early october

Pic: My new coat...
I finally had my first professional haircut ever in my life. It was $4, slightly choppy, but solid. I do miss the hands of Sheri, however. At English Club last week, me and Sam had a mini dance workshop and choreographed something hideous for 20 kids, based on recycled moves from our teenage performances. The kids had fun, though some of my dance move ideas were rejected for reasons I'm not willing to admit. This past weekend me and a few peers had to sing a Kazakh love lullaby in front of all the teachers for Teacher's Day. It wasn't a complete disaster until everyone chose to follow up the song with an English church hymn. I went to a classical kazakh orchestra recently and it was very cool. There was an opera singer (who secretly picked at her nose on stage), lots of dombra action, and a jaw harp soloist. I find out my permanent site on the 9th! I'm hoping to get to be in the south, near a city, in a Kazakh speaking community, next to a bud or two. I'm logging this in my blog so I can have a good laugh and cry when my placement is the exact opposite.

On Halloween I will be taking a 42 hour train ride to Karagalinsk (I think the Kazakh version is Kargala), my new hometown. It may or may not mean “cow-ish”. It's 40 minutes outside Aktobe, a pretty big city in the northwest of Kazakhstan. I'm 40 hours from my best friend (and many others), in a very cold region (usually 25 below in the winter), in a small village of only 8,000, just 150 kilometers from the Russian border. I'll be teaching elementary and middle schoolers. Everything discussed so far is the the exact opposite of what I expressed interest in. Nonetheless, it could be fun. I'll be meeting my main co-teacher in a week. If she's pretty cool, I'll have some renewed enthusiasm.

After shopping with Sam yesterday (I bought a heavy duty winter coat), I was dehydrated and tired and had to stand for a long time on a super cramped bus. So...I blacked out on the bus. I had glazed eyes and swayed into a woman and couldn't respond when Sam spoke to me. The bus stopped for me and let me clumsily get off without paying (after someone unsuccessfully tried getting a granny to give her seat up for me). After recovering immediately with some fresh air and water, I realized it was actually pretty funny. I'll take better care of myself in the future.