like I was back back from Kazakhstan -- I know in "real life" I've been back for about 4 months, but I felt like I was somewhere in a twilight...not in Kaz, not quite in America.

I also found myself thinking about Kazakhstan a lot today and about my time there -- I wish I could say that it was all bliss and wonderfully great and that I would do it all over again -- I've been telling people that I would do it over again if I relived my life (I don't think I would do it over again at 26, but at 23...well, perhaps...?), I think I've been lying. Earlier today I thought maybe I got more than I gave (maybe that's still true), but I can't think of one thing I got from Kazakhstan. Maybe I'm still bitter...

Then I thought maybe you get out of Peace Corps what you put into it -- maybe that's true -- maybe I didn't put in a very good effort -- today I was looking at photos of kids from the local orphanage in my town and felt like I had failed them -- like maybe I could have done more for them and I didn't -- I still feel that way most of the time, there's always something more I could have been doing and wasn't or could have improved on (after all in everything there's always room for improvement).

It certainly didn't feel like two years when it was all over -- sometimes I still can't believe that I was in Peace Corps for two years -- sometimes I don't talk about Peace Corps because I feel like I failed at it --

My changed friendships is the only way I know I was there -- two years apart from friends is long enough to drop a friend -- I feel dropped. I wish that in place of that I could say that I gained more friends in Peace Corps and I thought that was true, but we all live very different lives and maybe it's not as true as I thought it would be in my head...I had higher expectations than what reality can actually be...I get it -- I just hate tough realizations --

I feel pretty accomplished most days -- in 4 months I got a car, a job and an apartment, celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, hung out in Michigan, moved to Minnesota, hung out with my family, loved my family better <-- all these are good things -- I could have done ALL of these things while not missing out on two years life in America. I don't know if Peace Corps was worth it -- maybe someday I'll see it's significance, but apparently not today.

**I do think that Peace Corps is a good organization doing good things in countries around the world. I think many Volunteers are doing world changing things - I just wasn't one of them :/

Moving on...

Minnesota tomorrow -- look out Minneapolis...HERE.I.COME!

some things never change

I've been home for less than a week --

I'm enjoying hanging out with my friends, speaking English and eating lots of deliciousness (and also sharing "Kyert" with my friends -- they don't like that part)

It doesn't feel like I've been gone for 2 years, I've managed to pick up where I left off and because everything is the same I haven't had to adjust to any kind of big changes --

However, I have changed --

I like this town enough to visit -- but I need to move on --

See you later, Alligator

Bye Kaz --

You were good to me, but it's time for me to get a move on.

My flight to Thailand leaves tomorrow! I'm super stoked. I'll hang out there for 2 weeks and then head back to America...

Countdowns ON...all bets off --

It's been a while since I've been able to blog --

The countdowns have begun:
Days til I leave site: 17
Days til I COS: 21
Days til Thailand: 24
Days til America: 36

I'm excited to get back to America, but incredibly sad to leave -- bittersweet.

For those of you who thought I would NEVER last in the Peace Corps: "SUCK IT"

Coming back as a poor, homeless, jobless, carless woman doesn't sound all that exciting. But I know that everything will be okay -- actually, I don't, but my Aunt seems sure of it...so I'm gonna take her word for it :)

Now, if I had just placed bets with all those people who were certain I was going to fail...I wouldn't be coming home poor -- oh, well, I guess proving someone wrong is kind of like getting a big fat paycheck...kinda...

Ice, Ice, Baby --

I wish it would snow more. I’m SO over ice! It’s SO warm in the day and rains...then overnight freezes! Bleh. This makes walking difficult. I try to pretend I’m cool...mostly I fail. I slip, I slide and sometimes I even fall all over the place. I try REALLY hard NOT to fall. If I feel myself slipping I just stop and wait to stop...it’s kind of like if your driving a car :)

One day I wasn’t so lucky. There are 6 steps leading up to my apartment building. I was leaving my complex and heading to work confidently, per usual. I step out onto the steps and immediately am on the ground, then before I know it, I’m hitting EVERY SINGLE step. Kind of like sledding only not as fun because clearly I didn’t mean to be sledding. There were a few people sitting on a nearby bench. Great. I get up quickly and pretend that is exactly how I get down the steps every day. I’m sure they are not fooled. I hate when a day starts like that...I managed.

