3/31
I moved into my host family's home after the matching ceremony (aka the most nerve wracking moment of my life). Thankfully, they know some English and have been sooo helpful with language! The family and I each have a russian to english dictionary and that has been a huge help. I've been carrying a small notebook around to write down new words that I learn so it doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. My host mother asked to see my language notes and went over things with me from training (aka I need to work on my spelling and definitely my handwriting).
The food is great! Not sure what i've been eating but I'm enjoying it for sure! The first night, my one of my host sisters made pizza! It really made me feel welcome. My host mother has 4 children (one older son and 3 daughters). Her two youngest daughters live at the house (age 16 and 7). I’ll meet her oldest daughter this weekend when she visits. I played cards with them to practice my numbers (not sure what game we played or what the rules were but I've got my numbers down haha). Almost forgot to mention that I'm living with chickens too haha they live outside of course. All the families in the village have farm animals and uses dogs for security instead of pets.
It's definitely a great experience so far! I feel super overwhelmed in language classes but hopefully after 11 wks (6 times a week) i'll be able to get a good enough grasp on things. My LCF (language/ culture facilitator), Usen, took my group to one of the markets in the village and taught us words for different foods. Fun times.
My ipod has been a great comfort blanket. Nice to listen to familiar sounds. Missed the memo on bringing a kindle and wish I figured out how to get movies on my computer before I left the states. Either way I'm surviving and have lots of studying and host family time to keep me busy. Still don’t have a cell phone and will probably only have internet twice a month. Surprisingly, I don’t feel as disconnected as I thought I would!

4/1
After getting lost on my way back to training after my lunch break, my house mom drew me a map that consisted of the two streets I have to walk down to get from point A and point B. Feel like I’ve mastered my route, just got the rest of the village to cover. Today, Usen gave us a mini village tour and saving the rest of the village for another day. We saw lots of little grocery stores, city hall (where some of last years riots were), pharmacy, hostpital, hair solon, and a billard hall/ café. This village is hopping haha. Even a monument for soldiers that died in WW2 who lived in the village and read in both Kyrgyz and Russian, “Never forget, nothing forgot.”
I haven’t been here that long but have been receiving lots of looks like I don’t fit in. Little kids will point and say what is that, people will go silent when I walk by, and cars will even slow down to check out the American. It’s kind of humorous.
Even though I’ve lost my concept of time, the concept of having language training on a Saturday doesn’t sound fun, especially since I have a mini test. Need to get my study on! Keeping my fingers crossed I get the piece that’s missing for my water filter tomorrow. The emergency water supply in my medical kit is starting to get low and thinking I should probs get more bottled water soonish. So until then I’ll be pounding some tea to stay hydrated. Word among volunteers is that our water purifying tabs are gross. Miss clean tap water and automatically heated water.

4/4
I was enjoying the beautiful spring weather that we've been having until the temperature randomly decided to drop and snow. Hopefully it warms up soon. Oh well. I got to spend the day watching titanic dubbed over in Russian and some other american movies and tv shows. I wish they had english sub titles haha especially today when one of my favorite shows, sex and the city, came one. Guess it'll be my motivation to understand the language. Feel like I have the vocab of a 2 year old.
Today, I definitely realized that I was no longer in the states. On my way to language training in the morning, I almost got stampeded by a bull. Luckily, it slid to a stop a few feet away from me. I was wide awake after that. Then on my way home for lunch break I got chased by an angry dog. Not my day with the animals.
Other than that... just attempting to catch up on sleep and getting into the swing of things here. Crossing my fingers I get my cell phone soon so I can stay in touch with other volunteers outside of my village, not to mention I still need to call home! Also, I need the part to my water filter that I've been missing so I don't use up all of my emergency bottled water and purification tabs. I'm hoping medical has it on Wednesday when I go in for more shots. Fun stuff!

4/5
Woohoo for clean water! My water filter is up and running! Haha
So excited for hub day tomorrow/ aka the first time all 43 of us will be reunited again, after moving in with our host families! Can’t wait to see everyone! Every Wednesday all of the volunteers meet up for culture, safety, and health classes. Should be exciting.
Found out that we won't be getting our phones for probs another 2 weeks. Seriously cannot wait!
I have such a great view! Huge snow covered mountains that put the rocky’s to shame. I can’t believe that it took me almost a week to notice a huge mountain range right in front of me.

