29 December 2009
I think I should get to say that again. FORTY Kilograms of flour! Do you know how much bread that makes? Don’t worry. I’m gonna tell you. Forty kilos of flour makes a freakin’ ton of bread. My host uncle got married. The way that it works here is that the groom’s parents, or in this case, siblings, go to the bride’s family and give earrings and ask for her to marry him and all that jazz. At the girl’s parent’s house, they have a big party. Then, they take the girl to the boy’s house where all of his family has big party. Yesterday all of this happened. I got to help with the preparations for the family bringing the new bride home. We went to my host aunt’s house at about fiveish and there were a bunch of women making borsok (the little fried bread things). I helped my host sisters fill cups with varenya (like jam/jelly), sugar, sugar cubes, sary mai (this oil/butter stuff that we all agreed that we hate haha), and then we put it out on the tables with the mounds of borsok, and meat jello, and salads. It was really great helping my host sisters. We’ve gotten a lot closer lately and we sorta bonded (especially with the sary mai stuff. All of my host sisters hate it, so I don’t feel bad saying that I hate it, too haha) I found out that my oldest two host sisters want to quit school after 9th form and go to the early university thing, but if the oldest goes, the second oldest can’t. I think it is totally unfair, but that’s the way it goes, I guess. I also talked a lot with Aidana, my second oldest sister. Her best friend just left to live with her Grandmother in Russia, so she’s kinda depressed. She’s in the eighth form and almost all of the other girls in her class (all 5 of them) are planning on quitting school after ninth form and if Nurzada (the oldest sister) quits then she won’t be able too. She’s got a lot on her mind right now. And she actually talked to me about it, which was cool. She got kinda frustrated because she is in the Russian class and her best friend is Russian, so she hardly ever speaks Kyrgyz and it is really hard for us to talk. But we made it work. Anyways, I guess that is enough of the family news. Back to the wedding stuff- We found out at 5:30ish that they wouldn’t arrive with the kalyn (that’s the Kyrgyz word for new wife/sister-in-law/daughter-in-law) until midnight! But, we had a lot of stuff to do, so it worked out okay. At first the edjes (older women- it is pronounced A-J) wanted me to sit and not really help with anything, but I couldn’t just sit and watch them all work and not help. At least not if it is cooking stuff, which I do not get to do often enough here. We made enough borsok to cover the floor of a medium sized room. And I am not exaggerating. We literally laid out a table cloth on the floor and covered it with borsok. Then we made rolls, which involves taking lumps of dough, rolling it out and then twisting it into pretty shapes. I’ve helped my Apa make this bread before so I knew how to do it which I think surprised the edjes. The whole concept of the edjes being there was fascinating to me. Imagine sending your child to your neighbor’s house and saying that your son or nephew or whoever is getting married and you need help to prepare for it. And having her come over, and bring her oven to help! And then imagine doing that to three or four neighbors and having them all come. Even in very small towns in America I feel that might be stretching the bounds of the typical neighbor relationship. Here it wasn’t even a big deal. I mean the forty kilos of flour worth of bread was a big deal haha, but you wouldn’t even think twice about asking for help like that. It is one of the things that I really like about Kyrgyzstan, and then sometimes it is a bit frustrating because there is absolutely no such thing as privacy. Last night I felt like I belong here. I got to make bread and talk to edjes, and it turns out I teach ALL of their children. And while my Kyrgyz is not that great, we were actually able to have a conversation. We talked about how marriages are different in America because it is all about the bride and groom, whereas in Kyrgyzstan, it is all about the family. As we were talking, I realized how much my entire village came together about me being here. One lady, who isn’t from our village asked me how much money I make, which is a typical get-to-know-you question here, and before