V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, we're gonna have some fun.

Does anybody know that song? I have had it on my mind for a few days now. If you haven't guessed Alex and I are on vacation. We are spending Christmas and New Year with our family in Italy/Spain. So far it has been wonderful. It has been amazing to spend time with our families in such a beautiful, developed place. Not to knock Kyrgyzstan; but running water, refrigeration, heat that happens without work on my part, and complicated food has been a really nice break for me.

We have been busy since we have arrived. Mostly, catching up with family and traveling. We first spend a action packed day in Rome and saw most of the major sites in a very leisurely manner. It was really nice being there in December without crowds. My absolute favorite site was the Sistine Chapel, absolutely amazing. It made me cry. We've also visited Parma which is a wonderful place to eat. I mean, they invented parmigian cheese and prosciutto. Also, you can buy a great bottle of wine for 3 Euro. Today we went to Florence which is also amazing. I feel like I should generally be telling you more about these places but, I think I'm still taking it all in. I guess the things making me happy are my family, the Sistine Chapel, cheese, and red wine. Thanks Italy! Here's a little bit more detail in the form of images.

http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=7606386

Кыш келди—Winter has come

I just walked to the outhouse in the rain. When I opened the door to leave the outhouse it had begun to snow---quite surprising. Anyway, its winter. I wear thermals everyday and we are regularly using our coal stove to warm our house.

This is the first week in a few in which I feel that things are going really well. I have been talking to my friend Roxanna about a health secondary project which I am getting excited about; we're doing a training for Vice Principals on Thursday to get started. I'm also working on talking to the local government about starting weekly teacher trainings for English teachers next year. I am also working on getting a regional resource center in our village and a possible solar heating project. Anyway, it now seems that I'm hitting a stride. For some reason, when Peace Corps told us it would be a while before we truly adjusted and became productive I didn't really understand what they meant. Well, now I do. Anyway, things are starting to move forward---Yay for progress!

Oh---here's a tangent---I ate horse! Can you believe that? It was tasty but not better than other meats I think. It may be that it wasn't especially good as it was cold and not spiced at all (most meat is cooked in Kyrgyzstan by putting it in a giant pot of water and boiling it). A friend of mine actually at wolf which was a bit of a mind trip to think about.

In not work or strange meat related news, I went to a party for a teacher's birthday this past weekend which was really fun. It was the first gathering of Kyrgyz people that I really felt comfortable at which was nice. I think its that I know have gotten to know the staff a bit and that my Kyrgyz is good enough that I'm not entirely confused by most conversation. I've also begun to start learning Russian. Its been a good way to give my brain some exercise. And....its almost Thanksgiving! We're having a big Talas volunteer thanksgiving in Talas city which promises to be delicious and fun. I've gotten close with the Talas crew and am always exciting to spend time with them all. I can definitely see how people have lifelong friendships after doing Peace Corps together. You experience an amazing strange two years in which you and your perceptions change on a daily basis. Pretty crazy/scary/wonderful.

On the 12th of December we will be heading to Bishkek for Program Management & Design conference. Should be interesting. I'm excited that the whole thing will be in Kyrgyz—there's never enough language practice. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with the information and would be bored in English. I'll try to upload more picture while I'm in the city so keep an eye out for that. We're also getting ready for our trip to Italy/Spain with our families which is more exciting than I can describe. Wine, cheese, vegetables... I can barely imagine it

I have really bad internet!

If you're reading this thank Adora...

because she posted this for me! We are about to have elections and there's a fair amount of blocks on news and the sorts. Whatever is going on, I can't update from here. Anyway, I decided to let you guys know a little about various parts of Kyrgyz culture that has been greatly changed by the long Soviet presence in the country. Anyway, I hope its interesting.

Vodka

Before the Russian arrival in Kyrgyzstan the only form of alcoholic beverage was Kumuz, a fermented mares milk drink. Sounds weird, but it's delicious once you get used to it. Once vodka (or arak as it is called locally) was introduced it became a major part of culture. At any party or gathering there are many bottles of vodka (I mean a lot... like 5 bottles for 7 people). Alcoholism has become a big problem in the area. Anyway, this relates to us in that we have come up with some very innovative excuses to leave parties early! It's been pretty silly and sometimes frustrating.

