This is me and Tobin with vladimir gashouta and a pie he fed us and a lot of other ridiculous things going on. This is from september,now i have a beard (cause i talked it over with my villages people and beards are acceptable,and my hair is getting longer)



New update day! Happy Halloween! This month had many things happen. A bunch of classes. I taught Planet Earth, The Great Plains episode to my class. They loved it. After my last class at Kerimbekov School I got a bunch of gifts from my class which included a mini dombra and a mini yurta so that’s pretty cool. Furthermore, I got more gifts than everyone else so whattup. I was allowed to use all the technology stuff in the school, probably because I’m an American, I never see anyone else being allowed to use it. After teaching week was done here and that went all well I had a week of meeting with my counterpart and conferences which were kind of boring, typical Peace Corps work. And they made me get a flu shot, my first ever, so when I get the flu for the first time ever we know who to blame, our PC doctor (who was the soviet military’s finest apparently back in the day and he’s filled with wonderful stories of the soviet union, Chernobyl, fighting in the Angolan war we know nothing about cause US media only talked about them invading Afghanistan, etc) The worst part was that it was optional but they had a list of everyone that needed to take it and for the rest was optional and the optional were like 2 people for some bizarre reasons. We also got to go to the Baraholka bazaar which is like a mile long and just filled with tons of things to buy. Seriously, it’s a mile long. Then at the conference I met my counterpart, Valentina Alekseevna Taradanova who has been teaching English for 27 years so hers is good. I’ll be working with her for the next 2 years at her school which is Akkol School Number 1. There are 4 schools in my village and 1 is at the orphanage. At the sanatorium (where the meetings were held) we had a party one night that was pretty fun and had some of the EDU volunteers at it. The next day I saw this sweet billboard in Almaty for some company called KUAT and underneath that in smaller letters Industries or something like that and I wanted to graffiti it into KUATO and cross out the other word to write LIVES, but it was like on a skyscraper so I can’t. It would be the best graffiti ever though. I explained to the two girls I was with how cool Total Recall is and they were like, yeah ok. So I don’t think they were that excited about it but they are probably super stoked. On that Saturday I boarded the 24 hour train to Akkol. I had a room with Sagar and both our counterparts and there were a total of 7 volunteers on my train and we’re all within 8 hours of each other along the same train line. I’m second to get off once we pass Astana. The train was fun and each stop sells some different product that everyone has to buy, especially Sagar’s colleague, so by the time I got to my stop the compartment was filled with all these things she bought, including a ton of smoked fish which infected the entire train, but everyone bought that at 1030 at the Balkash fish stop. We arrived the next day and I moved in right away with my new host family, her name is Galina and she has a husband and 2 daughters and a grandson but she lives by herself basically. Her husband works in the capital so stays there during the week with one of the daughters I think and then he comes home on weekends so the commute isn’t terrible. She is retired, used to be a principal(zavuch) and math teacher and tutors kids at home. The house is smaller than my present one but it’s nice and they have all the modern amenities that I can ask for like a washing machine and shower so I don’t care (and I think a banya in the backyard which is tite, hopefully their banya schedule is normal unlike my current situation so I can banya more). My bedroom is nice and I have a piano and a dombra to play in it, so I want to learn to play the dombra if possible. I just need to find someone to give me lessons once I learn enough Russian. At my school my students don’t wear uniforms so that’s cool and I have my own classroom with fancy desks with built in cassette players and headsets so I can do listening exercises on the new technology known as a tape cassette over here. I met most of my classes and most of the school staff. They have DSL that I can use. My Russian tutor is a Russian teacher and zavuch there and she’s real nice, named Svetlana, and doesn’t speak English. The best part was that in my classes with her is that I can’t use English as a crutch to talk to her so everything is in Russian and I was able to hold a conversation with her for an hour in each class. My Russian will get a lot better with her. I met a girl named Tatyana at site too; she’s 20 and studying