I could explain, another lady jumped in and told her not to ask me questions like that because in America we don’t talk about salary. That incident taught me several things in the space of about thirty seconds- one- my Kyrgyz was good enough to understand what both women said, which was AWESOME – two- I’ve gotten used to being asked questions like that and it didn’t bother me in the least –three- my entire village must have discussed volunteer stuff before I got here, how else would a woman who I had just met know to say that it might make me uncomfortable to talk about salary? There is definitely something to be said about being wanted. Haha Being the only one of something in my village is hard to describe. One of the edjes and I talked and it turns out that her son tells her pretty much everything that I do at school. It is like being on exhibit at a zoo. Everything I do is remarkable, even when it is the same exact thing that everyone else is doing. It can wear on your nerves, believe me. I have long since realized that I will never be fully integrated. I could live here for 20 years and no matter what I do, I will never be Kyrgyz. I am totally okay with that, because I won’t be here for twenty years. It does, however, get frustrating when I do try to integrate a little bit further. For example, I get flustered by always being made to sit near the head of the table, which is the honorable spot. For one, all the really old ladies sit there, and I have less in common with them and find them harder to understand, also, I just don’t think I deserve it. I understood it better when I was new here, and I guess that is the key point. I don’t think I’m new anymore, and everyone else does. I just don’t think I should sit higher up at the table than my host mom or my counterpart. I am the youngest member on our teaching staff but sit above older teachers at the teachers’ parties, and at family parties I have to sit up higher too. Yesterday as we were preparing for the party I realized what an anomaly I am here, and not because I’m an American, either. There were a ton of women and girls there yesterday. I am twenty one, the next oldest was twenty six or seven, and the next youngest was 16. I’m right in the middle. Most women my age here are either married or studying at university or working in a bigger city. There are not a lot of single women my age in our village, and it makes it a bit harder to fit in. After most of the prep work was done, I alternated between the kids and adults. The women got to talking really fast and it was hard to understand so I went and played with the kids. Arsen, who is something like my host second cousin, is almost two and really attached to his granny who was at the new bride’s house, so I ended up holding him for a long while and rocking him to sleep. It was very therapeutic for me. I really really miss Camden, and holding babies here makes it a bit easier. I have two host cousins, Arsen, who is almost two, and Ademae, who is almost one. So I get to play with babies often enough. Yesterday there were also three three-year olds, which was quite interesting. Take three toddlers, all of whom are rarely disciplined because they don’t really start telling them “no” until they are like four or five, add obscene amounts of candy and sugar, and lock them in a room for a few hours. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of waterworks, but for the most part they were really cute. I have a host cousin, Zarina who is a bit younger that Azeez, my host brother, and the child hasn’t a shy bone in her entire body. She’s really cute and outgoing. She will play with me, and I think it has helped Azeez warm up to me, too. Kyrgyzstan has scared the bejeezus out of me because I realized yesterday that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have a big family. I KNOW! ME!?! The sworn-never-having-children-girl!!! It was so cool to watch the interaction of the kids last night. There were – 1 9th, 8th, and 6th grade girls- one 7th grade boy, two 3rd grade girls, one 2nd grade girl, three three year olds, and an almost-two year old. It was quite noisy, but they all had a ton of fun. The 7th grade boy was a total sweetheart. How many 7th grade boys do you know that would actually play with three year olds for hours, and share the babysitter role with the older girls as the took turns helping the adults? It was cool.
