26 April 2011

The reappearance of regurgitated socks.


Yet another cow update: I found the regurgitated sock in our lawn this morning. It was manky. Now I know it happened as opposed to just inferring. I brought this fact up at dinner a few minutes ago and my jenge (host sister-in-law) lost her shit when it fully registered. Oh well, I guess I’m officially initiated into the Kyrgyz way of life. Didn’t take long, did it? Only a month. In hindsight, it’s pretty hysterical. Another act of initiation: while I was peeling potatoes, carrots, and onions earlier, I sliced my finger with a gi-hugic knife. My jenge saw it, did a little gasp, and then just laughed at me. I was laughing at me too, so it wasn’t that bad. Then she told my apa who laughed at me as well. I really am just a bundle of laughs in this country.

It’s starting to heat up here in good ol’ Kengesh. Now I wish that I had prepared more for summer clothing as opposed to the winter stuff. Let’s hope that wherever I’m put for my permanent site will be a bit cooler than this (sometimes I don’t know where I get off saying this – I lived in Africa for six months during their summer, this should be a piece of cake!) or at least can get myself adjusted to things rather quickly. I seriously dominated at packing for this adventure. NOT. In desperate need of more of my t-shirts and cooler dress/business clothes. Basically, I should’ve packed an entirely different wardrobe than I did. Isn’t that always the case? And remember me in Africa? Same thing now – totally already tired of these clothes; wish I had ways of flaring up the same outfits over and over again. Thoughts? I have to mix things up, but also maintain a level of professionalism.

This coming Wednesday, the trainees are having a giant disco (it’s really like a ‘dance,’ but we love calling it a ‘disco’ so much that it’s just stuck). Not to toot my own horn, but the only reason we’re having it is ‘cause I brought it up in a trainee advisory committee meeting – yeah, I somehow managed to get myself on a board like that, thousands of miles away from home; some things never change… ;) I had said that despite the fact that while most of the time everyone loves their language groups within the villages, most of the trainees absolutely LIVE for the days when we’re all allowed to be together on our Hub Days. Also, since this coming week is supposedly the ‘toughest week out of PST,’ I thought that it would be good if we had a complete brain-dead event where we could all be together and blow off some steam. I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time am not. Dances have never really been my thing. Don’t get me wrong – I am PUMPED to be able to bust a move [OMG, can I please be back at Kendwa Rocks or Paje By Night shaking my ass to ‘The Waka Waka Song’?!], I just worry that it’ll be another one of those times where I think it’ll be awesome, but then somehow end up on the sidelines the whole time. *shrugs* Better not overanalyze it before it happens, otherwise I’ll ruin it!

Was TOTALLY in a zombie mood yesterday. Was a complete waste of life and watched Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later (for the first time – LOVED it; Cillian Murphy’s Irish accent?! YES PLEASE!) and then finally started Max Brooks’ World War Z. The book itself is really, really good. Ben was right: if you were to replace zombies with another ‘real’ epidemic such as Ebola or something equally as scary and fast-spreading, the story itself is an incredibly telling tale about how international politics and organizations work with one another. I guess we all need those moments/days when we bust out the completely unordinary and weird to get away from everything in real life. And for me, yesterday, that was the zombie apocalypse. That’s just the way it goes, right?

Totally random thought of the day: I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about tattoos recently. Don’t worry, Mom, I won’t come back with another one! :p But just thinking about what I’d like to get when I return home. Either, an add on to one I already have, or a completely new one to kind of symbolize what the next two years of my life are going to bring. One of the chicks in my village (she’s from Chi-town, so amazing to have around!) is this amazing artist and we’ve all kind of commissioned her to make a K-19 tat for us once we’re all finished. I’m really excited to see what she has to come up with, ‘cause if it’s awesome (which I’m sure it will be), I’ll be getting it. Although, I’ve also been thinking about tweaking one or two of the ones I have now. First – my peace symbol. I really do think that I want to either add the word ‘Peace’ (in my handwriting) in Cyrillic, Arabic, English, and maybe Swahili? Or somehow incorporate the PC into it. Or, my other thought is to have the lyric from JM’s ‘Wheel’ (‘I believe that my life’s gonna see the love I give returned to me…’) circling my right wrist ala the cuz’s tat. Again, these are just things I’m batting around at the moment. Who knows? I could have a bomb-ass epiphany within the next 26 months and completely change my mind.

Someone needs to help a sister out (mainly Tif and everyone I’ve ever known that has gone or worked at a summer camp). WHY CAN I NOT REMEMBER ANY GAMES OR ACTIVITIES WE DID TO ENTERTAIN THOSE GIRLS?! I have seriously racked my brain for weeks trying to remember any sort of ice-breaker or energizer, but cannot think of any! For example, all the trainees went to an orphanage yesterday (on Saturday) to clean and play with the kids. Someone asked if anyone had any other games that we could start up, and I knew that somewhere in the back of my head was a plethora of games, but I could NOT recall any of them. It’s seriously starting to piss me off. My memory of anything in the past is just shocking these days! I mean, those were such huge parts of my summers for so many years and I can’t recall any of them? Are you havin’ a giraffe?! Anyone want to email or FB message one or two? I’d very much be in your debt.