“If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever” Winnie the pooh

4/10
I got 4 more shots on Wednesday but silver lining was they gave us juice boxes again afterward! Yay! It was a lot of fun getting to see everyone that the day went by too fast. That evening we got to go to the internet cafe in Kant city for a quick 10 minutes (was bummed I didn't save a lot of my emails in the right format on my usb for time efficient copy and paste). Oh well it happens. Our LCF took us on a mini tour of the city, including the local bazar. Definitely the biggest highlight of the day was getting mail from my rents! It was a great pick me up.
Thursday was an interesting day. The entire health promotion group got together went to the school in my village to talk about simple healthy lifestyle practices (hand washing, teeth brushing, clean water, ect). Thank goodness we had translators with us or else that could have been a huge mess. The kids had sooo many questions about America and at the end of it asked for all of our autographs. One kid even had us sign his soccer ball.
Friday night I did my laundry for the first time in 2 weeks, all by hand. Yup, it all had to air out on the clothes line. Let’s just say that Victoria’s secret is out in Kyrgyzstan. That was definitely another step out of my comfort zone, gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
So weird how Sunday it was snowing and by Wednesday it was in the 70s. Hopefully the nice weather is here to stay. To switch things up, some of our language lessons have been outside so I'm finally starting to get some color. Saturday afternoon, after language classes, my language group and I went to the school to play some football, as they call it here. A few local kids even came over and joined our “game”. Having fun but can't wait to not have to deal with the language barrier.
One of my family’s chickens seems to have it out for me. Two days in a row it’s tried to attack me. I’m waiting for the day that it’s dinner. Knowing my luck that day won’t be coming home soon. Oh well at least my host family is getting entertainment from me running away from chickens. Haha
Today was a great afternoon! Our K-18 peer mentors organized a sports day for all of us! It was so much fun to hangout with everyone. We sang the American national anthem before our “football” game (not sure how culturally sensitive that was but guess we all needed to not feel so far away from home). We also fit in a game of ultimate Frisbee which got pretty intense. Really hoping it turns into a Sunday afternoon tradition!

4/16
Had a busy and fun week! My language group started a “lunch time rotation.” All of us are living with host families from different cultural backgrounds so we’re getting tastes of foods from different countries. (Uzbeck, Kyrgyz (my host family), Russian, and Turkish). Lots of good food! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it becomes a regular occurance haha.
Wednesday, I finally got my cell phone! It’s a crazy complicated phone but hopefully I figure out how to work it asap! Incoming calls are free for me so skype call me! Soooo exciting to finally be connected with everyone! It’s going to be a fun weekend!
Thursday, the health volunteers got to go into Bishkek for some meetings (women’s health clinic, missionary of health, and Peace Corps office). It was our first time at the Peace Corps office! Super exciting! (high security building!). They have such a beautiful garden outside of the security office and before you walk into the building. Had a great meeting there about the HIV/AIDS situation in country. Learned lots!
Friday, all of the K-19s went into Bishkek for a city tour and PC office tour. Our chaperone took us to an amazing pizza place and then walked us around for a few hours before it was our groups turn to visit the PC office. Since we didn’t see everything we were supposed to our LCF is taking us back for a language and culture lesson next Sunday.
Today, after language and lunch my buddy and I went to the village next to ours (kangesh) to meet up with some volunteers. It was a lot of fun to be out of our village and just relaxing. Also, it was sooo nice to watch my first American movie in country! (been watching too many dubbed over movies and tv shows… was great to finally be able to understand what I was watching!)
Sunday, have our volunteer sports day in Luxenburg! Super excited to play some ultimate Frisbee and football international! Keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t rain!

4/19
I finally got to call home!!!! I got an international sim card and figured out how to activate it! Was really great to catch up with the rents, wish our conversation didn’t fly by so fast! Definitely, a huge highlight for me!
I have a language progress check sometime this week so definitely stressing out about that! Lot’s of studying to do!
Monday after a super stressful day of language my buddy and I went to kangesh for a quick movie and my first coke in country (sadly it was not as good as it is in the states… guess I won’t be drinking a lot of soda here)! It was what we needed before hitting the books.
My host chickens still hate me. So embarrassing that I frequently get attacked by chickens haha my host family is probably getting a kick out of it haha. Gotta love it.
Other than that… looking forward to Bishkek on Sunday/ easter. Also, can’t wait to see how Kyrgyzstan celebrates the holiday! Saturday, all of the K-19s are going to volunteer are going to spend the day volunteering at an orphanage in Kirshulk! Should be a fun time!
Missing everyone in the states and hope all is well!!!! Thinking of everyone!

“You never really leave a place or person you love, part of them you take with you, leaving a part of yourself behind”

3/31

I moved into my host family's home after the matching ceremony (aka the most nerve wracking moment of my life). Thankfully, they know some English and have been sooo helpful with language! The family and I each have a russian to english dictionary and that has been a huge help.  I've been carrying a small notebook around to write down new words that I learn so it doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. My host mother asked to see my language notes  and went over things with me from training (aka I need to work on my spelling and definitely my handwriting).