I just realized I’m on the third page and haven’t mentioned all the traditions of the wedding, or the fact that I finally came home with Nurzada at one am last night because my contacts were unbearably dry, and the rest of the family didn’t get home til 2:30 or the fact that the party continues today for the entire village, or all the new years parties for the students at school. I’m rambling today. For your sake, I think I will call it quits here and write another blog later.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
"you're like spongebob because you make crabbie patties"
20 December 2009
The Hamburger Adventure:
I am exhausted. So much for Sunday being my day of rest. Haha I spent the last six hours making hamburgers for my family, a meal that I won’t even eat. Background info: My family, along with my two host aunts’ families bought a cow…. And then killed it. As I was sitting around with my family as they prepared the meat to freeze/whatever they do with it, they thought it was really cool when I explained that in America, my family does the same thing, the buying a cow and splitting up all the meat thing… not the salting it and put it in huge buckets around the house thing. We got to talking about American food and about “gamburgers” which are the Kyrgyz equivalent of hamburgers that you can buy in the cities. I explained that the burgers in Karakol aren’t really the same as American burgers, because they don’t use ground beef and make a pattie. So, somehow I ended up volunteering to make hamburgers for my family. So that is the background info. I started off this afternoon by making Watergate salad from the stuff that momma sent in the package. I feel like I nearly broke my wrist whipping up the dream whip, which is much harder to do by hand btw, but it was a HUGE hit. My whole family loved it. So for the burgers, first we made bread for the rolls. Then, we started making burgers. Our electric meat grinder is broken, so we used my aunt’s hand crank meat grinder to make ground beef. Well, we TRIED to use it, but the blade was messed up and we were able to ground about two patties worth before we called it quits. I spent the next two hours or so with my sisters cutting up a hunk of meat into small enough pieces to resemble ground meat. And you all know how much I love touching meat. (I’m not sure if the sarcasm translates here haha) We made the patties, then started cutting up potatoes for French fries, because who can have a good ol’ fashioned burger without fries? Right? I should mention here that we only have one burner. So, for the sake of time, we decided to cook the burgers in the oven, and the fries on the burner. Oh, and I made cole slaw because I figured I needed to eat something, too. haha There were like 10 people eating, with my family, and the contractors who are living with us. My littlest sister told me as we sat down to eat that we started cooking at one, and ate at seven. What a day. And all that for hamburgers that I don’t eat. Haha. It is funny because as I was making Watergate salad this morning, Apa commented on how fast American food can be made. I told her it was faster because we bought everything and just prepared it as opposed to making it from scratch. After making bread, grinding meat, cutting potatoes, and making cole slaw all from hand… I want to retract that statement. Haha
Almost every time I make food in this country it turns into an adventure. I’m never really sure if they like it, but I have received a request from my host uncle to make another carrot cake for new years, so I guess that they like it.
Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
The Hamburger Adventure:
I am exhausted. So much for Sunday being my day of rest. Haha I spent the last six hours making hamburgers for my family, a meal that I won’t even eat. Background info: My family, along with my two host aunts’ families bought a cow…. And then killed it. As I was sitting around with my family as they prepared the meat to freeze/whatever they do with it, they thought it was really cool when I explained that in America, my family does the same thing, the buying a cow and splitting up all the meat thing… not the salting it and put it in huge buckets around the house thing. We got to talking about American food and about “gamburgers” which are the Kyrgyz equivalent of hamburgers that you can buy in the cities. I explained that the burgers in Karakol aren’t really the same as American burgers, because they don’t use ground beef and make a pattie. So, somehow I ended up volunteering to make hamburgers for my family. So that is the background info. I started off this afternoon by making Watergate salad from the stuff that momma sent in the package. I feel like I nearly broke my wrist whipping up the dream whip, which is much harder to do by hand btw, but it was a HUGE hit. My whole family loved it. So for the burgers, first we made bread for the rolls. Then, we started making burgers. Our electric meat grinder is broken, so we used my aunt’s hand crank meat grinder to make ground beef. Well, we TRIED to use it, but the blade was messed up and we were able to ground about two patties worth before we called it quits. I spent the next two hours or so with my sisters cutting up a hunk of meat into small enough pieces to resemble ground meat. And you all know how much I love touching meat. (I’m not sure if the sarcasm translates here haha) We made the patties, then started cutting up potatoes for French fries, because who can have a good ol’ fashioned burger without fries? Right? I should mention here that we only have one burner. So, for the sake of time, we decided to cook the burgers in the oven, and the fries on the burner. Oh, and I made cole slaw because I figured I needed to eat something, too. haha There were like 10 people eating, with my family, and the contractors who are living with us. My littlest sister told me as we sat down to eat that we started cooking at one, and ate at seven. What a day. And all that for hamburgers that I don’t eat. Haha. It is funny because as I was making Watergate salad this morning, Apa commented on how fast American food can be made. I told her it was faster because we bought everything and just prepared it as opposed to making it from scratch. After making bread, grinding meat, cutting potatoes, and making cole slaw all from hand… I want to retract that statement. Haha
Almost every time I make food in this country it turns into an adventure. I’m never really sure if they like it, but I have received a request from my host uncle to make another carrot cake for new years, so I guess that they like it.
