Of Life In A Fish Bowl

We spent all day yesterday getting my stuff packed and evenly distributed so that no bag was overweight. I’m extremely proud to say that both of my check on bags are 38lbs, and I got everything I wanted to bring in them. I also wrote down everything I took and which bag things were put in so that if I need more of something or an item goes missing in transit I know what it is and can get it replaced. I’m not anticipating anything to be stolen during flights, (and all of the real valuables are in my carry on) but better safe than sorry.

In one of these bags is a Ken doll named ‘Mike’. This is what he looks like:

Okay, so why is there going to be a Ken doll appearing in photographs while I’m in the Peace Corps? And why is his name ‘Mike’? It all goes back to a prank my coworkers played on me last summer when I was on a short vacation. It is a well known fact that I have the habit of declaring, ‘oh for the love of mike!’ on the occasion of being frustrated or messing up, or what have you. I got this from an old Katherine Hepburn movie and it just sort of stuck. Anyway, so when I was gone, a few people in the office completely covered my desk in plastic wrap and taped a lot of stuff down. They also hung goldfish crackers and swedish fish from the bottom of some cabinets that are over my desk. Inside this little fish and plastic wrap den was a Ken doll with a small name tag stating, ‘My name is Mike’, and a dialogue bubble cut out on paper hanging from the cabinet with the statement, ‘Oh for the love of Christine.’ 

I hid Mike in one of the offenders’ desk.

This led to Mike appearing all over the office, a kind of hide a seek game where once he is found that person would hide him somewhere else for someone to find. The last place he turned up was in the gift my coworkers gave me at my ‘send off’ luncheon and the idea was posed that he go with me to Africa as a sort of ‘Flat Stanley’. 

So, long story short (too late I know), Mike will be appearing in various ways in pictures that I post here and on facebook as a lasting tribute to my awesome coworkers.

On a last note: 

It’s strange thinking it is my last day at home for a long time. My room is pretty much empty and everything is packed. I can’t believe 191 days have passed. Nor is it any easier to believe that 27 months lie ahead.

Cheers,

Christine

It doesn’t feel real. I’m leaving in 14 days (well, actually I’ll be on the plane 14 days from now) and it just doesn’t feel real. Maybe I feel this way  because I have yet to pack up my room, or that I’m still going to work everyday like I always do. My paper chain is so small it’s scary (14 paper loops doesn’t take up much room) and my last day of work is this Friday. My mom’s family came down to our house yesterday for a ‘send off’ get together and today my dad’s family is coming over. Things are winding down and the pressure is starting to wind up. I’ve got e-mails from the country director about language tests and online safety orientations. I need to get my personal property insurance and pay off my loan. This is really happening.

So why doesn’t it feel real?

Am I in denial or something?

You’d think with a room cluttered with luggage and items waiting to be packed I’d get the clue.

Maybe reality is just waiting to smack me in the face when my 8-5 job is done and all that lies ahead is a week of room packing. I’m really not looking forward to feelings of panic or doubt when all I have to think about is ‘next week I’m gone’. I suppose I can only hope the out of the other 44 people in my group, at least one other person will feel that way.

Misery loves company and such.

Anywho….

Had the best time ever with my sister in California. Here are a few choice pictures from the trip.

Me after Splash Mountain. Never gotten this wet before.

Me and my sister Julisa.

From left to right: me, my sister and her boyfriend, Eric. On the Teacups.

Sisterly love on Space Mountain

My sister and her boyfriend in front. Me in the second row.

Us in the middle row: just three monkeys.

The next two weeks will be a mix of emotions and very busy days. Hopefully I’ll find a few moments to breath, but that may have to wait until I am sitting on the plane.

Cheers!

Christine

25 days until lift off (6am on Sunday March 4) and tomorrow I’m off to California to spend some time with my sister and hit Disneyland and Knott’s Berry farm. Never been to Knott’s Berry farm before and I super excited to go.

After that its the sprint to the end with my last day of work on the 24th, giving me 10 days to pack up my room and try to figure out how I can fit everything I think I need into two bags and not go over weight.

Gah!

Will post Disney pictures when I return.

Just in case you’ve forgotten what my original count (192) looked like, here is a reminder:

Well, it’s been quite a while since that day.

I’m down to 56. Just 56 little days left. My suitcases are on the floor, half packed with those things I won’t need until I leave and a few things I may still use thrown on top of them. My tablet is bought. I got a bluetooth keyboard (that rolls up of all things!), travel speaker (a little round ball thing that I can practically close my fist over yet has ENORMOUS sound), rechargeable batteries, solar panel charger, Keens, good knife and multi-tool. I have my pillow, quick-dry towels, sleeping pad, sleeping bag and bug tent. Power and plug adapters bought. Prescription sunglasses, two solar powered flashlights, lantern and two headlamps are packed away. 160 movies are on one external hard-drive. 4 TV series on another.

Only a few things left to get: Chaco sandals, some toiletries, and various clothing items that I can’t pack until the last moment.

For some things, 56 days can feel like an eternity. I know when I first counted 192 days, I couldn’t help but think: it will never come. We always seem to do that. The things we want the most seem to approach our present like a snail. While on the flip side those things we dread seem to leap at us unnaturally fast. There is so much left do to in these next 56 days that I know they will pass far more quickly than the last 136. Aside from the last minute things to pack, several days will be spent with my sister in California. Disneyland and Knottsberry Farm with my sis and her boyfriend seem like a splendid way to say goodbye to the USA.

But I also have to file for an extension on my driver’s license because the DMV doesn’t renew more than a year before a license is due to expire. Mine expires in April of next year. I leave in March, so instead I have to file for a year extension, TWICE. Once before I leave, and once while I’m in Africa since it will still expire before I get home. There is no way in hell I am going to retake that damn test. You’d think there would be some sort of special exception for Peace Corps Volunteers. There is for military personnel on duty overseas. Why not the Peace Corps? If anyone knows different, PLEASE tell me.

Also get to transfer power of attorney to my parents and make sure they are authorized to access my bank accounts in case I need something (or something happens to me, perish the thought). Have to buy insurance for all the stuff I am taking over (electronics, I hear, like to grow legs and walk off in Senegal, so the more protection the better) and….

Drum roll please!

…I have to either pay off my loan in full or apply for deferment. 

There has been a great debate in my head over the last six months on this issue. Pay it off, or defer? Pay it off, or defer? If I defer, it’s frozen and no interest accrues and I keep my modest savings account. But it is there when I get back and it will still need to be paid off. If I do it now, I cut my savings in half (*shudder*), but it’s done. Nothing hanging over my head, nothing waiting to take a bite out of my resettlement payment. But it does cut my savings in half. What happens if there is an emergency?

Hence my dilemma.

I may end up having to make that decision after the next couple of paychecks so I know exactly where I stand financially. I don’t like waiting until the last moment for these kinds of things, but when it comes to having enough money to get by or not, I may have to wait that long.

On a pleasanter note, I have been doing self defense classes since October and will be testing for the next belt on Saturday. I’m super nervous about the written test - and little less nervous about the physical test. But it should be exhilarating. I’m apparently challenging to purple belt, instead of the white/purple. Didn’t do that on purpose, but what the heck, why not? Belt level doesn’t matter to me anyway. I just need to know how to do the stuff. And I feel like I have learned a lot. Hopefully I’ll never need to use it, but if I do, hopefully I’ll remember and act without really thinking about it.

I think that’s all for now. 

Cheers!

Christine

Hard to think this is my last Christmas in the States for two years. I may get lucky and my parents will miss me so much they’ll fly me home, but that’s a long shot. So here’s to one last American Christmas for a while:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!