Five days.

In five days we will be on a flight to America.  But, before that can happen we had to take care of a few things first.

Last Saturday our BRAND NEW volunteers arrived in Karaganda and so we met them at the train station with signs and smiling faces!  It was awesome and they looked bright eyed and ready to go!  I am super excited about our group of K-gan volunteers.  I think we will get a lot done this year just because of sheer energy alone.

This last week was Fall Break, which means the students had off, but the teachers still had to work.  I went into work three out of the five days.  Two of the three days were to plan for a seminar for the teachers and the last day was to actually GIVE the seminar.  This is one of my favorite things in Kazakhstan.  So far I’ve encouraged 3 locals (one from Satpaev, one from Zhez, and now, one from Karaganda) to present in English to their colleagues and all three have done an amazing job.  They are still a little rusty, but everything comes in time.  My teacher friend who came with me to counterpart conference was the presenter and she kept asking me, “Can I please do it in Russian?” and I said, “Nope.” But, of course, I would have let her if she really needed to… but she didn’t.  She is the youngest and newest teacher of the English staff, besides myself, and it was really important for her to do this.  She was SO happy and excited afterwards and that is why it is one of my favorite things in Kazakhstan.  Seeing in a teacher that they can still do new things and seeing their eyes light up like, “Wow, I didn’t know I had that in me!”  It’s amazing.

After the seminar, Nick and I board a train to ZHEZKAZGAN!  I really wanted to meet with the new volunteers down there before heading off to America for 45 days.  They are doing GREAT!  I am not worried at all about any of them.  I think they will find their groove and they’ve got great people to hang out with.  Nick and I had an absolute blast, when Nick wasn’t dying of some sickness he caught from somewhere…

We got to meet Nick’s counterpart again and she invited the entire cathedra (department) of English teachers to welcome Nick, which was awesome and kind of awkward because I had to be somewhere.  We had Mexican food prepared by the amazing Laura!  Also, she made oatmeal cookies, which were INCREDIBLE and we partook in the Disney Power Hour.  These kids can SING!  And Sagar would be proud… even though we were dying after all the food…

The morning after, we hosted everyone at Drew’s old place for breakfast.  We made apple cinnamon pancakes and eggs from things that were left over from Drew.  Thanks, Drew!  Also, Dr. Victor made a surprise appearance, just to check up on the new volunteers too!  It was great to share an American style homemade breakfast with him!

We were only there for one and 1/2 days and got back here on Sunday morning, just in time for a linner date with the new volunteers and some oldies.  :)  I made Hawaiian pizza and some kind of apple cobbler (that keeps becoming more and more delicious as the days go by).  It was great to talk with them and catch up on how their first week was.  I am really excited to work with them when we get back to Karaganda.

And so now.. we are five days away.  But first, I must complete three very, very important events.  Tomorrow I will knock out two of them.  One concert with the my 5th grade kiddos (about 90 students) and my 6th grade kiddos (another 90).  Each group will have their own concerts and I was in charge of music (!!!!) and poems/skits.  We had our rehearsal yesterday and it was SO ROUGH, but who knows how it will be tomorrow????? *fingers crossed*

On Thursday, I have a HUGE Fall Ball with 9th and 10th graders.  I don’t teach these students, but I’m really excited to do this competition with them.  They will be competing for Fall King and Fall Queen.  They have chosen two students from each class (one boy and one girl) to compete.  The nominees will go through a series of events including: fashion/creative show, recipe contest, talent show, best friend game, and Q/A session.  It should be fun, it’s just a lot of work… but again, fun.

Also, two of the new volunteers are coming to be judges which totally rocks my life!

After these things are over… we will be FREE to go to America and HANG OUT for 45 days!!! What what?!?!

The plan so far is to meet at the airport and then go out for MEXICAN FOOD!!!!

I’m excited.

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