It'll be really nice to see friends and family when I get home, but I'll definitely miss Kazakhstan: lunches with my host mom, study sessions with friends, the cheese pirozhkis (large dumplings) at our school cafeteria, the peanut butter tea – all of it. I'm so happy I was able to spend the semester in Almaty though, and not only because of all of the wonderful memories it gave me. Living here has also offered me some amazing opportunities to practice my Russian and to get better at it. I also know that I have a much better understanding of the country now than I did at the start of this program. I had an awesome experience and now I'm looking forward to the next one.
After spending a little time at home in Michigan, I'm headed to Italy, South Africa, Morocco and Türkiye this summer for a combination of courses and personal travel, which I'm so incredibly excited for. After all of that wraps up, I'll be in Washington, DC, where I go to school, doing some research and getting ready for next year.
If any of you are interested in traveling or learning new langauges when you get older, there are some absolutely awesome programs that can help you do it starting in high school. I know these are a few years down the line for you all, but I want to put the names somewhere so that you'll have them if you're interested.
In high school, I studied Russian in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y). The entire trip was fully paid for, and you all should be eligible to apply starting in high school. I also recently received a Gilman Scholarship, which has completely covered the cost of my time in Almaty this semester.
