Garry Potter has come to Kazakhstan

I haven't written in a while, but that's because not a lot has been happening. There's not a whole lot to do because it's summer, so I've just been working at my school's summer camp every day from 9 to 2. Even with tutoring twice a week, my schedule leaves me with a lot of free time. I've been trying to start up an English film club, but I'm having a tough time getting it to take. I think interest is just down because it's summer. And the poster I put up mysteriously disappeared . . . Not sure what that's about, but if I can get it started, that'll help me fill up my schedule.

 

I have a lot of time for reading and writing. I finished the second Game of Thrones novel (which I gifted myself for my bday!), which is over 1000 pages in print, in about a week and a half. I think that gives you an idea of what my evenings are like. I'm also almost finished with I Capture the Castle, one of my faves, but I'm not sure what to read next. Hit me up with suggestions. And a big thanks to my family members who sent movies. They're lifesavers! Especially on the weekends where there's no work. I'm stuck inside if the weather's bad, and a movie in English is the perfect way to get away for a few hours.

 

To your surprise, I imagine, I have in fact been keeping up pretty well with my jogging, although this may have less to do with my willpower and more to do with one of my fellow volunteer friends. We were told by an older class that they ran marathons during their service, so we decided to make a similar goal. Although ours is maybe only a 10K! But we try to keep each other on track (and sometimes give each other days off!). It's easier having a friend doing this with me, especially because running is decidedly not my thing, and because no one here even has a clue what softball is. Bummer. However, I recently got invited by one of the gym teachers to play basketball with her and a few girls. I accepted right away just because it's exercise that's not running and because maybe it's a chance to meet some more people, but I honestly am not quite sure what it's about yet. I thought it was just getting together for practice, but then someone was saying something about a competition and I'm like, "Oh, this is one of those lost in translation things that I won't understand until it happens." So I'll keep you updated on that.

 

So, my life is quite even keel at the moment, but my friends and I were able to get together the weekend before the Fourth. A big boost to all of our morale, I think, because it was great to see each other and relax and not worry about foreign languages or fitting in for the weekend. We have to go to Almaty again in August for more PC stuff, so I'll get to see everyone. Looking forward to that.

 

I also went into the city this past weekend to meet up with some other volunteers so we can get some shopping done. I got a soccer ball (why, yes, I did type 'football' at first; my father will be so ashamed), but couldn't find any yarn for scarves for my friends! I also wanted to find some gifts for the summer bdays in my family, but . . . shipping things to America is very expensive. You all may just get belated cards. ;)

 

The most exciting part of the weekend, however, was that we got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2! In Russian, of course. My first time at a Kazakhstani movie theater. The crowds are every bit as unruly as American ones. No qualms about answering phones during the movie (It's Harry Potter, for goodness's sakes! Or Garry Potter, as they call him in Russian). We teased one of our friends a lot, because he is becoming so comfortable with this culture that even he answered his phone during the movie! I'll have you know that I let mine ring, and fixed the problem by sending one text. One. That's all, I swear! And we've noticed an aversion to salt here, which means that the popcorn is sweet. Cool if that's your cup of tea. Too bad my favorite kind back home was homestyle! The kinds we saw looked like caramel and some sort of multi-colored fruity popcorn?

 

The theater seats were also assigned, which I thought was interesting, but which apparently happens in America sometimes. When you go to buy the tickets, there's a screen that shows you the open seats. You then tell the cashier the seat numbers you want.  However, we being slightly obsessed with touch-screen technology, kept trying to touch the seats we wanted. Finally the girl, whose English was decent enough, we think, to catch on to our stupidity, told us that it was not, in fact, a touch screen. Oh.

 

Thank goodness we saw Part 2 and not Part 1, because we could understand it! There were a few lengthy dialogue scenes that we sort of only got the gist of, but for the most part, yeah, we were right there along for the ride and enjoying ourselves to boot. Way more than we bargained for. The visuals and knowing the book definitely helped, although occasionally we had mini-freakouts because we were so excited that we understood the dialogue. Even with the dubbing, the movie was pretty great. An excellent Saturday night, I'd say.

 

Once again, hope everyone is doing well! Happy birthday to all the July birthdays! – Mom, my aunt, my cousin, two of my best friends, and Garry Potter.

