I'm in Miami right now for staging, which basically means orientation. It's definitely an excellent choice in location because it sort of serves as a temperature buffer between the artic tundra of WI and the sweltering heat of Paraguay.
I arrived yesterday at 1pm and somehow managed to find my way to the hotel in one piece, even with all of my luggage! Eventually my roommate (another Peace Corps Trainee, PCT) arrived and so we decided to get some food with some other PCT's, because most of us were starving from our day of travel. It was nice finally meeting my group in person. Then we had registration for about an hour and then had the night to ourselves. We all decided to go out to a little restaurant to hang out some more especially because some of the late comers still hadn't eaten yet. We went to a little Latin American place (quite fitting) and it was basically like a practice run. Our waitress seemed to not really speak Spanish so it was our chance to test our skills. I ordered a chocolate milkshake (batido chocolate) which was absolutely divine!
My group is awesome, and there is actually a fellow University of Wisconsin girl (go Badgers!).
We have orientation all day today and then we head back to Miami airport and hopefully I'll have wifi on the plane. Fingers crossed.
To those of you who downloaded the Textme app on your phones, it would be wise to start turning that on because after tonight I will no longer have phone service!
That's all I have time for today,
Until next time
xox
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Goodbye Wisconsin, I'll miss you!
I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, mainly because I've been super busy preparing for my departure.
I leave for staging in Miami morning, bright and early. I've already decided not to wear any makeup because of goodbye tears, ha.
I just want to say that I'm going to miss everyone so dearly. To my family and Matt (my fiancé), I love you so much. The next month will undoubtedly be the toughest of my life but once I adjust to my new lifestyle I know I'll love it.
Keep in touch, everyone!
Letters and packages are highly encourages. (see address to the right)
xox
I leave for staging in Miami morning, bright and early. I've already decided not to wear any makeup because of goodbye tears, ha.
I just want to say that I'm going to miss everyone so dearly. To my family and Matt (my fiancé), I love you so much. The next month will undoubtedly be the toughest of my life but once I adjust to my new lifestyle I know I'll love it.
Keep in touch, everyone!
Letters and packages are highly encourages. (see address to the right)
xox
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| me and my dad at my little bro's wrestling meet! |
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| gonna miss my pops! |
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| the whole fam snuggled on our couch, plus Casey Dog |
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| me and Rachel and Carl |
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
T - 7 days.
I CANNOT believe it's only one week until I leave my home for staging in Miami. It's surreal actually. It definitely makes everything seem more important, considering everything I do in the next week could be the last time I do that thing for 2 years! My mom was looking up the weather last night and found that it was 89 degrees (real feel 93) at like 8pm in Asuncion, and my first thought was "Thank the Lord!" Being in the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin makes me thankful that I'll be going to a warm place for the next 27 months. But then my very next thought was.. "oh my gosh, how am I going to sleep in that kind of temperature with no AC or anything?". Spoiled American thought haha.
update on the packing: I may have overreacted before. It seems that I will be perfectly okay. Apparently I don't have as much stuff as I once thought, so this is a positive thing. Plus I invested in vacuum seal bags for my bulky items.
Let's see... oh, I'm super nervous about leaving (obvious??), but I am getting to the point where I'm super excited too. I'm nervous about leaving my family and friends and just all of the luxuries of American life, but I'm starting to get pumped about the true adventure that is about to take place. And every time I think about my adventure I obviously think about Gandalf the Grey asking Bilbo Baggins to go on an adventure ("I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure"). Yeah, total nerd alert... get over it ha.
In all honesty, it really helps having a friend already in Paraguay who can tell me the ins and outs of Peace Corps life. She's doing agriculture so her day to day life will be a tad different but it's close enough for me. Every time I have a questions, which is all the time, I'm able to send her a quick little message and let me tell you, it's fabulous! I don't know what I would do (probably drive myself and my family crazy) if I couldn't ask her all my minute questions. So thanks Maria!!!
To keep my mind off of the impending sadness that will be my departure, my mom and I have taken a look at local wedding venues since otherwise I would not have a chance to see them. It's so fun! And I think I've already found my dream place! Man oh man, it's beautiful. Still 2.5 years away, but exciting nonetheless.
