Thursday, April 28, 2011

Partying in Kazakhstan

Well, it seems like I've already started living a life full of festivities here in Kazakhstan.  I have participated in one goodbye tea, a remembrance dinner, and two birthdays since being here.  Last night one of my neighbors sounded like they were having a wedding party ... maybe I should have invited myself over in order to round out my party experiences during the 14 days I have been here.  

At work I have enjoyed meeting with members of the staff here in order to begin planning delegations.  They are excited about the delegations we have coming and will do a great job facilitating them.  None of them have ever facilitated a delegation before, so I get the joy of training them and walking them through the process.  They are so capable that my job will be very easy.  

At home I have been working with my roommate to do some spring cleaning and preparation for delegations as well as basic yard work.  It has been good to get outside and do some manual labor.  I have also spent come time cleaning the car and working to get it repaired and back in running order since it has had some problems recently.  

The temps have risen to 90 degrees in the shade on some days.  This is definitely not the spring I was anticipating.  Thankfully, we have not had any snow since my arrival!  I am not looking forward to the summer temps of 100-110 degrees, but am thankful for the lack of humidity.  Today is a cooler, breezy day.  I am enjoying typing this sitting at my desk with my window open.  

Funny Story:  I learned the trick of trimming grape vines.  Apparently there are parts of the vine that are men (longer, bigger, stronger) and those that are women (shorter, thinner, weaker).  Well, the trick to trimming grape vines is to cut off the women and leave the men.  The men enjoyed my comparing this to life and the fact that women weren't important.  We enjoyed a good laugh together about this since the men I was with don't really think this way, but enjoy joking about it, especially when initiated by me.  

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