Farming

Back in the day, Kyrgyz people were nomadic herders. When the Soviets came they introduced farming techniques and required the Kyrgyz people to settle and farm. This aspect of Soviet influence is huge in Bakai Ata as most people are farmers, specifically bean and potato farmers. Our family had 16 hectares (aka. A lot) of land most of which is bean farm. The rest is potato farm and some assorted vegetables for home use. Their spring, summer, and fall are consumed by work on their land. Last weekend we helped harvest 5 tons of potatoes and 2 tons of carrots. It was a ton of work but it was really nice to be able to help out the family. Unfortunately, most of the harvest was ruined by an early frost. This has been tough for our (and many other) family. Of what was salvageable, we purchased 80 kilos (175 lbs) of potatoes and carrots for the winter for about $20. Crazy right?

Critical thinking

One of the things we talk about in training is the lack of critical thinking skills taught here in Kyrgyzstan. I didn't really understand how this effective life until recently. For example, when I garden or really do anything I'm always thinking about how to do things better or more efficiently. Some of that is just me being weird, but most Americans are taught to think a few steps ahead. That is definitely not the case here. Farming styles have not changed at all since the Soviets have left. Things just mostly go on the same way. The biggest and most frustrating example came when we were painting our house, to me it made sense to clean everything before we painted the house white, but evidently people always paint first so that's what we did. That said, it isn't necessarily bad that things aren't constantly evolving. It's mostly just different from what I know.

Here's where I put a summary right? Today from what I have understood, people are working really hard to find what makes them Kyrgyz. There's an increased pride in Kyrygz language, Kyrygz food, and Kyrgyz music. The elections are coming up and everyone is talking about what Kyrgyzstan is and what it stands for. All and all, its an interesting time.

We have officially passed the 6 month mark...

October is on it's way and the winds have gotten cold here in Bakai-ata. School is starting (again) after the apple/potato/bean harvest break and we are finished with most of our canning! Right now we are making chutneys and kim-chee to add some flavor to the winter. Thanks to our families we have a nice array of spices to work with and our food is starting to get spicy again. We've also stocked up on a lot of dry ingredients for the winter which has been interesting. Its strange to see 50 kilograms of anything in a place other than Costco.

Last week we had our in-service training for Peace Corps. A lot was review, but we had some really great language lessons. We also had a chance to meet with some of the US Embassy staff as the visited the American corner (resource center in Talas city). They have asked me to start a monthly club for some Talas city students about volunteerism and community service; I think it will be really interesting. In other work related new, I am going to start teaching a yoga class in our village and am working on a grant to buy textbooks for our village schools and do a two day teacher training for the English teachers. Finally, Alex and I are are working with 4 other volunteers to conduct reproductive health trainings for students all over the oblast. What I am saying is, I am finally starting to feel productive!

Alex and I have been doing quite well over all. We are settled into our home and now have a regular work schedule. We've been watching the show “The Wire” which, as everyone has been telling me for years, is amazing. We both are really looking forward to seeing our families in Italy (I cannot wait to taste red wine again!) Right now we are in Bishkek for a few days, after we head back to the village to start school again.

Well, I know the next thing I normally attach are pictures but---I didn't take any! I've been obsessed with trying to get a picture of this super pretty woodpecker and have failed to take other pictures. I promise extra picture s next time I update.

We moved!

I have just begun my 6^th month in Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, can you believe it? It's September and the weather is starting to get cooler. The trees are full of apples and plums and a strange vine with wispy flowers that seem to belong underwater has appeared on all the bushes. Alex and I have finally moved into our new home! It is a little house right next to our families home and is absolutely wonderful. The last few days have been spent moving in and getting comfortable. We have some great old wooden furniture that our host family is letting us use and a functioning mini-kitchen. I am attaching a few pictures of the house to this post. I think Claire explained its aura the best---it feels sort of like being on the frontier. Not that life is all that hard, we have stores and live behind a post office; but its quiet, we haul our own water, and our heating is a huge coal stove. When you look out the window you see kids herding cows and donkeys pulling carts and at night it's truly dark out. On the other hand, every once in awhile you hear Lady Gaga (or that ridiculous song that goes “I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude, but tonight..” well you know) wafting out of someones car. It's a strange world.