Miss you,
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Christmas!
I hope you are all having a wonderful, fun and food and family filled holiday.
Miss you all tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Miss you all tons!
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 18, 2009
Today is full of unexpected surprises:
I didn't have time to post the last blog on wednesday, like i had hoped, so I posted it today. I got TWO amazing packages from home, and can't even put into words the awesomeness of them. I'm heading to a friend's village to celebrate Haunakkah(I'm sorry if I spelled that wrong, I can never seem to get it right.) Today has been weird. First, I rode in a car with dice hanging from the mirror on the way here. Second,when I got in, Ace of Base was playing on the radio. Third, I got out at the bazaar and a taxi driver flagged me down because I left my wallet in his car LAST WEEKEND. I only had about 20 som in it and truthfully, I hadn't even realized that I had lost it, but the man kept if for me for a week! Life is just full of strange and wonderful surprises, and I love it.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
whew.
15 December 2009
What a week and it has been. And it is only Tuesday. Sigh. Actually I will post this tomorrow, when I go to the city, which I guess makes it Wednesday. I am doing a mid-week city trip for a few different reasons. One, Katie told me that I have a package! I’m super excited. I don’t know which package it’ll be because I am expecting several, but this will be one of those rare occasions when I won’t mind a surprise. Two, I have to buy more yarn. I’m crocheting a blanket. I finally just finished making 35 10X10 inch squares. My host sisters and host mom helped me to arrange them tonight into a design. We spread them all out on the living room floor. I need more yarn to put all the pieces together. It’ll be my first big project, and I’ll get to cross “crochet or knit a blanket” off of THE LIST. Three, I’ll get to post this blog, and hopefully read some emails.
I guess I should explain the “what a week” comment. Let’s see. Sunday, I washed laundry. You remember how I said a while ago that I would never let laundry go more than three weeks? I lied. Again. Big time. I washed clothes before I went to Bishkek for training. As a recap- that was the second week of November. And I haven’t washed clothes since then. Sigh. I tried, believe me, I did! But between the snow and my house being under construction it just hasn’t worked out. And, in addition to having six weeks of accumulated laundry, the washing machine didn’t work. So I had to wash and rinse all of it by hand. It took FOREVER. And for those of you who have never done laundry outside in freezing temperatures- it is about as much fun as it sounds. And, I don’t think my clothes hanging on the line will ever dry. My shirts literally have icicles hanging off them. I brought in a pair of jeans to hang inside and could hold them by the belt loops and have them stand out completely parallel to the ground. I took pictures because it cracked me up.
Yesterday I woke up and then got sick. I don’t know what was up. I luckily made it outside. Luckily, because cleaning sick up off the carpet is a pain in the butt here. I didn’t go to my only class, and slept for a really long time. I guess it was something I ate. Maybe the homemade cheese? I dunno, but it came and went in about four hours, they were just a miserable couple of hours.
Today was a rough day at school. I started at 8 and finished at 5:45. Even my counterpart said that today was a hard day. My good classes were being bad too. We did have a breakthrough though, with the homework issue. We had about an 85% homework completion rate before we missed about a month of school. But they are slipping back into their old habits. We combined the not-doing-homework-thing with the we-don’t-have-a-class-in-our-room-to-be-responsible-for-cleaning-it-thing into a new rule. We have a rotating schedule, and whoever doesn’t do their homework in the day’s scheduled class has to clean the room. It works out well.
In other new from the past week:
I ran out of peanut butter (sad face)
I did not get a banya (sadder face)
I finally figured out the perfect ratio of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar to make a good hot chocolate mix. (happy face)
I watched The Boondock Saints every. single. day,. at least it is a good movie. (background- I usually end my day by watching a movie in bed until I fall asleep or the power goes out. I copy one movie at a time from my external to my desktop so I don’t have to keep my external plugged in, and I haven’t felt like walking all the way across my room to get my external to plug in to get a new movie this week.) I think I can just about quote the entire movie now. haha (“we’re kinda like seven eleven. We may not always be doing business, but we’re always open.”)
