Leaving Illinois

Today was my last day in the state of Illinois. I'm going to start the long drive home tomorrow morning. I celebrated by running my first triathlon this morning. (www.evergreentri.com). I'll update this when I get back to Georgia, but I really did enjoy my year of grad school here in Normal. I met amazing people and had a tremendous time. Also, I'm leaving for Kaz in less than a month (anxiety and excitement abound!).

Beards and Crocs

This is a recent exchange I had with a volunteer over in Kazakhstan:

Me:
I usually am not one to care too much about fashion and such (which
the following questions will probably indicate), but I realize that I
need to make a good impression and represent the Peace Corps during my
service. Thus the following questions:

I remember reading in the welcome book that younger males in
Kazakhstan usually sport the clean-shaven look rather than facial
hair. I realize that the caveman beard I sometimes have would
definitely be unprofessional, but how would a neatly trimmed beard be
received in a work environment? Am I destined to re-acquire the habit
of shaving often?

Also, I am a big fan of my khaki crocs for when I run errands, go out,
pretty much whenever I am not trying to dress to impress. Have they
caught on yet in Kazakhstan? I realize they're probably the ugliest
shoe ever invented, but they are very convenient and comfortable.
Would I look completely out of place wearing them around?

Jeffrey:
While the majority of males don't wear beards here, I say do what you
want. There is even a facebook group about the strapping beards among
the kazakhstan volunteers. Beards might not be the most professional,
but they already will think you're weird, so why not help them out?

As for crocs, sure, bring them. People here wear really cheap foam/
rubber sandals around the house as well as around town. Bring them,
you'll fit right in, seriosuly. With a pair of old shorts and a plain
t-shirt, you'll look like any regular around town.

And just to make mention of something I recall reading somewhere in
either our welcome book or on the Kaz19 forum: shorts are definitely
permissable here in the summers and whoever said they weren't,
obviously wore a blindfold. Bring your shorts for the summer, all the
guys wear them.

_____________________________________________________________

So while I will still have to judge my specific work environment for beard-acceptance, it's reassuring that some current PCVs get along just fine with them. This brings up a good point of how much we should try to adapt. No matter what we do, we as PCVs will always be the outsider. I think more important than trying to meet the impossible task of fully assimilating is to understand and respect of the host country's values and norms.

I'm also excited about the cheap, foam/rubber sandals of Kazakhstan. Or rather, my crocs not being too out of place. Even if I get the same amount of crap for wearing them over there as I do here, I would be happy.

What is the Steppe?

So a few weeks back I finally watched Nomad: The Warrior. This is a movie set in Kazakhstan telling the story of how the Kazakh tribes united against the evil guy from somewhere else. Overall, it was not the best movie. It is billed as an action flick, but the battle and fight scenes are all pretty mundane. It was entertaining to watch in Kazakh though. And I may watch it again in order to learn some useful dialogue (e.g. "Surround them.")

One thing I did notice from the movie was the complete lack of trees in the Kazakh landscape. Honestly, there was one tree in the whole movie, and it was of course a sacred tree. This lone arbol was the place where our hero gathered to collect his thoughts and such. This began to worry me. Because I love trees. Love them. I love to look at them, walk under them, rest against them, etc. I'm surprised my favorite book as a child wasn't The Giving Tree. But in order to cope with this new fear that my future home would only have one tree, I began joking with people about the fact that there were no trees in Kazakhstan. But of course, I knew there would be. There had to be.

And then I finally googled "steppe." The steppe is what the climate/vegetation zone is for most of the country. In my mind, it was this grassy plain area with vast expanse and rolling hills. Sort of like the Midwest or something. The first result was Wikipedia and so I followed that link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe). The first sentence says, "In physical geography, a steppe is a grassland plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes)." Without trees. It's in the definition.

Now, I have also learned that there are wild apple trees in Kazakhstan and the country is literally huge. So, yes, there will be trees there. But over the next two months, I'm going to be appreciating all of the trees around here so much more.

Coursework Complete

I officially turned in my Capstone paper and presented it last Friday. That is everything I had to do as a student here in Illinois. Now, I just have reports to send home during my service, but tests and academic papers and the like have come to an end. Because I'm going to be here for a month, then home for a month, I'm going to forego getting a job and try to coast on my savings. That also means that I am pretty much free for the next two months before leaving for the Peace Corps in mid-August. Luckily I have a foreign language to try to learn and a triathlon to train for. I don't imagine I'll have trouble keeping myself busy.

In Peace Corps news, some former volunteers have set up a Yahoo group where we can ask them questions and introduce ourselves. It's exciting to read the introductions of my fellow PCVs. I know that I probably won't be stationed near them during service, but these are the people who will be great support and friends during training and then onward for life most likely. Some of the current volunteers are also the ones whose blogs I have been following for a few months now, so it's interesting to have some form on interaction with them.

Finally, my blog was posted on the peacecorpsjournals site. I set up a counter (because I'm a big web geek) and I noticed a lot of traffic from there. So thanks for stopping by. Feel free to comment. Sorry I am not actually on any adventures yet, but I hope my reflections on some aspects of the PCMI program are helpful.

Меня зовут Michael.

I will officially be learning Russian as my language in Kazakhstan. All OCAP (which stands for Organizational and Community Assistance Program) volunteers learn Russian. And about 1/3 to 1/2 of English-teaching volunteers learn Kazakh. I am excited to know that I will be learning the more useful of the two languages in terms of possible career advancement, but sad in the sense that it would be a lot cooler to be able to speak Kazakh. Меня зовут Michael.

Hope

I just found this after typing ultimate frisbee kazakhstan into google:


Ultimate frisbeeTime: Sunday at 3:00 PM. Place: Agricultural Institute field. The field is off Furmanova between Abay and Satpaeva, across from the Fransooski Dom and the Line Brew Pub. The field cannot be seen from the street. You must walk between two apartment buildings and up a cement block stairway. Please contact James Martin, 91-32-43, or Karina, 91-65-37 for more information.

Classes ending soon

I don't have a lot of news on the PC front. I do have a checklist for my program here at ISU that I need to complete. Mainly things relating to finishing classes, insurance, and other administrative hangups. As far as my classes go, I have one more paper to finish by tomorrow. Make that today. And then my final capstone paper due in two weeks. After that I am finished except for my reports that I send back from the Peace Corps. Needless to say that I am excited. Once my classes are over, I'll post a review of my thoughts on the PCMI experience so far.

For preparation, I have added Kazakhstan to my Google News page. Recently a story about whether or not they should allow polygamy has shown up a few times. I also watched Nomad: The Warrior and learned one Kazakh word from it. Also, I am 130 pages into a book on Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union. I don't think anything can truly prepare you for the PC, but hopefully these will at least allow me to understand the country some before I arrive.