On to interested events. In mid-August we had a rayon wide teachers meeting at which I taught a lesson on lesson planning to the English teachers and mostly followed the rest of the seminar (yay for improving Kyrgyz). August 30^th was a big day in Bakai Ata; it was the 75^th anniversary of our village, Ayt, and the 200^th anniversary of the death , or birth—I'm not quite sure, of Kurmanjian Jatka (not sure if I spelled that correctly). She is a national hero that lived in the Alai Mountains and became an Islamic tribal leader, as a woman!, and united many tribes under her against several invasions. She has a really interesting story, Wikipedia her if you have time. Anyway, there was a big parade on the main street in which the schools, local government staff, fire fighters, police officers, etc were represented. Alex and I marched with our schools. Everyone got dressed up in fancy clothing or Krygyz national dress. Alex and I got there on time and ended up waiting two hours for everyone to trickle in only to find out that the parade walked one block! It was quite silly. Afterward, there was a concert and wrestling match in the park. Families who own yurts set them up as well and served food to the village elders. It was a pretty fun event. After the event we celebrated Ayt which is the end of Ramadan. Every household serves food and tea in a staggered fashion. Families visit 5-10 houses on their streets and celebrate their completion of Ramadan and, presumably, the ability to eat while the sun is still out.

Additionally, school has started. I am officially a teacher—crazy. On the 1^st my school has a ceremony in which all the students come in, register, and watch the first ringing of the school bell. Classes started the next day. In my school there are two shifts, during first shift 5^th through 11^th grades have four classes from 8am to noon. All of my classes will be during this morning shift. So far, I know I am teaching 12 hours M-F but the full schedule is still being created. I was super scared, but everything has been going well so far. I've also successfully purchased some teacherly clothing which, as you all know, is an accomplishment with my shopping skills.

Adora---two of them items I bought at a second hand store and they ended up being from H&M; I'm way to predictable. Also, I made apple pie.

Well, I thinks thats all for now. Time to make some Kampot (canned juice).

Current banka count: 23

(Banka=2 litre jar for winter)

Fall approaches...

It's August and summer is coming to an end. I am having trouble believing that this is our 5^th month in Kyrgyzstan! We have been quite busy this month so far because we helped with two camps in Talas. One was a HIV/AIDS awareness camp run by volunteers in Talas, the other a leadership camp run by 3 Flex program grads (the Flex program is a highly competitive program that takes exceptional Kyrgyz students to do a year of high school in America). Both camps were worthwhile and fun, though tiring. At the moment we are back in Bakai Ata for a few days before heading to Bishkek for a training on health education. I am pretty excited about it as I want to start a nutrition education program in our village.

We have started spending our settling in allowance and have purchased a few pots a pans, a cooktop, cutting boards, and wooden spoons. That said, we've started cooking more which is wonderful. I've also started preserving fruit for the winter. So far I have been drying sliced apples and apricot pulp (which will be FRUIT LEATHER) on the roof and drying a breaking open the apricot seeds in order to collect the delicious nuts that live inside. Mostly, I've been feeling a lot like a squirrel collecting for the winter. It's been a fun endeavor. Apricots are starting to dwindle, but the plum and apple trees are full. Eggplants are super cheap (15 com/kilo =30 cents/kilo) so we made some babaganouche---hmmm I spelled that kinda French like and I don't know how to fix it. We also stocked up on garlic since it is also quite reasonably priced right now. Everyone has been saying that September is the month in which the bazzar is full of the largest variety of food, so I'm excited. I hear that there will be another batch of strawberries, lots of pumpkin, and a variety of of beans. It is also the month when families do the bulk of their canning for the winter, so it should be busy since it is also when school starts!

I guess that's it for now. Love you guys!