Before I sign off, I do want to say that I know I say negative things often times... like "wahh sadness about leaving" and blah blah blah, but I want you all to know that I really am thrilled to have this opportunity. Its going to be a life changing experience that I will look back on fifty years from now and be proud of. Once I'm over the initial shock of it all, probably a month or so after I arrive in Paraguay, I'm certain that I will fall in love with it.
Until next time,
xox
Shout out to Momma Travis, by the way, because it's her birthday! :)
update on the packing: I may have overreacted before. It seems that I will be perfectly okay. Apparently I don't have as much stuff as I once thought, so this is a positive thing. Plus I invested in vacuum seal bags for my bulky items.
Let's see... oh, I'm super nervous about leaving (obvious??), but I am getting to the point where I'm super excited too. I'm nervous about leaving my family and friends and just all of the luxuries of American life, but I'm starting to get pumped about the true adventure that is about to take place. And every time I think about my adventure I obviously think about Gandalf the Grey asking Bilbo Baggins to go on an adventure ("I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure"). Yeah, total nerd alert... get over it ha.
In all honesty, it really helps having a friend already in Paraguay who can tell me the ins and outs of Peace Corps life. She's doing agriculture so her day to day life will be a tad different but it's close enough for me. Every time I have a questions, which is all the time, I'm able to send her a quick little message and let me tell you, it's fabulous! I don't know what I would do (probably drive myself and my family crazy) if I couldn't ask her all my minute questions. So thanks Maria!!!
To keep my mind off of the impending sadness that will be my departure, my mom and I have taken a look at local wedding venues since otherwise I would not have a chance to see them. It's so fun! And I think I've already found my dream place! Man oh man, it's beautiful. Still 2.5 years away, but exciting nonetheless.
Before I sign off, I do want to say that I know I say negative things often times... like "wahh sadness about leaving" and blah blah blah, but I want you all to know that I really am thrilled to have this opportunity. Its going to be a life changing experience that I will look back on fifty years from now and be proud of. Once I'm over the initial shock of it all, probably a month or so after I arrive in Paraguay, I'm certain that I will fall in love with it.
Until next time,
xox
Shout out to Momma Travis, by the way, because it's her birthday! :)
Friday, January 10, 2014
Mission Impossible: aka packing
Today is my last day in the wonderful town of Watertown, NY (where Matthew lives). It's been an awesome visit but it makes it really hard to leave him. wah. A lot of people ask me what we plan on doing because long distance relationships are hard and blah blah.. and to those people I wish I was able to offer some ultra calculated plan that we've devised (and to those who know me, I always love making a plan for my impending life). However, as I've quickly come to realize, the Peace Corps forces you to give up on that entirely. Quite frankly, it's terrifying.
Either way, it makes things a little easier that he has his thing going on (aka the army) and I have mine at the same time. It's been brought to my attention, and I find it kind of silly, that my fiance is doing war and I'm doing peace. Well I suppose opposites do attract!
So while he's been away at work, I sit around and pretend to be a housewife (which actually means I've just been watching Netflix and eating all day). So I decided I shouldn't completely waste my time and actually do something useful. I've started my Peace Corps checklist/packing list and it just really seems impossible. Have I said this before? Well let me just say this again, HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSE TO PACK FOR 2 YEARS OF MY LIFE?! two suitcases? Seems irrational to me. blerg. if anyone has some suggestions, feel free to share!
keeping it short and sweet this time.
until next time,
xox
Either way, it makes things a little easier that he has his thing going on (aka the army) and I have mine at the same time. It's been brought to my attention, and I find it kind of silly, that my fiance is doing war and I'm doing peace. Well I suppose opposites do attract!
So while he's been away at work, I sit around and pretend to be a housewife (which actually means I've just been watching Netflix and eating all day). So I decided I shouldn't completely waste my time and actually do something useful. I've started my Peace Corps checklist/packing list and it just really seems impossible. Have I said this before? Well let me just say this again, HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSE TO PACK FOR 2 YEARS OF MY LIFE?! two suitcases? Seems irrational to me. blerg. if anyone has some suggestions, feel free to share!
keeping it short and sweet this time.
until next time,
xox
Thursday, January 2, 2014
New Years Festivities
Well this post has nothing to do with Peace Corps but nevertheless it's exciting!
After Christmas, Matthew and I drove from Kenosha, WI to Watertown, NY. It was a pretty long drive but worth it (Plus belting out Disney songs and rapping old school Eminem passed the time pretty quickly).
