As of today (the 25th) it is one month until I leave for Washington, D.C.! Isn't that crazy? All of this planning and time and thinking is finally coming to an actual experience! I'm am so excited, but as some of you know, scared.
It is actually 4 weeks and 2 days until I leave for Washington, and 2 days after that I leave for Bulgaria. It is 1 day until I go to Abilene, (where I will see many of the people that are important for the last time before I go), 8 days until Jenna comes to visit, about 3 weeks until Matt comes home, and then we will have about 9 days to hang out together before I leave. I feel like all of a sudden my life has turned into a bunch of numbers converted into days and weeks, waiting until I leave. But those numbers are going to be filled with so much change-so much, that I am hesitant to approach them. Hesitant to live through them.
But I know they will come and they will be great! This is what this time in my life is about; endings and beginnings. How could I not go forward?
And I'm scared to leave because it is going to be so different. When I interviewed for the Peace Corps, my recruiter told me about this one girl who was in her group to go to Honduras and didn't even make it past pre-departure! She went home before the group even left the States! When I first heard that story I thought that girl was crazy! How could she put so much time and effort into this and then turn back without even trying? Now that I'm here, I can sort of see her point of view. It is scary. But what else is life than a series of scary moments? Isn't it those moments that make us who we are? Because even though we are so scared, we go forwad because we know we will be fine-much more, we will succeed-because God is with us and guiding us.
Disclaimer: I usually don't really talk much to people about what God is to me. I prefer to show them, for me, thats just easier. So this post feels sort of awkward to put out for all the world to see, but it's how I feel right now, and I think that is important for me to share.
*Also, I'm aware that this post is full of some cliche sayings. Get over it.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Progress...
So I got my Staging Kit from the Peace Corps! The Staging Kit has some final forms for me to fill out, a booklet to give to my family about how to deal with me being over there, a booklet about cultural adjustment for me, and all of my flight and pre-departure information.
They actually moved my departure date back by a week, so I will be leaving at the end of July instead of mid-July. I guess that's cool...more time to spend with my friends and family. And I found out that my pre-departure location is Washington, D.C., which is also exciting because I've never been to D.C. before! I know it's a long shot, but maybe I can sightsee around a bit at night after all the orientation stuff...maybe not.
The booklet that I have to read for cultural assimilation is kind of scary! It talks about adjusting to the training and the culture and the work, etc., but it gives so many examples of what might happen and what I might feel like at such and such time, and most of the examples are things that I have never even thought of. I mean I've thought about adjusting to the culture some, but I've mostly thought about missing my family and friends, since homesickness was something that I had a little bit of when I studied abroad in Oxford....for only four months! But since I've already been through that, then I'll know what to expect and how to deal with it, and I guess I'm just happy that I'm informed about all the other situations through this booklet. I'd rather have information than be taken by surprise.
I'm spending more time with the language and now know the alphabet and some basic phrases. The alphabet was quite confusing at first because they have many of the same letters as the English language, and some are even pronounced the same, but then there are English letters that have different English sounds. For example: H is pronounced like N, X is pronounced like H, P is R, and C is S! And then there are the craziest symbols that usually sound like more than one letter such as ch, ts, sh, sht...crazy. But I definitely have it down!
They actually moved my departure date back by a week, so I will be leaving at the end of July instead of mid-July. I guess that's cool...more time to spend with my friends and family. And I found out that my pre-departure location is Washington, D.C., which is also exciting because I've never been to D.C. before! I know it's a long shot, but maybe I can sightsee around a bit at night after all the orientation stuff...maybe not.
The booklet that I have to read for cultural assimilation is kind of scary! It talks about adjusting to the training and the culture and the work, etc., but it gives so many examples of what might happen and what I might feel like at such and such time, and most of the examples are things that I have never even thought of. I mean I've thought about adjusting to the culture some, but I've mostly thought about missing my family and friends, since homesickness was something that I had a little bit of when I studied abroad in Oxford....for only four months! But since I've already been through that, then I'll know what to expect and how to deal with it, and I guess I'm just happy that I'm informed about all the other situations through this booklet. I'd rather have information than be taken by surprise.
I'm spending more time with the language and now know the alphabet and some basic phrases. The alphabet was quite confusing at first because they have many of the same letters as the English language, and some are even pronounced the same, but then there are English letters that have different English sounds. For example: H is pronounced like N, X is pronounced like H, P is R, and C is S! And then there are the craziest symbols that usually sound like more than one letter such as ch, ts, sh, sht...crazy. But I definitely have it down!
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