July Harvest and other stuff

First of all... we have puppies! Rex had 5 adorable little ones. One will live with our family and one will live next to our compound house, the rest are going to friends and family. Awesome right? We're taking the adorable runt.

So anyway, its the end of July and all of a sudden it feels like time is flying. We have been doing a lot of work on our little house trying to get it ready for the fall. I think it is going to be a wonderful place to live and a good mixture of family life and privacy. We've also begun to start canning for the winter. So far we have 10 two liter jars of Kampot (fruit juice made by combining whole fresh fruit, sugar, and boiling water), 2 jars of apricot jam, and 2 jars of cherry jam. We picked all the apricots, rasberries, black currents, and cherries involved from our garden (like buckets upon buckets of fruit). It was absolutely amazing. Next we will start making winter salads, apple sauce, and various tomato things. I think we will have a good 70 two liters of food by the time September is over. This is uber important because vegetables and fruit are nearly impossible to find in the winter, which starts in October and ends in early March. Pretty nuts.

In addition to our household adventures, I finished the Tech Age Girls Conference in Bishkek where I taught 33 really wonderful girls how to use various computer programs, practiced English with them, helped prepare for their closing ceremony, and taught a seminar on gender equality. It was a really near program designed to teach the girls computer skills as will as setting them up with a short internship in Biskek. It was fun, but tiring (I am not nearly as energetic as 15 year old girls). Last week some of our friends came to visit from Issy-kul, Naryn, and Chui which was pretty cool. We visited the river and had some American type times, namely cheesy macaroni and cheese and a whole evening of speaking in English. We also went on an excursion with the town's library staff to a tiny village about 2 hours away. We all piled into the back of a truck bed (like 25 people) with a lot of bread, vodka, and fruit and headed toward the mountains. We turned off the main road and basically went straight for a while. After a beautiful and quite uncomfortable 2 hours the “road” ended in front of a house, our final destination. This particular house is owned by the old director of the library. Once a year the current staff brings here some books and exchange them for the old, in this way she runs a little library is the town. Evidently the exchange is a huge deal as about 50 people came to the party (a lot for such an out of the way place) and two sheep were slaughtered for the party. We spent some time hanging out by a stream, eating a lot of delicious food, listening to some great accordian music, and dancing to music played out of the back of someones van. It was a really good time.

That pretty much brings us to now. We will be spending the rest of the month hanging out and canning in our village. In the beginning of August Alex and I are helping with a democracy camp in Talas and then are attending a conference on health education in Bishkek. After that, we got a few weeks before school starts. I am absolutely astounded that the summer is almost over!

Until next time,

Athena

A Wonderful Week in Bakai Ata

The last week in June was a really good week. We kept busy whitewashing our new home, a process that is pretty cool. First you buy “white stones” (I think its Lyme) by the kilo. Then put the stones in a large metal container and add water. Once the water touches the Lyme reacts by boiling, within a minute or two your metal container is filled with what looks like white lava. After about 30 minutes the mixture is combined with more water to form a watery substance to paint with. Pretty cool.

On Tuesday, the Lytcee staff had an excursion to the silver river (yes, it has silver in it) right outside of Bakai-ata. It was a really beautiful spot for a relaxing day. We had shaslik (Shish Kebabs) for lunch and Demdema (meat, cabbage, carrots, and onions in some water and covered so that all the ingredients steam) for dinner. All of the food was cooked over open fire which was pretty neat and absolutely delicious. Alex and skipped stones and spent some time getting the know the staff at my school. Our History teacher invited us to go on a 5 day camping trip this fall; we would go farther up the river where the fishing is apparently amazing. He is also a certified guide which is nice to know. We are excited and hopeful that this trip happens. During the day he also told us about how more than a thousand years ago Kyrgyz people lived in undergroud cities and that one of these cities has been found in Talas but that there is no funding to excavate it. I'm not sure how much of this is fact and how much is legend, but I think its really awesome nonetheless.

