Happy Birthday Peace Corps!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. It's rather amazing to think I'm on my way into an organization that has lasted that long and has touched so many people.

As of yesterday, I am three weeks away from departure. My last day at work was Friday, so now it's just packing and planning.

Honestly, I'm most worried about training. I have studied Slavic languages before and lived in Prague for a semester, so I think I can adapt fairly well to the language and culture aspect. The vagueness of the work I'll be doing is a bit troublesome, but I'm smart and flexible, so I don't really doubt that I'll be able to accomplish something. But I'm not good at sitting and paying attention for long periods of time, so the two months of intensive training does concern me. I also worry about living with a host family. I'me used to living on my own and having quite a bit of privacy and control of my surroundings, and while I know it's an essential part of acclimatising to the local culture, living with a host family does worry me quite a bit.

This week begins the big Packing & Purge(tm). Over the past 10 years or so, I lived the traditional life of get a job, get income, get things. There are so many items in my life that I don't ever use or touch but keep around. I'm looking forward to eliminating a lot of the baggage I've been carrying around for years.

T-28 and Counting!

I've been a bit quiet lately. Once I got past the initial flurry of paperwork, I decided to put off preparing for my Peace Corps service and focus on finishing up my job. Today is the first day of my last week at work, and it's time to switch on the Peace Corps gears again!

Last week I received my staging information. We will be meeting in Washington DC on March 21st, then all fly out together on March 22. I've never been to DC before, but unfortunately won't have much touristing time while I'm there. I should have one morning free, so if anyone has any suggestions of The One Thing not to miss I would love to hear it!

I haven't started packing yet. I have my luggage and have been stockpiling boxes, so once March arrives I will be focusing on that. I have a little paperwork yet to do, but for the most part I really just have to work on getting myself ready mentally. And that's the hard part!

In thinking about the flight, I need to decide what to bring to keep me busy. I don't sit still very well. I can read for some time, but I'm happier if I have something to do with my hands. I know knitting needles aren't allowed on international flights, but I think I will pick up a cheap plastic crochet hook and see if that will be allowed. If it gets taken away I won't be overset, and if it's allowed I can spend some time trying to learn how to crochet.

Language Studies

I am working my way through the language pre-work that the Peace Corps recommends. It's 20 lessons of basic traveler-essential phrases, with no emphasis on grammar or any of that yet. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with what I've gone through so far. Because I know some Polish from my mother and studied Russian for two semesters, the words are mostly familiar and the cyrillic alphabet is easy for me to pick up. I'm sure I'm going to have an odd accent, but I should be mostly understandable. Or at least as understandable as I am in English.

Yet Another New Blog!

Note to self: Life is an ever-changing enigma. Don't name your blog anything too specific to where you think you're going!

Now that I'm going to Ukraine instead of Morocco and won't be having tagines, I needed a new identity. So here I am!