Thursday, July 27, 2006,12:53 PM
Starting to figure this out

So I finally changed my template to something I semi-like. Don't worry I promise it will get spiced up a bit more when I start to add photographs. First I need to get a digital camera though. Anyway it seems that my departure date is fast approaching. The perpetual procrastinator that I am I still have lots of stuff to do. I don't have that many hours left for my americorps job so if anyone is in Minneapolis you should give me a call so that we can get together before I leave. Oh wait better idea here is a quick "schedule of events" of my last 3 weeks here in the states:

  • July 29-30th - Blueberry Festival in Ely with all my siblings!
  • August 14th - must work ten hours to get last americorps "paycheck"
  • August 15th - move stuff back to Wisconsin and James Taylor concert with the family
  • August 16-18 - packing, maybe Madison to see some of my DDD girls
  • August 19th - in Chicago with my grandparents
  • August 20th - flight to Philly
  • August 20-22nd - staging in Philly
  • August 22nd - long flight to Kazakhstan

So if any of you want to get together and have some free time in there when I am not busy call the cell, it will be the last chance to see me before I get back in 2008. Oh and I am thinking about getting an isight so I could talk to people for free, let me know if you have ichat so I can decide if there are enough of you that it would make it worth while. Well it might be worth is just to get to see my cute cousins, Billie and Daisy, as I don't quite think they will fit into an M-bag. Ok that is all I can think of to add to this post...so ciao for now.

 
posted by Aimee | Permalink | 1 comments
Thursday, July 20, 2006,12:20 PM
The first one...
Ok so I know that I am still in the states, but I wanted to get this blog up and running before I leave. Some of you have to be wondering why a person who hates to journal is starting a blog. The answer to that is easy; I am a little lazy. I want to keep in touch with everyone while I am in Central Asia and writing a blog so that you can all keep up with the ongoings of my peace corps experience seems easier than writing emails to all of you. However, I really appreciate packages and actual mail, so I promise to send you postcards etc if you send me anything.
So for anyone that doesn't know I am starting my peace corps experience on August 20th, 2006. I will be in Philly for three day for "staging" basically a crash course on policies and a lot of paperwork. Then I head out to Kazakhstan where I will be until Nov 10th, 2008 (unless I leave early which I really doubt, but I want a disclaimer in here in case of unforseable circumstances). For the first three months I will be training near Almaty...training will consist of intensive language classes, tefl training etc. I am nervous about learning Russian and/or Kazakh...cyrillic alphabet anyone? Still I think this experience will be good for me. I always learn more about myself when I am doing service for others. As an added bonus I will get to travel to some really cool places hopefully that I haven't been to yet. Travel woo hoo!!
So for those of you who don't know Kazakhstan was part of the old Soviet Union and is half the size of the United States. It boarders Russia, China, the Caspian Sea, and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan gets to be -40 in the winter and 110 in the summer. I will be a secondary English teacher. Feel free to comment or ask me questions. I will put my address up as soon as I know it.
 
posted by Aimee | Permalink | 8 comments