How the Mind Wanders . . .

 

Greetings. I hope this post finds you all having a delightful summer, full of watermelon and superhero blockbusters and trips to the beach. Or at least trips to places with air-conditioning.

 

My summer finds me working at my school's summer camp from 9 AM to 2 PM every week day. It's interesting. I usually just help with the games and activities in the morning. Sometimes we go on 'excursions' – one time it was the river, another it was to get a tour of the agro firm in the village. After lunch, the kids split up into groups and I have a small music club. Two days a week, I have tutoring. And we're also starting an English/film club, which takes up another hour and a half two days a week. So that's what my life is like!

 

I also celebrated my 23^rd birthday last week. It was pretty quiet, about as quiet as last year's, when I had to make my own birthday dinner and then took my sister and her fiancé to a movie that they didn't even like! It's tradition to sing to the birthday person when they walk into school, so that happened. Another tradition – people come up to you and wish you good things for the year. Lots of mine were wishes for health (because I've been fighting a nasty cough) and a boyfriend. I hope there were some wishes that I'd understand Russian better, but if there were . . . I didn't understand them. There's the rub, I suppose.

 

Because of my birthday, I've gotten some excellent packages and cards recently! I thank everyone whole-heartedly for them! It's almost like I haven't even left America, because I've got Legos, and pancake mix with chocolate chips, and Jane Austen comic books, and a burgeoning film collection which includes chick flicks, a Disney movie, and a Colin Firth movie. And, really, isn't that how I spent my free time back at home anyways? So thank you all! It's a little bit of home. :)

 

I also got a fabulous package from my friend Emily, who now resides in Zhezkizgan in the Karaganda Oblast. In addition to a letter, it had a mix cd of happy songs (tamasha tunes!) and a Disney princess photo album with some photos of our group. It really made my weekend, especially after my plans to go into Astana and see some friends to celebrate my birthday got canceled. The photo album is wonderful, because it's one of those self-adhesive ones, like the albums all my parents' photos from the '70s are in.

 

I went to my school's graduation ceremony this weekend. It was the usual – speeches, a slideshow of the graduates, a lot of songs, even a dance or two. But my story is about the two or three seconds before the slideshow, when the lights went pitch-black but before the slideshow screen lit up. The lights were out for only two, maybe three at the most, seconds, but it was enough for a whole trainload of thoughts to rattle through my head. Granted, I have not been in that many frightening situation – the Alien Encounter ride at Disneyland when I was seven being my most horrific experience – but there's something slightly terrifying about being in the complete dark in a roomful of people who do not speak your language.

 

What if a fire erupted? I can't even remember the word for 'fire,' and I can only follow basic 'right-left' directions, so I would most likely get trampled in that situation. What if there a coup of some sort? A zombie invasion? How would I get to the underground tunnel, which I know must exist if there are zombies involved, in order to race to freedom if I couldn't ask anyone where it was? So many 'what ifs' for only three seconds. I blame my mother for instilling this type of doom-tastic thinking in me. Beyond that, I think this is just what happens when you're in another country and can barely understand anything. Your mind goes to far-out places and you just have to roll with it.

 

Not much else has happened to me lately, but I did watch Eat Pray Love last weekend. Decent movie, although I spent the whole film thinking to myself, "Why does everyone she runs into speak English?" Not sure it's an entirely accurate portrayal of international travel. However, there was an idea that stuck with me and I considered very apropos. When Julia Roberts's character travels to India, she is told that it's okay to miss people, but to turn that negative energy into positive energy by, when she finds herself missing them, sending all her love and good thoughts their way. I like that concept. And you should know that I sit here, in my tiny village, sending all my love to you.

 

First Few Weeks

Update on EVERYTHING

Well, it was brought to my attention that I have not updated this since I arrived in माय village, hence, not a lot of people know the deets. (It's really easy for me to slip into ridiculous English slang here, just for the fun of it.)

So, here I sit, typing this up on my computer while jamming out to some Taylor Swift. I'll then transfer it to a flash drive and take it to my counterpart's house soon, monopolize her internet connection, and post it. Aaaand that should tell you what my internet sitch is like!