We spent Wednesday afternoon in Talas City since a few of our friends from other oblasts came to visit. I had a really good cream soup with little meat filled raviolli type things inside---with a little garlic it would have been amazing (we're going to try it at home soon). We sucessfully got our pay out of the bank and visited the bazzar. The bazzar in Talas is quite a bit smaller than the bazzars in Bishkek but has quite an amazing selection for the size. You can find everything from chicks to car engine parts. ornamental cactuses to a decent variety of vegetables. I was excited to find parsley, chilli pepper, lettuce (!!!), and leek seeds as well as some plastic pots. I am on my way to a little garden and some extra flavor in my food. We also visited a little shop called Dr.Meod. It made me quite happy to find a medical shop that only contained honey and honey related products. I bought a bear container full of tiny pollen balls (somebody hand collects pollen from flowers) that are used here as allergy medication.

On Thursday, a whole bunch of our host mom's family came over and we had a big celebration. Friday and Saturday were spent relaxing, picking cherries, and eating apricots. Today, I left Talas for a conference I am working with in Bishkek. I sucessfully got to Bishkek and then to the hotel by myself without getting hugely ripped off---it's suprising what an accomplishment that is. I'm staying in a pretty little hotel WITH INTERNET ACCESS. Woot. Alright here's a link to a whole album of photos, enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.726210112027.2208934.7606386&l=bc7aec8455

Love you guys!

Athena

Normalcy---or something close to it.

I have finally reached a point in this adventure at which I mostly know what to expect. This is quite exciting. That is not to say that I am not still constantly surprised by things, like why Kyrgyz people say the grass is blue (even though it's obviously green), but I have started to have somewhat of a stable schedule. Right now Alex and I teach Beginner and Intermediate/Advanced English clubs 2 days a week at my school and at his. We also teach an adult class on Thursdays and Fridays. Additionally, I've also been tutoring a few advanced students individually. So far it has been good.

At this point most of the kids in our village yell “Hello” or “Good Morning Teacher” whenever they see me which is quite silly. Most people in the village are aware of our presence and know why we are in Bakai-Ata which is a bit of a relief. People don't seem so surprised to see a white guy and an Indian girl walking down the street. We have also started to go guesting. In Kyrgyzstan guesting is when you are invited to someone's house for copious amounts of Chai, dinner, and general merry making. It has been interesting to meet so many new people and it has been really good Kyrgyz language practice. I think my language has improved quite a bit since we have arrived.

At home we have begun to spend more time with our family as they seem slightly less busy (the first round of farm work is complete). Over the weekend we spend half a day working in the fields with our sister and cousins. It was tremendously hard work. I now truely understand why farm machinery was invented. That said, the drive home was gorgeous. Wide fields bordered with wild flowers and mountains reaching for the sky in all directions. We also worked on cleaning up the area in front of our new little home. Yesterday we made a cake entitled “Day and Night” or “Half Moon” and made a salad with American dressing (in Kyrgyzstan their dressing is either a lot of salt or mayonnaise---yuck!). Tomorrow, my school's staff are going to go on an excursion for a day which I am very excited about. After that we will visit our friend Thomas's village on his Birthday. Then upon our return, we will begin painting our new house. Exciting huh?

Well, that's the news for now. I am attempting to attach a picture of our backyard, a picture from a party we went to, and a picture of our future home.

Athena

The road to Talas

Upon entering the mountain pass between Chui and Talas purple stone walls rise up on either side, patches of blue/green grasses grow where the rock is most friendly. Amongst the grass are a yellow plants that looks sort of like tiny, yellow evergreen trees (Mom, Dad, Adora---think that elf place in WoW). After a while the rockface turns to blue slate, then dark grey and red as the road continues to follow the icy blue river. As the colors change the grass dissapears. After about 30 minutes the road starts snaking up one of the mountains toward the taller snow covered peaks. Once the road is nearing the peak it veers off into a several kilometer long tunnel through the mountain. On the other side is the Jailoo of Talas, a large grassy plain surronded by mountains. In the summer, families from villages all around Talas take their livestock (or send them with a herder) to the Jailoo to feed for the summer. Herders live in yerts and take care of the live stock until fall.

