from 12/8

Well I’ve been here for about a quarter of a year now, and the time has both gone quickly and run stagnant. Some days (mostly during training) seemed like they would never end, but now that my life has fallen into a loose routine it is more of a game of reconciling the fact that I will be here for years. One has to set up goal dates in order not to focus on the elusive endpoint. For instance, On January 1st I will go to Karaganda to meet up with a bunch of volunteers that I haven’t seen in awhile. Then I have March to look forward to because it is IST (assuming it doesn’t get cut due to financial issues) which is a conference discussing changes and goals of PC now that we know what we are doing. March gives way to May which is my birthday, which begets the Spring/Summer where I will be able to explore the steppe, which precedes August when I will hopefully be able to make a trip back to America to see all you lovelies. It’s this kind of forward-thinking that keeps me from going crazy on these holiday afternoons. 
 Not to say I’m not enjoying myself, my sitemate and friend Robert (Bobby Light) just explained it thusly: “There is a fine line between having no free time and having too much free time.” Currently we are nearing the end of this school term and just like in America, we have a lot of free days. I had a day off for Kurban Ait (still not sure exactly what it is) about a week ago and am currently basking in the last day of a two day holiday for Independence Day. It’s great having a day off, especially since I had very few during training, but there is only so much you can do. Usually I end up going gosting with the family, which is just visiting a friend’s house for a huge meal. The food is usually pretty good, but it’s always awkward not being able to fully communicate and just listening to a conversation going on around you and being unable to participate. When this happens I usually start daydreaming, and most families really don’t like it when you start staring into their wallpaper and your eyes get that glassy, faraway look. I usually get reprimanded in Kazakh and try to pretend like I was paying attention, but talk about a rude awakening. It’s weird though, most people have no idea how to talk to non-native speaker. I chalk it up to the lack of foreigners in Kaz, but you would think if someone says “Ya gavaroo parusski choot choot, vi gavaritye medleneye pajalsta” (I speak a little Russian, please speak slowly) you wouldn’t rattle off as if you were talking to a native speaker. At the very least you would think they would dumb down the vocabulary. It’s like they try to speak so fast you can’t even distinguish a question from a statement. You have to give me at least 10 seconds for my brain to change languages before you start talking to me.
 Evidently some news source or tabloid has been poisoning the well here by purporting that Nostradamus predicted that the last president of America would be black. So people keep telling me that Obama is going to destroy America. First off, I have seen enough Discovery Channel programs on Nostradamus to know that this is probably a fabrication, secondly who cares anyway… it’s has no actual relevance on anything.  
 The other day I went gosting with the other two volunteers and my counterpart to my director’s house. It was a pretty sweet apartment and he had a couple of son’s or nephews (your cousins are called your brothers and sisters here) that spoke English pretty well. The event was pretty fun and at the end my director gave me a ceremonial Khan suit. It is dark green and gold and is pretty awesome. Evidently the suit costs about a hundred bucks so I must be in my director’s good graces. Though I have no idea when I will wear the thing here, I can think of a couple of instances in America when I will be able to don it (can you say Halloween costume for the rest of my life?). Since I am also learning the dombra, I think eventually I will be embraced as a Kazak rather than be leered at everywhere I go. I just need to make a shirt that says “I play the dombra and have the Ablaikhan garb… stop staring at me!” in Kazak and Russian. It is so weird being a minority here. I know part of the attention is probably because of my red beard, but I just can’t give the thing up. Plus Robert and Jamie have no facial hair and they still get about as much unwanted attention. 
 Probably should have talked about this initially, but it finally snowed here! It has been snowing off and on all week and we have about six inches. It’s pretty awesome actually seeing snow, especially because I will have a white Christmas. I have been really enjoying it, but man it’s cold. I think it has gotten to about -15 degrees Celsius and people are still saying it is warm. I’ve gotten remarkably acclimated to the cold for a Georgia boy, but I still can’t imagine it getting colder. It is also completely dark by about 6 and in the summer it will stay light until 9 or 10. The short days are kind of hard to get used to, but I am not as nervous about being out at dark as in Kaskelen. 
 I can’t believe Christmas is this week. I think I have built it up enough for my students to get them excited and we are having a big Christmas festival on Christmas eve where we will be singing traditional Christmas carols like “Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and of course the “The Hokey-Pokey.” I really didn’t want to put the Hokey Pokey in there, but the kids and teachers went crazy for it. Another interesting item on the agenda will be Jamie and I doing a traditional Kazak dance. I thought this would be easy, but I frankly suck at it. I will have a whip though and be pretending to ride around on a horse… basically making an ass of myself. I also wrote a short play that some of the younger kids will be performing and I am going to dress up as close to Santa as I possibly can. It should be an interesting night. I have also convinced my host family to wake up early before work and class to open presents (provided my Christmas package gets here on time). On Christmas night we are having a party with the English Club (after work… sigh) and we will listen to Christmas carols. The day after Christmas my host mom is making roast chicken and the volunteers will get together at my house for a party. 
 After the 29th of December I will have a 2 week long vacation, but this unfortunately does not count as free days. I would love to travel and visit some friends, but I can only spare a 4 or 5 day vacation to Karaganda to meet up with everyone. I have no idea what I will do for a week or so here. So that’s my life. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, you are sincerely missed by your Kazakstan correspondent. Oh and I haven’t heard from some of you in awhile so feel free to send an email or something to let me know you are alive. You know who you are. Merry Christmas.
Drew