Sunday, September 17, 2006

1 month down, 26 to go

Hey,
first off I now have a cell phone that can recieve incoming calls, however i cant call out of kazakhstan, my number is 0117 701 781 6712. For the last four weeks i've been spending about 7 hours a day learning Russian, everyday except for Sunday, where I try to get down to Almaty to use the internet or just return to civilization for a bit. Im living in a small village outside Almaty with a very nice Uyghur family who takes very good care of me. Theres a great view of the amazing mountain range with snow tipped peaks right outside my window and my family grows tons of fruits and vegetables which are all very delicious. So i am trying to overcome the diffuculties of the cultural divide by learning as much russian as I can, the classes help but its still difficult. Next week we are going to start team teaching with local teachers so that should be nice to get a taste of what teaching will be like. All the kids are really nice, they tend to gravitate towards me for some reason,running after me and calling my name, Kak Sam! Kak Sam!; i havent even met half of them. I live with four other volunteers in this village, they are all very nice and we get along well. Yesterday one of the other volunteers host brothers took us to the mountain ice skating rink called Medeo, the highest olympic size skating rink in the world. Its about 2400 M above sea level, and the temperature fdropped about25 degrees as we went up the mountain. The view at the top was amazing. I'll try to post some photos soon. Anyone whose reading this and wants to give me their home address, that would be greatly appreciated as I realized i lost alot of my addresses and when i have some freetime writing letters may be fun, and the only means of communication possibly afterr i leave training in 2 months.
-Sam

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fowley- 101 clark street Apt 8H Brooklyn New York 11201

Anonymous said...

shoot me a line whenever if you get the time
1815 26 road, apt 1, astoria, ny 11102

-keoki

Anonymous said...

yo narc, what the fuck is good, your blog is crazy, what your doing right now sounds insane-my address is

Matt Kaufman
198 Timber Ridge Drive
Staten Island, NY 10306

stay strong motherfucker
aekdb

-the count

Anonymous said...

such language -- does grandpa read this??

Anonymous said...

God speed sam...

J.Finch
10 Scout Hill Road
Mahopac NY, 10541

Anonymous said...

Good luck over there. We will be following your blog closely from the safety of our houses. I travel to Indai for a few days at a time and wonder how I would be able to handle long term immersion in a foreign country. You are doing what most people only wonder about. Hopefully you will be able to duck away from the village once in awhile and sort of "come up for air" in a bigger town or village.

Steve Hold
3 stonewood court
Warren, NJ 07059