Counterpart Conference

October 17-19, 2007

For the last couple of days we have been staying at a Sanatorium in Almaty for Counterpart Conference, the purpose being to get to know the local teacher we will be closely working with for the next two years and attending seminars like Team Teaching and Teaching Critical Thinking. My counterpart is a very nice woman, named Lyzzat Fizilova. She is around forty years old and slightly hard of hearing, but I think that we are going to work well together and have a great time. I do not think that there will be many problems involving teaching styles, etc. because she seems very accommodating and is anxious to help me get settled in Kyzylorda over the next week. Even though we are still working, Counterpart conference has sort of felt like a vacation. It has been awesome having a short break from language and teaching, before we jump into it for real in a couple of weeks. It has been great hanging out with Lyzzat and the rest of the Education Volunteers, and I am really excited about finally seeing Kyzylorda for myself on Sunday.