9/10

Well I’ll start this bad boy off by thanking all of you, my friends and family for maintaining interest and spurring me along with positive comments. It’s not always easy to come home after a long day of class and work and write one of these things up, but it is easy to do it for you. You provide the motivation to continue, which is good because I am sure I will want to have a record of all this one day. My one caveat would be that the PC probably reads this too, so as much as I make every effort not to say anything too disparaging against the organization or the country, I would ask you to do the same. So far so good though, keep reading and keep writing, please… it warms my heart. Some days are harder than others, some days it is infinitely better than I thought it would be. Usually it all balances out and other than the shear loneliness of missing all of you, I am satisfied with the decision.
Last night I had a dream that I was in the mall of GA and I kept running into everyone I know (and even people I don’t know like Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods). I dream in America. Every time I fall asleep I am there and not here, but last night my dream-self finally concluded that I am in KZ and there is no way I could be in America. Once I realized this, I went to all of you and told you that I knew I was dreaming, and that the only way I could be seeing you was in a dream. We agreed that we would meet from now on in dream world and that that would have to do for now. If any of you have had a similar dream recently, let me know… I always love proof that the hive-mind still works. I awoke with tears in my eyes. I also had a dream that Dad bought an old corvette and took me for a ride in it. I don’t really pay much attention to cars, but for some reason I only dream about corvettes. Needless to say, my dreams have been ridiculously vivid in KZ, each one bewilders and interests me.
Let me briefly recap the days since Saturday in Almaty. Though a day in the city was great, I had even more fun on Sunday when my two friends from a nearby city came and visited me. I showed them the city and we just had a great time. I will go to their town this Sunday, it really gives me something to look forward to on the particularly stressful days. Since Monday I have been going to class and preparing for Friday on which I will make my first presentation to 3 classes (in English, not Russian) and then co-run an English club on American slang after classes. It should be insanely stressful, but hopefully pretty fun also. The kids see us around school every day, but have as of yet have had little interaction with us, and they are getting anxious to see what we are actually doing in their town. My presentation is going to be about music from Georgia (REM, Gnarls Barkley, Ludacris, The Allman Bros, and Of Montreal) and I am excited to bring a taste of home to KZ.
Last night we got to eat dinner at a PC employee’s home, and he and his wife were extremely hospitable. I got to eat chips and salsa and salmon (I don’t even really like fish that much, but we are in the largest landlocked country in the world so I relished it). Tonight (Wed) a few of us were planning on going to the city to see Kaz play Ukraine in soccer in a World Cup qualifier. I have never been to a soccer game, let alone a sort of important one so I was excited, but it doesn’t start until 10 PM K Z time and none of us wanted to be out too late in the city (it gets REALLY dark here at night) because we have a long day of class tomorrow. On the bright side I got a lot of work done for the week and even have time left over to write this. I might even start a short story I have been thinking about lately… we’ll see.
This afternoon one of my classmates came over and we worked on our English club presentation and I got a haircut with the clippers he bought before our supermarket burnt down. Now I don’t have to worry about these encroaching curls detracting from my authority in front of a class. I am also re-growing my stache and goatee… I don’t know why I shaved it off in the first place. Now I am in the awesome Dartangan (Three Musketeers) stage. Kaz will probably think that Americans don’t shave after our group… nearly every one of us has some facial hair. Plus, the temperature has started to drop and it will hopefully provide a buffer from the clime.
Also today, my host mom let me help carry cement for a walkway to the backyard, sent me to the store to get bread and a coke, and let me take some dishes from the table. This may not sound like much, but after the way I have been babied, it feels like full-blown integration. I know I have said before how wonderful she is, but it deserves to be said again. Without such a wonderful host family, I would have been gone a week ago. Language classes are also going better. I can sort of butcher my way through a sentence or two if I bring my brain to the brink of aneurysm, and we are actually learning useful things each day now.
On a sad kitty note, I think Mike might have a broken or sprained leg. He looks so sad. Anyone have any ideas for low-resource kitty medicine? I hope all is well with you and yours.
Drew