Within our grasp...

Saturday July 31
The last day of July! Today being Saturday, I slept in and then stayed in bed for a while reading. I started Wuthering Heights a few days ago and I think I am now about halfway through it. I also went to morning star with Rob to work on what we are gonna do tomorrow for our externship. We are not really looking forward to it just because we are so close to being done and, at this point, just want to get it over with.
A couple more cultural things I have learned-
When Tajiks shave off their little girls hair, it is customary to give bread and candy to all the neighbors. We got a bag the other day with a loaf of bread and some candy bars.
For Tajik weddings, two days before the wedding is “Aush Nahar” which means lunch of Aush. All the men in the neighborhood go to a restaurant and have Aush together. Then the day before all the girls in the neighborhood go over to the brides house for lunch together.

Sunday August 1
First day of August! Woohoo! We’re getting close to the end! Today Rob and I had our externship. We went out to a summer came for young teenage Tajik kids and talked about community service and volunteer work in the US. After we talked we opened it up for questions and some of the kids had more questions about what kind of work we had done in the states but then we got other questions like do we like living in Tajikistan, what is our favorite Tajik food and have we ever been to a rap concert? After our presentation and the q&a time we started the games that we had planned for. We had organized five challenges/critical thinking games that could be played simultaneously by 5 teams. So, we did a river crossing, blanket turn, relay race, swimming race and spider’s web. It all went really well, I was really happy afterwards and Rob and I got a lot of practice talking in Persian/Tajik.


Monday August 2
Last Monday of class! My journal has just reached the 30th page and I am SO excited about going to home. Ok well Europe first, then home. I am very excited for both. It might be a little ridiculous to say this but I may be more excited about getting home and eating oreos and milk in the airport than I am about going to Paris and Barcelona. Its a close call.
Instead of having Persian class and doing actual work today we continued working on the backdrop for our play on Friday with Atepha. Then we had our last Tajik class because instead of having a lesson tomorrow for our two hours of Tajik we are going to Zarinna’s house to make sambosas. This is also very exciting since I don’t know if I can handle another two hours of Tajik.

Tuesday August 3
5 MORE DAYS. We can now count down on one hand!
We had two hours of Persian today and we did some real work on more grammar structures and then worked more on the play for Friday. I’m glad we are doing that instead of a real final. We also read and recorded our final compositions about world problems which was our last speech!
After Persian class we headed over to Zarinna’s house for sambosas! They were soooo good. We made them with butternut squash inside instead of meat which I liked a lot better. This also meant that I finally went an entire day without eating meat. I think this is the first day since I’ve been here that I have successfully avoided meat.
My host dad this evening said that he wants to go somewhere this weekend with me and Nodira and someone else, I wasn’t exactly clear on what he said. But he suggested going to Hisor Fort until my host mom told him that I have already gone there so then he said he would think of somewhere else to go and would get back to me later. So that seems to be the plan for Saturday. After that we talked about whether I am going to come back to Tajikistan or not and my host dad told me that I should come back and visit after I finish college because he can give me a job and will find a husband for me. When I told him I had a boyfriend who lives in the States he was like “Oh, how old is he? What does he do? When are you going to get married?” So after I answered all his questions about Evan he was like, “You know, after you get married is when the kids come.” Fortunately, I was saved from replying to his awkward statement by my host mom who stepped in and told him to stop pestering me.


Wednesday August 4
I started packing last night just because I was getting so antsy not doing anything and wanted to accomplish something productive. So I got out my list of what I need for Paris and Barcelona (which I wrote last week) and started putting things in my suitcase.
This morning I skyped with Evan before I had my Tajik exam. The test went pretty well, I was only confused on one small part where we had to fill in the blanks in a paragraph because I didn’t know what one of the words meant. But everything else went well. Tomorrow we have two proficiency tests for Persian and then one other one on Friday afternoon right before the party and our play. After that, we will be done!

Thursday August 5
Today we have two proficiency tests- listening in the morning and writing in the afternoon. I don’t think very many people are studying or anything because they don’t affect our grades, they are just to see our improvement since studying here for the summer.
Hmm, bad news, Babak just told me that his friend we were going to stay with in Paris apartment flooded. So now, we are going to be in Paris in 4 days and we have nowhere to stay. Great. Oh the upside, today is Thursday which means that tomorrow is Friday and tomorrow we will be able to say, tomorrow is Saturday and the day after that is Sunday which is the night that we leave! Of course, Kyle also pointed out that, while we're at it, we might as well say that "and after that comes Christmas!" so we may just start a countdown for that too lol. BUT, in all seriousness, the end is within our grasp, on the very tips of our fingers, and we are all very excited.