I ate that.

When it comes to new experiences, I'm generally all for it. I was ready and willing when I was asked to ride my bike off that ramp in the backyard when I was 9, I was ready when I was dared to eat dirt to get a girl's attention and affection, I was ready to eat the broccoli when my mom told me to, and I was ready to see how cool it would be to see my brother's karate kick up close, but I was not ready to eat this after my roommate (The amazing psychology professor Baurzahn Ablyavich) took roughly three minutes of description to tell me where this meat came from:


The kasha-type side dish wasn't really up to my tastes either. Am I picky?

In general, let it be known, that I love the food here, especially since Baurzahn is the one that prepares it. It's all natural, all the time, baby.


It was some kind of meat from a breast of some kind of animal.

Of note: I was 19 when I ate the dirt for the girl, and I'd do it again.

Springtime is near

What, me worry?

Springtime is coming on strong here in lovely Pavlodar. The temperatures are already running around 10-19 degrees Celcius. I don't know what I'm going to do, as my clothes are prepared for winter weather more so than this good stuff. Item A on the to-do-list when I visit the States.

I thought that I'd share some photos that are a little old, but bespeak to the beauty that is this country:

The rolling river Irytish in my home of Pavlodar. It froze over during the winter, but I plan on enjoying some shashleek (kabobs) and swimming in the near future along its mighty banks.

Here is a man playing an accordion, wearing a traditional Kazakh hat. I'm going to have a complex with how much I love this music here.

This was taken back in September, but there are the mountains in southern Kazakhstan, taking from a hike with my host grandfather while in Talgar. There aren't mountains near Pavlodar, but there are some forests around here that I'm excited to check out.

There is a lot more beauty to this country, my city of Pavlodar and its people, and I'll do my best to showcase it as best I can.

"The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."

Ticket and Kids' Birthdays

I've been a traveling Wilderbury the past few weeks, as I've been in Almaty for nearly 2/3 of the month of March and the first part of April. I had the opportunity to meet with UNAIDS, UNIFEM, UNICEF, USAID, the International Red Cross and the European Union offices in Almaty. Not sure what will come of it, but I sure did give out a lot of business cards.

But because of being away with more English speakers and something like laziness, my Russian has suffered drastically. I don't even know if I can attach any form of possession to the language itself anymore. It hit a low point when I told my roommate that I had bought a guitar but "didn't know how to speak guitar yet." Jesus.

Yesterday, after a day of filling out extremely interesting budgets and grant applications with stamps and signatures galore, my professor roomate kidnapped me to head to a birthday party for his 5 year-old nephew. We enjoyed the customary Kazakh dish, bizparmak which is a huge dish of noodles, potatoes, onions and horse meat. The fun/meat never stops.

By the end, after countless toasts and handshakes and laughs and questions and such, we headed back home. One of the brothers asked me to head to the disco tech with him and his girlfriend, but I felt it was time to head out. With that, the whole family gave me a big hug and said that I was now part their family. Nice little moment there--take note Disney.

Additionally, my plan is to take a vacation to America's United States in mid-May. The ticket is already purchased. Hoping I don't get freaked out by all of America's strange, strange customs (see actually waiting in line in a civil manner). We'll see how it goes.

I also bought a wonderful conversation piece, I mean, guitar. I have time and a guitar, so the equation should solve itself.

Godspeed to the rest.