Krashenya

So my site mate and I went to the Orthodox Church here in Balkhash on Monday for the holiday of Kra-shen-ya (aka: epiphany) where people would commemorate the Baptism of Jesus by jumping into this water – something I definitely wanted to see! The service started at 8am and there were lots of rituals and chanting. I, of course, did not understand any of it but found it intriguing. Then there was what I assume to be the “blessing of water.” There was a priest and lots of people shoving to get there water to the front – the priest said a few words then walked around the room sprinkling water on everyone. Then we all went outside and waited (for a long time) for the other priests. They came carrying flag type things and the bunch of us walked to the lake – down the middle of street and there was more singing and chanting. When we got to the water the main priest talked for a while – I don’t know what was said – even if I could understand there were SO many people that I really couldn’t hear him – and I was nervous that the ice beneath me was going to crack and we would all go under. He left in a car with the others and then people began to jump in the water! It was totally crazy! There were even some babushkas (grandmas)! I was impressed. Others came to the opening to fill water bottles or jugs and then we all left! It was a fun thing to watch! Then we warmed up in a nearby café!

A Full Day

Last Saturday, I decided to go into work, at my site Saturdays are kind of optional, fewer teachers work and the day is MUCH shorter – some workers leave before lunch even! I’m working efficiently on studying more Russian! I want to be fluent! I stayed for lunch – we were having Borsht, which has become one of my favorites! After lunch two of the ladies in my office went home, leaving just me and another woman. This woman is very interested in zodiac signs and that sort of thing in general. She asked my date of birth and told me all about me based on the day/month/year I was born! Then she asked for my zodiac sign and told me the kind of year I was going to have, some of it sounded fun so I, of course, wrote it down! It sounds like life will be mostly boring until June – at least she didn’t tell me anything would happen before this. And June will be the month that I find a boyfriend and get lots of $$$, but she told me that I should be very careful with this money, that it isn’t stolen (I assume this boyfriend is going to be a sugar daddy since I can’t earn $$ in the PCJ). August is going to be BY FAR the greatest month of the year, but it’s going to be a VERY serious month for me (the woman who was telling me this seemed a bit concerned about the seriousness of August most likely because I can’t be serious). In October, I will find a new apartment (I think she meant in May – but I humored her) and in November I will do LOTS of work and that will equal LOTS of $$$. She then read her year and it sounded kind of crummy – well, the beginning anyway – she decided not to believe it, but told me I should believe mine J It is kind of fun to read.

After work, I went to the lake here! It’s HUGE and frozen through, I wandered out onto the frozen lake – lots of people walk on it, and some people even drive on it! In the distance I could see a fence like thing and red cones (or what looked like red cones). Curious I walked out to see what it was. There was a large cross cut through the ice – down to the water and the fencing surrounded it. I learned that Monday is a holiday and people would be jumping into the water – to be blessed – and warming up in cars – my site mate wants to jump – he’s crazy. I wandered back to the shore, where I found treasure! Or a treasure chest looking thing full of rocks – but rocks could be someone’s treasure eh? I made a snow angel – that really didn’t look like a snow angel – I blame the snow – it’s more like ice!

There is one hotel in my town – I’m not entirely sure who stays there? Apartments are MUCH cheaper to rent for the night and it’s not like I’m in a BIG city, but whatevs. There is an orphanage near the hotel. After I left the lake I walked to the orphanage – where I would like to do some work – I went in and asked if I could help them out – they told me to come back on Monday morning – I hope that means yes (I’ll keep ya’ll posted J). Then I popped in to the hotel – just to check it out, ya know? It’s pretty nice! There is a café even and I think a water fall thing that probably has an off switch – it was switched off. There are mirrors everywhere! There are four floors in the building and lots of rooms! I even looked at a room! There were two beds, a bathroom (with a shower – whoa! – maybe I’ll stay there!), a phone, a refrigerator and, of course, chai! Freezing cold, I went to a café to warm up with my own chai.