The food is great! Not sure what i've been eating but I'm enjoying it for sure! The first night, my one of my host sisters made pizza! It really made me feel welcome. My host mother has 4 children (one older son and 3 daughters). Her two youngest daughters live at the house (age 16 and 7). I’ll meet her oldest daughter this weekend when she visits. I played cards with them to practice my numbers (not sure what game we played or what the rules were but I've got my numbers down haha). Almost forgot to mention that I'm living with chickens too haha they live outside of course. All the families in the village have farm animals and uses dogs for security instead of pets.

 It's definitely a great experience so far! I feel super overwhelmed in language classes but hopefully after 11 wks  (6 times a week) i'll be able to get a good enough grasp on things. My LCF (language/ culture facilitator), Usen, took my group to one of the markets in the village and taught us words for different foods. Fun times.

My ipod has been a great comfort blanket. Nice to listen to familiar sounds. Missed the memo on bringing a kindle and wish I figured out how to get movies on my computer before I left the states. Either way I'm surviving and have lots of studying and host family time to keep me busy. Still don’t have a cell phone and will probably only have internet twice a month. Surprisingly, I don’t feel as disconnected as I thought I would!

4/1

After getting lost on my way back to training after my lunch break, my house mom drew me a map that consisted of the two streets I have to walk down to get from point A and point B. Feel like I’ve mastered my route, just got the rest of the village to cover. Today, Usen gave us a mini village tour and saving the rest of the village for another day. We saw lots of little grocery stores, city hall (where some of last years riots were), pharmacy, hostpital, hair solon, and a billard hall/ café. This village is hopping haha. Even a  monument for soldiers that died in WW2 who lived in the village and read in both Kyrgyz and Russian, “Never forget, nothing forgot.”

I haven’t been here that long but have been receiving lots of looks like I don’t fit in. Little kids will point and say what is that, people will go silent when I walk by, and cars will even slow down to check out the American. It’s kind of humorous.

Even though I’ve lost my concept of time, the concept of having language training on a Saturday doesn’t sound fun, especially since I have a mini test. Need to get my study on! Keeping my fingers crossed I get the piece that’s missing for my water filter tomorrow. The emergency water supply in my medical kit is starting to get low and thinking I should probs get more bottled water soonish. So until then I’ll be pounding some tea to stay hydrated. Word among volunteers is that our water purifying tabs are gross. Miss clean tap water and automatically heated water.

4/4

I was enjoying the beautiful spring weather that we've been having until the temperature randomly decided to drop and snow. Hopefully it warms up soon. Oh well. I got to spend the day watching titanic dubbed over in Russian and some other american movies and tv shows. I wish they had english sub titles haha especially today when one of my favorite shows, sex and the city, came one. Guess it'll be my motivation to understand the language. Feel like I have the vocab of a 2 year old.

Today, I definitely realized that I was no longer in the states. On my way to language training in the morning, I almost got stampeded by a bull. Luckily, it slid to a stop a few feet away from me. I was wide awake after that. Then on my way home for lunch break I got chased by an angry dog. Not my day with the animals.

Other than that... just attempting to catch up on sleep and getting into the swing of things here. Crossing my fingers I get my cell phone soon so I can stay in touch with other volunteers outside of my village, not to mention I still need to call home! Also, I need the part to my water filter that I've been missing so I don't use up all of my emergency bottled water and purification tabs. I'm hoping medical has it on Wednesday when I go in for more shots. Fun stuff!

4/5

Woohoo for clean water! My water filter is up and running! Haha

So excited for hub day tomorrow/ aka the first time all 43 of us will be reunited again, after moving in with our host families! Can’t wait to see everyone! Every Wednesday all of the volunteers meet up for culture, safety, and  health classes. Should be exciting.

Found out that we won't be getting our phones for probs another 2 weeks. Seriously cannot wait!

I have such a great view! Huge snow covered mountains that put the rocky’s to shame. I can’t believe that it took me almost a week to notice a huge mountain range right in front of me.

4/10

I got 4 more shots on Wednesday but silver lining was they gave us juice boxes again afterward! Yay! It was a lot of fun getting to see everyone that the day went by too fast. That evening we got to go to the internet cafe in Kant city for a quick 10 minutes (was bummed I didn't save a lot of my emails in the right format on my usb for time efficient copy and paste). Oh well it happens. Our LCF took us on a mini tour of the city, including the local bazar. Definitely the biggest highlight of the day was getting mail from my rents! It was a great pick me up.

Thursday was an interesting day. The entire health promotion group got together went to the school in my village to talk about simple healthy lifestyle practices  (hand washing, teeth brushing, clean water, ect). Thank goodness we had translators with us or else that could have been a huge mess. The kids had sooo many questions about America and at the end of it asked for all of our autographs. One kid even had us sign his soccer ball.

