Month 5: "There It Goes"

    Month 5 in Kyrgyzstan has officially come and gone, and it feels like each month passes faster than the one before it. This month also contains a significant milestone as it was the end of the first quarter at school! In Kyrgyzstan, school is divided into four quarters with a week or two break between each (except for the 3 month summer vacation). With this, month 5 has been full of time for reflection, plenty of frustrating moments, and many firsts for both myself and my students:

• Halloween
• My students are actually the ones who asked to celebrate Halloween! They've spent years seeing pictures and videos of it online, but have never been able to celebrate.
• Throughout the week we had several Halloween themed lessons including vocabulary, jack-o-lantern making and our own version of Trick or Treating
• My English Club also had our own Halloween party! Several of the students dressed up, we played games and ate even more candy

My 7th Grade Students' Jack-O-Lanterns

• End of First Quarter

• As I mentioned earlier, this month also saw the end of the first quarter of school! With this, came exams to see what information the students retained and planning curriculum for the future based on the results.
• Most importantly, the end of the quarter meant we had a week off school which was much needed for both students and teachers alike. For me, this time off included visiting new places near me, spending time with my host sisters and catching up on the random tasks I'd been putting off for weeks.

• Arslanbob 
• Speaking of a week off school, one thing I did during this time was visit Arslanbob!
• Arslanbob is the world's oldest walnut forest and one of the bigger tourist sites in Kyrgyzstan. In addition to being surrounded by 1000 year old walnut trees, there are also two waterfalls that you can hike to. I only hiked to the smaller one, where there was also a cave was once used for prayer and viewed as a holy place
• Peak tourism season is over for Arslanbob, so it was pretty empty when I visited. The majority of the bazaar stands and shops were closed and the only people I saw were those that lived in the village. However, it's still the most beautiful place I've been to in Kyrgyzstan so far and I cannot wait to go back in the summer!

The view fron the cave

The view driving in to Arslanbob

The small waterfall at Arslanbob

• I have so many host cousins!!
• Before this month, I thought I had met the majority of my host family...it turns out that's not the case.
• This month, I think I've met 15+ additional family members. Everyone is just called a cousin so I also have no idea what the relationship to them is, but I'm not complaining because it's exactly the same as my actual family. 

• Hollywood? More like Jalal-Abad
• One of the first things I noticed in Jalal-Abad city was that there was a giant sign in the mountains, similar to the Hollywood sign, spelling out Jalal-Abad.
• For weeks, the other volunteers in my oblast and I have talked about hiking to the sign (even though we weren't quite sure if it was possible). And although we completely went off the path and walked through a forest of pistachios, we eventually made it!! 
• We also met some children on the way down who proceeded to debate about Ronaldo vs. Messi. I also completely faceplanted while trying to show them pictures from the time I saw Messi. In the end, they gave us sunflower seeds, asked us for money and then ran away once we got back to the city.

The one and only, regionally famous Jalal-Abad sign

• I made it on the official Peace Corps Website and Instagram!!
• My blog post "How Did I Get Here" was featured on the Peace Corps website and even earned it's own Instagram post!!
• Harry Styles was also mentioned in the Instagram caption (which I did not make or have any idea was happening), and honestly it seems very fitting that he was a part of this

    Those are just some brief highlights from Month 5. It's hard to believe that I've already spent five months in Kyrgyzstan. It feels like just yesterday I was on the plane to Philadelphia. With this, this month's post is named after the song "There It Goes" by Maisie Peters. Solely for the line "I wake up and it's October," because that's been my main takeaway from this past month (also I do realize that it's now November, but technically Month 5 was the majority of October). This has without a doubt been the busiest and most hectic month so far. So busy, that at the time I'm writing this, we're closer to Month 6  -- so stayed tuned for that in the very near future :)