Written on Tuesday August 29:

So I’ve been here for a few days now and thought I would write an update. This of course won’t be posted for a while because of my distinct lack of Internet. The sanatorium (translates as spa…but really not a spa. I would say it rates up there with pleasant view) was nice. We were there for a few days getting crash Russian, policies, safety tips, and everyone’s favorite…shots. We were sort of confined to the sanatorium since they took our passports to get us a kartchica (an official Kazakh id). On Saturday the 26th we were taken to our host families. I actually was placed in one of the bigger training sites, Issyk. There are 18 other volunteers in this town and we think there is an Internet café opening up soon. We learn Russian in groups of six, then technical training as a whole group. My family is really great. Asmina is 24 and she is a hair stylist. I live in her mother’s house, but mama doesn’t sleep here. She sleeps at babushka’s. Then there is Milana, a cousin, who does sleep here but is leaving in September as she is moving to Chechnya. I live in a house and it is really nice though still in the process of being rebuilt. The kitchen is outside and the electricity is iffy. There is also this random guy who sleeps on a couch outside, but he works during the daytime here so I think its fine.
On a language note, Russian is really difficult. I thought I had the alphabet down until they threw in cursive. So get this: a T in print becomes an m in script. But an m is still an m…just with a “hook”. The Russian equivalent of a d, which looks kind of like a delta, becomes a g in script. There are more examples but basically the result is that script is confusing and so many letters end up being indistinguishable. Oh and did I mention that they use it all the time? On the plus side I am getting great at pantomime and really quick dictionary look up. I guess it is a blessing that we have class 6 days a week. I don’t know what I would do if I was home on Saturday, they won’t let me help with the chores, we don’t really understand each other, and I ran out of reading material. I live the farthest from school of everyone; it is around a half an hour walk to my Russian lessons and practicum teaching. I have to take a taxi to the technical sessions that are held at a private school…my host sister says it is too far to walk and won’t even give me directions. The taxi concept is funny here, basically any car on the road can be a taxi, you just have to stick out your arm. It only costs 50 tenge to go anywhere in Issyk. One dollar is around 120 tenge. However, I get 2.50 (dollars) a day for salary. Heidi would love it here as I am constantly being given tea. However Beth would be thrilled that bread is ever present at the table and is even considered sacred in Kazakh culture…you never throw away bread.

I am updating this on the night of September 6th, my language class is going to Almaty tomorrow and we will be visiting an Internet café. I will also be emailing my parents my host family’s phone number so if you want to call me get the number from them. I just want to remind everyone of the 11 hour time difference which will change at some point since they don’t observe daylight savings time. I am growing to like it here more every day. I still wish that I knew Russian, and next week I will be starting to learn Kazak too. During my 6th week here I will be finding out where I will be placed in Kazakhstan. Then all of week eight I will be going on a site visit so I won’t be in total shock when I am finished with training. Everyone keeps telling me that I should go north, and I am learning Russian as my main language so there is a high chance I will get placed somewhere up near Russia. Kazakh learners usually get placed in the south since there are more Kazakh villages there. I haven’t had a chance to go buy envelopes yet so no one will be getting a letter in the near future. I would like to especially apologize to my father who won’t be getting a birthday card. Oh and I forgot to bring addresses so if you do want to ever receive mail from me you should email me your address. On another random note I have not had a chance to practice my skill at getting the drunkest person to pour my shot as I have yet to have any vodka. My host family is Muslim so there is no drinking in our house. Ok I have to go study some Russian past and future tenses so I will end this post for now. Oh while I am on the subject of Russian study I would like to ask any motivated blog reader out there to send me note cards as I can’t find any here and all the paper is grid so it is difficult to make vocab flash cards. Also a good regular college lined notebook would come in handy.