back in Oz

Well, I'm back in Kazakhstan after about four weeks at home. I accomplished some things that I wanted to do, which was mostly hang out with my friends and family, eat good food, and buy good music. Basically I just sat around, which was great. I mentioned to my sister, Rachel, who is also a teacher, that being a teacher is awesome simply for the fact of Summer vacation. You have 9 months of hell, but 3 of responsibility-free goodness. Some people asked me if it was going to be hard coming back, and no, it really wasn't. I was scared, too when I was first here that it would be difficult to return should I leave. But my life isn't in the States right now. I have no prospects, no job, no attachments, and my friends have their own lives. It was really easy to return. I have a place in Kazakhstan right now.

I'm at Pre-service training for the new Kaz-17 trainees. Today I taught a small session on Team-teaching, to introduce the concept to the new volunteers. On Thursday I'm teaching an optional language/cultural session on Russian swear words. I think most people signed up for that one. In addition to this, one of the first jobs that they had me do was write answers to the trainees's questions about sex and gender issues in Kazakhstan. They probably chose me for this because I'm young and male, and most young, male volunteers in Kazakhstan are very well qualified to answer such questions. Me, I'm a little biased, but I tried to answer the questions objectively. This group is really young for the most part, fresh out of college, and apparently a little horny. I don't want to make a blanket statement: some of them aren't horny, just in case someone stumbles onto this from the new group.

I get to stay in an apartment by myself, which is good, but different. Probably the only time I will have an apartment while I'm here. Since my biological clock is still kind of screwed up, I woke up at six this morning and walked to the store to get some food. Hopefully I can beat the jetlag within the next couple of days. It's nice getting up in the morning though. I think I'll stick with it. Until the next weekend hits and I get screwed up again by staying up late.