Well, I’m probably gonna go attempt to heat up some water so I can wash up before the electricity goes out.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
What a week and it has been. And it is only Tuesday. Sigh. Actually I will post this tomorrow, when I go to the city, which I guess makes it Wednesday. I am doing a mid-week city trip for a few different reasons. One, Katie told me that I have a package! I’m super excited. I don’t know which package it’ll be because I am expecting several, but this will be one of those rare occasions when I won’t mind a surprise. Two, I have to buy more yarn. I’m crocheting a blanket. I finally just finished making 35 10X10 inch squares. My host sisters and host mom helped me to arrange them tonight into a design. We spread them all out on the living room floor. I need more yarn to put all the pieces together. It’ll be my first big project, and I’ll get to cross “crochet or knit a blanket” off of THE LIST. Three, I’ll get to post this blog, and hopefully read some emails.
I guess I should explain the “what a week” comment. Let’s see. Sunday, I washed laundry. You remember how I said a while ago that I would never let laundry go more than three weeks? I lied. Again. Big time. I washed clothes before I went to Bishkek for training. As a recap- that was the second week of November. And I haven’t washed clothes since then. Sigh. I tried, believe me, I did! But between the snow and my house being under construction it just hasn’t worked out. And, in addition to having six weeks of accumulated laundry, the washing machine didn’t work. So I had to wash and rinse all of it by hand. It took FOREVER. And for those of you who have never done laundry outside in freezing temperatures- it is about as much fun as it sounds. And, I don’t think my clothes hanging on the line will ever dry. My shirts literally have icicles hanging off them. I brought in a pair of jeans to hang inside and could hold them by the belt loops and have them stand out completely parallel to the ground. I took pictures because it cracked me up.
Yesterday I woke up and then got sick. I don’t know what was up. I luckily made it outside. Luckily, because cleaning sick up off the carpet is a pain in the butt here. I didn’t go to my only class, and slept for a really long time. I guess it was something I ate. Maybe the homemade cheese? I dunno, but it came and went in about four hours, they were just a miserable couple of hours.
Today was a rough day at school. I started at 8 and finished at 5:45. Even my counterpart said that today was a hard day. My good classes were being bad too. We did have a breakthrough though, with the homework issue. We had about an 85% homework completion rate before we missed about a month of school. But they are slipping back into their old habits. We combined the not-doing-homework-thing with the we-don’t-have-a-class-in-our-room-to-be-responsible-for-cleaning-it-thing into a new rule. We have a rotating schedule, and whoever doesn’t do their homework in the day’s scheduled class has to clean the room. It works out well.
In other new from the past week:
I ran out of peanut butter (sad face)
I did not get a banya (sadder face)
I finally figured out the perfect ratio of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar to make a good hot chocolate mix. (happy face)
I watched The Boondock Saints every. single. day,. at least it is a good movie. (background- I usually end my day by watching a movie in bed until I fall asleep or the power goes out. I copy one movie at a time from my external to my desktop so I don’t have to keep my external plugged in, and I haven’t felt like walking all the way across my room to get my external to plug in to get a new movie this week.) I think I can just about quote the entire movie now. haha (“we’re kinda like seven eleven. We may not always be doing business, but we’re always open.”)