Friday night I did my laundry for the first time in 2 weeks, all by hand. Yup, it all had to air out on the clothes line. Let’s just say that Victoria’s secret is out in Kyrgyzstan. That was definitely another step out of my comfort zone, gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

So weird how Sunday it was snowing and by Wednesday it was in the 70s. Hopefully the nice weather is here to stay. To switch things up, some of our language lessons have been outside so I'm finally starting to get some color. Saturday afternoon, after language classes, my language group and I went to the school to play some football, as they call it here. A few local kids even came over and joined our “game”. Having fun but can't wait to not have to deal with the language barrier.

One of my family’s chickens seems to have it out for me. Two days in a row it’s tried to attack me. I’m waiting for the day that it’s dinner. Knowing my luck that day won’t be coming home soon. Oh well at least my host family is getting entertainment from me running away from chickens. Haha

Today was a great afternoon! Our K-18 peer mentors organized a sports day for all of us! It was so much fun to hangout with everyone. We sang the American national anthem before our “football” game (not sure how culturally sensitive that was but guess we all needed to not feel so far away from home).  We also fit in a game of ultimate Frisbee which got pretty intense. Really hoping it turns into a Sunday afternoon tradition!

4/11
just had my site placement interview! keep your fingers crossed i get a sweeeeettt site!!! I should find that out in a few weeks!

side note... curfew of 6pm and will later change to 9pm for the rest of the time... interesting. def another adjustment haha

Finally Here

I left for the airport around 430/5am on Friday morning for my flight to Philadelphia. Had Peace Corps Staging meetings from 12-7pm to make sure that all 46 of us were prepared for what to expect  for our first few days,weeks, and months in Kyrgyz. It was so cool to meet people who had been going through the same application and waiting process. I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone and really excited about the group going! Most of the other volunteers are teaching english as a foreign language, about 5 or 6 are going to be working to help set up local businesses and such, and the remaining 6 (such as myself) are working to promote health education.
All of us are getting on a bus this morning (Saturday) at 9:30am to depart for our flight to Istanbul at JKF (ironic that we are leaving from an airport named after the same man who started the Peace Corps government program). Then from Istanbul we will fly another 6 or so hours to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan!! Landing at 2:15am on Monday morning we are expected to be dressed in business casual. That same day at 7:30am we start our Peace Corps Training (8hrs a day M-F). Not much time to get over jet lag haha.
Overall I still cannot fathom how different my life will be in only a few short hours but now even more excited about the experience and all of the amazing things I will learn.  I've just need to remember to appreciate the small victories, however I choose to define them. I also need to remember how that it will be difficult at times, so patience, persistence, flexibility, and humor will take me a long way. Most importantly I need to always remember to have faith in all of my doubts.

As for now I get to look forward to lugging my luggage around. Some how the over-packer in me managed to bring  2 checked bags (duffel suit case weighing 46lbs and a backpack weighing 32 lbs) and one carry on tote (stuffedddd with clothes for the first few days (in case my bags are lost or delayed), my laptop, and extra documents.

Can't wait to see everyone in 27 months and catch up!

"Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone." Robert Allen

Final Count Down

Can't believe that I am flying away in only a few days! I'm so excited and nervous for this new chapter in my life. I have faith in my doubts and know I'll be able to eventually over come any obstacle in my path. I'm going to miss everyone so much but am so fortunate to have so many heart warming memories to visit!

I've spent the last few weeks saying my goodbyes and doing things I know I will miss. I visited OU, ate almost everything "Athenian" and tried to relive my college days with some old friends. My mom made a delicious early Thanksgiving dinner last and celebrated my dad's birthday a few weeks early. I've set aside birthday and Christmas cards for while I'm away. Finished of the winter broomball season with my team.

All that's left to do is: finish moving out my room, attempt to pack two 50lbs bags of luggage (clothing, shoes, essentials, ect), triple check paper work and documents, print off pictures, get a few last minute things, and continue to enjoy life in the states.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two friends"

Prologue

I would not trade the four years I spent at Ohio University for anything, and wish that those days would go on forever. Sadly, life moves forward whether we think we are ready for it or not. So now it is time for me to put my best foot forward and embark upon one of life's greatest adventures, life after college.

During my senior year I decided I wanted to work abroad before starting graduate school. After researching my options I:  applied, interviewed, got nominated, and finally received an assignment from the Peace Corps. A little over a year after receiving my nomination, I will be going to Kyrgyz Republic to work as a Health Educator for 27 months.

For now, I will continue to wait for my departure date, March 25th, and get myself as prepared as possible for this experience. Learning the about the language, region, and culture, editing my packing list, visiting friends, and soaking up western culture.



"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste each experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt