It’s been a while since I last updated, and it’s been quite an eventful few weeks! Last week, I had a pretty intense bout of food poisoning, but with some medicine and about two and a half days of straight sleep, I quickly improved. I was feeling better just in time to get married last week! Every year during PST, each village puts on a performance of a cultural tradition, so our group did a consensual (ie not bride kidnapping) Kyrgyz wedding. Mike and I were the lucky couple from our village. We were told that we were very much in love, so we should be happy about it. I was told I made a good Kyrgyz bride, in that I pretty much went limp and let the mothers braid my hair, put earrings in, and lead me around to greet various people. It was fun to get together and see what all the other villages have been up to. There were four weddings (mine, a bride kidnapping, Russian, and Turkish), and some other traditions. After the performances, the event turned into a middle-school dance party (to lots of Christina Aguilera and other hits of that time), with most of the trainees and some language teachers and other Kyrgyz family members dancing in a field in the middle of the day. We have to take what we can get. The other big news of the week was our permanent site announcement. I’m going to Jalalabad, practically on the Uzbekistan border. I’m really excited because that’s the South (and we all know that everything is better in the South…) which means the winter won’t be quite as brutal and we have access to good fruits and vegetables all year, because most of Kyrgyzstan’s fruit comes from Uzbekistan. Some other highlights of my region include: the world’s largest walnut forest, a large almond forest, mountains and lakes all around, good Uzbek inspired food, and really good volunteers around me. My site is near Jalalabad City, and also only about 2-3 hours from Osh, which is supposed to be a really cool city. Next Saturday, I’m heading there for a 5 day visit, where I will stay with my new host family, meet my coteacher, introduce myself to the school on the first day (which is a big holiday/a big deal here), and meet all of the other volunteers in the region. I also get to meet the volunteer who I am replacing, which will be really helpful. I’m really excited about my assignment and the fact that it means that I’m getting started with my service soon! Yesterday, we had a group trip to Bishkek. We got to see the Peace Corps headquarters, which are beautiful and very comforting. It’s amazing how excited we got about a real bathroom and a giant wall full of books. It’s the little things… After the visit to the headquarters, we were on our own to explore the city. I ended up getting a cheeseburger and French fries (which were both extremely amazing – again, it’s the little things…) and a charger for my camera battery (because my old one was stolen out of a box…). It’s always good to hang out with the big group of volunteers and get out of our normal villages. I’m heading today with some other volunteers to visit another training village, just to see different people and different places. Training is going well, but kind of starting to wrap up. We had our last English club last week. When we told our girls that it was the last class, they all got really sad. At the end of class, they all came up and hugged us. Afterward, they stood around the door, saying goodbye repeatedly. It’s really nice that I had so much fun with the club, because it was a good precursor to actually teaching. Kyrgyz is still coming along well too. Our teacher set a rule last week that if we speak English in class, we have to buy the whole class ice cream. That hasn’t happened yet, but it sets the precedent that we have to work to speak as much Kyrgyz as possible, which is helping a lot. I like that I can get around a lot better now with my Kyrgyz. I’m also excited that in Jalalabad, there is very little Russian, so it’s mostly Kyrgyz or Uzbek, but mostly everyone will speak Kyrgyz. The news on TV is even in Kyrgyz, apparently, which will be nice to at least try to pick up a little. All of the TV here is in Russian, so I don’t even try to pick out any words when I watch it with my family. I’m still loving my family here. I met my 22 year-old brother briefly, but I think he left again to go back to Issyc Kul, where he lives now. The rest of the family is great – I’m still obsessed with my two younger sisters because they’re so cute and great to talk to. My mother is such a warm, generous person, and my father is hilarious. They’ve been really ideal for PST. It’s going to be hard to leave them, but I’m sure my next family will be great too. I already promised to come back and visit my family here when I’m in Bishkek. They told me that this will always be my home too, so I’m welcome any time I want. All of the other people around me are doing well, for the most part. One more girl left last week, which makes it 4 ETs (early termination), which is a record low for this point in PST. Everyone says our group is really great, compared to other groups in the past, and that we’re doing better at the language and the adjustment than other groups. I hope that means we don’t have as many ETs, because it would be hard to lose half of the group, which is pretty normal for PC Kyrgyzstan. I really like the group we have here. Everyone I’ve met is really nice and interesting. The current volunteers have all been great too. I’m really excited to meet the other J-bad volunteers next week. I hope everyone’s doing well at home – school’s starting back soon, I’ve heard. Let me know how everything is going back in the US! Love to all! Leslie
Also: I have a new address, but can't post it for safety reasons. Ask my mom if you want it.




















































The girls in my village















My whole village

















My 16 year old sister, me, my mom, and Mike













That's my teacher on the side