Well, I’m probably gonna go attempt to heat up some water so I can wash up before the electricity goes out.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
Friday, December 11, 2009
Winter
10 December 2009
So, when this southern girl, who has had snow above her ankles maybe three times in her life, and who is perfectly okay with that fact, starts getting happy when it snows because days that snow are warmer; you know she is in the middle of a Kyrgyz winter. Okay, enough with the third person. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it is cold. Technically, I can use the adjective freezing now, without exaggerating. And it is true, the days that snow are warmer, sometimes it is too cold to snow according to Ata, a fact which completely blows my mind. So, yes, winter has arrived with full force here in lovely issyk kul oblast. Since there has been snow on the ground since the first or second week of November and since I’ve already slipped on ice you may feel that I am a bit late with this announcement. It really feels like winter though now. I’ve busted out my tall furry boots, and have managed to not fall in my village yet. I am not going to bother doing the whole “knock-on-wood” thing because I know falling is inevitable, especially with the roads here. Today the roads consist of snow, or packed snow/ice. My winter footwear is serving me pretty well, although I must admit that I do have a bit of a dilemma. My winter boots have pretty good grips on them, which makes walking in snow a bit easier, but the problem with the grips is that the snow gets packed in them and then as soon as a step into school, the packed snow on the bottom turns them into ice skates, and we all know how well I handle myself on ice. The Peace Corps gave all the volunteers Yak Trax, which are these little grippers we put on our shoes to walk better. I don’t really need them for snow, but on packed snow and ice they are life savers. The same problem arises though. On tile floors, they are quite slippery. So, the question becomes- am I going to bite it hard outside my school or inside my school? I’ll let you know when it happens. I am getting a bit tired of wearing the same pair of shoes, but I’ve given up variety for functionality. At least they are functional and cute! Haha Who’d have thought I could talk this long about shoes. Actually, anyone who knows me would know that I could talk for this long about shoes haha. I’ve covered the weather and shoe aspects of winter; let’s move on to the holidays. I’m holding a Christmas Eve Concert and am super excited about it. I spent this week teaching my students Christmas Carols. Yes, I know. Me? The girl who can’t carry a tune in a bucket- teaching someone else a song? Go figure. But, it has perked my spirits up. Having kids walking through the halls singing or humming “let it snow” and “fa la la la la la la la la” makes me really happy. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I’m preparing myself for the first Christmas away from home to be really hard, but the more I do to make it seem like Christmas, the closer I feel to home. I think the volunteers close to me might come out for the concert, and then, if I can finagle it, I’m going to spend Christmas Eve night in the city, so I can be with other Americans on Christmas. It is technically a work day, but it is a holiday for me, and it will be exam week anyway, so I’m not going to miss much. I have promised my community that I will be here for the New Years’ Holiday (which is why I am not coming home) and I think we are all pretty excited for me to take part in all the traditions, but for once I can do both- Christmas with Americans and New Years with my host family. I am also going to try to go with one of my Russian teachers to the Orthodox Church for their Christmas services. I’m not sure yet how to work that out, but I have faith that I can make it happen.
Let’s see. What other news? Oh yeah! I went skiing. And by skiing, I mean attempting to ski and basically spending an entire day falling down a mountain. My muscles were sore for days and I keep finding bruises. It was fun. More graceful people probably would’ve had their pride hurt from falling down so much. Haha it didn’t affect me, though, seeing as how I am used to it. I made it down the easiest slope two and half times. The third time, I managed to hit myself in the head with my own ski pole, and decided that was a sign that I should call it a day. I think I walked down quicker than I would’ve skied down anyway. haha I am not very good at skiing, but I will probably go back. For one thing, the view is absolutely gorgeous! (I might try to post pictures) I won’t be able to go often because it is expensive. (by my standards) We added it up, and for transportation, rentals, the ski lift fee, and lunch, we spent about 30 dollars, which is crazy cheap for your average tourist. It was a great day. I was actually planning on not even going into the city, but met up with my site mate, Mike, and he basically guilted me into going. Between going out dancing on Friday night, skiing on Sunday, and walking the 5km to my village (in the snow) on Monday morning, my legs had their best workout in country. Haha It was a great weekend.
I just came back from my pre-bed outhouse trip, and feel that I must describe the experience. Outhouses can be dangerous in the best of times. Add a layer of packed snow on top of the foot grips, and it is very scary. I try very hard not to lose my balance. I think I’d rather fall in front of all my students every day all winter than fall in the outhouse once.