Two days later I decide that I’m going to make brownies...yea, brownies...I have everything I need for brownies...oh, except eggs...well, that’s okay the store is located directly across the street from me. I’ll just run over there quick and pick some up. Riiiiiight. This ALMOST worked. I put on a coat and grabbed some cash then ran to the store quick. The cashier was concerned that I didn’t bring anything to carry the eggs home safely in...ha. like I needed something to carry them home safely in...I live across the street. She put them in a plastic bag and I was on my way. Just as I was crossing the street to go home, I loose my footing completely and before I knew it I was on the ground. My eggs were all cracked. Defeated, I rose and continued walking home. I was NOT going to return to the store...I got home, took the shells out of the bag of cracked eggs as best I could and saved the eggs for scrambled eggs in the morning. Made brownies the following day...everyone wins...minus the part where I fell :(

Winter’s *almost* over...

Hello 2010 --

The very idea of a New Year’s Resolution seems rather overwhelming. I mean, I have goals for the day or the week...perhaps the month...but goals for the whole year...get real! Of course, you’re going to fail...a year is practically an eternity! I hope that I will always be setting goals and striving to be a better person – I think this happens in small steps. But New Year’s Resolutions tend to be the “vision” without the goals and objectives. I have things that I want to work on throughout the year, but plan to add new goals and edit previous goals as I continue trying to better myself. I’ve become a bit obsessed with lists...I made one. In no particular order –

1. Listen to church on podcsts at least once a week (I hope to edit this in the future to say twice a week) -- I've gotten out of routine and miss fellowshipping with other believers and, aside from a 10 hour overnight bus and 3000 tenge, a podcasted church service is about as close to church as I'm getting over the next year. CLBC (podcasts)...HERE. I. COME.

a. Pray often


b. Read God's word daily


c. Hide God's word in my heart by memorizing one verse per week


2. Be a friendly person -- If i don't have something nice to say, I want to not say it at all. I want to have time for people and only say those things that are encouraging and uplifting

3.Be the best teacher that I can be so that in the future I don't say things like "I wish I had done..."

a.Live so that the Volunteer who replaces me hates me...in the nicest way
possible, of course, because my school (hopefully) says things
like, "Christina..."


4. Take daily walks and appreciate life -- this has to be more than a walk to work :)

5. Use the travel days that PC gives me to visit people, strengthen friendships and see more of this country.

6.Cook something new twice a month (work on getting this to once a week) -- I've fallen into a pattern of oatmeal for breakfast and spaghetti for dinner -- one would think this would get old -- it hasn't, but I wan to try and cook new things

7.Write more hand written letters home (wherever that may be) -- who doesn't like recieving actual mail?

8.Read one actual book per month -- if this doesn't sound like much, I'm currently reading 0 books per month, but will work on increasing this number in the future.

9.Reunite with my sweet family at the end of this year and be an active member of my famly realizing that I didn't get to pick them, but I wouldn't trade them in for anything or have it any other way. I love you guys! and can't wait to see you!

I’m starting small...9 goals...really only 8 because I can’t really do number 9 for some time. I hope to re-evaluate where I am and make changes *when* necessary to these goals...

"When I say I'm a Christian" -- written by Carol S. Wimmer

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I am saved”
I’m whispering “I was lost”
That is why I chose this way.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
And need someone to be my guide.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
And pray for strength to carry on.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
And cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are all too visible,
But God believes I’m worth it.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
Which is why I speak His name.

When I say…”I am a Christian”
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I’m loved.

- Carol S. Wimmer

2009 Recap --

Well, 2009 was certainly a good year. Let’s do a brief recap of moments from 2009...

January:
•Christmas in Karaganda!
•Gosti to my first host family
•Kresheny (I didn’t jump in the lake, but attended the service and watched the
others jump)
•Success at finding Diet Coke <-- this was a BIG accomplishment :)
•Jubilee party for Alex’s host dad

February:
•Site visit from RM = counterpart change!
•Visit to Jessik in Kgan
•“No Smoking” seminar with my new CP
•Alex moves into an apartment
•Reconnect with my paternal grandma via internet

March:
•Peace Corps Birthday party at the orphanage
•Arts-N-Crafts club at the orphanage
•Naryz --> travel to Shymkent
•IST
•Guiness Pub night with Volunteers and CPs

April:
•American English Competition in Balkhash 2
•BridgeTV
•DDR
•Reconnecting with my “dad” via the internet

May:
•OCAP conference in Karaganda
•Keep Shakin’ What Yo Momma Gave Ya – Women’s Empowerment Weekend
•Hiking in Talgar
•Ecological Seminar planned
•Playing basketball with the neighbor kids
•Lots of trips to the mini amusement park
•MULLET!

