Quick Update

Just wanted to do a quick email update to let you into the loop. Our swearing-in ceremony was yesterday, so we became official Peace Corps Volunteers! My first official act was to . . . sit in a train station for five hours . . . and then board a train for 21 hours. The train ride was actually pretty relaxing. Our kupe was insanely hot at first (mostly because we had dragged about five bags each onto the wagon), but we opened the window, played some cards, and cooled down a bit. We got a lot of sleep to make up for the counterpart conference at Kok Tobe over the past few days, so it was nice to just relax and not worry about much for a while.

We arrived in Astana close to 4 PM, and my counterpart and I then took a taxi to माय village, which is about an hour and twenty minutes away. It's a very, very small village (only a thousand people), but I haven't seen much of it yet except houses and fields and part of the communal dairy farm (my summer goal is to learn how to milk cows!). The plan is to go to school tomorrow, meet the authorities, take a tour, and meet my potential host families.

I will try to keep you updated! It seems like internet is pretty easy to find around here, so hopefully either my host family will have it or I will be able to use it at school. My first goal is to find the post office and finally mail my letters that I wrote a month or two ago. And by the middle or end of the week I should have my new address. So be ready! :D

Love you all!