Well, I arrived here with a week and a half left of school, which means there wasn't a lot for me to do! I spent a few days doing PC-y things, like traveling to Akmol (where another PCV works) to visit the education department, introduce myself (really, say a few meaningless statements about myself in Russian and then let my CP do the rest of the talking), and get things squared away. One day, I got to ride the village bus into Astana and go on a field trip! People were concerned my bank card would not work in the village, so I went into Astana to visit the bankomat and get my rent money, but I also got to tag along with some teachers to go to a few bookstores as they bought presents for the students. Interesting trip, although I didn't get to see a whole lot of the city. I hope to go back soon for some sightseeing!

After the first few days, I was able to stay at school and 'observe,' though there was not a lot to observe during the English lessons. Most of the classes were taking final tests, and the sixth grade is preparing for their end-of-the-year (national?) exam in English on May 30^th. However, a few of the classes, after their tests, were allowed to hold Q&A sessions with me. These were generally, "Do you have a family?" and "What is your hobby?" and "Did you have lots of friends in America?" I'm not sure what to make of that last one . . .

The "Last Bell" ceremony was held on May 25^th, and we all gathered outside to stand in the cold, windy weather and watch the 11^th graders graduate, really. There were speeches, a few songs, a few more speeches, a bizarre skit involving a fortune teller (?), and gifts given out to the students – the 11^th graders, another class (the 1^st? the 4^th?), and the best student from each class (Maybe? I really sort of stood there while people jabbered away in Russian . . .).

But the interesting thing is that May 25^th is a holiday, precisely because it's the last day of school. And the teachers are so, so happy that it is the last day of school. We had a teachers' luncheon at the restaurant in town (Yes, there's a restaurant. I'm pretty sure they only have one thing on the menu – shashlik.), which was possibly the strangest event I've attended thus far. There were a lot of toasts, and I even had to get up and say something. Thankfully, in English, and my CP translated, but it was embarrassing and I'm sure I jabbered away and my cheeks were red. And all the teachers got up and sang and danced, and . . . I'm pretty sure you can imagine it. Just imagine a normal teachers' celebration, but in Russian. Anyways, apparently they get really excited about the last day of school, because it started at 1 and I left at 6, and I left early!

So, since then, I've been going to school to do random tasks, but mostly to get to know the kids. On Friday, I got to hang out with some younger students and teach them Frisbee. It didn't quite work, because it was so gosh darn windy, and the boys got a bit too rowdy when we tried out Ultimate Frisbee ("Only three steps?! How about seven? Five??"), but I'm looking forward to playing Frisbee again in the summer.

Also, I've been working on my plan for summer camp. The teachers want me to come up with a club sort of plan. So, instead of just planning games and activities each day (which would be so, so easy!), they want me to do a focused theme that has a tangible result at the end of the month. I'm still debating between a kickball club (tangible result – the kids can actually play, teams, a tourney?) and a music club (tangible result – a concert?). Or, possibly, an exploring club. There's not a lot to explore in the steppe, but I've got a handheld GPS (which is awesome, Dad!) and geocaching would be a superb way to spend my summer. So . . . you know, it's going. (When you ask how people are, sometimes they respond, "Pie-dyot," which translates roughly to, "It goes," or "It's going.") I think camp starts on June 2^nd (the same day as the Women's College World Series! Who's going to update me on the scores??), so I have to figure it out soon, and I'll keep you apprised of my decision.

How is my Russian going, you ask? It's definitely a challenge. The hardest task for me is listening, especially when there are a lot of people in the conversation. It's difficult for me to stay focused on the conversation, especially when I don't quite know a lot of words yet and people talk so fast. My CP speaks English to me, which is awesome. Also, there are a few people who understand that I am a slow listener, so they talk very slowly and act things out. Which I love. They are so easy to understand! And I'm not sure why, but I can understand my host mom pretty well. Maybe it's because a lot of what she says to me is house vocabulary, like, "Come and eat," or "Lock the door," or "Where are you going on your walk?" I could not understand my last host mom at all, so this is a nice change.