I must take this time to extend an apology to my Chicago Blackhawks. I’ve heard through the grapevine that you have made it to game 6 in this round against the ‘Nucks. That’s DEFINITELY a relief; I honestly thought it was going to be a four-game-and-we’re-out kind of playoffs. BUT, you’re proving me wrong and I am sending you ALL MY BEST VIBES for your game tonight/tomorrow early morning for me. Force them into a game 7. We’ll be on home turf for this game, you KNOW the UC will definitely be a fucking Madhouse on Madison this time around. Don’t let ‘em down. Wishing you seriously the biggest amount of luck. [OH. I thought everyone who knows hockey would appreciate this: I was watching Russian MTV today and this music video came on where the dude looked like a cross between Matthew Morrison and PATRICK KANE. I nearly lost my shit and instantly thought of his silly mullet and all his craziness. Life, right? Also, for those of you who were worried, I am pleased to report that even in Russia there is the Teen Mom/16 and Pregnant program on MTV. Yes, you can be immensely relieved at this news.] Ri, Theresa, and Kristen: I hope your boys are doing better than mine. Have they already made it through to round 2? Update: WE FORCED THEM INTO GAME 7! OMG. YESSSSSSSSSSS! Words cannot describe. BRB – DYING. And in OT, too?! If I had been watching, I legit would’ve been having a heart attack. Maybe it’s better for my health that I’m not in the States to watch them go through all of this…

Turns out that I find out where my permanent site will be on 4 May. That’s INCREDIBLY soon. Like ‘a week from Wednesday’ soon. And then like the week (or is it two weeks?), after I get to spend a week at my new host-family’s house getting the lay of the village and working with my counterpart and all. Let’s all hope that placement goes well (I’m so gunning for Talas at the moment, to work with my language teacher, but am not hedging my bets yet) and that the current PCVs have summer camps that I’ll want to help with to ease my transition into things. I’m sure it will. :) It’s all happening incredibly fast, ‘cause then after that, we’ve got two weeks until swearing in. Then we’re on our own. Two years starts 1 June. Crazy as, right? None of this really seems real. I feel like in a few weeks I’ll be done with this adventure and be coming home. But then I realize that I’ve only been gone for like a month and that the two years is just beginning.

I was talking to the Kengesh Mafia – yes, we are that lame; it seriously makes sense with our personalities and the way we’ve interacted with the other groups – about this earlier and we are all SO PUMPED for the stuff that we’re planning on doing together after our service. Penthouse in Vegas. Hangin’ at The Rat on the University of Miami campus. The Reservoir in NYC. Hangin’ with Brycey B and MC in Chi-town. Road tripping to see everyone. But then we all have to stop and remind ourselves that we’ve still got a shit ton of time left before we’re able to do any of those things. I guess it’s good to have goals and exciting things in mind to keep us all going, right?

So, I heard through the grapevine that DW was sodding amazing. [Poor Elisabeth Sladen, btw! Seriously, who would’ve thunk that that would’ve happened to Sarah Jane?! Who’s going to watch after K-9?!] Speaking of the whole sci-fi, Russell T Davies brainchild family, what’s the latest update/air date for the new TW mini-series? Any more news on what it’s going to be, who’s going to be in it (Freema and/or Mickey, maybe?), and why the hell Gwen’s going to be bringing her CHILD to help her fight aliens? These are the silly things that plague my mind while I’m supposed to be paying attention to tech session on the art of teaching vocab to non-English speakers. Great way to spend my time, eh? Haha.

Dad and/or G’pa: why are you not here to play Milles Bornes with me? I’ve been itching to play it for MONTHS, but don’t have the patience to teach it to anyone. I want somebody whose ass I can kick – with them actually trying – but know of no one. Sigh. Why doesn’t everyone on the planet know how to play French, car-racing card games from the 60s?

Well, team, I think that’s all my brain can handle at the moment. It’s about half 9 in the evening and I’m slowly fading, but have yet to eat dinner. Gotta love when your brain has completely shut off and yet you have to struggle through another language before you can hole yourself up in your room and either a) do your homework or b) read a zombie book and fall asleep. Btw, I’m sure you all know which one I’ll be doing this evening, right? Haha. UGH, my hair SO needs to be washed, but highly doubt it will be tonight. Maybe tomorrow after class? Fingers crossed for me, folks. Sending you all my love from this mingin’ girl in K-stan.
<3

PS – Before I go, this lyric from ‘Awake My Soul’ by Mumford & Sons (I SODDING LOVE THEM!) has been on a constant loop in my head: ‘As bodies we will live, as bodies we will die, where you invest your love, you invest your life…

1 comment:

  1. Randomly found your blog on PC blogs. Hope all is well over there. I just got to my site here in Thailand about a month ago. PST was a lot of fun but the freedom is site is rejuvenating. Best of luck

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