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Happy Late Valentine's Day and Happy Early Saint Patrick's Day Everybody.  I started thinking the other say that it's been almost six months since I've arrived here in my new home.  It's amazing how quickly time flies here but looking back how long it seems to last as well.  We've been telling stories in language the other day and while I still have serious problems with verb conjugation, I can still manage to tell about Goldilocks and the three bears (or the girl with golden locks and the bears three as it is translated here).  I got back from vacation last month and while it didn't seem to last as long as I would have liked it was still a much needed break from work and school.  We got to see the tallest building in the world and eat at all our favorite restaurants while on vacation.  We also got to hang out at the pool (which is an awesome thing to do in January), go the movies (we saw Les Miserables), get massages, and just relax. 
Speaking of school I have about three weeks left before I am done with official classes.  It doesn't even seem real though and there are still some days I get so confused with language but overall it is good. 
We've been taking different trips around the city to look at different place and two weeks ago we went to a palace in our city.  The pictures below are of the palace (as you can see it's seen better days but is still gorgeous).  We also ate street food (which we've been doing lately but still is always an adventure).
The weather here lately has been amazing and my roommate and I have begun opening up our windows and only lighting our heater at night.  We've been told spring is about to start which if that's true I will be so glad, but I'm also cautious about getting too excited because we were told spring was close then it snowed like two and half weeks ago.
It always amazes me at how much western things I can see here, not western like cowboys but western like America.  The other day we were at the market and heard Taylor Swift music playing and saw a poster with her picture.  We can also see posters with people like Orlando Bloom and George Clooney outside of the local barbershops.  My favorite thing would have to be the Starbucks logo, McDonald's Big-Mac picture, and KFC emblem that are outside of Kabob shops and street vendors' stalls.  Although my favorite food story happened one day coming back from school when my roommate and I stopped and got fish at a local vendor (which was kind of a risk because we are a landlocked country and you never know how long the fish has been sitting there).  So anyways we stop and get fish and our driver gets out of the car goes to the street vendor and comes back with a whole dead fish asking my roommate if this is an acceptable fish.  She says sure and they then proceed to cook it and then we take our bag of deep fried fish home for lunch.  What we didn't know is that the fish was still whole head, tail and all.  They had only cut it in half and deep fried it, and we didn't realize this until we had taken it out of the bag.  Needless to say it was an experience (pictures included below).
Oh I mentioned we had snow a few weeks ago.  Well since it was hopefully the last snow we'll have we made local snow-women.  Mine had the brown head scarf and is the one in the picture that looks like ET.  Well I'll write more later.  And I do realize I need to get better about keeping these up to date and am working on writing more often.  All for now.  Enjoy the picture.

Pick Your Favorite Part

Fish for Lunch

Local Snow Women

Ever heard the expression time flies when you're having fun?  Well I'm here to tell you time also flies when you are learning to speak a new language, adjusting to a new culture, mastering a new job, and meeting new people.  That being said I also know that's no excuse for not updating this blog in over a month.  So without further introduction here is my update. 
Christmas was an experience for more than one reason.  As most of you know it was my first Christmas I've ever spent away from my parents.  However, I did get to talk to them for a little while which was of course an awesome present.  Even though I didn't get to spend it with my family back in the states I did get to spend it with my family here.  It's amazing to see how people who you've meet only months ago can become close to you and act as surrogate family while you're in a far away place.  And even though it wasn't the same as waking up on Christmas day with my parents and family back in the states, it was still an experience here.  We had a traditional BBQ Chicken lunch and played games all afternoon.  Then later that night my roommate and I went to our friends house were we played games and had an amazing time just hanging out.  I have recently learned to play a few new card games and a board game called Settlers of Catan, and man am I hooked on that game.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves board games. 
New Year's Eve we had a small party to ring in the New Year.  Again we played more card games.  Another game we played which is slowly becoming my favorite is called In A Pickle, but I only recommend this game for people who can argue a point even if it's illogical (obviously you can see why I love this game......arguing a point that might not make sense; that so says Jessie). 
Language is going fairly good.  I caught myself thinking about how far I've come in the brief four months I've been here and it's so amazing to see the progress I've made.  When I first got here I could barely say hello and now I am having conversations about my day and telling stories from back in the states.  There's a good chance most of you have unknowingly been included in a story I've told in class.  Scary thought huh?  I can't wait to see how much more I will learn in the remaining two months we have left of language and then not to mention what language I will pick up outside of class over the next few years just living here.  I don't know if I ever mentioned that I have a local name.  If I have sorry here it is again, if I haven't then hey I have a local name.  Please keep in mind the spellings may be completely wrong because there are various ways to spell them.  Anyways, when I first got here the name Marsal (which means flower) was given to me.  However, some of the local staff thought it was too far from Jessie to be able to remember, so some of the staff decided my name should be Jamilah (which means patience).  How fitting my name should be patience when as most of you know, that is a trait I am sometimes lacking.  However, I have come to think of it as a good daily reminder of something I strive to have even in the most difficult situations from my inmost being; making it a very lovely name after all.  
I've heard from people back in the States that some of them have had snow recently, well I would be more than glad to share some of ours with those of you haven't had any.  Although I must request that you not get it from the mountains, because whenever it snows the mountains look gorgeous.  We've had quite a bit of snow recently and it's always nice when it snows on the weekends because then we don't have to go anywhere and we can just stay inside watching the snow fall while drinking hot cocoa. 




I mentioned telling stories in class.  Well I've also meet a few new people here and they are always interested in hearing my story, which is always great when I get to tell people about my family and friends.  I have also begun to tell stories about my life at waterville which is so exciting.  There's so much more I could say in this blog I'm sure but I will keep this one short and I certainly won't wait so long to update it from now on.  Oh hope you all enjoy the pictures from life over here.

Me and My Christmas Tree

The mountains after our first snowfall.  Now all of them are
covered white and oh so gorgeous.

The guys at our office putting up our pipe to our heaters.
No fear of heights.