Baby Holiday Post

Hey guys! Hopefully everyone is having a great holiday season, I finally found an internet spot where I can upload pics!!! This is a picture of me before I waltzed for a high school celebration (more on that later ;-) Anyways this is just the first of many to come and Im gonna write more, I'm just waiting until after New Years lol
-Peace

What we leave behind

So I think maybe because its holiday time or maybe just because its been nine months since I've been home but I wanted to mention a little of what we as volunteers or anyone serving abroad sacrifices. Besides even the simple material things that I miss (good food, warm housing, utilities, etc lol) its the experiences, family and friends that I really miss. We as volunteers leave behind our family and friends in hopes of making people's lives that we've never met a little better. So if your reading this keep all your loved ones who are abroad in your thoughts and prayers and send them some love when you get the chance, it will mean the world to them, trust me :-)
-Peace

List of Food I'm really missing lol

I know most of you probably don't care about this but whatever, but I have found myself craving foods I never ate back in the states so here we go

Cookie Cake (suger butter, with Chocolate, red and white icing lol)
A Large Geraci's Pizza (sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms)
Pull-n-Peel Twizzlers
Sesame Oil
Corned Beef Sandwich
My homemade Tofu Stir-fry
Cheese Grits
Soco ;-)
Cream Soda
Ginger Ale
Fresh Mushrooms
Gaterade
Coffee thats not Instant
Honey Bunches of Oats
Skim Milk
Flavored Coffee Creamer
Donuts
Hound Dog's Veggie Pizza (best in the world!)
Sushi
Blizzard (cookie dough, oreo, or m&m)
Oreos
Gummi Bears
I'm sure theres more but I can't think of them right now


Cookie
-Peace

Talk about a rough week

So this week started off really great, then turned horrible. On Monday I moved into my new apartment which has a great location, great size (for an awesome bachelor pad lol) and most of the things a PC Kyrgyzstan volunteer could ever want: fridge, running hot water, a shower, tv, and a HUGE warm bed. The one problem, the heat is run off of electricity, little did I know how much of a pain my heating being dependant on electricity would prove.... So after I moved in I had power for maybe 12 hours until it cut off. At first I thought ok, this is KG this happens all the time no big deal. Then I went outside and saw that ALL of my neighbors had power, which meant something was wrong with MY apartment. Luckily one of my good expat buddies (and a former PC volunteer in Ukraine) helped me find the problem. One of my transformers had blown. I though no big deal right?! Wrong it took me an hour wandering through the bazaar looking for this replacement part and when I eventually found it, the lady said everyone sells these peices, I was using the wrong word in Russian. Another stroke of luck the peice only cost 25 som (50 cents) so I bought 2 and headed happily home. Once I installed the said part I had power for 12-13 warm happy hours, then my power went out....again. This time I called my landloard hoping maybe she could help me out. Well I called and she was busy so we scheduled to meet at 12.(this is Tuesday mind you just to keep the progression of this week known) Well 12 came and went and I called again and she said that she couldnt meet until 3, again I say ok and I head out to another meeting. Well once at this other meeting, the people weren't even there and I was notified that the meeting had be reschedule without my knowledge, this is after the 45 minute wait in the lobby. As I was walking out of this failed meeting in a terrible mood, guess what? A marshrutka drives by and splashes my clothes....yay, so now I'm soaking wet, miserable, and have to go home to an arctic apartment. Finally my landlady shows up at 5 with the building supervisor and fix the electricity...again. Another semi-warm night and a happy Alexandre in the morning. Now this is Wednesday morning, I have a report due to PC administration which had detailed my accomplishments as a volunteer so far in country, a VERY important document. As I set out the power goes out AGAIN, but at this point I said "well I'm leaving anyways so no biggie, I'll fix it when I get back". So I go out to complete and turn my report form in. Unfortunately of the FIVE internet cafes that I went to NONE could open the file. So I ended up downloading it and borrowing a fellow volunteer's laptop, completing it and turning it in, this took all day mind you. So exhausted and frustrated I return home to the cold and powerless apartment, I totally forgot to get another transformer peice, and by now it was too late to buy another one. Not only did I not have the part, I also had forgotten to go grocery shopping, so I went to sleep cold, hungry, miserable, and frustrated. On to Thursday morning, I fixed my electricity for the final time and went to the bazaar for food shopping. Actually this day really wasn't that bad, and yesterday was a good stress reliever because I went clubbing with my buddies. So yeah that was my horrible week, I made it through, hopefully another doesn't happen any time soon, but if I was cranky or weird this week, now you know why. Man this will make a good story if I ever have kids lol
-Peace

Thanksgiving Fun!!!!!

Hey guys! Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone! Just a thanks to my family and friends who sent me messages on Thursday (and those who tried to), that really made my day:-) Anyways Thanksgiving in KG wasn't nearly as lonely as I thought it would be. I made the long and tedious trek to Talas oblast (10-12 hours by taxi) to spend the holiday with the volunteers up there. We had everything that you would have at Thanksgiving, Turkey (which was a miracle in itself) stuffing, pumpkin and apple pie and even cranberry sauce (purely ornamental, that stuff is disgusting lol) All in all it was a really good time. I must admit the past few weeks I was feeling lonely with the holiday and all, but now I feel much better and galvanized for work. I have decided to start a new club at the American center. Initially the club was going to be purely about sports, but the consensus is that people have a whole range of things to talk about so I'm going to name it "Club Alex" and facilitate the club through its participants. I think this will give me a good window into what the locals here are thinking, to which then I can move on to do more focused development here. Anyways these are just a few of my thoughts this week, I'm really trying to make a goal of blogging more often so you guys know whats going on here. Sometimes I forget that the normal things in my life are pretty interesting to you guys back home. Well thats it for this week :-)
-Peace