Alright, I'm certainly not a poet so I'll stop there. I think that somewhat descripes the beautiful drive to my new home, Talas. After becoming official Peace Corps volunteers on the 1^st (Yay!) we headed to Bakai Ata and moved in at our final site. After a long night of wonderful sleep, we were surprised to find that our family has already began fixing up a small house on their property for us to live in. We peeked in yesterday and found it is PERFECT. There will be a small mud room/enterance, that enters into a kitchen/dining room. Off of the kitchen are two small rooms, a bedroom and a living room. In the center of the house is a cast iron coal stove that is used for cooking and heat in the winter. The front looks out to the apple orchard and is shaded by a huge apple tree. At this point the walls are being plastered and painting will start soon. Amazing, right?

This weekend, we ate some delicious homemade food with most of the Talas volunteers and enjoyed some cocktails and the game Apples to Apples (Nena, I know your laughing right now). This afternoon we spent about 7 hours at a party with our new extended family (like 60 people). The party was to celebrate one of relatives being pregnant for the first time. We had a huge feast and talked a lot to a group of genuinely interested and interesting people. I even somehow explained how tea grows and the difference between the growing of white, green, and black tea. It was tiring and wonderful. Tomorrow Alex and I both have our first days of work. Wish us luck!

Love you all,

Athena

Bakai Ata, our new home

We visited our permanent village (Also new address, don't use the old one anymore!)

Since I last updated you all, a lot has happened. We have completed our mid-training language assessment and two active teaching practicums, all of which went quite well. In celebration of May Day my family slaughtered a sheep which we helped butcher and clean (Ok, we helped a little). Overall, the last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Lots of learning and excitement sprinkled with a bit of homesickness---I miss you guys! It seems the fact that we now live in Kyrgyzstan is just starting to sink in.

That said, we also received the exciting news that our final placement will be in Talas Oblast in the village of Bakay Ata. Bakay Ata is a village of 8,000 at the edge of the mountains in Talas. Last week we visited and met our new host families, counterparts, and schools. I will be teaching in a small Humanitarian Lyceum that has 150 students. Alex will be teaching at a large Seondary School that serves 800 students. It is about 45 minutes from Talas City, much more of a town than a city, and fairly close to Kazakstan. There is a hospital, a few small stores (that mostly sell candy), an internet cafe, tiny library, 3 schools, a music school, a public banya, a militsia station, a local government building, and a post office. Pretty Detailed huh? (Peace Corps had us make a map)

Visiting was absolutely wonderful, it was exactly what we needed to remember why we came here in the first place. Our host family has a wonderful garden with berry bushes, an apple orchard, vegetables, and chickens---pretty much the mini-farm of my dreams. Our host mother is a pharmacist, host father is a fireman, two younger brothers study/work in Bishkek, two youger sisters go to Alex's school, and little (4 years old) brother runs around a lot. The are friendly, easy-going and incredibily helpful. We have a great room with a stellar view of the garden and a grouping of lily of the valley flowers outside the window. My school is a compound with 4 small buildings in it, that contain 5-6 classrooms and a teachers room. There's a small playground and a 16 friendly teachers. This summer Alex and I will be running an English club 2-3 days a week and, with our friend Jesse, hopefully doing a week long summer camp. All in all, it's exciting. Well, that enough for now.... Here's our address in cyrillic—it will be much more likely to find us written like this---and a picture (or two depending on how long load time takes).

Кыргызстан,

ин. 723800, г. бакай ата раяон

бакай ата айылы

Кыргыз почтасы

атена Parker

Kyrgyzstan

723800 Bakai Ata Rayon

Bakay Ata Village

Kyrgyz Post Office

Athena Parker

A month in Kyrgyzstan (sorry I don't have a creative title)

We've been in Kyrgyzstan for a month and it feels, simultaneously, like we have been here forever and like we have just arrived. I've learned so much about the country and its language but have also just started to figure things out. Language classes have been wonderful and difficult. I can know give crude directions, ask how much something is, take transportation, and have basic conversations with my family. The atmosphere here is distinctly spring-like. The apricot tree (Ooryt Bak) in front of our house is in full bloom and we spend the weekend tilling, planting, and weeding our mini-farm behind the house. I've learned to fold Matbl (dumplings filled with green onion and potato..mmmmm) which is super fun. I'm also starting to help my Genge (sister-in-law) learn some basic English phrases.

