Constitution Day

Today Kazakhstan is celebrating 15 years of having a constitution. America has had a constitution for over 200 years, and the English had a document kind of like a constitution from practically the beginning of time, but Constitution day is a big deal in Kazakhstan. Almaty had fireworks late at night, there was a big parade in Issyk, and everyone got a day off from work except the trainees who still had a 10+ hour day of language and technical sessions.

The wary never rest.

My morning was spent trying to keep my upper body away from everything, especially my shirt, because I had a painful encounter with a wasp. Sunday was laundry day, and because dryers do not exist in Kazakhstan I hung my clothes out to dry. On Monday morning I went to retrieve my clothes from the line. Sometimes bugs like to camp out on drying clothes and usually a good shaking gets rid of them.

So knowing this I shook out my clothes like normal, and then put on my favorite shirt which was just on the line. Little did I know that there was a stubborn wasp that avoided my shaking ritual, and was tucked on the inside of the shirt out of view which I put on.

It was not fun, for me or the wasp.

I started screaming and jumping down as it stung me repeatedly on my stomach, which brought my neighbors to my door because they thought something bad was happening to me. And it was. They totally understood when I told them what happened (or understood that I was totally crazy) and now I have 3 welts on my body that still hurt.

Something that I'm reading:

Fellow Kaz 19 Returned Volunteer Erin Curtis is famous after being featured in an article on CNN by describing issues she encountered adjusting back to America after living in Kazakhstan. In the article, she described my nightmare scenario: struggling with cover letters because of English troubles, being socially awkward, freaking out in stores because of too many choices and all of that stuff. As I get closer to leaving (November 8), I'm sure I'll blog more about how I feel about this, but reverse culture shock is real and it scares the crap out of me.