August 4^th.

Previet All,

Well, I’m two weeks from finishing training, and I cannot wait to move on, the hostmother is starting to wear on me, and I’m ready to start earning that $125/month. I got word a couple days ago that my job will be working with a USAID contractor called Pragma, on small/medium business development and regional trade. Pragma is a business development consulting company out of D.C., and they just won a huge contract from USAID to provide business development consulting throughout Central Asia. I feel extremely lucky to be assigned to work with a consulting company from the States, as it will surely give me a nearly guaranteed job after I’m done, if I’m still into this stuff.

On the flipside, where I’m going is freakin COLD. It’s a big city called Ust Komenegorst, or something close to that. The city is in Northeast Kaz, pretty close to the Russian/Mongolian borders. The good news is that its apparently beautiful, with HUGE mountains, a great forest, and a large river. They say they get a lot of snow in the winter, an average temp of -30C, but very little wind, which is key. It sounds sort of like Maine on steroids. I’ll be living in an apartment up there, probably a one-bedroom, but will have heat/hot water, and will probably be right in the city. Oh, and there’s a good chance I’ll actually have a phone and dial up internet service, so maybe this website will finally get active from my end. After this little 10 week experiment living with a host family, I’m soooo ready to get back into my own place.

So, I leave Almaty a week from this coming Saturday (Aug 17), on a train, for a 30 hour trip to my new home for two years. I feel pretty self-sufficient I guess, my Russian skills are pretty good for ten weeks actually. We test next Saturday, and my teacher says I’ll probably test as a “Novice Intermediate”, whatever that means. I’m really into the speaking Russian thing, so I’m glad I’m in a region that speaks almost all Russian. These countries are all promoting their own languages, so its hit or miss if you get to a place that speaks Kazakh or Russian. I had a day of Kazakh language class last week, I’m glad I’m learning Russian, Kazakh is almost Arabic, its scary looking.

I have some more pictures on my harddrive, but I don’t have time to get them on disk for this trip to the Net Café. I have to find a digital cam at my site, as my source is going to the opposite side of the country…

This is for my mom and bro Mike…I got your packages, and Mike, you hit a homerun with the pop tarts, oreos, and sports magazines, thanks! And Mom, the dress for my teacher is exactly what I envisioned, thank you very much, she’ll be shocked I think, but in a good way.

To my brother Dan, happy 38^th, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do (not a very limiting constraint actually), and if you are up for an insane vacation idea next summer, think of lovely Kazakhstan…that goes for anyone reading this (except for the Nikola brothers, you’ll have difficulty getting visas, even though you were never officially convicted).

That’s about all for now…I’m off for a quick douche (shower, that is, welcome to bizarroworld). I have to hit the barrel when its had time to heat up all day.

Paka!

Andrew