Finally 21!

“toolonggonkoonoo menen”
(that's happy birthday in kyrgyz)

What a wonderful, beautiful, bittersweet birthday!
How many people get to say that they celebrated their twenty first birthday while serving a developing country with the Peace Corps? Not very many, I’m sure. I am so blessed. I have two wonderful families who have made this day so great!

My real family called (obnoxiously early- I mean, seriously guys, who calls before 7am on a birthday? haha) this morning and wished me happy birthday. It was great to get to talk to them all, even if my sis was being a dork, as usual ( love ya Jordan)

My host parents gave me a really warm blanket. I think they think I’m a sissy. Haha I now have four blankets on my bed. It is August. This winter is gonna suck. Haha anyways, my new blanket is really soft and pink. It clashes horribly with my red carpet and I love it.

My host sisters made me a really cute birthday card. My host aunt gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, from her garden.(I’m jealous, my black thumb prevents me from growing flowers) My host great aunt gave me a photo album that I intend on filling up.. And my host grandmother made me a pillow. My little brother gave me some roses. I gave him two toy cars, which he has played with most of the day. My host parents got him a bicycle and he’s been trying to learn to ride it.

My host mom made delicious food, and tons of it. We had “dim dum ah” which is potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, and meat, boiled together. My Apa picks the meat out for me. How sweet is that? It is like getting your sandwich crusts cut off when you’re little. We also had this really good salad type thing. It was eggplant and tomatoes with a garlicy mayonnaise sauce. You should make it. It’s really easy. Slice eggplant; coat it in an egg that was beaten with a little bit of salt. Cook it in a pan, slice tomatoes and layer the eggplant and tomato with the sauce that is just mayo, garlic, and pepper. It’s delish! I will definitely be bringing these dishes back to the states with me! Mmm

We also had watermelon, another melon that closely resembles cantaloupe in taste, but not in appearance, and TWO cakes. Add to that the innumerable cups of chai, and you’ve got one incredibly stuffed birthday girl. Whew!

Hindsight sucks by the way, for anyone who cares. My excuse for not drinking has been that 20 years olds can’t drink in the states, and I have to follow American laws while I’m here. Didn’t think about what would happen when I was no longer 20. My host fam made the joke today that now I can drink because I’m 21 now. Oops. Jess needs a better excuse. haha

I’m gonna go try to get my stomach to quit hating me. I’m not sick; I’m just really really really stuffed.

I’ll be attempting to post pictures with this blog. We’ll see how that goes.

Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess (the twenty one year old! – finally!)