and so it begins...

1 September 20099

Okay, I know I wrote a really long blog yesterday, but… seeing as how the power is probably gonna go out soon because of this monstrous storm we’re having, I accidentally clicked “deal” instead of “undo” on my 7348932744th game of solitaire… today and didn’t feel like restarting, the benadryl won’t kick in for another few minutes (not that I’ll sleep the whole night through, anyway…), I figured I’d write another blog.

I just had a cup of….i guess the best American equivalent is gravy… for dinner, I’m embarrassed to think of what I’d do for a bottle of Nyquil, I’m getting a cold sore (It’s not herpes, Jordan, so shuddup), It’s cold and rainy, and I just tried to make my last outhouse run of the evening and couldn’t go in because there is a spider the size of my face in there. Okay, maybe not quite that big, but close. We’re talking so big that it makes noise when it moves. Ew. So, I’ll be holding it all night. What a lovely day. *all sarcasm intended*

Actually, in spite of all of that, it was actually a pretty good day. I went to the first bell ceremony, got flowers to welcome me as a new teacher, was able to opt out of giving a speech (cut me a break, my Kyrgyz still sucks), finished my first quarter plan for all my classes, and managed to avoid getting tipsy with my teaching staff, (though I was coerced into having a few shot glasses of wine.)

My director and some of the older teachers and I were sitting around toward the end of our day (it was about 2:30 I think) and they said something really sweet: In Kyrgyzstan, I first belong to my family, then to my teaching staff, my school, my village, my rayon, and then the oblast. They called me “beezdeen” Which translates as “ours.” Several teachers also called me their “kizim” Which means daughter. Considering most of them are old enough to be my mother, or grandmother in some cases, it was cool.

I might go into more details about the first day of school later, but right now my eyelids are starting to get heavy from the benadryl, and we all know what happens when you fight a lovely medicine induced sleep… bad things.

So, I’m gonna wrap it up for today.

Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess