Our first day of orientation for our Pre-Service Training (PST) is complete. Today we found out several things about our PST. First and most excitingly, I am learning Russian for post. I had requested that I be placed in a Russian area, but only a small minority of volunteers get to learn Russian so I was skeptical that my request would
be filled. Yay! We had several seminars today about various topics, health and nutrition, safety and security, etc., and then had our first language lesson. We learn the language with the small group of people living in our PST village, about five people in each one. Our first lesson consisted of very basic “meet and greet vocabulary,” but it will prepare us to meet our host-families for the three month PST. Rosetta Stone definitely helped with this, just having heard the language more has made pronunciation easier and put me aheadof some of the other trainees. I am sure that will last no more than three days though. We meet and move in with our host families on Wednesday and I will be living in a village on the outskirts of Kant. Also, I now have an address which you can send stuff to me, but I don’t want to put it online. If you want it, send me an email and I will try and get it to you as soon as I can. I can receive mail at that address until mid-September when I will move into my permanent post.
After our day and then dinner (some type of burgers, we’re not sure what kind of meat) we took a walk outside in the park behind the Hotel. It is very bizarre. Created in honor of Manas, the big mythic Kyrgyz figure, it has some really fascinating architecture. I’ll post photos as soon as I can get decent internet. Much like the hotel though, the project was in relative disrepair with broken concrete and rebar. Nevertheless, it offered some of the most stunning views of Bishkek yet and it was really gorgeous. After chatting with other Trainees and some current PCVs, we descended the tower and walked around enjoying the pleasant evening air. We were all pretty tired, though I am remarkably un-jetlagged (I have no idea how this is possible, I am 10 hours ahead of EST) and headed to bed.
Hotel Issyk-Kul
Manas Park
Abstract Yurt Statue (Yurts are traditional Kyrgyz homes)Manas Park at sunset
Hotel Issyk-Kul from the tower in Manas Park
3 comments:
Woohoo!!! Russian!!! Yay for being able to waltz back to the States with a useful language ;) Are you still going to learn some Kyrgz too? I'm so glad you had a good adventure in Turkey, and sorry about the lame bag break, that sucks. But yay to be rockin the Rosetta Stone advantage and be the baggage leader- sounds like you're the creme de la creme of the group ;) The pictures from the square are goooooorgeous! Good luck meeting your host family! Ciao mi amor, te quiero!!!!
-Ashley
WOOHOO! I´M SO GLAD YOU´RE LEARNING RUSSIAN! that means that if i ever get around to learning it i will have someone to talk to. i´m also glad you emailed me when you did, because i was starting to get nervous that your plane had crashed and that i hadn´t heard about it because 1. i´m in mexico so news is sparse and 2. i´m not sure there would be much reporting about a plane crash in kyrgzstan.
and ashley, you´re totally right about his background. (she said it looks like the decorations in our old apt in dc, with the retro thing going on.)
- marisa
Cool pics! That sunset is so beautiful!
-Julia
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