T- T - T - TRAINING!!!!

Laura and company, I finally concede. I cannot live my life at a normal pace. I have managed, since my last blog post, to fill my days to the brim. This morning, I backed out of our training group’s weekly cultural field trip to preserve my own sanity. In my ‘free’ time, I went for a long run, took a longer shower (yes, I have a shower. I’m a spoiled brat), vacuumed my room, shook the rugs, did tons of laundry, refilled my water filter, and did the dishes. Mom, you probably wouldn’t recognize me; I now engage in household chores to relax. At 12, I will head to language training.

Thank goodness there is only one week of training left. That’s right. ONE WEEK. Then I will be a full fledged volunteer.

What does this mean? For one, this means a change in location. I will be moving from Anew, a small city outside of the capital into the heart of the capital, Ashgabat. I will be changing host families. Formalized language training will end. WOOT! And I will start teaching at my permanent site, the language university.

Asgabat, in case I haven’t told you, is big time. On Sundays, our one free day, most of the volunteers make the trek into the city so we are becoming more and more familiar with it’s ins and outs. It is a beautiful city full to brimming with tall, heavy, white buildings and Soviet style monuments. Everything is trimmed in green and gold. Once I make the big move, I will live in one of these tall white buildings near a monument affectionately nicknamed ‘8 legs.’ Thanks to irrigation, the streets are lined with trees. All of the trunks of these trees are painted a brilliant white for aesthetic purposes. The streets are well-paved and empty of traffic. It is a Houstonian’s dream come true! Because there are so few cars, all cars function as taxis. A taxi ride within the city costs about 66 cents. Also, perhaps the most exciting part, there is a big Russian population here. Why is this exciting? This means I will not stand out. Already, as long as I don’t open my mouth or move in big packs of volunteers, and if I wear my 1 koinik (traditional dress), I blend in! I’m working on the language thing.

A while back, all 43 of us new volunteers made permanent site visits. From our training sites (all clustered around the capital) we spread out around the country to meet our host families and permanent site counterparts. Some of us had a 24 train ride, some a 45 minute plane ride, some a 5 hour bus ride. I personally had a 30 minute taxi ride.

My new host family is great. I feel like I’ve been so lucky with host families! Knock HARD on wood. My current host family is wonderful: laid-back, kind, welcoming, and tolerant of my ignorance. There are 3 college students in my current family. In all of T-stan, there are approximately 4,000 college students. Lucky. Me. Very. Furthermore, my host sister speaks good English and has been plotting with me to start an Environmental club. Her excitement is rubbing off on me.

But back to my next host family . . .

My future host family consists of a younger couple, maybe around 35, and their three kids ages 10, 8, and 4 months. That’s right. Four months. They are also kind, welcoming, and tolerant of my American ignorance. Plus, they let me skip the whole guest stage (see previous blog). During my visit, I held the baby, sang to the baby (please avoid comments about horrible singing voice, thanks), cooked some Manti (steamed ravioli-like dumpling things), played frisbee, was sent to buy bread etc. I enjoyed my time with them.

The job. The job is INTENSE.

Note: Maybe I should stop with the block letters. I may come across as a hyper-emotional teenager. Then again, I feel a little bit like a hyper-emotional teenager here!

At the language institute, I will be replacing a current volunteer. She is fabulous and has truly paved the way for me. Thank you Toni if you happen to be reading this! This week and next week, instead of working in Anew I have been and will be commuting to Asgabat to get a jump start on the real job. So, I have been spending a good chunk of time picking her brain (and observing classes).

From what I understand, I will be teaching twenty different model lessons in twenty different classrooms with twenty different teachers and with twenty different groups of students every two weeks. HAHAHAHA. Breath. Ahhhh. It is daunting but surprisingly manageable. The exciting part is I get to teach pretty much anything I want. I will not be restricted by the required curriculum. Instead, my lessons will be viewed as supplementary. This set up doesn’t exactly meet Peace Corps request for sustainable projects, but I’m not about to start changing things before I figure out how the university works. My biggest worry, and it really isn’t very big thanks again to Dr. Heckelman and company, is proving myself as a teacher. Because I’m the same age as many of my students and younger than some and because Toni had many more years of teaching experience under her belt prior to this job, all eyes are on me. Oh, and classes are 80 minutes long. That is a long time.

Language learning: Continues. I’m frustrated.

Hypothesis: Afternoon coffee drinking correlates with level of frustration.
Observations:

When I drink coffee (by coffee I mean offbrand Nescafe packets with the word ‘STRONG’ in bold), my brain clears. I want to move quickly.

Procdures:

1. Stop drinking coffee.
2. Observe results. Or have someone else observe results if I am asleep.

In other news, I’m building a wardrobe. I have one dress made. One being made. And I recently bought a beautiful brown velvet fabric for parties. I will be so styling. Oh and I bought winter boots. It was a struggle. I searched long and hard to find the only pair of women’s boots in the biggest bazaar in Central Asia that would fit my enormous feet (thanks dad). They are hideous but so very warm. I am in love.

Finally, here are my current goals:

1. Learn Turkmen. Learn English Grammar. Learn Russian. In that order.
2. Floss Daily. Turkmen enjoy their sweets. Solely to integrate culturally, I have been indulging.
3. SLOW DOWN.

Sorry this is so long! There is so much to tell you!

Write me! Letters are amazing. Alternatively, send warm clothing.

Tess