So as most of you have probably figured out, I’m normally a very happy person. These past three months have been a glimpse into what my life would be like if I were a fundamentally angry person. It turns out anger and pessimism don’t suit me. As of this week, I’m back. I’m back to being my normal, borderline annoyingly happy and optimistic self. On Wednesday, I moved into the city and began a new part of my service: being a city volunteer. More than just that, I started the part of my service where I am actually productive and necessary, and thus happy and content.
My new house is very different from before. My family is a mother, a father who is a lawyer and is usually in Bishkek on business trips, and a sister in 11th form (aka 17 years old). They’re both very sweet and accommodating to me. There are also three older brothers, but they are all gone (one’s in Ukraine, one in Turkey, and one in Bishkek for university). Another “brother” has been mentioned, but I’m pretty sure he’s not actually my brother, but rather a cousin or something like that. He goes to the Turkish school in town (they’re the best private secondary schools in the country. And yes, they are run and taught by Turkish people), and comes to our house on the weekends (?). Figuring out the actual members of a Kyrgyz family is always confusing. I’m sure a sibling or other family member they call a sibling will pop out at some point…
As to the house itself, I have about half of it to myself, including my room, other empty rooms I don’t actually have access to, and a really nice refrigerator. The other half is accessible from the porch (there are two doors opening onto the porch – mine and the one to the kitchen) and includes a super fancy kitchen and two rooms heated by gas (mine is only heated by electricity, making it cold when there’s no electricity). The kitchen includes (you really have to have lived in Kyrgyzstan for five months to get why these things are groundbreaking) a washing machine (!), a sink with hot water, and a gas stove that doesn’t make me think I’m going to die whenever I use it. This is all huge. I also have a banya with a shower (!!) and a really frightening dog. The house is directly next to the kindergarten and a five minute walk from school, which is very nice.
The best part of my new life, though, is my school. The building itself is hideously Soviet (think imposingly concrete monstrosity), but it looks like an official building. My counterpart, Aliya, is a Russian woman with fluent English. She is the head of the English teachers’ society in the city and is extremely ready to do things. She’s already been working with Ginger, another volunteer in the city, on a teacher training in January, and has had two volunteers before. She already team taught (I’m in the second year of volunteers to be forced to team teach) with a previous volunteer because she thought it would be a good learning opportunity. Our classroom has a computer and there’s talk of getting internet soonish (though I’m not holding my breath on that one. “Soonish” could mean just about anything here). She said that classes are small (the max is 24, which is small for Kyrgyzstan) and very well-behaved. She wants me to do clubs that I’m interested in, like one about Anthropology, and she was really excited about me teaching dance. Talking to her is so exciting and inspiring, which is such an amazing change.
This weekend is the "olympiada", a nation-wide competition in all subjects taught in schools here. It's really important to do well at these, so schools send their best students and spend months preparing them. There are three girls from my school going to the English one, so I'm spending all week this week preparing them. They don't have to go to classes, since they're studying instead, so we spend all day talking and taking exams. It's nice to be able to come in a week before the end of the semester and actually do something productive. The girls are really sweet too, so I've had fun talking to them.
Last weekend, another volunteer here had a friend from America come visit. In honor of him, a bunch of us got together and went on a pretty long hike from one village to another, including a side trip into the hills to have a bonfire and hot dogs. It was really nice to get out, before it gets too icey and cold to spend any time outside. It was also great to get some new blood in here (it' weird having a social circle that consists of 17 people at its maximum...).
Otherwise, we're preparing for Christmas next week. We're planning our feast (including at least three pies, of course) and have a secret santa set up. It's weird that as of Friday, I will be a quarter of the way through my work here.
Hope everyone's Christmas preparations are going well. Safe travels and all of that!

Also, if you're interested in making me feel special, I have a new address! Contact either me or my mom if you want it.