June:
•100 days of CAMP begins!
•One of my students gets a call back from Bota foundation
•Joke day at camp --> toothpaste everywhere :)

July:
•English Club and Kristina’s Store
•Hiking / Camping in the mountains in Talgar
•Circus
•Bowling
•17th school camp

August:
•I found an apartment!!
•Lots of swimming in Lake Balkhash
•Trying dog meat
•Travel to Astana

September:
•First Bell Ceremony
•I try Kymyz
•Town day celebrations
•Healthy Life seminar
•Teaching English with my CP = work!

October:
•BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
•Alex goes to America
•Halloween party
•Fall concert
•“Cooking Party” --> Monte

November:
•New Site Mate, Sam, arrives
•Shaping class
•Met other foreigners who live here!
•Circus time
•Playing LOTS of Skip-bo

December:
•MST
•School Day
•Out with women from Shaping class
•Christmas Eve Service in Almaty
•Road Trip to Taldy
•Karaoke
•Lady Gaga

Overall, it’s been a pretty good year in Kaz. I can’t complain. I am starting a list of things I want to complete while still in Kaz, rather than all the restaurants I plan to frequent after Peace Corps...although that is a fun list! :-)

December --

Well, I’ve been MIA for a about a month. My computer completely crashed and would not turn on...which was kind of
tradgic considering a year in a foreign country without a computer would be manageable, but so much more enjoyable with a computer. Thankfully, there is a computer shop owned by a friend of a friend who fixed it for free! YEA for that! The only problem was that I lost EVERYTHING on my computer. Thankfully, it was mostly word documents that I don’t care a lot about or aren’t somewhere else (email or blogger) and my pictures are on my hard drive (thanks to Alex for suggesting that months ago!).

Anyway, December was full of lots of holidays, fun times and travelling!
At the beginning of December we had MST (Mid Service Training) -- it was nice to
see everyone again
It was in Almaty
We all had a chance to say bye to Megan ::tear:: and eat fabulous Chinese
food (thanks Kyle)
We went to see The Grinch performed in English (thanks Jacob)
I visited my first host family and went to a church service <-- first time
in 15 months! Amazing!
The following week my school had School Day -- pretty big deal here
We prepared for this by cleaning for 3 days and practicing lessons --
English lessons weren’t being judged! Yea!
Then Independence day; followed by
American Christmas; and
Travel to Almaty again and attend a Christmas Eve Service!
More travel to Taldy to meet up with other Volunteers -- such a good time!
Lagman
Inside Jokes
Cheap Beer
Karaoke
Travel back to site and go back to work
Novie Goad
Of course this hasn’t actually happened yet, but I am out on Holiday Break
right now!
Tomorrow the teachers at my school will have a celebration at school
I’ve been invited to a couple NYE parties, but really just think it sounds
nice to be lame at home...too bad Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve isn’t
broadcasted in Kaz...

Other exciting events of December:
Dancing with my site mate and our Shaping class women
Having students over for Grilled Cheese sandwiches
Meeting foreigners
Becoming obsessed with Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup (and by soup, I mean, heated
juice..duh)
Making lots of banana bread


I forgot my hard drive in Taldy; so no music / movies for a while...bleen. Also, my computer isn’t reading my camera right now...I’ll get it figured out...but for now...no pictures...

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Future Possibilities

Call me naïve, tell me I live under a rock and that I sometimes just don’t get it, BUT I really truly thought that people in the circus joined the circus because, well, because it was destiny. Like, okay, so you didn’t do so well in high school. You can’t work with numbers and barely passed shop class. You’re not really into school. It’s just not your thang, but on the other hand you CAN swallow fire, right, where’s that going to get you? Naturally, this would make you a “shoo-in” for the circus…wouldn’t it? Well, I thought so...

I recently went to a circus here at site. I’ve been before. This was a different one; but I guess they are all kind of the same. I still find myself mesmerized and loving every minute of it, similar to that of a 7 year old:) There were all sorts of acts. Mostly the usual: hula hoop girl with 50000000 hula hoops, some animals that could do some sweet tricks, a few clowns, a hysterical act, a couple dances, a magic show routine, fire swallowing, sword swallowing, walking on nails, jumping on glass and, who can forget, juggling everything under the sun.

