and i never wanted anything from you except what you had, and everything after that too ..oh.

it's been an interesting few days. i've been watching Total Drama Island, a really intense cartoon reality show a la Survivor, with my sister. we're down to two characters left!!!

i've been NOT sick, which is a nice change. however today i ate ramen noodles and my stuff ain't quite right, but i'll live.

my two mamas had their birthdays (sorry i never got to call you lynn!!!!!). shout out to all the baby mamas! love you!

my host mother here has been gone to Almaty for the last few days. she got back today. i pretty much starved like a small child. haha. not really. my sister kept going to the store and buying samsa which are meat filled pastry things. i also ate a lot of prepackaged dumplings called pilmeni. which is deplorable. i ate like a sad bachelor. haha. i DID make an interesting 'international' spaghetti. it had curry and cumin and some italian spices. from scratch. did i mention the scratch part? while very, very delicious, it's a pain in my ass to de-seed several pounds of tomatoes...

this guy, david, is travelling through kazakhstan and we've been showing him around the city. he's from germany. i feel so VERY international here, you can go ahead and be jealous.

(can you tell i'm in a special mood? haha)

i've very literally been hiding from work for weeks and i had almost forgotten why. i had a simple meeting, that turned into... very many things. i edited a biology book for school kids today. that's not quite my job but it IS my life. i've also had several additional meetings. and phone calls. and text messages. and emails. this basically sums up as the following: YOU CAN HIDE NO MORE! ...this makes me cry.

i also met the fabled mid-20 something kazakh male... it has been an interesting experience. so i've known this english teacher Marat for a while now. we met several months ago when i gave a lecture about using critical thinking at his university. well he invited me to pizza to meet with his friends and fellow teachers. WELLLLLL, that turned into a cultural exchange i never expected to have.  **SPOILER ALERT: this in no way is a judgement. and it will sound a bit stereotypical but it's not EVERY person here. but it IS something that comes up often. i just want to tell you about it. to me its more funny than anything else, but don't think poorly about people who live in a very different culture from your own.  END SPOILER**

i now know EVERYTHING EVER about prostitutes here. OMG. there is SO much to know... i had no idea. it has been a long, long time since i've spent time with open people my own age and demographic (though there are some missing elements obvs). though a lot of the volunteers are my age, i am a bit older. these guys are a lil older than me. they are also boys... and let's be honest, all my regular associates are girls. volunteers: girls. students: girls. so these guys were very vocal and i am very curious so i let rip. and i know a lot of hilarious stories now. and strange, at least to me, ....procedures? it was nice to just hear some hilarious raunch. and i got to learn a lot. and i did my job as a PCV. i asked a lot of questions, a lot of leading questions, and they seemed to stop and consider them. i got a lot of confused looks and some thoughtful ones, so i feel like i did my part.

so, life is life. it's going. new vols are here training. i am now aiming to do trainings for them in october. this should be fun. let's hope i get it. school starts on the first, wish my luck. i may die from working again. haha. cause it's non-stop. the new missy elliot discography and the Dream's new cd should help me though. so it's not all sad face clouds. I AM A MASTER OF THE SILVER LINING.... yeah, that.