While on the trip to Astana, I was able to purchase a children's book in Russian – the Tangled storybook. I've been doing some independent study, reading it through translation and hopefully learning some new words in the process. Here's an idea of how these sessions go: I sit down at my desk to work on one page, which has an average of seven sentences. I have a notebook, in which I write the Russian sentence, then the English translation after I've thumbed through my massive dictionary and toiled through the meaning. And I've got a little scratch pad for the sentences, because sometimes I forget the first word by the time I get to the last word of the sentence. I try to do a page at a time, which typically takes me . . . two hours! I've gotten through three pages, haha. Also, it's a fairy tale book. Perhaps I should have made a better choice (I picked it because I thought I could stay focused on a story I enjoyed), because I'm learning words such as, "kingdom," "magical flower," "sorceress," and "quest." Very useful in everyday conversation, I'm sure.

However, one of the teachers at school has a younger sister who studied English at a university in Kokchetau (I spelled that wrong, I know it. Another PCV is in Kokchetau right now.). I believe she graduated last year. Now she's living here, and she speaks wonderful English. Sometimes people tell me they have relatives who want to speak to me in English, and I get worried because what if they're just saying that and this relative actually hates to speak English? Because I know if my sister said to me, "Hey, I've got this Russian friend. Want to hang out with him/her and speak Russian all night?" I might croak. So I get worried that they actually don't want to talk to me; their relatives who know me just want to make me more comfortable here by giving me the opportunity to speak my native language. For this reason, I was a little wary when my colleague told me about her sister. However, we went for a walk this evening and, like I said, her English is simply wonderful. I can't express how refreshing it is to hold an actual conversation in which I'm not worried about making grammatical errors and I'm not racking my brain for words I can actually say. I know learning Russian is one of my biggest goals here, but it's quite nice to have an hour's worth of English after hearing Russian 24/7.

Speaking of our walk, we walked around the village! I take walks frequently. (I may even start jogging, but I'm afraid to mention this, because what if I don't start? Then what will you think of me?? Then again, if I write it here, maybe it will give me an extra push to start . . .) The village is small, but very nice. To give you an idea of its size, it takes me about 25, maybe 30, minutes to walk the main perimeter, not including the outlying agrofirm and fields.

It's very cute though. Mostly houses. The school is a big fixture. Nearby is a building that functions as a social hall – it has a stage, plus ping pong tables, and a hall where the disco takes place on the weekends. (Yes, I've been to the disco. I think that deserves an entirely separate post though.) Towards the 'center' of town, there's the restaurant which is open on the weekends, a supermarket, and a few small stores (one is like a hardware store, another sells dishes and household items, a third sells food). I promise to take pictures soon!

Well, I think that's about it for now! However, since I've written the above, I have started jogging, in fact! So there you are.

Quick Update

Just wanted to do a quick email update to let you into the loop. Our swearing-in ceremony was yesterday, so we became official Peace Corps Volunteers! My first official act was to . . . sit in a train station for five hours . . . and then board a train for 21 hours. The train ride was actually pretty relaxing. Our kupe was insanely hot at first (mostly because we had dragged about five bags each onto the wagon), but we opened the window, played some cards, and cooled down a bit. We got a lot of sleep to make up for the counterpart conference at Kok Tobe over the past few days, so it was nice to just relax and not worry about much for a while.

We arrived in Astana close to 4 PM, and my counterpart and I then took a taxi to माय village, which is about an hour and twenty minutes away. It's a very, very small village (only a thousand people), but I haven't seen much of it yet except houses and fields and part of the communal dairy farm (my summer goal is to learn how to milk cows!). The plan is to go to school tomorrow, meet the authorities, take a tour, and meet my potential host families.

I will try to keep you updated! It seems like internet is pretty easy to find around here, so hopefully either my host family will have it or I will be able to use it at school. My first goal is to find the post office and finally mail my letters that I wrote a month or two ago. And by the middle or end of the week I should have my new address. So be ready! :D

Love you all!

