Sorry for lack of recent updates, but the majority of what's been happening in my life recently is stuff that I'm forbidden by Peace Corps to publicly talk about. I will try to give a short version: Many volunteers, including me, were recently involved in a situation with the Kyrgyz police. None of us are happy with the way this situation was "resolved", and 5 people, people that I have come to call friends, ended up being sent home because of it. I was spared, but because of this somewhat traumatizing experience, I've been having a very difficult time. I am uncomfortable with many aspects of my life right now but I am trying to find a balance, and searching for the strength to stay and complete my service. At the moment I feel it is still worth it for me to be here, but only time will tell for sure.
On top of the afforementioned stress factors, recent events have brought me to the conclusion that I cannot stay with my host family for the duration of my service. All my attempts to move into an apartment thus far have been unsuccessful. I have one more chance for an apartment, which will be either accepted or rejected this Thursday, and how that works out will have a big effect on how I feel about staying.
Blah.
Tilly and Peter: Just got your package, thanks a ton! I've already put the brown sugar to use! I stayed with a friend last night and we made chocolate chip cookies. Well... we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies.. My friend doesn't have an oven so we tried to make them in a pan.. it didn't quite work. It turned into some scrambled egg looking version of various sized cookie chunks. Haha. Still delicious..
Darren: I have NOT gotten your package yet, but I'm looking forward to it like crazy!
To everyone else: Sorry my blog sucks so much. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Thailand (finally..)
Warning: There are a shitload of pictures in this post so, depending on your connection speed, it may give your computer a seizure.
So! Thailand! I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon on February 9th with three other volunteers from Kyrgyzstan. We made our way from the airport to Khaosan Rd, found a cheap place to stay, and then spent a night on the town. Khaosan Rd was very touristy, which is usually not what I look for when traveling, but after 7 months in Kyrgyzstan it was just what the doctor ordered. It felt really good to be surrounded by "westernized" people who, for the most part, spoke English. Khaosan is also a great place for people watching, which we did a lot of.
I spent a day and a half with the other volunteers, in which we did some sightseeing in Bangkok:
This is a tuk tuk, a popular form of transportation for tourists in Bangkok. We thought we had gotten really lucky because some drivers offered to take us around the city for only 5 baht each. Little did we know, the only reason it was so cheap is because we would be making multiple unscheduled stops at various shops/businesses while locals tried to sell us stuff. This eventually got very annoying... but it was really cheap.
First sightseeing stop, big standing Buddha/big standing Buddha temple:
Second stop, Golden Mountain:
Other volunteers I was with (L to R: Lynnie, Katie, other Katie)
Third stop, Wat Pho:
Reclining Buddha
I like to call this, "The Butt Sniffing Monk"
On the street in front of Wat Pho there was a guy with a snake.. I stopped to look at it, which he took as an opportunity to throw the snake onto my shoulders, take pictures of me, and then try to charge me 350 baht for it. Not cool.. But I talked him down a lot
Lynnie, Katie, and Katie then went north to Chiang Mai while I stayed in Bangkok, exploring for two more days. I then traveled south to Ko Samet, and spent the rest of my time in Thailand lounging on the beach. My first night on the island, I randomly ran into two Peace Corps volunteers from China, who were also on vacation. We ended up spending a few days together, in which I learned that Peace Corps China is the place to be. I thought Kyrgyzstan was Posh Corps because we have cell phones and semi-regular electricity... But that's nothing compared to the way these guys are living. They all have their own apartments, with hot showers, TVs, internet, washing machines/dryers, heating, AND a maid that comes on a regular basis to clean their apartments.. damn..
Anyway, after they left to meet up with some people in Bangkok, I spent a day by myself before meeting up with the Kyrgyzstan volunteers again. Then I had to leave, which was very sad. It was surprisingly hard to leave Thailand, which made me happy that I didn't go back to the states this winter because it would've been ten times harder to come back from that.
Pictures:
The boat I took to the island
Some areas were quite rocky:
So! Thailand! I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon on February 9th with three other volunteers from Kyrgyzstan. We made our way from the airport to Khaosan Rd, found a cheap place to stay, and then spent a night on the town. Khaosan Rd was very touristy, which is usually not what I look for when traveling, but after 7 months in Kyrgyzstan it was just what the doctor ordered. It felt really good to be surrounded by "westernized" people who, for the most part, spoke English. Khaosan is also a great place for people watching, which we did a lot of.
I spent a day and a half with the other volunteers, in which we did some sightseeing in Bangkok:
This is a tuk tuk, a popular form of transportation for tourists in Bangkok. We thought we had gotten really lucky because some drivers offered to take us around the city for only 5 baht each. Little did we know, the only reason it was so cheap is because we would be making multiple unscheduled stops at various shops/businesses while locals tried to sell us stuff. This eventually got very annoying... but it was really cheap.
