{"id":52,"date":"2017-10-28T00:05:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T00:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-sociology\/collincousins\/"},"modified":"2024-05-23T17:09:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T17:09:15","slug":"collincousins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/collincousins\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching in Kazakhstan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/545\/2012\/02\/collincousins646.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FROM COLLIN COUSINS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/ccousins.wordpress.com\/\">Read his Blog<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m a Peace Corps volunteer in the NKO Oblast of Kazakhstan. I&#8217;m officially an English teacher, but I also run clubs for kids and young adults, and will be trying to get a health initiative going next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I live in a village called Sergeyevka, and being over 180 kilometers from the nearest volunteer, makes me the most remote volunteer in Kazakhstan. I&#8217;m slowly learning how to speak Russian, drink vodka, and play the piano. It&#8217;s important to fill up your time here, because the winters are harsh. It often gets to forty below, and we&#8217;ve had weeks where the temperature doesn&#8217;t get above -25 C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s an intense experience and figuring out how to stay sane, exercise, and have fun have all been challenging. I have long conversations over tea with old ladies, run in all weather, shadowbox when windchill hits -60, and am not entirely sure that I&#8217;m staying sane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The experience does afford me plenty of time to read though, so I&#8217;m catching up on years of good literature made possible by my (yes I sold my soul to the devil) Kindle. Teaching&#8217;s great, although sometimes exhausting, and I&#8217;m looking forward to doing something with that when I come home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although being here has given me perspective that I&#8217;m extremely grateful for, and has further convinced me to pursue a career in medicine.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; FROM COLLIN COUSINS Read his Blog I&#8217;m a Peace Corps volunteer in the NKO Oblast of Kazakhstan. I&#8217;m officially an English teacher, but I also run clubs for kids and young adults, and will be trying to get a health initiative going next year. I live in a village called Sergeyevka, and being over [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-52","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}