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! :)