First sightseeing stop, big standing Buddha/big standing Buddha temple:
Second stop, Golden Mountain:
Other volunteers I was with (L to R: Lynnie, Katie, other Katie)
Third stop, Wat Pho:
Reclining Buddha
I like to call this, "The Butt Sniffing Monk"
On the street in front of Wat Pho there was a guy with a snake.. I stopped to look at it, which he took as an opportunity to throw the snake onto my shoulders, take pictures of me, and then try to charge me 350 baht for it. Not cool.. But I talked him down a lot
Lynnie, Katie, and Katie then went north to Chiang Mai while I stayed in Bangkok, exploring for two more days. I then traveled south to Ko Samet, and spent the rest of my time in Thailand lounging on the beach. My first night on the island, I randomly ran into two Peace Corps volunteers from China, who were also on vacation. We ended up spending a few days together, in which I learned that Peace Corps China is the place to be. I thought Kyrgyzstan was Posh Corps because we have cell phones and semi-regular electricity... But that's nothing compared to the way these guys are living. They all have their own apartments, with hot showers, TVs, internet, washing machines/dryers, heating, AND a maid that comes on a regular basis to clean their apartments.. damn..
Anyway, after they left to meet up with some people in Bangkok, I spent a day by myself before meeting up with the Kyrgyzstan volunteers again. Then I had to leave, which was very sad. It was surprisingly hard to leave Thailand, which made me happy that I didn't go back to the states this winter because it would've been ten times harder to come back from that.
Pictures:
The boat I took to the island
Some areas were quite rocky:
Other areas were not:
Smoking hookah and hanging out on the beach:
Smoking hookah and hanging out on the beach:
Fire shows (quite popular on this island):
That's all, folks! Thailand was awesome but I barely got to see any of it. I definitely plan to go back someday.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Here comes the sun..
Spring is here! I am happy to announce that it has been a beautiful week here in the KG Republic! I don't know if it's here to stay quite yet, but it's been nice.
I haven't been able to make it to Bishkek in a while so you'll have to wait a bit longer on the Thailand pictures. I don't know if I've explained this before but Bishkek is where the Peace Corps office is and the Peace Corps office is where volunteers have free internet access. My other internet option is in Kant, at an internet cafe that charges by the megabyte. That's where I am right now. As you can imagine, uploading a bunch of pictures uses up a lot of megabytes so I am hesitant to do my big Thailand post at this cafe. But I figured I could give a mini update.. about, like, my life and stuff..
School is back in session. It's been an interesting week. I find myself struggling to get back into the routine of things, but I'm sure that will happen eventually. The fact that I'm about to take two more weeks off isn't going to help, however. Next week we have our PDM workshop (Project Design and Management) where we will learn how to write grants and get some projects started in our communities. The following week I will be participating in "Diversity Week". Diversity week is a week (duh) of seminars, conducted at a university in Naryn, focusing on teaching about/discussing American culture and life in the US. While I feel bad about missing two weeks of school right when it's back in session, I am excited to get the opportunity to work with university students. From what I hear, their English is fairly advanced and they will actually be interested in learning.. These two things are definitely missing from the high school teaching environment.. I am also excited, of course, about beginning to write my first grant! My school is in desparate need of supplies (some of our classes only have one text book that all the students have to share), so it will be nice to actually have adequate teaching supplies in the classroom.
Let's see.. what else is new..
One of my host family's cows had a baby a few days ago. It was so cute and so gross at the same time.
March 8th is Women's Day, so happy holidays to all the females who happen to be reading this!
I guess that's all. More soon!
I haven't been able to make it to Bishkek in a while so you'll have to wait a bit longer on the Thailand pictures. I don't know if I've explained this before but Bishkek is where the Peace Corps office is and the Peace Corps office is where volunteers have free internet access. My other internet option is in Kant, at an internet cafe that charges by the megabyte. That's where I am right now. As you can imagine, uploading a bunch of pictures uses up a lot of megabytes so I am hesitant to do my big Thailand post at this cafe. But I figured I could give a mini update.. about, like, my life and stuff..
School is back in session. It's been an interesting week. I find myself struggling to get back into the routine of things, but I'm sure that will happen eventually. The fact that I'm about to take two more weeks off isn't going to help, however. Next week we have our PDM workshop (Project Design and Management) where we will learn how to write grants and get some projects started in our communities. The following week I will be participating in "Diversity Week". Diversity week is a week (duh) of seminars, conducted at a university in Naryn, focusing on teaching about/discussing American culture and life in the US. While I feel bad about missing two weeks of school right when it's back in session, I am excited to get the opportunity to work with university students. From what I hear, their English is fairly advanced and they will actually be interested in learning.. These two things are definitely missing from the high school teaching environment.. I am also excited, of course, about beginning to write my first grant! My school is in desparate need of supplies (some of our classes only have one text book that all the students have to share), so it will be nice to actually have adequate teaching supplies in the classroom.
Let's see.. what else is new..
One of my host family's cows had a baby a few days ago. It was so cute and so gross at the same time.
March 8th is Women's Day, so happy holidays to all the females who happen to be reading this!
I guess that's all. More soon!
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