Brian goes back to Asia

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

In Kyrgyzstan!!

I am pleased to say that I made it Kyrgyzstan safely!  It has already been quite the journey for my group (K-19).  There are 43 volunteers total, 28 of which are TEFL, 8 involved in business development, and 7 health volunteers.  There seems to be about equal number of females and males and I would guess that the average age of our group is in the neighborhood of 26 years old.  Coincidentally there are two volunteers that also attended MSU.  I enjoyed the staging event in Philadelphia, although it did come with a few bumps, but nothing real major.  I enjoyed the bus ride up to NYC where we departed for Istambul.  I was able to witness the skyline from afar and would love to explore at a later date, it is the "big apple" afterall.  Unfortunately there was not enought time to check out the city of Istambul after the 10 hour flight over.  And correcting a major baggage mistake actually took a most of the time.  From Istambul we departed to Bishkek which was an additional 5 hour plane ride but it was smooth.  After making it through customs at 2:30 in the morning, a large welcome wagon of volunteers was there for a meet and greet session.  To say I was extrememly tired would be an understatement and I wasn't really able to ackowledge many of them who had dressed up in costumes (fat penguin and rabbit with crutches).  For the last cople of days I have been staying at a hotel outstide the capital city trying to absorb as much information and language as possible but it is a daunting task and exhausting.  Today I am on my way to meet my host family and am super excited!!!  Nervous also!