English at university in Astana so it’s easy to talk with her. She showed me around town and we went to the Day of the Republic celebration that was in the town the week I was there. She knew my predecessor so I guess that’s how she found out I was coming, and I heard from my counterpart that there are other people around my age that want to meet me when I come back next week. It was cold everyday in the village. It’s a small village but really spread out. There’s a sweet forest on one side and then the other direction is just flat steppe forever. On the train I got to see the entire steppe, it’s really really flat. At least I have trees and like 1 hill in my town. There’s a lake to ice skate on and like a quarry to swim in during the summertime. It seems a lot better than Kaskelen so I’m excited, and my region is a good group of people to hang out with even though some are far away, there is a Thanksgiving party planned already and some other things. I came back here on the train and that was an adventure. Typical Peace Corps bullshit means that of course they bought the ticket for me and Jessie in the next town over (she described it as “it’s fucking cold Africa” but her town is a lot smaller than mine and a lot more rural and from the train just looked like a lot of frozen mud; we’re like the only people close to each other everyone else is a few hours away) a ticket from Astana but like early morning and we can’t afford to get a hotel in Astana for the night before and the train goes through our towns so why didn’t peace corps just buy us those tickets? Cause they suck or this was some secret test for us to pass. We had to sneak on and each bribe the conductor a 1000 tenge to let us on early and sit quietly in the dark until we got to Astana. It was annoying but an adventure and I learned how to join the excellent system of corruption that is in place in Kazakhstan.(this is typical PC bs, first they make us read a book about corruption and how to be legit in a corrupt society, then they like force us to be a part of it, gg US government, we love you) On the train ride back this dude was with us and he was pretty awesome. He’s Kazakh and has 2 PhDs (math and economics) and works for World Bank. His kids go to boarding schools in Europe and his main house is in Paris. We talked to him for a few hours about a bunch of things like politics, Borat, Kazakhstan, the US, and a variety of other topics. It was pretty sweet. Other people on the trains thought we were spies and we were like “why would America send spies to spy on all the children in school and teach them English? And why would we spy on Kazakhstan anyway?” so that was exciting. We got back to Kaskelen the next day and had a little get together at the local bar then bed. Grandpa was still here when I woke up and was getting ready for school so I hung out with him at breakfast so that was kinda cool, he’s always up for talking in Russian and Kazakh then he went back to his home. I had more lessons and a teacher training seminar I taught teachers at, I think they tried to marry me to one of them but I did a spin move and everyone became confused and their plan failed – btw I think I just successfully introduced the spin move to Kazakhstan. I made KZ’s best jack-o-lantern during the week and when the power went out I was able to use it to light the house, so it was practical too. It was KZ’s only jack-o-lantern I think and everyone that saw it at my house was like WHOA WHATS THIS! Cause we Americans are weird. I taught some English this week too. We made spaghetti with real tomato sauce the one night and watched the Goonies and tonight a bunch of us from both EDU and OCAP are going into Almaty for the weekend because it’s our last weekend before we all split up.

Ok we went to Almaty, 11(of 38) from EDU went and 13(of 17-I think) from OCAP. That’s the best part because I haven’t seen OCAP since like September and they’re all awesome. We rented 2 apartments, went to a bar and hung out there and it only ended up costing me like 1000 tenge, which is like 8 bucks to stay the night in the city which is generally expensive. We had a lot of fun but most of the EDU didn’t hang out with the OCAP group which was just kind of weird and stuff but whatever, I got to see all the other people which was great for me, not like the same other 3 people I see every day. Hotard was the MVP (I know he reads this so I had to give him a shout out) because we basically just hung out together and goofed off until he passed out on the table and had to stumble home. We played some quarters but with a 50 tenge piece and found out the truth behind OCAP gossip stories and them the truth about EDU gossip stories. Swearing in ceremony is on Friday and Monday is my language test to see my level (nailed it) and on FridayI have a 1 way ticket to Siberia.