I was going to a friend’s house in the evening. She is a friend to the woman who works at the store I frequent at – she invited me to “gost” at her house! And I agreed. She met me near the café where I was having chai – I didn’t know how to get to her “flat.” She speaks English very well! I went to her house – her family is very nice! Her father has a store at the bazaar where he sells food. Her mother is VERY pregnant and will soon have a baby! I’m excited! She has a little sister who is 6 and SUPER cute and an older sister who is very hospitable! We had Monte – my fav –followed by some delicious tort (cake)! Afterwards, we hung out in her room – she let me use her internet for free! I used it for a short time – I want to hang out with her for friendship, not to use her internet. She has agreed to assist me with my Russian and I will assist her with her English! Yea! She loaned me a few of her movies that can be watched in Russian or in English.

I left kind of late and upon arriving home I learned that I could chose to watch one of the movies in Russian with English subtitles! I watched “The Perfect Man,” I have already seen this movie, but this time I watched it in Russian! (with English subtitles). Then I was off to bed!

Christina is home!

Well this last weekend I ventured to Almaty (aka: NYC of Kazakhstan). It’s SO huge and overwhelming I can’t stand it, but I must go through it to get to my training village, where I had planned to visit my first host family. I was as excited to see them as they were to see me! The minute I was in my training village I was so excited! I kept wishing the bus would go faster! It’s so nice to be around familiar! I went to the store across the street from my host family’s house to buy candy for them – a necessity when you “gost.” My favorite cashier, whom I had become besties with, remembered my name and my favorite candy!

It was all I could do to not run in front of traffic to cross the road to get to their house. I waited for a clearing and ran! I opened the gate and the dogs, of course, began to bark! My host parents greeted me at the door with lots of hugs and kisses and lots of saying “Christina is home!” It was all very sweet! My host mom was making my favorite dish, Monte, which I helped make! A couple Volunteers who live not far from the village stopped by and we hung out for a while! I love seeing old friends! On Sunday morning my host mom prepared my favorite breakfast dish, blene. She is amazing!

It was at first weird because I had my weekend stuff, but I no longer had a room in their house, I stood awkwardly at the door until my mom said, “Go put your stuff in your room – I’m happy your home!” It reminded me how much I really miss them! However, I did NOT miss bucket bathing – they really should learn how great showers are. I stayed there Saturday and all day Sunday, but, all good things must come to an end. Tears were shed as we said “goodbye” and I began to wonder if goodbyes ever get easier. I will see them again in March and my host mom kept saying that “It wasn’t goodbye, but until March.”

I took an overnight bus back to my site, but not before purchasing “Sleepless in Seattle” in Russian, which is one of my favorite films! I have already watched it, the crazy thing about movies here is that a lot of them are dubbed and I can still hear the English – I’m really good at listening VERY closely to hear the English, which is bad because I want to learn Russian! I’m back to work now – we had a week off for “holiday.” It’s hard to get back into the “swing of things” after a week off, especially after a fun weekend! But I’m trying!

Karaganda Celebration

I just got back from Karaganda – where 11 Volunteers met up for a Christmas celebration and just to hang out! It was very exciting and super fun! Thanks Jess, for hosting us! (yes, MaryAnn it was your Jessie who hosted us – thanks for reading my blog! And thanks for Jessie – she’s my best Peace Corps friend – love her! J)

I got into Karaganda on Friday morning – the last to arrive – it was really early like 7am and no one was at the train station for me – I text messaged a few people who were already at the apartment; I took a taxi. Everyone was awake and we did Friday in reverse J In the evening we went out to get food and got back to watch Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and laughed a lot!

Saturday was by far the most exciting day there! We found an amazingly awesome food place that where we ate lunch! Then we went to the mall for a bit, then to ice skating! We walked around for a while and found lots of ice sculptures and a big slide that we all tried! We were freezing and went to a café for chai. It was here that we discussed going to karaoke. We found a karaoke place where we stayed until the cut the karaoke – they had lots of English songs – and even some Spanish songs – we all sang something and Hotard sang a Spanish song – who would have thought! Oh good times! I sang Kokomo by Beach Boys and Black or White by Michael Jackson, with Jessie. I miss us!