Week 5

Hey, all! There's not a lot to report this week. Things were very busy with lesson planning and teaching. My lessons went better, especially the Little Red Riding Hood-themed lesson on Monday. I'll begin teaching 8th grade as well this week, so I will have four lessons total. We'll see how those go! The group from Baltabai came yesterday for a scavenger hunt around Esik, which was enjoyable and a chance for us to do something other than sit around awkwardly in our host houses for a Saturday afternoon. We saw various sites around town - the hospital, the gynmasia, the stadium - and had to find some random things - a sleeping black dog, an old woman wearing a blue head scarf. Once we found and took pictures of all fifteen items, we had to describe them with adjectives or write a sentence about them. Points for creativity and timeliness. The winning group will get a night at PC HQ in Almaty, which means pizza and wireless internet. Wow! Not sure who will win yet . . . Tonight, our group is going to our Russian teacher's apartment to watch an American movie. Serenity has been suggested, but Easy A is also on the shortlist. Either way, we get to hear nothing but English for two hours. Weeee. :P (Not that I don't love Russian, but it's nice to have a break and not have to worry about sounding stupid because you can barely speak in full sentences.) Hope things are going well on the other side of the world! Talk to you kids soon.

Weekend

What glorious weather we're having today! It's warm and sunny and just gorgeous. It's mid-afternoon, and I'm definitely feeling that pleasantly sleepy feeling one gets on wonderful spring days. I just want to find a park and read a book! :D Well, some interesting stuff has happened this week. I think I already told you that we had dinner at our country director's apartment in Almaty last Sunday. That was fun because we got to go with another village and catch up with some friends, but also because we ate delicious food (cake!) and chatted about American things without feeling out of place. It was also a super nice apartment, so we got a view of the high life in Almaty. :P I talked a bit with a PC worker who'd visited Esik in the fall and met a brother at the Russian Orthodox church. He apparently spoke really good English, was very friendly, and offered to take her and her friend up to the monastery in the mountains in the spring where they make wine and honey. So now my friends and I are curious about this monk and monastery. We're trying to plan a time to go meet him. I will let you know how that works out. Either way, we'd love to get to the mountains. Today, we got shuttled into Almaty again, this time for a concert. Apparently the Nauryz celebration goes on for about a month, and the music college was putting on a concert. It was really neat to see all the different instruments. I'm still tinkling around with my dombra, but I was never great at musical theory, so I'm working on finding a teacher. My language teacher said he'd help find someone, maybe the music teacher at the school. Hopefully soon! I'm getting antsy with it just sitting in my room. This week was also a little hectic because we started teaching lessons. In addition to Russian classes, technical sessions, cross-cultural sessions, and English club, we now have to teach two classes a week (four starting in two weeks). Let me tell you - it was sort of a disaster. My introduction on Monday was fine. I wrote a poem about myself (although the students had trouble with the words relating to Pittsburgh - how do you explain 'pierogi' without cooking them?), and then did a group crossword puzzle with them, which went over well. But then on Wednesday when I had to 'team'-teach a lesson, it was downhill from there. For a warmup, I did a Shel Silverstein poem, which, again they enjoyed even if they didn't quite understand. But then the teacher only did the grammar, so I ended up doing the practice and production levels of the lesson. The students got confused during the practice, because we were doing exercises in the book, but I asked them to change the name in the example to the name of their partner at the desk. Not a good idea. Then they didn't understand when I asked them to write sentences and it was a little bit of a mess. I may not be good at this! Anyways, I have a Little Red Riding Hood-themed lesson planned for Monday, so hopefully they will be more engaged and be able to better understand that. Phew. Right now, I'm going to relax and enjoy the day! Maybe take a nap. ;) Catch you guys on the flip side!

Tidbits

Trying out Mail2Blog via the kindle.

So this has been a strange week. We had dinner at the country director's apartment in Almaty on Sunday, which was slightly surreal. A flush toilet! A flatscreen! The New Yorker! Crazy, but fun to relax and see the group from Baltabai.

Then we had school intros on Monday and first classes on Wed. My intro went well. I wrote a poem about myself and did a group crossword, which the kids liked a lot. But my class yst was a little crazy. Not sure I am cut out for this teacher thing yet!

Tidbits: Got more yarn for my scarf at the bazaar today. Learned the Russian word for 'shiny.' Reading Secret Garden and Scarlet Pimpernel. Found the post office but am in class when it's open. Going to Almaty on Sat for a concert of some kind haha. Missing hamburgers!

And I miss you all of course. :P 'Til next time! Go, Bucs!