The Kyrgyz Republic

I received (and accepted) my official invitation to serve in The Kyrgyz Republic beginning in July 2008!! I will leave for my “staging” event on July 3rd…I still don’t know where it will be yet, but it will be somewhere in America. That’s good, now I’ll be able to celebrate the fourth of July in America before being whisked away to Central Asia for over two years. I am incredibly excited and ready for this adventure! I just have to keep telling myself that it’s more than just a trip; it’s a life-changing move. I am moving to Kyrgyzstan for two years to teach English and involve myself in whatever other community development projects they might need me for.

I’ve already begun practicing Russian with the mp3’s Peace Corps had available to download…and I suck. I think that language will be the biggest barrier for me to cross, but once I do it’s going to be amazing!! Whether I learn Kyrgyz or Russian it’s going to change my life. It’s odd saying that, in a way, “change my life”…one never fully appreciates how much something has changed their life until they have hindsight to give them the proper perspective. Because I’m already fully cognizant of the fact that this will indeed “change my life” I can’t help but feel like I’m about to embark on a truly incredible journey!


I’ve been working at Williams Kastner for 2 ½ years now, and I’ll be leaving for good on May 30th. I can’t stress enough what an amazing experience it has been for me to work with such great people. I feel like over these past two years I’ve grown by leaps and bounds, and that is in no small part due to the attitude, work, appearance, and professional atmosphere that this firm has demanded. It’s strange to think about it in these terms but although I’d planned on serving in The Peace Corps since my sophomore year in college it’s taken this job to actually prepare me financially, personally, and professionally enough to do a full and complete good job with my service. Williams Kastner enabled me to do the proper job I’d always envisioned I would. For that I will always be grateful.

As I look ahead to the coming months I see great changes getting closer by the day. May 30th I’ll quit the best job I’ve ever had. June 6th I leave for Chicago, then London, Amsterdam, possibly Mykonos or Dublin, and then back to London before maybe heading to L.A. for a final goodbye to my good friends down there prior to setting off for staging on July 3rd. Sometime between now and then I’m going to work on my grammar so I don’t subject my loyal readers to these God-awful run-on sentences. Unfortunately for you, this is certainly one of my lowest priorities at present.

As much as I can’t wait to travel in Europe and rekindle old friendships with everyone I know over there and get set for my 2 years in Kyrgyzstan, I have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the present and stay in as much contact with my amazing friends here before I leave. Who knows? Where I end up in The Kyrgyz Republic might not have any easy access to my world back home in Seattle, I might go months without even so much as a letter to remind me of my roots! It could be weeks before I get to take a shower! Electricity could be nothing but a wishful thought, let alone some good pay-per-view to keep me company…ahhh, the ‘great unknown’ that is Kyrgyzstan. I’m so ready!