Christmas?
I have received a few e-mails talking about Christmas and all of the fun chores that go along with it... tree decorating, card writing and holiday shopping. My response is this, it's Christmas? It definitely doesn't feel like it here... hmm, probably because I'm in predominantly Muslim country, perhaps? It's in a week but I feel pretty unattached to it. It's my first Christmas away from home so I know it's going to be difficult but the other volunteers in my area are all going to celebrate by having dinner at the Hyatt, (I wonder if they have lobster in this country?) so that should be nice to spend it with them.
My mom sent me a package and she put some cooking ingredients in it and one of the items was flour. Flour? Are you kidding? I have a cell phone in this country! If they have phones, I'm pretty sure they have mooka (flour in Russian) here. Bread is practically a national meal. Anyways, it did make me laugh so I guess that's the most important thing. Oh mom, you're so good to me. Speaking of packages, I have another mailing tip: Although the padded envelopes are easy to mail, they're easy to break into. Either use a small box or perhaps wrap the envelope in duct tape? Actually, you should probably use duct tape in every mailing situation because they don't have it here so they can't reseal the package if they open it.
So Bishkek is getting pretty slippery. I'd say it's a 9 out of 10 chance that I will be Medivac'd to D.C. before the winter is over. They don't have salt here so it's basically a 3 inch layer of ice on every single sidewalk. Charlie and I were going to a Cafe last weekend and immediately after I said, "don't let me fall" he slipped and dragged me down with him. I fell 2 other times after that and I got him back because I pulled him down with me once, too. After the hardest one I actually had to look on the ground to make sure my brains weren't splattered everywhere, I was sore for 3 days after that one. As goofy as they look, I'm going to have to break out my neon green yak tracks.
So yeah, like I said, I have a cell phone. I am making $3 a day and it costs 1$ to call for one minute so I can't afford to call home but since I know you all have jobs and are making much more than me, so you can call me instead :) My number is 0-11-996-502-17-35-82. You can also text me by following these directions:
1. Go to http://smsgate.bitel.kg/
2. scroll down as the site is in Russian
3. At the bottom of the screen there is a menu bar, look for SMS
4. Click on it
5. Put my number 173582 in the Number box and type in a message
6. Press the button on left which is Russian for send
7. Make sure you say who it's from because I have no way to identify who is sending me the text.
Everything else is going well, teaching is a lot harder than I thought it would be so I'll have to come up with some creative lesson plans and games. My break is from the 25th of Dec. till the 11th of January so I have a lot of time to think of good lessons for the next quarter. I'll probably go to the embassy to look for some books because a few of my classes don't have any. My Russian is coming along slowly. I think I am going to move out of my host family because 1) If I listen to 50 cent one more time I'm going to stab myself in the eye and 2) Since they speak English they won't talk to me in Russian because they want to practice their language. It's generally pretty frustrating but it's important to me so I try to study as much as possible.
My mom sent me a package and she put some cooking ingredients in it and one of the items was flour. Flour? Are you kidding? I have a cell phone in this country! If they have phones, I'm pretty sure they have mooka (flour in Russian) here. Bread is practically a national meal. Anyways, it did make me laugh so I guess that's the most important thing. Oh mom, you're so good to me. Speaking of packages, I have another mailing tip: Although the padded envelopes are easy to mail, they're easy to break into. Either use a small box or perhaps wrap the envelope in duct tape? Actually, you should probably use duct tape in every mailing situation because they don't have it here so they can't reseal the package if they open it.
So Bishkek is getting pretty slippery. I'd say it's a 9 out of 10 chance that I will be Medivac'd to D.C. before the winter is over. They don't have salt here so it's basically a 3 inch layer of ice on every single sidewalk. Charlie and I were going to a Cafe last weekend and immediately after I said, "don't let me fall" he slipped and dragged me down with him. I fell 2 other times after that and I got him back because I pulled him down with me once, too. After the hardest one I actually had to look on the ground to make sure my brains weren't splattered everywhere, I was sore for 3 days after that one. As goofy as they look, I'm going to have to break out my neon green yak tracks.
So yeah, like I said, I have a cell phone. I am making $3 a day and it costs 1$ to call for one minute so I can't afford to call home but since I know you all have jobs and are making much more than me, so you can call me instead :) My number is 0-11-996-502-17-35-82. You can also text me by following these directions:
1. Go to http://smsgate.bitel.kg/
2. scroll down as the site is in Russian
3. At the bottom of the screen there is a menu bar, look for SMS
4. Click on it
5. Put my number 173582 in the Number box and type in a message
6. Press the button on left which is Russian for send
7. Make sure you say who it's from because I have no way to identify who is sending me the text.
Everything else is going well, teaching is a lot harder than I thought it would be so I'll have to come up with some creative lesson plans and games. My break is from the 25th of Dec. till the 11th of January so I have a lot of time to think of good lessons for the next quarter. I'll probably go to the embassy to look for some books because a few of my classes don't have any. My Russian is coming along slowly. I think I am going to move out of my host family because 1) If I listen to 50 cent one more time I'm going to stab myself in the eye and 2) Since they speak English they won't talk to me in Russian because they want to practice their language. It's generally pretty frustrating but it's important to me so I try to study as much as possible.
posted by Katie P. at 12:41 AM
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