Spring!
The weather is improving and I have noticed that my attitude and moods have followed suit. I wore a skirt to work every day last week and even wore short sleeves on one day. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of winter’s wrath but I am trying to enjoy the sun while it lasts. I had a fairly busy week… it’s much easier to be motivated when you don’t have to wear two pairs of long underwear to brave the winter weather.
On Tuesday I went for a hike with my student and host sister last week to take pictures of my village (which I promise I will post on webshots sometime this century). It was a little cloudy but you can still see the mountains pretty well. Unfortunately during the hike I lost the key to my room and the key to my schoolroom. I wasn’t worried about the room in my house because I have extra keys but I thought the school skeleton key would be harder to replace. I made my student come with me to the zavootch’s (assistant-principal) house to make sure there was another key so I could copy it. Unfortunately for me, it was her birthday and she and several other teachers were celebrating at her house. Talk about embarrassing. They quickly assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem and that I could have another one made. (Thank God because it was getting dark and I know there would have been no way to retrace our steps to see where I lost them). Mini-crisis averted. Phew.
Peace Corps 45th anniversary was on Wednesday so most of the volunteers in the Chui region went to the office open house to celebrate. There were a lot of important people there including the ambassador and directors of NGOs around Bishkek. They renewed our country’s contract here, which is always a good sign. Plus it was an excuse to eat a lot of yummy, free food.
On Thursday, Daniar, and I to see a modern version of the Nutcracker that the zavootch’s son performed in. The costumes were beautiful (even though I don’t recall Dalmatians or tigers being an original part of the ballet).
At 6 a.m. Friday morning I awoke to blaring music and my oldest sister doing her “morning exercises” of her running in place. She can’t weigh more than 110 pounds but it sounded like there were elephants in the next room. I decided I had had it with living in the sorority house. I forked over my last month’s rent to Jildes and told her I was moving out. She said, “What about our plans?! We need to plant a garden, we need to teach you how to can tomatoes and pickles and jam and what about our summer trip to jilo (pasture) to sleep in a yurt? I thought you were going to teach us yoga?” Then she cried. My heart absolutely broke. I know we’ve gotten really close in the past 3 months but I didn’t think I’d elicit this response from her. I was like all right, one more month but if things are still like they are, then I’m going to find a different family or move into an apartment. Hopefully I’ll start to see an improvement because I can’t live like this anymore.
My life came to a screeching halt this week because my mom sent me the first season of 24 on DVD. I had never seen the show before and didn’t understand the hype but I was absolutely addicted. I finished the entire season in one week and my low point was when I watched 6 episodes in one day because I didn’t have to teach the next day. At least when I was reading for that amount of time I felt like an educated couch potato, now I just feel like a couch potato. I just want to finish the show so I can get my life back. Oh. So that’s what it feels like to be addicted to crack.
On Thursday all the volunteers are coming up to Bishkek for our In-Service Training. I can’t wait to see everyone. I know the classes and days are going to be long but at least we’ll all be together. It will be good to see some new faces and see how people have grown and changed, etc.
Oh yeah, the other day I was walking through schools and I saw this 11th grader roughhousing this poor 5th grader. I usually don’t interfere (I don’t want to inflict the fight upon myself) but this time I said, “no, that’s not allowed, don’t do that”, and the larger student responded, “He is small, yes?” I was so proud that he correctly conjugated the verb ‘to be’ that I forgot all about him beating up the smaller student.
Quick shout out:
Annette, Ronnie, Aaron and Abby, I got your package, thanks so much. I never realized how much I miss pez!
On Tuesday I went for a hike with my student and host sister last week to take pictures of my village (which I promise I will post on webshots sometime this century). It was a little cloudy but you can still see the mountains pretty well. Unfortunately during the hike I lost the key to my room and the key to my schoolroom. I wasn’t worried about the room in my house because I have extra keys but I thought the school skeleton key would be harder to replace. I made my student come with me to the zavootch’s (assistant-principal) house to make sure there was another key so I could copy it. Unfortunately for me, it was her birthday and she and several other teachers were celebrating at her house. Talk about embarrassing. They quickly assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem and that I could have another one made. (Thank God because it was getting dark and I know there would have been no way to retrace our steps to see where I lost them). Mini-crisis averted. Phew.
Peace Corps 45th anniversary was on Wednesday so most of the volunteers in the Chui region went to the office open house to celebrate. There were a lot of important people there including the ambassador and directors of NGOs around Bishkek. They renewed our country’s contract here, which is always a good sign. Plus it was an excuse to eat a lot of yummy, free food.
On Thursday, Daniar, and I to see a modern version of the Nutcracker that the zavootch’s son performed in. The costumes were beautiful (even though I don’t recall Dalmatians or tigers being an original part of the ballet).
At 6 a.m. Friday morning I awoke to blaring music and my oldest sister doing her “morning exercises” of her running in place. She can’t weigh more than 110 pounds but it sounded like there were elephants in the next room. I decided I had had it with living in the sorority house. I forked over my last month’s rent to Jildes and told her I was moving out. She said, “What about our plans?! We need to plant a garden, we need to teach you how to can tomatoes and pickles and jam and what about our summer trip to jilo (pasture) to sleep in a yurt? I thought you were going to teach us yoga?” Then she cried. My heart absolutely broke. I know we’ve gotten really close in the past 3 months but I didn’t think I’d elicit this response from her. I was like all right, one more month but if things are still like they are, then I’m going to find a different family or move into an apartment. Hopefully I’ll start to see an improvement because I can’t live like this anymore.
My life came to a screeching halt this week because my mom sent me the first season of 24 on DVD. I had never seen the show before and didn’t understand the hype but I was absolutely addicted. I finished the entire season in one week and my low point was when I watched 6 episodes in one day because I didn’t have to teach the next day. At least when I was reading for that amount of time I felt like an educated couch potato, now I just feel like a couch potato. I just want to finish the show so I can get my life back. Oh. So that’s what it feels like to be addicted to crack.
On Thursday all the volunteers are coming up to Bishkek for our In-Service Training. I can’t wait to see everyone. I know the classes and days are going to be long but at least we’ll all be together. It will be good to see some new faces and see how people have grown and changed, etc.
Oh yeah, the other day I was walking through schools and I saw this 11th grader roughhousing this poor 5th grader. I usually don’t interfere (I don’t want to inflict the fight upon myself) but this time I said, “no, that’s not allowed, don’t do that”, and the larger student responded, “He is small, yes?” I was so proud that he correctly conjugated the verb ‘to be’ that I forgot all about him beating up the smaller student.
Quick shout out:
Annette, Ronnie, Aaron and Abby, I got your package, thanks so much. I never realized how much I miss pez!
posted by Katie P. at 1:07 AM
1 Comments:
24 absolutely rocks. It is my FAVORITE show and season one is the best. You must see all of the other seasons. My max was nine episodes and hardly moving off of the couch. I failed my medical clearance for PC but am in the process of appealing. I hope that I am in your shoes soon-watching 24 during Peace Corps service! Jack Bauer rocks and the shows get even better, even though season one is the best.
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