I’ll need someone to call me as soon as the results of the election are in. Oh, I heard the Phillies won, which is like the worst news ever because I hate them. I would’ve preferred if the Sox won again. That was pretty heartbreaking news, probably the worst news I’ve heard all year, like any other team could’ve won and I wouldn’t care, but the Phillies? Seriously, what’s wrong with American baseball these days. Funny things happened but this update I didn’t have my laptop with me, like at site, to keep all the info for good stories so bummerton. Oh I learned how to say my bad and bummer in Russian, so that’s cool. Oh the train I was on was like Goldeneye, it was so cool, and the engine looked like it was freshly painted green with a bright red star on the front, good to know the CCCP is still kicking strong here. Send questions and I’ll answer them, next time I’ll try to write about how the Soviet Union was awesome and how my town is so soviet-like, if that’s an adjective. Oh and there was the BBC on in Almaty and they had a great video clip for both Obama and McCain and it shows Obama making a speech and very professional and poised and then McCain is kind of jerking awkwardly and spazzing out on stage and seemed to have no control of his body movements, it looked hilarious. I heard Obama is killing in Jersey by like 20 points or something. Oh I’ve been watching the KXL (continental hockey league) over here and its awesome, Jagr plays for Ohmsk and Astana has a team in the league.
Oh and I saw all the billboards in Almaty for the new James Bond movie but its in Russian here and that sucks, I might just go see it anyway and try to understand it, when I get to site, I can visit Astana on a weekend and hit the movie theater if its not too expensive, or attempt to find a bootleg copy. Bond is like super popular here and I’m like “did u all see the ones when he fought the soviets? And they’re all like what? So they don’t really know most of the really old ones when the soviet union was our evil archenemy, but then again the spy that loved me was from the CCCP so its not anti-soviet propaganda in bond, only just a few references but it usually ended up being a rogue soviet person working with terrorists so no big deal, they should play those over here. Just about all of the bootlegs are overdubbed so like u can kinda hear the English and its just distracting, not like the quality bootlegs of southeast asia. Astana could be better though because that city is more popular with foreigners due to it being the new capital and business center, etc. Oh and did anyone see the oliver stone movie about bush? And is it funny or just stupid?
Oh peace corps Bolivia was shut down, we had 3 more people quit for a total of 8 now, but that’s still less than last years group, and we got news from other groups and like pc Nigeria I think it was lost like 50% of their volunteers for this years group already. Oh theres a flat Stanley program thing some girl in PC palau or something is doing with her students over here to Kazakhstan and other countries, which is awesome, and seriously how do u get into pc palau? I’m in Siberia and they live on the most beautiful beaches in the world, I met 2 former Tanzania pc volunteers that teach at an international school in almaty and they wondered how we did it, our training is like twice as long as everyone elses and it’s the worst part and terrible and then like its October and freezing and like winter comes until may and it gets to -40 at site, that’s like when Fahrenheit is equal to Centigrade, but I do get school closed for excess cold which is cool, if its too dangerous to send the kids to walk to school they’ll cancel it, last year satpaev had an entire month cancelled apparently due to the conditions, and other pc groups don’t really do the homestay program like ours so they can live on their own, and I’m like, oh I live with a babushka in Siberia, but after 6months, I can move out if possible, but im not in a city so theres really nowhere to go, and I wouldn’t even know how to like get coal furnaces to work and stuff so I don’t freeze to death, plus the added bonus of having all my meals prepared for me does make life easier, even though the food is all the same, like its winter now that means we’ll be eating borscht. Never in my life have I eaten this much cabbage and beets, I don’t think I even ate those before I came to Siberia, and I’m pretty sure borscht and other Russian and Kazakh foods have no nutritional value but pc hooked me up with vitamins so that’s good at least to prevent from all other illnesses sans the flu, cause I know I’ll end up getting that now.

Music video to check for on YouTube, rumadai – arsenium (its like I choreographed the dances to marcs greatest song ever into the best possible video), and then there is one insane one featuring a group called fast food and some DJ, you’ll know what it is if you can find it, these are mainly for marc, I know he’ll love them oh and he should also try to find this sweet ice dancing video I saw choreographed to tatu’s theyre not gonna get us, but whatever it’s called in Russian, that was pretty tite if its online somewhere