One more week...

Blog 25
October 25
Counterpart conference is over, and I'm back in Panfilova. A small group of us stayed an extra night in Almaty after the conference - seeing as we had a barbeque at the Country Director's house the following day. That was more of an adventure than anticipated... but super fun. The barbeque was also amazing. Our CD has an amazingly gigantic house. We ate chili, hamburgers, grilled chicken, salad, brownies and more. I overate. There was badminton, trivial pursuit, a free American phone to use, the internet... even a dog that sits and fetches :)
Today I went to church like normal, had lunch and went to the bazaar after. It's weird to think that next week I'll be in Mambet... with Johnny. Lol. (Our counterparts knew each other very well even before the conference, and apparently we are in the same district even!) We leave immediately after the swearing in ceremony. My host family is sad :( After church, I did some dishes and helped clean a little. For the first time, my host mom recognized my help and actually thanked me! It felt so good lol. It's hard to do things with a joyful heart when no one even appreciates the work. But it was a very pleasant surprise :) Other than that, nothing special happened - just banya and hung out with Laura and Echo for a little bit. Tomorrow we will cook.
So our Swearing in Ceremony is on the 31 of October... and there isn't much to this week but that. We have our talent show, and a teacher training seminar. So that takes care of 2 days? Other than that... we will hang out and say goodbye - and freak ourselves out thinking too much about what might happen in the next two years.