So here I am in the thriving metropolis of Almaty, and while most peoples' first-Peace-Corps-blogs probably start that way to introduce a little village with irony, I mean it most literally. For the past 3 weeks I've been in Almaty, which is a city or 1.5 million that is growing at an insane rate. When I look at the city from the window of my 7th floor classroom, the horizon is an even pattern of high rise buildings, and cranes building more high rise buildings. And that of course is set on the backdrom of the Tien Shan mountains, which are gorgeous. Actually, i already had a chance to visit them when some host-family relatives took me to Talgar, a little town about an hour away.

Which, I think, is a nice segue into introducing the host fam. I live in an apartment in West Almaty with Babushka (Russian for grandmother). She is the quintessential Kazakh babushka- cooks all the time in big vats on the stove, peels potatos at a rate that I can not imagine achieving, and whose favorite pastime is sitting and drinking tea while teaching me words in Russian and Kazakh. Her favorite phrase to tell me is: "Eat, eat" (like "Mangia, mangia").

The happiest I've ever seen Babushka is when I accepted thirds of her plov. True to stereotype, she is kind of a force feeder. The second my plate is empty, she fills it up again, so I always have to leave a little bit on it. The day that I ate 3rds, I actually had accidentally finished all of the first helping (it was so good, I forgot the rules!) So that meant automatic seconds, which intrigued babushka because this had never happened before. As I'm getting to the end of the seconds, budgeting how much I can leave on the plate to signal that I don't want anymore, while still not offending her by wasting food, I can feel the atmosphere in the room stiffen (We had company- a big table full of about 10 guests.) I realized that they were all counting down the bites until the plate was clean.

Would I finish?

Was babushkas plov THAT GOOD?

I looked over at her, and she was trying to play it cool, but I could tell she was nervous. I had already loosened the drawstring on my pants at this point because there had been many dishes served before the plov itself made an appearance, and a steady food coma was slowly creeping up on me.

But I couldn't let babushka down. I finished the plov.

The rest of the night is a blur. I know they filled the plate again, and I'm sure I ate it, but How? Who knows. All I remember is that babushka glowed for the rest of the night. She was showered with compliments by all of her guests, and every time I looked over at her she beamed at me. The other 5 volunteers who are also in Almaty training to be University teachers all live with larger families, but I really like my zen lifestyle with babushka. Also a plus is that she speaks no english, so I use only Russian and Kazakh at home.

I would love to add more, but I have a lesson in a few minutes...more soon, and pictures also.

Oh, and one more thing- I miss you all! I hope everybody is doing great. I know my LEL gang is all diving into another crazy semester, and I wish I could be there to be "the relaxed one" and calm everybody down :)

XOXO Christina