During the circus, it occurred to me that joining the circus would be friggin’ awesome! I mean, how amazing would it be to be part of a traveling circus and duh, you’re with clowns ALL DAY. That would just be totally fun! So let’s see: Traveling+Lots of fun+Amazing stories. I want this!

Of course, shortly after this realization I also realized that I don’t have a “natural” talent that would be able to be used in the circus. I can’t juggle anything and definitely not swords, I can’t eat fire and I certainly cannot walk on nails. This just isn’t my destiny. I was not satisfied with this though. I have decided that I will be able to juggle by February and after I get good at juggling balls I’ll try my hand at swords. If nothing I’m sure I could always be the clown. Some clowns say nothing. They’re just silly and do charades. Yes, this is exactly what I’ll do.

When I got home that night I thought I would Google: Joining the circus. This is when I learned there are actually “Circus Schools” <-- really? They’ll teach me how to eat fire? Wow. But the prices seemed a bit high for the small amount I’m going to be paid in the circus. They teach other cool things too, like the trapeze <-- I don’t want to do that though. Then they went on to talk about how depressing life is in the circus. Really?! Really? I do NOT believe that for one minute, there’s a clown! He’ll make you a balloon animal when you’re having a bad day and everything will be right in the world again. I also learned that it would look “better” (on your resume I guess) if you could do something additional to being a clown…like juggle or make balloon animals…hmm, maybe I’ll practice making balloon animals this summer at camps? I know I can be good at this!

I then looked for possible traveling circus jobs. I found only one. For a Vet Tech. Really? Do Vet Techs actually join the traveling circus? I don’t know. I thought I could be that, but that would require me to go back to school for a while for a degree I don’t actually care about so that I could join the circus…it seems like a lot of work and I wouldn’t be done for a few years only to travel with the circus for a year or two. Hopefully, there will be a job opening…eventually.

Of course, when you’re done with the circus can you really put that on your resume? Like I was in the Peace Corps for 2 years then joined the circus for 2 years and now I want to have, like, a real job…do people hire former circus performers? I hope so! I will be The Shit! Wish me luck! And stay tuned.

Happy Thanksgiving

I keep a thankful journal and thought I would thumb through it and write a few things that I'm thankful for:
family
friends,
faith,
freedom,
food,
choices,
ASVT
technology,
health,
modern medicine,
DAVS
vacations,
movies,
lazy days,
sunshine,
moonlight,
days off,
sleeping in,
heat,
clean water,
clothing,
jobs,
money,
hot water,
weekends,
cars,
public transportation,
music,
church,
podcasts,
teachers,
site mates,
safety,
hair salons,
veterans,
soldiers and their families,
cards games,
free and public education,
housing,
doctors,
nature,
communication,
work out facilities,
vaccinations,
the English language :)
and a God who has not and will not forget me!
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list...just a good start.
Happy Thanksgiving!

We don't realize how good we have it until we no longer have it.

Life keeps going....

Well, the week back to school proved to be uneventful. I enjoy having all the kiddos back. It makes for a good time; they are all so much more patient with my Russian than those adults. And really adults are just boring (I WILL NOT be a boring adult). Lessons went as planned. I did end up teaching a couple by myself and realized that I am TRULY thankful for stickers! Without them, I would have very little classroom control :)

In an effort to make sure the Volunteer who replaces me next year absolutely hates my guts, in the nicest way possible, I have begun going in to work on Sundays to play card games and hang out; this is really the only day that children have lots of free time. Last Sunday we played more Skip Bo and I tried my hand at making my own Borsh; I think I did a pretty bang up job, but, nevertheless there is absolutely room for improvement. I think I shall try again soon.

I have started to record my voice reading books that have been sent from America. I got a lot of Berenstein Bears books and am SO tired of the Berestein Bears and all their lessons, but will be excited when children can listen to them and follow along. Remember when you followed along with books on tape and thought you were reading? There was a bell to tell you to turn the page? Yea, that’s what I’m doing. I find that I rather enjoy it after it’s done and just want to listen and follow along (and sometimes I do) as if I am 5 years old all over again…I <3 life!

My site mate found a pretty amazing class called Shaping that takes place 3x a week. We went on Wednesday. It’s just women…I hope this means more local friends. The instructor is intense, but it was a lot of fun!