Sunday is when everyone had to leave, some people got to stay later than others – and no one really WANTED to leave (well, maybe one person wanted to get back to site J), we will see each other again in March, but that seems SO far away. My train left at 7:30 – those who were still there were able to see me off.

I purchased socks for some of my friends who were going to be there – as well as, knockoff power rangers and a Barbie – they were totally cool! Check out our socks!

Last Christmas....

Okay, so I think that Christmas reminds me of home and all the comforts that home offers, but then when I really think about it, I wonder, what would I be doing at home for Christmas anyway? Last Christmas, I worked, much like this Christmas. I, actually, worked a double on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, at a group home. On Christmas Day, I had to work at 2 different homes – I went, reluctantly, but I still went, I wanted only to stay at one home, oh the things I did!

It was a superb day; a great Christmas, even though I was “working.” I worked in the morning at my FAVORITE home with my two FAVORITE co-workers! And Santa, of course, stopped at our house as well. In the morning we all opened gifts! Clean up followed, then dinner prep! One of my co-workers shared his favorite beverage from home – he’s from Africa – it tasted like vomit – I can still remember the taste quite well, even my other co-worker thought so!

I really loved my group home job, I called them today to wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – I, also, of course would love to pick up shifts…in 22 months. Despite what The Boss may think, I do plan on returning to it – well, I guess, as long as I would be rehired! I’ll hold my breath – I’ll have SO much more to offer after my two years here!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This was my first Christmas away from friends and family and I did find myself a bit homesick, but I managed well and tried to have a good Christmas, despite no Christmas in Kazakhstan L

On Christmas morning I wandered through the bazaar and found super cute socks – the fuzzy kind – for cheap – I bought a couple pair for my best work friends! I wrapped them with magazine pages – my new favorite kind of wrapping. I said, “Merry Christmas!” And told them it was a Holiday in America. Then they went to the store and purchased a yolk-a for me and decorated it, when they gave it to me they said “Merry Christmas” as best they could – it was so sweet!

In the afternoon, I celebrated Christmas with my English club! We had been learning about Christmas since pretty much the beginning of December. On Christmas day, I brought in Christmas music! That in and of itself was a big hit! We had cookies and candy and played games like pin the nose on frosty! That was fun. Then we made ornaments from cardstock to decorate a tree and snowflakes to hang throughout the classroom. And of course there were small gifts from the bazaar! Oh glorious day!

We finally got snow on December 19! I have seen the pictures of the snow that ya’ll got back home and found myself oddly jealous! We got only a few inches – but it was still nice! Now it’s just a layer of thick ice and it is freezing cold here – I’m not sure how cold because I have yet to figure out Celsius! But I know that it is REALLY cold! It is then that I am thankful for the large buildings that block the cold wind!

No Mullets Please

Well, I finally did it! I got my hair cut in Kazakhstan – let me tell you I was SUPER nervous! I did have to continue reminding myself throughout the cutting that it was only hair and it would grow back – I kept trying to think of the worst thing that could possibly happen and remind myself that it would be “fixable.” My hair was getting nappy and gross and NEEDED to be cut – it hasn’t had a REAL cut since mid-August! I wanted my usual 2 inches off and layers, the layers were what made me the most nervous. I mentioned that I wanted to get a cut earlier this week, at work, and the gal whose desk is perpendicular mine, Rada, said that she was getting a cut on Saturday and invited me along. I did my best to explain to the English teacher what I wanted, who then told Rada who was going to be with me so that she could tell the cutter J Of course, I had to go by centimeters and not inches – but that was a fairly easy conversion using the converter on my phone.

The woman who cut my hair, took out scissors, began cutting, and speaking to me in VERY fast Russian! AHH! Rada was able to come to my rescue and explain how I wanted my hair cut. The woman desperately wanted to give me angle type bangs – but I really did not want that! She settled for a weird cross over in the front, which at first I didn’t want either, but she was insistent, so I decided that it would not be the end of the world – and left it the way she put it until just after we left the salon – but when I look at pictures, I kind of like the weird part thing. I do plan on return before 4 months!