I'd like to thank everyone who has sent letters, we have received the ones sent the week we left. It has been really nice to read them. I'll be sending some your way when I figure out the postal system. Our post office doesnt actually carry stamps, nor do they accept letters. From what I understand the postal system is barely used and is run quite arbitrarily.

Anyway, Alex and I are doing well and are enjoying Kyrgyzstan. We are drinking a lot of tea and are surrounded by wonderful people. I hope all of you are in the same situation on your side of the world.

Until next time,

Athena

Hello from Kyrgyzstan...

At the moment I have just finished doing yoga and am studying/writing to you guys. My host siblings are in the other room watching the TV show 24 (dubbed in Russian) and my world seems vaguely familiar to the one I left. Anyway, we've made it! After 20+ hours of flight time, a delicious meal on Turkish Airlines, and a few jet-lag ridden days in Bishkek; we are now settled in to our home for the next two months. We will be living with our wonderful new host family for the duration of our Pre-Service Training in which we attend language, culture, safety, and health classes from 8-5. Thus far, the training is intense but extremely useful and practical. The staff and current Peace Corps volunteers are informative, pragmatic, and fun. Alex and I are in a group of 6 trainees for most of our classes. I couldn't ask for a more interesting, chill group of people. All in all, life is good!
Now a little about Kyrgyzstan. The weather has been nice so far as it is springtime. The Kyrgyz people are actually quite familiar with Indian people; the comparison between tradition Indian culture and Kyrgyz culture has been a popular topic of conversation which has been nice. My host mom showed me all her Bollywood movies and my host sister were really excited to see pictures of me in a sari. The rest of my family consists of my host father, older brother and his two little people (5 & 2), younger brother, 11 sheep (one adorable baby), 3 cows, and 2 dogs. The food has consisted of mostly mutton and chicken with vegetables including cabbage, carrots, potatoes, beets, radishes, onions, tomatoes, and pickles. As for starches; there are a wide variety of breads, noodles, and rice. We also have been eating various fresh farm cheeses, butter, and cold vegetable salads. It's been tasty. The country is sparsely filled with Soviet style buildings peppered with a mosque every once in awhile. Even near the city, you can see that the plains and mountains go on forever.
Well, that's all I've got for now. I'm going to spend the next two months trying to learn Kyrgyz and figure out the intricacies of the culture here. I'll get back to you when I have more to share. I love you all and miss you very muchly.

Athena

Here we go!

This time tomorrow we will be on a plane to our staging event in Philadelphia. From there we will fly to Istanbul and then to Bishkek. We will spend a few days in Bishkek for training and will then proceed to a village near Kant City. Alex and I will then spend our first 3 months living with a host family and participating in professional and language training, after which we will be placed in our final location (TBD). Before we leave, I would like to share two things with all of you.

First, our mailing address for the first few months of our service will be...

Kyrgyzstan,
722140, Kant city
97 Lenina Street, RUPS
Mailbox # 22
Athena Parker/Alex Huss

The second thing is a poem of sorts. Last month we went to see Girl Talk in Philly with Jonathan and Emily. One the way in I took a nap. When I woke up we were right outside of the city and I had a silly poem in my head. Anyway, it seems mildly relevant now.

Driving through the city of zeppelins
as if being lifted by a puff of air
an airplane drifts gracefully upward.
Thus begins the journey.

Departing in 5...

We're leaving in 5 days, seriously--- this Friday. We've packed our suitcases and backpacks, wrestled with sleeping bags and compression sacks, and double checked lists. I now know more than I ever expected to about crazy science fabrics and ratings on sleeping bags.

Over the past month, Alex and I have been touring the East coast attempting to visit as many friends and family members as we could before we leave. It has been tiring and amazing. Our family cult now has a symbol and a saying---T-shirts are imminent. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for your support and for taking the time to hang out with us!

Talk to you all after we travel through space and time and arrive in Kyrgyzstan.

P.S. It's SPRING TIME---Go play in the dirt! This robin is...

