Yay pictures!

Ok. All the new volunteers have settled into their permanent sites for the next two years, which means that I, being only an hour from the PC office, can enjoy the luxury of using hours of Internet!

1. Picture: I got married in Turkmenistan and was a Turkmen bride with the most beautiful get-up ever...not really. OK Mom, you're right - it's not funny.

2. Me dressing up as a good Turkmen bride: demure and all covered up

3. I graduated from training! Me and the rest of my group and my Turkmen language teacher at the beautiful banquet hall, celebrating the end of the two-month intensive training. We also swore in to become official Peace Corps volunteers!

4. Me and my family (host mom and sister on my right, and my really good friends and neighbors on my left)

5. All the volunteers and our families in our training group and training site.

6. My new room, albeit a tad messy, but it was 2 in the morning. What you can see is my beautiful furniture of a desk, one of the two furnitures in my room. The other is the clothing hanger, which I love. On the wall are two posters drawn by my old host family, which I will cherish forever. The computer does look a bit out of place in this setting, but the mattress on the floor certainly does not! I am proud to say I have two mattresses, courtesy of the pain in my back and my host mom's generosity, and the roll of tissue paper is a testament to my cold and my hatred of using handkerchiefs.

7. More of my room: the sole window, the suitcases full of stuff that can't be draped over the clothes stand; oh yeah, the beautiful new carpet that covers my entire room. My family went to the bazaar the day I moved in and bought me this super expensive beautiful carpet. It's super comfy. I don't know how to repay them.