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.
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