An Interview with KRBD Ketchikan

Well, the media tour surrounding my trip to DC got a little more exciting – I got interviewed by KRBD, the radio station that I grew up listening to every day in Ketchikan, Alaska!  I had the great pleasure of sitting down with journalist Leila Kheiry and chatting about Monday Bazaar, my Peace Corps service, and my time so far in Kyrgyzstan.

A former Ketchikan resident and Peace Corps volunteer recently won a trip to Washington, D.C., after his blog about volunteering in Kyrgyzstan won an online social-media contest.

Mark Jahnke lived in Ketchikan until he was about 9 years old, but he said he’s maintained a lot of ties to the community through the years.

“It still is actually the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere, so I still, obviously, think of it very close to my heart,” he said.

And, Jahnke said, Ketchikan was the start of his path toward joining the Peace Corps a little more than a year ago.

You can listen to the whole interview over on KRBD’s website.

America Again: The Peace Corps Top Bloggers’ Tour

It’s going to take me a little while to process the incredible week that was my week in Washington, D.C. at the Peace Corps Top Bloggers’ Tour last week.  As I’ve mentioned a few times, I was one of 8 amazing bloggers from across the Peace Corps world who won the 2016 Peace Corps Blog It Home blogging contest this summer, which earned me a trip to Washington this week to participate in this tour of trainings, professional development, and the chance to share the cultures of our countries with middle school students and Girl Scouts from across the DMV.  I’m pinching myself so hard, because in the past six months, things have just gotten more and more amazing. Continue reading “America Again: The Peace Corps Top Bloggers’ Tour”

October 2016 Photo Roundup

It’s the end of the month, and as a part of a new blogging and photography goal I’ve set for myself with BloggingAbroad, I’ve been taking photos based on prompts (and just from life in general), and I wanted to share a few with you!  Take a look, read about it, and click to enlarge if you want to see more closely. Continue reading “October 2016 Photo Roundup”

Mile 17-18: Nomad Games, Uzbekistan, America, Oh My!

As I warned back at the end of August, I had a lot of excitement coming up this fall in my life… so since I’ve done special posts on the big things that were a part of it, I’m going to combine these two months into a single summary to talk about everything that I didn’t get to talk about in those other posts. Continue reading “Mile 17-18: Nomad Games, Uzbekistan, America, Oh My!”

September 2016 Photo Roundup

It’s the end of the month, and as a part of a new blogging and photography goal I’ve set for myself with BloggingAbroad, I’ve been taking photos based on prompts (and just from life in general), and I wanted to share a few with you!  Take a look, read about it, and click to enlarge if you want to see more closely. Continue reading “September 2016 Photo Roundup”

Uzbekistan: A Silk Road Adventure

Sometime over a year ago, my parents and I decided that we wanted to do some additional travel when they came to visit me.  Thus was born our plan to travel across Uzbekistan.  Well, we actually had come up with the idea in 2013, but it wasn’t until now that we finally managed to get visas and hop on a plane into the capital, Tashkent to start our adventure. Continue reading “Uzbekistan: A Silk Road Adventure”

Language Lessons: National Kyrgyz Language Day

Today is September 23rd, and it marks a somewhat unusual holiday, one of a type that is becoming common across Central Asia: National Kyrgyz Language Day.  Perhaps it seems self evident that the national language of Kyrgyzstan would be Kyrgyz, but it’s not quite that simple thanks to the country’s history.  And to understand that history, we’ve got to do a little bit of linguistic anthropology.  Let’s dive in. Continue reading “Language Lessons: National Kyrgyz Language Day”

My Week At The 2016 World Nomad Games

Hey friends!  In case you hadn’t already noticed on Instagram, Facebook, or by my talking about it in some of my other recent posts, I had the incredible fortune to compete earlier this month in the 2016 World Nomad Games representing the United States.  It was, to say the least, probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.  As the announcer in the opening ceremony said, “If Ghengis Khan were alive, he would want to be here.” Continue reading “My Week At The 2016 World Nomad Games”

Toguz Korgool: A Traditional Kyrgyz Board Game

You’ve almost certainly never heard of Toguz Korgool, which literally means “nine sheep droppings.”  But, in honor of my upcoming posts from the World Nomad Games, it’s probably a good idea that I explain to you exactly what I was doing there for 9 hours a day: I was playing a board game called Toguz Korgool (also known as Toguz Kumalak in Kazakhstan).  And I guarantee you that in 15 minutes or less, you can be playing too. Continue reading “Toguz Korgool: A Traditional Kyrgyz Board Game”

Mile 16: August Before The Fall

Note: I’m back! Sorry for the hiatus, and sorry in advance for the ensuing DELUGE of posts and pretty pictures that are about to come your way!

Summer was supposed to be a quiet time for me.  It had been implied to me that I needed to not leave site this summer, so I cancelled my plans to work at a variety of camps and things, instead planning to bide my time a bit, focus on my blog, and maybe hit a few touristy weekends while work slowed to a crawl for July and August.  Well, by the first week of August, it was clear that wasn’t how things were going to play out, and that actually turned out to be a good thing. Continue reading “Mile 16: August Before The Fall”