Dreams/Internet Battle Rap

I am looking forward to my impending journey. There are many reasons I feel that my sojourn from American culture will be very good for my overall well-being. Most recently, the growing cultural trend that I will be most glad to have some time away from is pervasive internet life. Recent externalized human brain developments, such as being able to carry your internet with you everywhere with great ease, creeps me out a bit.

It's strange though; I definitely don't resonate with a lot of the anti-internet jive nowadays either. The loss of information retention abilities... eh... what were we talking about again? The prospect of books going the way of vinyl becoming fetish properties I only find hilarious. I already have envisioned my little sister owning a adorable used bookstore when she started ranting about the tragic death of literature. She has punched me, but it did not hurt enough to become afraid of digitizing information. Finally, the digitocalypse: computers take over and create robots to kill the human race. I have a friend who is a computer programmer. He put my mind at ease the best by saying this.

“My job is telling robots what to do all day. Robots are dumb.”

Plus my mind periodically shifts its focus to geologic time, which makes all apocalypse scenarios seem silly. Human existence is the blink of an eye in the story of earth, and I'm cool with that.

I think what it really comes down to is that my dreaming mind, a representative of the collective unconscious of humanity, has a Nicki Minaj/Lil' Kim style beef with my computer--a representative of the internet. The internet is the new kid on the scene and the collective unconscious hasn't had a real hit since Jung's Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. The internet is a long way from summer jams like all mythology ever, and the collective unconscious still gets plenty of shout-outs (new age philosophy), exclusive club access (the academy), and free drugs (psychotherapy). But to quote Black Friday, “I mothered you hoes, I should claim you on my income taxes”, and to be fair the internet is essentially biting the collective unconscious if you want to get proprietary about it.

I imagine it's probably how gods first felt when humans invented writing. “Shit... transmitting cultural information intergenerationally? Now I'll never get any credit.” Sorry divine inspiration, Muses, etc. Now people are just going to say they got all their ideas from dead people who they read about in books. Even Chinese sages as soon as they were writing started referencing “the ancient sages” as their sources more than deities. Dream theory was maybe the first time since weirdos starting calling themselves scientists instead of philosophers that information perceived as being outside of human experience was given a cool new name that we could play with. It was called collective unconscious.

And then what did we do? In a nanosecond of geologic time we created the internet to effectively externalize all human knowledge of all cultures ever. Also we created a whole new language for talking about our insane ape brains, like we love to do so much. Now the brain is a processor of information. Impulses traveling from our brain are little ones and zeros scurrying around telling us to check our facebook, commit insurance fraud, and maybe breath occasionally. The internet became to the collective unconscious what writing was to muses... a total buzzkill.

I first started in on this strange psychic loop when I forgot the word cathartic. The song Italian Leather Sofa by Cake is totally awesome and I was thinking would have been an incredibly (insert blank here) song to write. It is a really cool word and I was really mad at myself for not remembering it. Being drunk and stubborn, I also refused to try and look it up on the internet. When I went to sleep I had a dream that I found the word cathartic, and then I woke up told all of my friends about it. Then I actually woke up. And told all my friends about it.

This weird crystallizing moment with my dreaming mind moved me to write blog post, to purge this information from the bowels of my brain. I feel like the process of digestion is the perfect epistemological language. It might be because I am really shitty at meditation, but defecation has always been a mystical experience for me. I guess this is what this blog is about for me mostly. Mystical bullshitting.

I am going to miss you guys. The way that I process information is by babbling incoherently with you. You have been a real trooper about it too, stopping me when my illogical leaps stretch too thin, letting me keep going when it's amusing enough, and being patient enough to recognize the difference. I haven't written consistently in a while, so constructive criticism is welcome. I can't stop being crazy though, so skip my posts if you don't like to hear rants about weird shit. If you don't have any patience for this kind of thing we are probably not friends, so I won't be offended. Athena's will be much more straightforward and informative. “These are cool pictures that I took of pretty things. This is what is happening in my life.” Mine will include these things also, but they will be couched in deluded stream-of-consciousness nonsense as well. Anyways, thanks for listening.