Green with jealousy.

This was me during March in Poland when I met another traveler actually making money in the hostel while everyone else was forced to sit around in boredom when it snowed/rained outside. I love the idea of being able to make a couple bucks here and there to help extend my travels – and he had the job for it – the almighty work when you want to for how long you want to from wherever you have a decent internet connection job. You’re probably getting a little green now yourselves.

Since I was moving on out of Poland and eventually to Kyrgyzstan, I forgot about this opportunity until just recently at home. That’s when my friends told me about ChaCha – the way to get a more personal answer to any question you might have just by sending a text message to 242242 (chacha). The answers are composed by REAL people who get paid per search completed. THIS was the mystery job the guy was working in Poland!

I immediately went and started the application and testing process and now I am a fully fledged ChaCha Guide! The money, of course, isn’t great, but I still have to think that any extra money is better than no money, especially since you can do this WHENEVER you feel like it! How cool is that?!

I’ll be sure and let everyone know how this works out money-wise. Since it all depends on the number of queries searched/answered, the pay can vary drastically. However, just imagine how fun it would be to search for random facts, figures, gossip, etc. AND make a couple bucks in the process. Thank you ChaCha for helping me get my brain back into shape!

AND, if anyone is interested in signing up themselves, they do have a referral program. So pretty pretty pretty please with sugar on top put my ChaCha email address in the referral section when applying. Oops3838 (at) gmail (dot) com – that is of course without spaces and with various punctuation marks where necessary. Let me know and I will give you total props on my website. So come on and help a girl out! Thanks.

I don’t know! I just really don’t know what I’m doing back here in Kaz-Stan, or Central Asia for that matter. When I booked a month for home it was just so cost-effective to get a round-trip ticket that I couldn’t pass it up. Plus that meant I could store some things with friends in Almaty (my super cute red guitar included) in case I did decide to stick around in these unknown lands a bit longer.

I really thought that I would just go back to Kyrgyzstan, but alas, my beloved Bishkek just isn’t striking my fancy at the moment. I believe I need a change of scenery, but I do have a want to remain in Russian speaking countries for as long as I can stand it. Finally, at the very end of my month at home I thought I had it. I found an opening for an English teacher in Kiev, Ukraine. The money sounded decent, the hours excellent, and the time off to die for! So, on my final Friday at home I had a phone interview with a recruiter calling me from Kosovo, but sadly, the call dropped in the middle and I have yet to hear back from him! So, I am not holding my breath on that one (but would still jump at the opportunity).

I got myself kind of psyched to go back to Ukraine so, of course, that got my mind rolling on how I could make this happen without the job. Besides housing, the cost of living and studying in Ukraine is not too shabby, so I was thinking that maybe I could stick out not having a proper income for a bit longer and just take some Russian lessons there for a couple of months. This would give me the proper flexibility I would need in order to make the Amanda and Brooke trip to India in January happen as well (and then continue on to Asia from there?).

Then there’s the question of how long to stay in Kazakhstan. It’s not cheap, that’s for sure. But, my visa lasts until the end of the month. Then, there’s also the flight to Latvia to be used from here when I want (I had already purchased that before I decided to go home instead). There was also talk of meeting a former Bishkek student there for a while. So, head to Latvia and then make my way to Ukraine? This might be where I’m leaning to at the moment. However, there’s still the idea of remaining in Central Asia and continuing on with Russian and adding a Turkic language as well (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, etc.) I was reacquainted with this idea when catching a taxi from the Almaty airport to the guest house. Even though he wanted a few hundred tenge more than I was told I should get, I let him have it since he was just so freaking nice! He spent the entire car ride trying to teach me basic Kazakh words and phrases!

What to do, what to do!?!

Any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated! What do you all think of Brooke going from Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus-Ukraine from mid-September through December?

“Did I just say that?” I thought to myself.

