Ok, here it is. This is perhaps the largest email that I have ever sent out. I am sending this to everyone in my address book. Everyone who has ever given me an email address, is receiving this email. I hope to clear out all those email address that no longer work. If you get several copies of this email, forgive me. I am using the beta version of Yahoo Mail, which is a little different when one adds email addressed into the email.

 

So, what I am asking for is very little. If you get this and you don't want me to email you, tell me and I will delete your address from my account. If you have an address that you use more than the one you receive this email on, please let me know. If you didn't get this email, umm, I can't help with that. If you have heard from me via email in the past two weeks or so, ignore this email. If you have any questions, ask me. If you want to update me with how you are, where you are, etc., write me here or use my phone number and address below.

 

As I mentioned, this email is going to everyone in my address book, which includes some people from Kazakhstan (some of the students that I worked with). So, if what I write seems simplistic or weird to you, chalk it up to that. If you know this information, don't worry about my sanity. I want to make sure everyone who wants it, gets it.

 

I am currently living Carlinville, Illinois, which is the same town where I studied at University. I have an apartment that I don't share, but I do have an extra bedroom if anyone gets the desire to visit me. I won't even ask for advance knowledge of your arrival, but if you don't tell me you are coming, don't expect me to be around. If I am there, I will do my best to make your time comfortable and enjoyable. That being said, my address is:

 

Tim Dickison

939 1/2 North Broad St.

Carlinville, IL 62626

USA

 

Letters are always welcome. I also have a new phone number. Because Carlinville is such a small town, there is only Cingular service here. I had to change my number when I switched services. My new number is (1-217) 710 - 5298. I have a fairly good plan for text messages and free minutes. I don't think I will ever run out of either.

 

For those of you who missed the boat on what I did for the past two years...I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan. (November 3rd, the Borat movie will open. It portrays a little bit of Kazakhstan in a very negative light. If you see the movie and have questions, feel free to email / call and ask me. I am more than willing to talk about it.) I taught English to students in the small village of Akzhaik, in the West Kazakhstan Oblast. If you look up Uralsk on the internet you will find some information about the area where I was for those two years. I had the most incredible experience of homesickness for Kazakhstan watching "Long Way Round", which is a made for TV series where Ewen McGregor and a friend take motorcycles from London to New York City. They spend 45 minutes of that time in Kazakhstan. (They went through less than a month before I arrived in Kazakhstan.) Watching the show really blindsided me. I wasn't homesick when I left here to go there, but I was homesick here, watching the show.

 

At any rate, I really learned a lot about myself, my country, Kazakhstan, and the cultures of Kazakhstan. I really can't sum up what it was like in less than a hundred pages. There were a lot of highs and lows. I kept a blog of my time there. I know that some of you kept up reading that. I appreciate those who did. You can still find it and read it. The address is www.timsjournal.blogdrive.com. I will someday get it put together properly with pictures and in decent order. There are also many entries that I meant to write and didn't. Those will be added in someday. I also appreciate, very much so, those who sent letters or packages while I was there. Most of you didn't hear from me when you sent something, and that is a failure of mine.

 

Since coming back, I have spent a lot of time on my motorcycle (close to 9,000 miles now), but not as much as I wanted to spend on it. I have adapted, well I am still adapting, to life back here. I make it through a day at a time. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what will happen. It takes too much energy. I have a girlfriend, a lady I met a few months before I left for Peace Corps. She is a wonderfully beautiful person. I have managed to find about everyone I knew and spent any amount of time with before I left. It has been nice to rediscover the friendships that I had two years ago are still strong, for the most part.

 

My family is doing well. I have a new neice and another neice/nephew on the way.

 

I think that is about all for the moment. I hope that you are all well and that this email is a welcome email.

 

Take care,

 

Tim