Plans for a Christmas concert are underway. And I’m totally excited! So far we have 4 songs and 1 poem. My CP wants a few more poems and a couple more songs. Totally psyched. I hope we can pull it together in time though…

Ugh…in other news my favorite PC doctor has resigned. Peace Corps is looking for another one, until then we have one doctor who has to take care of all (approx.) 120 of us! That’s a big job. On the following day I received an email that my Regional Manager was also resigning :( I HATE CHANGE! And like these two women…

Holiday --

This last week was “holiday.” Some kids went home for the week; some live at school so they were there for the week. Teachers had to report to school from 9am – 1pm everyday. I went. I planned lessons with my counterpart mid morning, then hung out with the kids who were around. We played sports in the gym and card games in another room.

I brought Skip – Bo along with to Kazakhstan in hopes that I would *eventually* be able to play this game with someone! Success! I brought the game to work last Tuesday. I had to explain that this game was not actually “evil;” there would be no gambling involved and I would use it to teach numbers. (the children really like to teach me Kazakh numbers 1-12…quiz me sometime…I’m awesome!) it was allowed! I was SUPER happy! I was also excited that I really didn’t need a large extensive vocabulary to teach this game! And I was SO happy when the children requested it the following day…I didn’t have to force anyone to play they all WANTED to! It was awesome! They even remembered the name of the game! They may not know how to answer the question “what did you do on holiday?” But they certainly play a mean game of skip bo :)

Afterward, I taught "spoons" <-- I'm sure this would be totally NOT allowed though, so I guess we'll keep that one a secret. We used markers as spoons though...I didn't want to ask the cafeteria to supply me with 8 spoons for a card game :)

Also, last week we learned that there was influenza in Karaganda (a bad kind). Karaganda is located 6 hours north of me; however, my school still required me to wear a ridiculous looking face mask. At first I did think I looked silly, but when I realized I was the only person NOT wearing mine, I felt even more weird than I would feel wearing it. So I put it on…then made my co workers pose for pictures with these on…good times!

A Psychology Seminar and Karaoke for lunch :)

My best (local) friend is the psychologist who works at my school. Our desks are located next to each other and we chit chat and laugh every day. She’s my absolute favorite. She also talks to me in “stupid Russian” using hand gestures so that I understand what she’s talking about…I’m thankful for this :)

The other day she was frantically preparing for a Psychology Seminar that she would be delivering to other school psychologists; she found out about the seminar she would prepare 4 days before she was expected to present…I guess this doesn't happen only to PCVs :)

Naturally, I was in charge of photographing the event. This works out well. She wants pictures, I have a camera, I want to be helpful, she needs my help. The seminar was virtually flawless…even if it wasn’t, I really wouldn’t know. Afterward, Rada wrote me a note asking if I wanted to go with her to lunch. I thought this meant that we would go to lunch at a different time than the other teachers and was confused, but this happens sometimes when she is offended with another person, I thought this was one of those times; I agreed. What she meant was do you want to go to a café with some other teachers to celebrate my seminar. Oh, but of course. I was happy to go. I love hanging out and having a good time. We left school at 2pm. I wondered if we would be returning. The teachers said that we could not come back to the school after being at the café. Fine. I brought all my stuff with and we went to a café not far from my school. I had only been to this café one other time and it was in the summer so we ate outside. But, inside there is a dance floor and karaoke! How the heck have I lived here for a year and not known about karaoke!!! I will be frequenting this place!

I thought it was odd to be drinking and singing karaoke while it was still light outside, but that’s how we do it. Some of my coworkers sang karaoke and then were insistent that I sing as well. Not wanting to do it alone I choose “Yesterday” by the Beatles. Everyone here knows this song and then made a friend sing alone:) She’s also the English teacher so that was good. A short while later we decide to sing “YMCA.” This song is MUCH longer than you think it is! I promise! My English teacher friend didn’t actually know the words, so I pretty much sang it alone, but it wasn’t that bad…I even scored a 91! I don’t really know how they score singers, but I liked it :)

There was shashlik, salad, cake, juice and lots of toasting! It was a good time and I plan to return to this Karaoke place!!

