Pictures :)

This is Salta, Tara, Jonna and I at the waterpark - Yes - waterpark!!! It was our day off and we had fun!! It had waterslides and everything!

Our friend had never roasted marshmellows and wanted to - so she insisted we roast them over our gas stove haha. This is Tara and Anessa roasting marshmellows...

Here is a pic of all 4 of the roommates: Salta, Tara, Vic and Tammy!

This is Tara, Salta and I posing in front of the atakent...yes, we got looked at funny but we had fun!

These are some of the girls that we have been hanging out with! This is at a restaurant last week...

This is what happens when you let someone put make up on you here! We had our friend over for dinner (we made mexican!!) and it turned into beauty night...or something like that...haha

I went camping last weekend - this is me standing in the freezing cold water! It was a blast...

This is a picture of the cute little babushkas selling things on the side of the street...
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This is a view of the mountains from our favorite restaurant (we go to it when we need a taste of America! haha)

Happy one month to me :)

Well, I've been in Kazakhstan about a month now! I can't believe it!

If you receive my emails - this will be a repeat but I will post pictures :)

I think I am adjusting quite well - I began language a couple of weeks ago and having a routine has helped a lot. TO be honest, I don’t know where the day goes half the time – all of a sudden it is 9:00 at night! My team is great – it is such a blessing to have them here and for the most part, close by. They have really helped me in the transition process. One thing that has been hard is not being in the states for major things going on with friends (wedding, babies, etc.) I am learning to “count the costs” and to “die to myself” which is great for me to learn.

Learning Russian is great... I feel like it is coming along well. I’ve learned animals, fruits, vegetables, some verbs, nature words, city words, drinks, common phrases, etc, etc – I think I am up to knowing (recognizing) about 500 words already! I can understand A LOT more than I can speak. I am not what you would call the most patient person in the world so I have had to depend on The Father to give me patience while learning Russian! :)

One of my favorite parts of KZ is walking everywhere and seeing hundreds of women on the side of the sidewalk selling fruit and vegetables! I don’t know why, but I absolutely love it! I have had a couple of traditional dishes here and they are good! We eat A LOT of bread here. With every meal, there is bread. They also love their meat here – lamb, pork, horse! Yes, horse – I ate a horse hot dog the first week I was here (I wasn’t told until afterward what is was)! As I am writing – it almost 1:00 a.m. and I keep thinking I should go to bed and finish this later but there are probably 10 dogs barking outside so I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway! :) There are a lot of stray cats and dogs here. It has been hot hot hot here. For about a week and a half it was over 100 degrees everyday!!! It has finally cooled down (during the day it is about 85-90) and at night it is in the 70’s! It is nice sleeping weather!

I am making friends which is fun for me :) We are visiting different campuses this month and through that, have been able to connect with some students. There are a few girls in particular who seem to enjoy hanging out with us so please ask The Father that we would continue to be friends and be able to go deeper. School starts this week so there will be a lot more students on the campuses, hopefully we will be meeting more and more people. We hang out with at least 3 or 4 people a week...it is nice to finally feel like I am connecting with people! :)