11/26

Another day, another tenge. The subzero temperatures seem to be freezing time as well as everything else. Employment has given me a schedule, but the schedule changes weekly if not daily. As the holidays descend, I find myself missing You more than ever. Three months is apparently how long it takes for homesickness to set in. Every day is definitely an adventure, and I meet many people that are interested in me and my time. I got my first sickness last weekend, but it was mercifully short. I ended up getting a wicked sore throat, but found it affirming that I could buy lozenges at the pharmacy with my language level, and by Monday morning I was better. My inability to speak Kazakh is really starting to wear on me. Though my Russian is halfway decent at this point, I feel like I am looked upon with thinly veiled disdain because I cannot speak the national language. My host family would rather not speak Russian at home, but they must to communicate with me, and the teachers sometimes get upset when I ask the students to translate into Russian in the classroom (even though at least half of the class is already taught in Russian and all the students are fluent in both languages). I understand nationalism and all that, obviously many Americans get very upset when they encounter someone who cannot speak English; I just wish they would cut me some slack. Learning two languages at once is hard as hell and everyone understands Russian anyway, whereas most Russian Kazakhs don’t speak Kazakh.
This is not to give you the impression that I feel sad or depressed, just directionless. I feel like a trinket or a bright piece of tinsel that is paraded around… a show pony I guess. I learned that there was a woman who had been trying to find me and talk to me about something apparently extremely important. She tracked me down yesterday after I went to the geological museum (which was amazing) and awkwardly engaged me in a 15 minute conversation that culminated in her asking me for an exorbitant amount of money. Because I’m the rich American who is here to solve everyone’s monetary problems amidst the world financial crisis, right? Update: In the two hours it took me to get this to a computer, said girl was waiting for me at school. I had to tell my superiors and they confronted her and then called the police. I now possess my first ever restraining order. The police and school administrators were really helpful though. They are afraid of losing me and really let the girl have it. Mad Kazakh sounds much cooler than calm Kazakh.
On a different note, girls act very strange around me here, and I am terrified of every activity I agree to lest I lead someone to the conclusion that I am interested in them. The relationship paradigm here is much different and since I don’t want to get married I feel as though I can’t even pursue anyone I might be interested in because relationships that don’t lead to marriage are not as common.
To switch to some positive reflection, my students are pretty great and it is fun to teach them. My 5th grade class is especially enjoyable. I have started my English Clubs and have also been helping out Robert with his clubs. So I go to/teach about 4 clubs a week and it usually keeps me pretty busy during the middle of the week. I also have my weekends back, so it gives me time to relax and not feel as over-burdened as I did during PST. Today I have a dombra lesson. The dombra is the national instrument of Kaz and it is like a two stringed banjo. I am also teaching my English club Christmas songs. We learned “Jingle Bells” last week and are moving up to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” today. It is pretty surreal conducting a Kazakh class on Christmas carols, but it will make me feel better come Christmas time. Also, my parents sent me a package that had mustard, Tabasco, and barbeque sauce in it. I put some BBQ sauce on some horse and it was delicious (as I knew it would be) and burnt my host sisters face off by getting her to try Tabasco. Amanda also gave me the new Of Montreal cd and it is amazing. Can someone tell me what the name of the cd is for labeling purposes? I may be getting the internet beginning early December, so hopefully that would lend itself to skyping or at least AIM. Well, I should head back to school and upload this bad boy. Oh, I learned a great Russian adage the other day, really sums up a lot of things I end up doing at school. Here it is:
If you don’t know how, we will teach you. If you don’t want to, we will make you.
Keep that in your pocket.
Drew “I’ll turn your tears into diamonds, your diamonds into stars” Boggs