I love this song

Heart of Worship

When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart

Bridge:
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

Verse 2:
King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

Bridge:
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

Chorus:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship,
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

Not Really a Fan --

Last week we celebrated Halloween. I really don’t care for this “holiday.” Aside from the fact that I hate hate hate being scared, I also thinks it goes against the very thing that we teach kids when they’re young…you know the part where you’re “not supposed to take candy from strangers,” remember that? On Halloween you actually CAN dress up as something you’re not and then ask strangers to give you candy…hmm…

Nevertheless, we had a small celebration at my school. There are about 184953294 holidays in Kazakhstan, but Halloween is not one of them. We actually celebrated the day before Halloween. During our celebration we learned how to say “Happy Halloween” and “Trick-or-Treat”  this is actually REALLY difficult for an English learner to say but they were all such good sports and attempting and then reattempting; I’m certain it had everything to do with the bag of candy I was holding.

We had a skeleton scavenger hunt, mummifying people with toilet paper, bobbing for apples, pin the nose on the Jack-O-Lantern and ended with decorating masks to wear and use our new English phrases. It was fun and the kids really seemed to have a good time  And even carried “Trick-or-Treat” over until Monday…I was impressed!

Birthdays are exhausting…but oh so much fun!

So I've been 25 for almost two weeks now. And have neglected to blog about my birthday weekend of funness (<-- is that a word?) My flat is rather small so I had to have birthday parties in shifts. I invited my director and the ladies from my office over for lunch. Naturally, we had pizza...their choice. They came a little past 12pm; I stayed home that day cleaning, cooking and preparing everything. They got here and we had a SUPER fun time. At least I think they did. I made them birthday hats with poster board and made them wear them the WHOLE time they were here. They purchased for me a chai set. I drew it on a piece of paper earlier in the week when they asked what I wanted...I didn't know the word for it :) We ate lots of food and I was rather impressed with myself. There were 2 salads...I purchased those, fruited gelatin, pizza and cake. Then we had a photo shoot. And I made them take silly pictures...even when they didn't want to by saying, "it's MY birthday" <-- I'm kind of a brat like that :)

After they left, I immediately went to work cleaning, cooking and preparing for more guests. Yes, more pizza. These were my English teacher friends and they arrived around 6pm for dinner. They stayed until like 11pm and we had a good time just eating and chatting. I didn't have hats for this group, but it was still fun!

After they left. I went to bed. Cleaning could wait until morning. The following morning I went to cleaning, cooking and preparing everything <-- noticing a trend. Some teachers from my school came for early evening for dinner. and you guessed it, we had...MORE PIZZA! I was totally pizzaed out, but they really seemed to enjoy it. After they left I cleaned my flat one final time and put everything back where it belonged.

It was fun, but during the time I was cleaning and cooking, I remember thinking 'it's my birthday' and then thought back in America I would have gone out to a restaurant with friends, where someone else would have picked up my tab and the people at Olive Garden would have brought things directly to our table and then cleaned up after us. Here the birthday person is responsible for everything. Had we gone to a restaurant, I would have had to front the $$. CrAzY! But super fun when you get invited to a party :-)

Teacher's Day

This past weekend teachers in Kazakhstan celebrated a holiday just for them. This was quite an exciting day! We worked in the morning and then in the evening we went to a café where there was music and, of course, dancing! I tried to teach the “open mouth” picture which just erupted into LOTS of laughing. I love the teachers at my school. We said lots of toasts. My friend Rada assisted me in writing a Russian toast. Usually, I reuse, but think that eventually my school will catch on and demand a different toast from me. After reading my Russian toast the ladies at my table shouted, “Now in Kazakh.” I stood silent for about 2 seconds before my memorized Kazakh toast (for these particular moments came to mind) and with confidence I continued; I got lots of claps afterwards and then we celebrated with more dancing! The night ended at 1am when the café closed. Some of my coworkers continued their party at another place where they played billiards, I went home…I know, LAME, but we still had to work on Saturday!

Saturday is normally a work day in Kazakhstan. Teachers and students go to school Mon-Sat, this was a bit difficult to get used to, they have a 1 day weekend! Crazy! But this particular Saturday did not include any lessons, but rather a concert put on by the children for the teachers, although some teachers also had acts. I didn’t understand very much of it, but it was still super fun and one of teachers said something about me during his song (it was in KazakhI just smiled and gave the thumbs up sign). After the concert many of us went to lunch where, yep, you guessed it, there was more toasting! This time I did just say the same thing I said the night before.

Later that evening I went to the Theatre that was here at site called, Old Son. It was entertaining; there were some parts that I didn’t understand and was unable to follow, but when that happened I just made up my own plot. At any rate I was excited to show off my 50 tenge pearls, that clearly look like they were 50 tenge, but I didn’t care. I love them!