I’m gonna wrap it up for now.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
So, when this southern girl, who has had snow above her ankles maybe three times in her life, and who is perfectly okay with that fact, starts getting happy when it snows because days that snow are warmer; you know she is in the middle of a Kyrgyz winter. Okay, enough with the third person. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it is cold. Technically, I can use the adjective freezing now, without exaggerating. And it is true, the days that snow are warmer, sometimes it is too cold to snow according to Ata, a fact which completely blows my mind. So, yes, winter has arrived with full force here in lovely issyk kul oblast. Since there has been snow on the ground since the first or second week of November and since I’ve already slipped on ice you may feel that I am a bit late with this announcement. It really feels like winter though now. I’ve busted out my tall furry boots, and have managed to not fall in my village yet. I am not going to bother doing the whole “knock-on-wood” thing because I know falling is inevitable, especially with the roads here. Today the roads consist of snow, or packed snow/ice. My winter footwear is serving me pretty well, although I must admit that I do have a bit of a dilemma. My winter boots have pretty good grips on them, which makes walking in snow a bit easier, but the problem with the grips is that the snow gets packed in them and then as soon as a step into school, the packed snow on the bottom turns them into ice skates, and we all know how well I handle myself on ice. The Peace Corps gave all the volunteers Yak Trax, which are these little grippers we put on our shoes to walk better. I don’t really need them for snow, but on packed snow and ice they are life savers. The same problem arises though. On tile floors, they are quite slippery. So, the question becomes- am I going to bite it hard outside my school or inside my school? I’ll let you know when it happens. I am getting a bit tired of wearing the same pair of shoes, but I’ve given up variety for functionality. At least they are functional and cute! Haha Who’d have thought I could talk this long about shoes. Actually, anyone who knows me would know that I could talk for this long about shoes haha. I’ve covered the weather and shoe aspects of winter; let’s move on to the holidays. I’m holding a Christmas Eve Concert and am super excited about it. I spent this week teaching my students Christmas Carols. Yes, I know. Me? The girl who can’t carry a tune in a bucket- teaching someone else a song? Go figure. But, it has perked my spirits up. Having kids walking through the halls singing or humming “let it snow” and “fa la la la la la la la la” makes me really happy. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I’m preparing myself for the first Christmas away from home to be really hard, but the more I do to make it seem like Christmas, the closer I feel to home. I think the volunteers close to me might come out for the concert, and then, if I can finagle it, I’m going to spend Christmas Eve night in the city, so I can be with other Americans on Christmas. It is technically a work day, but it is a holiday for me, and it will be exam week anyway, so I’m not going to miss much. I have promised my community that I will be here for the New Years’ Holiday (which is why I am not coming home) and I think we are all pretty excited for me to take part in all the traditions, but for once I can do both- Christmas with Americans and New Years with my host family. I am also going to try to go with one of my Russian teachers to the Orthodox Church for their Christmas services. I’m not sure yet how to work that out, but I have faith that I can make it happen.
Let’s see. What other news? Oh yeah! I went skiing. And by skiing, I mean attempting to ski and basically spending an entire day falling down a mountain. My muscles were sore for days and I keep finding bruises. It was fun. More graceful people probably would’ve had their pride hurt from falling down so much. Haha it didn’t affect me, though, seeing as how I am used to it. I made it down the easiest slope two and half times. The third time, I managed to hit myself in the head with my own ski pole, and decided that was a sign that I should call it a day. I think I walked down quicker than I would’ve skied down anyway. haha I am not very good at skiing, but I will probably go back. For one thing, the view is absolutely gorgeous! (I might try to post pictures) I won’t be able to go often because it is expensive. (by my standards) We added it up, and for transportation, rentals, the ski lift fee, and lunch, we spent about 30 dollars, which is crazy cheap for your average tourist. It was a great day. I was actually planning on not even going into the city, but met up with my site mate, Mike, and he basically guilted me into going. Between going out dancing on Friday night, skiing on Sunday, and walking the 5km to my village (in the snow) on Monday morning, my legs had their best workout in country. Haha It was a great weekend.
I just came back from my pre-bed outhouse trip, and feel that I must describe the experience. Outhouses can be dangerous in the best of times. Add a layer of packed snow on top of the foot grips, and it is very scary. I try very hard not to lose my balance. I think I’d rather fall in front of all my students every day all winter than fall in the outhouse once.
I’m gonna wrap it up for now.
Miss you
Love from Kyrgyzstan,
Jess
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