Christmas 2010
Christmas eve: Was a typical day at the university because it isn’t a holiday here. However, there were several volunteers from Naryn oblast (aka Narnia). Naryn is the truly Kyrgyz part of Kyrgyzstan, even the locals admit this. The volunteers in my city and our Narnian guests (about 11) got together to share cookies and watch Christmas movies. One guy even borrowed the projector from his organization so we could enjoy watching 3 foot Peanuts characters dance around on the living room wall. After “Charlie Brown’s Christmas,” we watched “Home Alone.”
On Christmas day, I actually had to work. It was a Saturday, but we had a training scheduled so another PCV and I gave sessions. My session stunk. It didn’t quite feel good when I was planning it, but I had run out of planning time. The topic was ‘Writing Objectives.’ At the end, the teachers were not able to tell me the skills I wanted them to learn, and I didn’t give them a whole lot of time to practice writing objectives. I’ve since given the training 2 other times and have worked out many of the problems. It was just frustrating because I wasn’t connecting with the participants. I’ve been trying to goal set and figure out what my role will be next semester since I will not be co-teaching any classes. I still will work with FORUM English Teachers Association, but I still want to work to support the 43 English teachers at the university. After the training, I went back to my apartment to get ready for Christmas dinner.
In the evening, all of the volunteers where getting together for a potluck dinner. It was really nice to hang out and talk with a bunch of people. Some of them we don’t get to see all that often. Plus there are some foodies in our midst, so we had tasty food. I made a beet salad…which I took a lot of home. Others made fried chicken, southwest stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, spinach and even Betty Crocker brownies. It was a good night. Later, I went back to my apartment and called home. I think I talked to about 12 people in about 15 minutes at my Gramma’s house. Very symbolic of the usual chaos. I talked to a few family members for the first time since coming here.
The day after Christmas a bunch of us went skiing. This was my first time. The ski base here is actually really nice, or so people say. What do I know? A couple of the other volunteers went with me down the bunny slope to teach me how to balance, turn, and stop. One of the guys likened skiing to skating which helped me out. They said I was doing really well for my first day. I think it’s because of the skating thing. I really liked it. I thought I would get bored, but I didn’t. The bunny slope was nice and long, and a couple of volunteers where snowboarding or practicing some skills for the first half of the day. There were a few others who were beginners too.
During the second half of the day, we moved to a more challenging slope. The next run up in difficulty happens to be two runs up the mountain. So we took the lift to a high part of the mountain. Then the slope ends or you can keep going. If you keep going, it is a pretty fast run. So we were skiing just down the top run. The first time I went down, I was feeling it out and just trying to stay on my feet. It got faster toward the bottom; I was just focusing on keeping the front of my skis together to slow me down. I didn’t try to cross over the run in those wide turns because I thought if I shifted my weight weird I’d lose control. I made it to the bottom so thrilled that I was in one piece that I let out an enthusiastic ‘ Yeah.’ To which, a slim Russian woman in a coordinating ski suit just stared at me. The second time I went down the run. I was more relaxed. The first part went well again, and then I came to the fast part where I had shot straight down. I figured I’d go straight again…why mess with what works? ….Until it doesn’t. I couldn’t keep my toes pointed together. I remember looking at them and thinking that I couldn’t. Then it happened. My right ski turned out, and I biffed it hard. I lost that ski and rolled a little. I managed to laugh it off and get up. Another volunteer coming down behind me helped me get my stranded ski. We couldn’t get my ski back on. Turns out that it had been omitted from my lessons. So I walked down the rest of the slope and took a break.
We had a snack in a café with two other volunteers. I had tweaked my right knee when my ski came off, so I returned to the bunny hill via ski lift for the remainder of the day. Overall, it was a good day. I’d go again. But it is pretty expensive for us to go on our pay. So it will probably be a once in a while thing.
