Observations

                I noticed that most of the dogs around here are sort of on the small side.  They are like medium sized bodies with little legs usually.  My old host mom told me that people catch and eat dogs – I guess the bigger dogs have more meat and are worth killing?

What else…..

                I still cannot get over all of the broken glass!  I am numb to the trash on the ground but the glass is so astounding.  For some reason it seems so dangerous to me for everyone to walk around on the glass, kids play on the glass, and animals graze on the glass.  No one else seems to mind or think anything of it.  Some of the pieces are huge chunks of a bottle left that could cut your foot off.

                My former site mate told me about this airline search thing called skyscanner.com.  It is supposed to be a really great site to search for tickets.   Just passing that information along….

                I tend to keep a plastic bag in my bedroom for trash since I am used to always having a trashcan in my room.  My old host mom thought that was strange and seemed to be bothered by it.  She would come in my room, shake her head and laugh at the fact that I left trash in my room until the bag was full.  That experience made me realize that people don’t have trash cans in every room here.  In the room with the toilet and kitchen are the only two places I really ever see any trash cans.  It seems funny because I remember my grandmother having a trash can every 4 feet in her house. 

                Something totally unexpected came about when I arrived last spring and observed classes at my school.  There is a general public school sort of dress code (stricter with younger kids and a bit looser with “high school” aged students) of black, white, grey, tan, and navy colored ‘church’ clothes.  In addition to that there are these special uniforms that girls can wear, at their choosing I guess, that look exactly like a French Maid Halloween costume.  I mean the works!  Black dress with a knee length (or shorter) skirt, a lacy apron that ties in the back, white lace knee high stockings, black high heels, big puffy hair bows in pigtails.  It TOTALLY blew my mind.  It looks like a party but it is very much normal.  Only a few girls wear it to class on a daily basis but it is worn more frequently during really special occasions. 

                Also, I kept seeing middle school aged Kazakh boys eating paper.  I don’t know what that is all about.  Another thing to reiterate I was constantly asked if I am married or have a boyfriend.  It is a ritual in casual greetings that I don’t particularly enjoy.  Partly because I don’t like when people constantly ask me in the U.S. either.

That’s all for now,

Megan

Kazakhstan Fun Fact:     License plates are written using the English alphabet.