The first time the words came out of my mouth in Bishkek, I couldn’t believe they were mine. That was when my pal, Erica, turned to me and said, “Why can’t you? If going home right now is what you need or want in order to be happy, then just do it.”

Erica possesses an uncanny ability to ease my mind, making the smoke clear from my perpetual thought-fed bonfire, when I need it the most. I love her way of rationalizing a little splurge now and then. She would explain that she is not a very adventurous person, but when it comes to doing something a little on the extravagant side because it will make her happy at that moment she doesn’t think twice.

I took a page from her book and booked a flight home. I was actually excited!

In Peoria, I noticed I began to see it through new eyes. And, rightfully so. In the past eight months, I had only been around for a total of one week and that was mainly the week I spent recovering/unpacking/repacking after Guatemala. Things felt different, smelled different, and looked different. I was now a tourist in my hometown.

It’s weird to think about, but when I’m gone I miss Peoria. I talk about it – I BRAG about it. I dream about Avanti’s bread and Sizzling India nan. I laugh at the fact we have a riverboat casino, one that still questions my age if I get within 100 feet of the front door. I love that our claims to fame include Richard Pryor, Caterpillar, and penicillin.

“Will it play in Peoria?” is the motto of this area because we are supposed to be a good representation of the U.S., which really seems silly to me now since it is only people here that I find say “Italian” with a long “I” as in eye-talian (thus the reason of my recent poll).

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It is safe to say that Peoria is a testosterone driven city. Navigating through town, one may notice an unbelievable number of pickup trucks or jeeps with testicles hanging off the back. This will also be happening while flipping from one radio-friendly metal station to the next that constantly commercializes frat parties and strip clubs. Ok, maybe that is all that could substantiate that claim, but it was definitely the first, no second, impression I received when returning home.

The first impression of home happened when my step-dad picked me up from the bus drop and I immediately noticed how “twangy” his speech was. That was really hard to get past, especially since I began to wonder how I sounded to other people when I talked. When I was in Kazakhstan before, a friend there actually called me a hill-billy for being from Illinois, and I was in complete denial until my aunt just recently said, “If you haven’t noticed yet, we come from a somewhat hill-billy family,” and completely brought me over to the other side.

This aside, I enjoyed going home and rediscovering Peoria. I like the old style feel of the downtown area with early 1900s street lamps, brick buildings, and cute little shops. Peoria was like an old friend I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know again. Even Wal-Mart – which completely freaked me out at first – was a pleasant companion since it was so easy to be able to get anything I needed when I needed it. It was a month full of family and cookouts, comforts and surprises, but I will be honest by saying that by the end I was more than ready to leave again. Yes, Peoria, you seem different in a good way, but I just can’t get myself to stick around yet.

I’m back in Central Asia and toying with a few ideas I’ll be sure to throw past you all in my next post or two. Do Svidaniya!

Want an Obama T-shirt? MoveOn’s giving them out if you make a small donation to their young-voter registration program, aimed at registering half a million young voters in swing states. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.

Click this link to get your Obama T-shirt:

http://pol.moveon.org/obamatshirts/index13.html?id=-9880135-WbUpLfx

Even though I’m leaving the country again this Sunday, I still decided to get a shirt. I’m going to have it shipped to me with some other things while I’m overseas. I also have 45 buttons coming my way, those of which I will have to get someone else to disperse while I’m away. What can I say? I heart Obama!

So I happened to be perusing the feature articles on vagabondish.com when I came across an article called “7 Bizarre Tours You’d Actually Sign Up For… Maybe“. It is seriously full of great ideas, but nothing in that list beats old numero uno - The Illegal Border Crossing Tour in Mexico.

Is this for real?!

Yes, it is for real, and they have the link to the NY Times article of the writer that actually participated to prove it! Of course, it is only a staging of the actual act - getting arrested by border patrol for most is not a desired vacation idea - but it still sounds very thrilling. So, next time you’re in Mexico, this could be you:

*Image from the NY Times article.