Salut and à Bientôt

Salut, I think this may very well be my last blog post for the year.  What can one say or think when reflecting on the last year? How did I start it? I remember being at home in January 2023. I was living in Austin and on the tail end of my last year in college.  A lot can happen in two weeks, much less even one. In my last blog post, I was watching first snow. I surely thought I wouldn’t have a lot to say this time around, there’s just lots and lots of snow. I’ve had to stress to my family repeatedly that there is snow in the US, just not in the South. It’s a warm 60 degrees F (20ish in C) back home. Here it has been 40F and under every single day. The north has been particularly cold; I’ve heard from other volunteers it gets as cold as -20 degrees F. At the beginning of this week, it hit around -7C. I spent some time at the end of January 2023 in Montreal for a Model UN conference. I remember that opportunity fondly; when else would you get to be a in foreign city with a free hotel

Salut, Here I thought I would have a very very normal In-Service Training conference in Bishkek. Alas, that was not the case. (In-Service Training/ IST is a week-long conference PC holds three months into service. It is a chance to discuss problems, work with local teachers to improve lessons and build upon skills, and discuss starting English clubs).  The last week of November was a chaotic, hectic mess. A little bit of missing home as Thanksgiving slunk away. A little bit of a mess as I packed to go to Bishkek, and a little bit of an expected mess when the taxi to pick me up from the airport came early as usual while I was in the shower.  Within a few days of leaving my site, I already began to miss Adelia and Alihan. I doubt they missed me, their days are ones of lying on the couches and watching Masha and the Bear on a loop.  Last Sunday, the volunteers in the South of Kyrgyzstan all flew into Bishkek, including me. I should probably preface that all volunteers in Jalal Abad an