A month of pictures

I've got lots of pictures to share! I had some internet issues last month, so I'm a little behind. But here are a few snapshots of what's been going on here lately.

First of all, a picture taken from my window at 10 pm. It was still so light outside! It's making me want to stay up later, which is bad since I have to get up early to run. It will be interesting to see how long the daylight lasts over the next few weeks.

And as for the month of May... going backwards here. The next few pictures are taken from Borovoe - the "Little Switzerland" of Kazakhstan. A few friends and I went the day after school got out. It was perfect weather, and a nice little escape from the monotony of the steppe.

I like the squirrels in Kazakhstan better! Notice the crazy hair on his ears. Sooo ridiculously funny looking!

And now some pictures from around Kokshetau. We went on a little walking tour of the city with one of the volunteer's English clubs. At the end, we hiked up the little hill at the end of the city, and this cute dog followed us up. When we walked back down and split up to go home, he started whining and crying because he didn't know who to follow! He ended up waiting with me at my bus stop. :) (Note: I was not brave enough to touch him, like some of the other girls. Dirty.)

In the center of the city is this big statue of Ablahan. They like him around here.

The craziness that is the train station:

The statue outside the train station - she's welcoming you to Kokshetau!

And here are some pictures from our "Last Bell" ceremony. This is the concert/graduation day for the last day of school. Here is one of our 11th grade graduates and a 1st grader ringing the last bell:

The 11th grade graduating class of 2010:

They made me sing at the concert. The music teacher chose the song - Besame Mucho. She didn't realize that it was in Spanish, not English. I did manage to find a Beatles version of the song in English. So I did half Spanish, half English. It was... interesting.

And now, the Shakespeare festival. Schools around the city and from my village prepared sonnets and portions of plays, as well as a few dances, to perform for everyone. It was very well done, and I was super impressed with how well the students memorized Shakespeare!

This was from King Lear. I loved the map they used - we have one in our classroom, too. :) Plus I'm pretty sure they had their lines written on the back of it.

The exciting sword fight/death scene from Hamlet:

Here are a few pictures from Victory Day - celebrating the day the Germany/USSR treaty was signed.

Annnnd finally.... another holiday, the week before Victory Day. I don't remember what it was. Oops! But there was a concert in the village square.

These girls did dances from different countries - Kazakh, of course, as well as Turkish, Russian and Indian, and some others that I'm not sure where they were from, but they looked cool!

These are a group of girls from my school, 5th - 7th grade doing a Kazkah dance.

Last but not least, in the category of "awkward Chinese packaging"....

I took a blow to my self-esteem when I saw that "XXXXXXL" in big bold letters. Thanks, China, for making an average (ok, so I'm tall) American girl feel huge! But thank you for the instruction at the bottom on the "wear way" so that I'm not confused as I try to put the nylons on.

OK, so now you're all caught up on what's been going on over here. Now I'll start off my Summer with a conference given by Peace Corps about project design management, then I'm off to Almaty for my medical/dental exam. Fingers are crossed for no cavities! After that... I'm booked with doing summer camps until the end of July. Then I'll take a little vacation to the fabulous country of... America! Yeah, that's right. I gave in. I'll come back for two weeks to enjoy hearing English on TV, and to eat some good food. Then I'll make it back to Kazakhstan with a week to spare before we get the next school year started.

Happy Summer!