Pay Attention, Chris!

I realized I left out some important information in my first blog entry. I'm not just moving to Kazakhstan totally on a whim; I'll be teaching English as a Second Language through Peace Corps. Sometimes I tend to be a little forgetful about these things.

Our flight leaves from DC tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5:50 p.m. for Frankfurt, where we'll have a five hour layover (just short enough not to be able to do anything in Frankfurt and just long enough to be a really, really long layover). We're scheduled to land in Almaty, Kazakhstan at 11:40 p.m. (their time) on Wednesday.

The last two days have been a bit of a whirlwind, with my family having dropped me off at the hotel yesterday and an eight-hour day of reviewing and discussing Peace Corps policy today. To be honest though, the staging event here in DC has been pretty enjoyable- I've met a lot of great people (there are 75 in our group going over), and so a lot of us have gotten to know each other through the training activities, as well as the extra-curriculars. And not to mention, it's helped take my mind off of how awful Superbad was.

Not much else to report at this point. They tell us our internet access will be very infrequent during the first three months, during which we will be in our intensive language and training classes. So, who knows when the next blog entry will be.

Also, I need someone to take my place as most irrationally optimistic Orioles fan while I am gone. They're going to be better next year, I promise (they finally have starting pitching!). I also pledge to leave behind at least one Orioles fan in Kazakhstan. And if I don't, I can just tell people I did.

Well, until next time, everyone take care. And good luck to my sister, Joanna. She moves into her dorm at JMU tomorrow. I know you'll do great things there, Jo!

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

That's right: blogging. I always told myself that I would never have my own blog. But, here I am.

Most of you are aware that I am leaving for Kazakhstan this coming week. For those of you that aren't....surprise! I head up to D.C. tomorrow (Sunday) for the three-day staging/pre-departure event, and we fly to Almaty on Wednesday. Something tells me that I probably won't be totally sure what I've gotten myself into until I get there, but at the same time I am pretty anxious to get going with it. And I just hope that my lasting image of America does not continue to be the movie Superbad, which truly lived up to its name last night (though to be fair, most everyone else in the theater seemed to like it).

I look forward to keeping all (both) of you (Mom and Dad) updated on what I am doing while I am in Kazakhstan, and I appreciate all the well-wishes that I've gotten so far. Keep an eye out for another entry sometime in the coming days or weeks, depending on my access to the internet.