Staging Ends

This blog is public, which means that anyone can view it and post a comment at the bottom. It also means that it will (presumably) be viewed by my family, friends, potential Peace Corps Volunteers, as well as people that I work with in Kazakhstan, and administrators in the Peace Corps itself (i.e. my bosses). My posts, therefore, will reflect the presumption that the abovementioned individuals will access this blog and read its contents, at least until the last post...

I am in Philadelphia. Tomorrow we embark on our epic journey to Kazakhstan. This is not as bad as I had originally thought. We have a break in the middle, and the flights, while long, are not excessive. We also get in very late to Kazakhstan. I don't recall what time we're getting up, but getting in late and tired will probably help us all adjust to the time zone change.

I am pleased to note that I am not the only person who has not yet mastered the Russian language, and so I shouldn't be behind everyone in the language. There are about 60 of us, which is quite a few people. We look quite a cluster when in a group and I'm sure we will look like a veritable horde tomorrow in the airport with our baggage (100 lbs per person limit).

The people are very nice, and the hotel is passable, though there is no free wireless in the rooms. The food in this area is very good, and it's been a good opportunity to eat delicious food. I had sushi today, and Cuban food yesterday. My goal is to have a Philly Cheesesteak tomorrow.

I'm having a lot of trouble remembering everybody. Hopefully it won't be representative also of my ability to learn the language. At the moment I'm leaning towards a preference for Kazakh, the national language. I would like to live in the northern part of the country where the weather is not quite so hot, and the facilitators have suggested that most people leave their service fluent or at least competent in both Russian and Kazakh. I think I can do a fair job of Russian grammar on my own, and I should be able to pick up the vocabulary from daily life, but I think I would benefit from directed language study in Kazakh. It is a less well-known language, so there are fewer resources to call upon when learning it myself.

They showed us some movies today in our long sessions which inspire one to reconsider the job. For the life of me I can't remember any specifics from this morning, but that is because I have been trying to memorize 60 names. Hopefully I will be able to edit this paragraph before I have time to post it, but we shall see.