Its Official

As I anxiously stood at the window waiting for the mailman to show up, I remember that last year hanging out by the Space Needle for New Years fireworks a radio reporter asked me what my resolution for 2009 was. I responded to join the Peace Corps. And when the mailman finally came at five o clock (!), and handed me (because of course I opened the door to rush out and meet him) my packet it looks like that has officially come true. I have been invited to serve in the Kyrgyz Republic (also known as Kyrgyzstan), leaving for my staging (this part is in a US city, though I don’t know which yet) is on March 26th, 2010, and three days later I’ll be chilling (literally, also as an English teacher I should probably practice less vernacular based vocabulary) in the Kyrgyz republic. I come back May 28th, 2012.

As my friend Sarah eloquently put it: “Didn’t we know that eight months ago?” While I was pretty confident, I got more and more nervous when my invite didn’t come. Three and a half weeks ago I received an e-mail saying 400 positions had been cut and all the invites for the program I had been nominated would get invites in the next three weeks. By the time Christmas rolled around and I was invite free my slight anxiety had built up to pretty high levels. Now though, all I have to stress about is packing. It should be noted (in case you haven’t figured it out) this is going to be my Peace Corps blog, so when I’m gone I’ll be able to post updates on this.

Thoughts about Kyrgyzstan: Bordered by China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the type of government is a republic; 75% Muslim, 20% Russian orthodox, and 5% other; 64.7% speak Kyrgyz and 12.5% Russian; Slightly smaller than South Dakota; temperate in Northern foothills, subtropical in Southwest, dry continental to polar in Mountains; it is referred to as the “Switzerland of Central Asia” sadly not because of chocolate or world peace, but Mountains; the international airport in the major city of Bishek serves London, Moscow, Istanbul, Delhi, and Beijing; I’ll be there.

A roundtrip flight in late June costs 1359, so start saving your money so you can come visit me. And also, happy New Years! PS All pictures are lifted from Wikipedia who probably lifted them from someone else.