Only 9 days to go until I leave my home for 27 months. It's so hard to believe, I don't think it's truly hit me yet about the distance, nor about the length of time. I just finished a call with the country director, Dale, and we talked for a bit about some minor details. One of the biggest things was that Samoa is considering changing from a 3-term school year to a 4-term one. This will affect the vacation times that I have. Not that it matters particularly to me, but if any of you are wanting to come out to visit, double check when my vacations are!
I've already laid out so many things in Kiersten's room. I guess it's easier to stage if I don't have to trip over everything in my own room. I'm so worried that I'll forget something!! Mailing takes forever so it'd be several weeks if I do forget something. Aaaaah I'm sure I'm just over thinking things.
9 days to go!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
28 Days and Counting
Only 28 days to go until I leave! So much has happened in this last month since I've updated. I've connected with 7 out of 14 people in my group and they're all really sweet people. One of them started a Facebook group for Samoa group 84 so we are slowly but surely congregating. It's been wonderful to begin talking with the people that I'll be serving the next 27 months with and to share our fears and questions with each other.
I also received my introductory CD in the mail. Included in this is my first language lesson, my teaching homework, pamphlets on grammer and teaching, and an introductory slideshow on Samoa. It was funny looking through the slideshow because some of the pictures had people in them from blogs that I'd remembered reading. The language is definitely different from what I've learned in the past. It was a whole bunch of vowels and repeating sounds in the words. For instance, fa'amolemole is please and "O ai lou igoa?" is "what is your name?" Love it! It's definitely fun learning something new like this. Though I have to admit, I'm slightly worried about living with the first host family with a limited vocabulary.
My flight to LA is all booked. I'm leaving on October 4th, at 11am. All the Samoan Peace Corps volunteers'll be meeting in LA for two introductory days then straight onto Samoa. It's so hard to believe that the time is coming up, and yet it also seems so far away. I'm ready to begin this next part of my life but I'm also sad that I'll be away from my family for so long. The Peace Corps is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time, but that doesn't mean that I won't miss my family and friends.
This next month will involve me trying to memorize as many introductory words as possible, finish buying items to bring with me, and spending as much time with my family and friends as possible. I have a feeling that this time will fly.
28 days until I depart!
I also received my introductory CD in the mail. Included in this is my first language lesson, my teaching homework, pamphlets on grammer and teaching, and an introductory slideshow on Samoa. It was funny looking through the slideshow because some of the pictures had people in them from blogs that I'd remembered reading. The language is definitely different from what I've learned in the past. It was a whole bunch of vowels and repeating sounds in the words. For instance, fa'amolemole is please and "O ai lou igoa?" is "what is your name?" Love it! It's definitely fun learning something new like this. Though I have to admit, I'm slightly worried about living with the first host family with a limited vocabulary.
My flight to LA is all booked. I'm leaving on October 4th, at 11am. All the Samoan Peace Corps volunteers'll be meeting in LA for two introductory days then straight onto Samoa. It's so hard to believe that the time is coming up, and yet it also seems so far away. I'm ready to begin this next part of my life but I'm also sad that I'll be away from my family for so long. The Peace Corps is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time, but that doesn't mean that I won't miss my family and friends.
This next month will involve me trying to memorize as many introductory words as possible, finish buying items to bring with me, and spending as much time with my family and friends as possible. I have a feeling that this time will fly.
28 days until I depart!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Family Backing
My family is incredibly supportive of me entering the Peace Corps. My parents, while sad that I will be leaving, are aware of the huge opportunity that I am being offered. They have offered to to visit throughout my two years and to ensure I'm always supported. I'm incredibly lucky.
At my recent family reunion, my relatives showed amazing support for me as well, though through one certain, odd way. They had all the relatives take pictures of their best "Samoan" pose. And by this I mean they all had no idea what a Samoan pose was and decided to make things up to amusing and great results. I LOVE MY FAMILY! If nothing else, they certainly know how to have a great time and how to be incredibly supportive to us all.
At my recent family reunion, my relatives showed amazing support for me as well, though through one certain, odd way. They had all the relatives take pictures of their best "Samoan" pose. And by this I mean they all had no idea what a Samoan pose was and decided to make things up to amusing and great results. I LOVE MY FAMILY! If nothing else, they certainly know how to have a great time and how to be incredibly supportive to us all.
