nearly monochrome

As February keeps rolling on, and March keeps inching closer, I realized that I have been thinking a lot about spring. I came to Petropavlovsk in mid-November and had a couple weeks before the snow came (stayed), but I’m finding it hard to remember what the ground looks like. As I type, the snow is falling as it has been for two full days now. We haven’t had nearly as much snow as I had expected, the most being five or six inches, but it definitely is persistent. And this week is the first time I acknowledged how bored I am with it. My host mom mentioned to my counterpart that I must be sad because I don’t talk as much and I don’t have the same peppy attitude I had in November. She said it without concern, as if it isn’t a problem, but rather something that just happens in February. I responded that I am just busy and therefore tired when I get home. I guess I am in a slow, semi-hibernation phase, napping a lot and spending a fair amount of time in my room reading or playing guitar. Her comments got me thinking whether or not I am sad or mildly depressed. I don’t think I am, but I do understand how seasonal depression could occur in a cold, windy, nearly monochrome city. Just think of the PCVs living in a village. They warned us that the first 3-6 months at site are the hardest, arriving just at the onset of the longest winter most PCVs have ever experienced, learning Russian and your role as a teacher in an unfamiliar town. I’ve yet to get upset about the weather, haven’t woken up angry thinking, “Man, it’s STILL freezing outside!” That’s a good thing, but I am growing a little restless and antsy. Although, it could be as much the weather as my immobility and lack of exercise this last week with my ankle inconvenience. Speaking of which, the ankle’s getting better, I’m back to work, and the bruise is fading.

I haven’t had much time to dwell on my weather affected mood, as this week has kept me very busy. Every year the school has a 10-day English festival, where they host various events and activities to promote and showcase the students’ talents. They have been reading some of the school announcements over the PA in English, we invited Mike as a “guest speaker” at our English club, and the 7th graders had a Valentine’s Day competition. It will all end with a concert on Wednesday, complete with songs, poems, skits, and raps. I wrote the play and the rap, the former being a cheesy representation of Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” and the latter a grooving number about how awesome the 11A class is. I’m also playing the guitar for my 10B’s rendition of “Lean on Me,” and with Mike, Semisonic’s “Closing Time.” It should be great. It means, though, that the days have been long with teaching and then preparing and rehearsing. I think it’ll be great. I’ll be sure to put up pictures and perhaps a video or two when it goes down.

This next month and a half, as I look forward to melting snow (Forrest says sometime in late March), I also have some cool events on the docket. The last weekend in February Shannon, an Education Kaz-19 who was in Uzunagach with me, and her counterpart are hosting a teacher training conference here in Petro. It will be good to see her, and do some work with teachers from the area around the city. Then in March, we have Spring Break. March 22nd is the Kazakh New Year, called Nauryz, and a lot of us are going to south Kazakhstan to the town of Shemkent. They host the big festivals with traditional Kazakh games and concerts, and it is perfectly timed, three days before our In-Service Training (IST) in Almaty on the 24th. PC pays for our train ticket to Almaty and back for IST, so I’ll have that money to offset the train tickets to Shemkent, then to Almaty, and back north to Petro. It will be a great trip, surely warmer in the South, and a great break from work and routine here. Maybe by the time I get back here after Nauryz and IST the snow will be gone and the first signs of spring will raise the temperatures and my spirits.