On New Years Eve we drove to Lake Placid and it was beautiful!!! Tons of little shops and ski resorts and the Adirondack Mountains were absolutely stunning. We got ready and started the hike up Cascade Mountain, which is 4000 feet of insanity. The guide book we have says that it is "moderate" and "kid friendly"... I'd like to know what kind of kids are hiking up this thing because it was seriously tough!!! It was like being on a stair-stepper for 2 hours with snow and ice everywhere.
It was the most beautiful trail, and although I felt like I was going to have a heart attack half the time it was so fun! As an added bonus it was pretty warm having all the trees blocking the wind. Once we got to the top there were no trees and it was about -1,000 degrees but the view was breathtaking! Seeing all the other mountains made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings or something. We scaled our way to the summit and Matt told me he had a surprise for me. In my head I was thinking "oh yeah! This is it!" but he bends down and pulls one of those candy canes full of Hershey Kisses out of a lunch box. What the heck am I supposed to do with this?! Clearly Matt could see the massive disappointment in my face so he sort of chuckled to himself. While still on his knees he starts making a beautiful speech about marriage and at this moment I know what's about to happen! He pulls out the ring and asks me to marry him and I start crying and obviously say yes!!! It was still so cold that I was honestly a little worried about my tears freezing. I wanted a picture sporting my gorgeous ring but the frigid temps caused his phone to shut down (luckily, my phone lasted a few seconds longer).
The resort we stayed was the fanciest place I'd ever been, but it was also rustic and just my type of place! It was called the Mirror Lake Inn and it's actually kind of crazy because my mom and dad got engaged at Mirror Lake in the Wisconsin Dells. Love those kinds of coincidences! We had the most incredible seven course meal. Short intermission to list each course...
After Christmas, Matthew and I drove from Kenosha, WI to Watertown, NY. It was a pretty long drive but worth it (Plus belting out Disney songs and rapping old school Eminem passed the time pretty quickly).
On New Years Eve we drove to Lake Placid and it was beautiful!!! Tons of little shops and ski resorts and the Adirondack Mountains were absolutely stunning. We got ready and started the hike up Cascade Mountain, which is 4000 feet of insanity. The guide book we have says that it is "moderate" and "kid friendly"... I'd like to know what kind of kids are hiking up this thing because it was seriously tough!!! It was like being on a stair-stepper for 2 hours with snow and ice everywhere.
It was the most beautiful trail, and although I felt like I was going to have a heart attack half the time it was so fun! As an added bonus it was pretty warm having all the trees blocking the wind. Once we got to the top there were no trees and it was about -1,000 degrees but the view was breathtaking! Seeing all the other mountains made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings or something. We scaled our way to the summit and Matt told me he had a surprise for me. In my head I was thinking "oh yeah! This is it!" but he bends down and pulls one of those candy canes full of Hershey Kisses out of a lunch box. What the heck am I supposed to do with this?! Clearly Matt could see the massive disappointment in my face so he sort of chuckled to himself. While still on his knees he starts making a beautiful speech about marriage and at this moment I know what's about to happen! He pulls out the ring and asks me to marry him and I start crying and obviously say yes!!! It was still so cold that I was honestly a little worried about my tears freezing. I wanted a picture sporting my gorgeous ring but the frigid temps caused his phone to shut down (luckily, my phone lasted a few seconds longer).
The resort we stayed was the fanciest place I'd ever been, but it was also rustic and just my type of place! It was called the Mirror Lake Inn and it's actually kind of crazy because my mom and dad got engaged at Mirror Lake in the Wisconsin Dells. Love those kinds of coincidences! We had the most incredible seven course meal. Short intermission to list each course...
1. amuse bouche: lobster with caviar
2. pear and fennel bisque -which was to die for!
3. appetizer: pan seared sea scallops with sweet potato purée
4. Salad with goat cheese (who knew I'd love goat cheese?!)
5. Intermezzo: blood orange and champagne sorbet
6. Entrée: Veal with smoked rosemary whipped potato and caramelized baby root vegetables
7. Vanilla bean crème Brule with blackberries
I have to admit, there will probably never be a better New Years Eve! It was the best possible way to bring in 2014.
Until next time,
xox
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