My sister and I
1 month and 28 days until I depart!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Beginning of the Adventure
It seems that time has absolutely flown these past few weeks. After almost a year and a half since I first began my Peace Corps application, I have finally received my assignment! I am officially going Samoa, leaving on October 5th, 2012 and returning December 15th, 2014. I will be teaching English to kids somewhere in the range of 5th and 7th graders. So after many months of not knowing anything, I can't believe I finally know.
There were lots of obstacles on the journey to date. Many many months ago, I had originally asked for a start date of May 2012. However, my back had begun to have serious problems and because of that, I had to go see a chiropractor, which unfortunately pushed my start date back to October. To think back at that now however, I'm really happy that I moved the date. Not only did it allow me time to heal my back, but in the interim I got to visit my sister in Italy, take a camel ride in Morocco, see all my relatives at a family reunion, and earn extra money at a part-time job. So it all definitely worked out in the end. Another obstacle that I ran into was a health scare on my urinalysis. Results came back that I was positive for ketones and the Peace Corps asked me to run another test. I happened to look ketones up online and they show up either when you are diabetic or starving. So the worst thoughts flashed through my mind that I was becoming diabetic!! I had a long talk with my doctor however and he believes that it was just because I hadn't eaten that morning. So I ate, took another test, and voila! No ketones. So lesson here is: always eat breakfast kids!
The way that I learned my assignment was rather interesting. I was on vacation in San Francisco with my dad and uncle Scott and we were meeting my uncle Dirk and aunt Lisa for breakfast. I got a call on my phone and suddenly there was a Peace Corps nurse! She said something along the lines of, "Because of your assignment in Samoa, I just wanted to double-check that you're okay with the strong possibility of earthquakes" and I was standing there going "wait, WHAT? Samoa? Hold on, is this my assignment?" Apparently they had thought that I'd gotten the assignment announcement already. Anyways, after I hung up the phone with her, my assignment contact called and told me my assignment. At this point I was THRILLED to be hearing news about where I'd be going. Unfortunately we had already made plans to tour around all day so by the time we got back home, I was DYING to know about Samoa and researched for several hours. I'm beyond thrilled about my placement and can't wait to arrive at my new home for the next 27 months.
2 months and 2 days until I depart!
There were lots of obstacles on the journey to date. Many many months ago, I had originally asked for a start date of May 2012. However, my back had begun to have serious problems and because of that, I had to go see a chiropractor, which unfortunately pushed my start date back to October. To think back at that now however, I'm really happy that I moved the date. Not only did it allow me time to heal my back, but in the interim I got to visit my sister in Italy, take a camel ride in Morocco, see all my relatives at a family reunion, and earn extra money at a part-time job. So it all definitely worked out in the end. Another obstacle that I ran into was a health scare on my urinalysis. Results came back that I was positive for ketones and the Peace Corps asked me to run another test. I happened to look ketones up online and they show up either when you are diabetic or starving. So the worst thoughts flashed through my mind that I was becoming diabetic!! I had a long talk with my doctor however and he believes that it was just because I hadn't eaten that morning. So I ate, took another test, and voila! No ketones. So lesson here is: always eat breakfast kids!
The way that I learned my assignment was rather interesting. I was on vacation in San Francisco with my dad and uncle Scott and we were meeting my uncle Dirk and aunt Lisa for breakfast. I got a call on my phone and suddenly there was a Peace Corps nurse! She said something along the lines of, "Because of your assignment in Samoa, I just wanted to double-check that you're okay with the strong possibility of earthquakes" and I was standing there going "wait, WHAT? Samoa? Hold on, is this my assignment?" Apparently they had thought that I'd gotten the assignment announcement already. Anyways, after I hung up the phone with her, my assignment contact called and told me my assignment. At this point I was THRILLED to be hearing news about where I'd be going. Unfortunately we had already made plans to tour around all day so by the time we got back home, I was DYING to know about Samoa and researched for several hours. I'm beyond thrilled about my placement and can't wait to arrive at my new home for the next 27 months.
2 months and 2 days until I depart!
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