First week with Host Family

Hello Everyone!

This should be dated March 8, 2011. I’m writing this on word before transferring it onto the internet. Sorry for disappearing for a while. It turns out that I ended up at a house without internet, which I’m assuming that you’ve figured out from the lack of posts, e-mail, and facebook updates. Well, not only am I in a house without internet, I’m in a town without internet. Hahaha. But just before you start to freak out, the next town is only a mile away and I can get to an internet café pretty easily…the only issue is time. I don’t have time for anything these days! I guess I could always try to use the internet at one of my peers’ houses after one of our training sessions that takes place in the larger towns. We’ll see.

So about the time thing, Peace Corps training is no joke. They pretty much have every hour planned out from 8-5 everyday, and the time that I’m not training, I’ve got tons of homework that I have to do. Add that to hanging out with my friends and bonding with my host family, and getting home before it gets too dangerous out at night, and there really is no time for anything else. It’s really kind of crazy. I don’t have time for sleep. My sleep time has been severely cut. If you know me at all, you know how big of a sacrifice that is for me, but I guess I had to start waking up before 10 eventually. I just wish that it wasn’t before 7 everyday. On the bright side, I’ve only been with my family for 4 days and already my Spanish has improved immensely. I still need to work on my grammar though. But I really have to give it up to Berlitz, man, they totally helped me brush up on my high school Spanish. I ended up in the Intermediate Spanish group, which is way beyond what I expected. See Mom, I really was doing work all those days.

So, I guess I should talk about my family a bit. They are super nice. They can be a bit over-protective, but they are just so welcoming. I guess I should be more descriptive, huh? I live with a mom, her daughter, and her granddaughter. In the back lives her son and his wife and their daughter. I don’t see the Andres’ (the son) family all too much, but they are really cool too. Today, he told me he always wanted a little sister and that he should think of his house as mine too. It was really sweet. Adriana (the daughter) basically loves all my clothes. That’s right everyone, especially you Pres girls!, I am fashionable here. Everything I wear from my shoes to my sunglasses are a huge hit. My days of being a slob are over. Which is hilarious because I didn’t really buy anything new to come out here.

Anyway, I already have some stories for you guys. The first night that I moved in with my family, I was in my room contemplating getting ready for bed even though it was barely 8, when my host mom came in and asked me if I wanted to go with her to buy milk. I’m thinking, “Well, I’m exhausted, but it would be good to explore my new town. I should go.” So, after agreeing to go, we walk up the street in a different direction from the town. I find out we’re going to her brother’s house. I figure, “Cool, I just got here. She wants to introduce me to her family. Quick stop before getting milk.” Then after some small talk, we get into the car and I think, “Oh man, we must be going to a supermarket that’s far if we need a car to get there.” So then we pick up a neighbor and I’m starting to get a bit confused. Maybe this neighbor also needs to get stuff at the market. He jumps into the car and we start to drive. My confusion grows as I realize that we are definitely not going to the store since we passed about 50 of them on the way to where we are going. We finally stopped at someone’s house, and I realize we’re at a party. It was pretty hilarious. Super fun, but I was exhausted and had no idea what was going on since I speak minimal Spanish. We didn’t even get milk that night.

Oh, but there is one good thing about where I live. Another PCT (Peace Corps Trainee (oh get ready for all the acronyms, because the PC seems to really love them)), Claire lives on my street. It’s pretty cool considering we’re the only ones in our town, but it’s even more cool that she’s pretty awesome. It would be terrible if the only other person who I can speak to normally was someone I didn’t get along with. So, we basically hang out when we have free time or have to go over homework together.

Oh and yesterday I introduced Claire to Scrabble Slam and then we introduced it to my host sister and her boyfriend. That’s right people, I just introduced Scrabble Slam to Costa Rica! We have to play in Spanish of course, but it’s actually an amazing way to learn some Spanish words and bond with my family at the same time. I lost all 3 games that we played.

So, I think that’s about it for now. Oh, about my Spanish, I feel like my sister’s dog Bentley all the time: Staring really hard at people trying to figure out what they are saying. Then I just flash that Suba grin that my family is known for and say, “Si.” I have never been more agreeable in my life, and that’s saying something if you know me at all.

Oh, and I almost forgot, while I am super happy and busy here, I hope that everyone at home, especially my family knows that I think about you all the time and I miss you tons. I definitely was having a tough time a few days ago when I realized that I was missing the 40 days thing for my Dad and that I might not be able to skype in. So, don’t think I left and forgot about you. My time here is going to be filled with ups and downs, and I’ve already started the ride.

Pictures from the Orientation

So, I finally took pictures today. Here they are. Tomorrow we're going into a town and doing a scavenger hunt so I'll have more to say tomorrow. As for now, you can take a look at where I'm at.

As you can see, we have an amazing view of San Jose. We have recreational areas. And pretty cool foliage around here. Tomorrow I'll have to post a picture of the view at night because it is something else.

From San Jose to San Jose

Hello Everyone! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but things have been crazy for the past few months. The super abridged version of what happened is this....I didn't end up going to Moldova because of more family health emergencies, but the Peace Corps was super cool and understanding about all of it and reassigned me to serve in Costa Rica. So far it is amazing.

Basically, I flew from San Jose, CA to Washington, DC for staging (basically pre-orientation orientation) with a layover in Dallas. Because of a flight delay, I had zero minutes to get onto my connecting plane, yet somehow my bags and I made it to DC. The next day, we had staging which wasn't the most riveting thing in the world, but it was really cool meeting all the people in my group. Everyone is super cool, laid-back and interesting. So I decided not to go to sleep that night since we had to check out of our hotel at 2 in the morning which is 11pm California time. We checked out, got on the bus to the airport to leave for Costa Rica. Wow, that was one of the most chaotic things I've experienced. Checking everyone and their bags in was not fun. We were all exhausted and frustrated, yet we somehow made it. Once in San Jose, Costa Rica, we took a bus to a retreat site where we are now having a pre-training orientation. On Saturday, we will finally move in with our host families.

So far, Costa Rica is amazing. It is so beautiful where we are at, it's not hard to imagine loving my time here for the next 2 years. And yes, I've experienced my first meal of rice and beans. It was delicious. We've also tried a variety of different juices that I've never tasted before. I don't know their names, so I couldn't tell you what was in them. I took my language proficiency test and I'm fairly certain that I'm going to be in one of the lower groups for language training. I really don't mind though...since there are a few of us in the same boat anyway. As long as they get us through to past the test at the end of training, I don't care what level I'm at right now.

Anyway, I wish everyone could see what I'm talking about. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but tomorrow I will drag my camera around so that I can post pictures for everyone to see before my internet access becomes less predictable.

The Long Goodbye

So I've been meaning to post for a while now, but things have been so crazy the only time I've had to blog has been conflicting with sleep time. And if you know me at all...sleep trumps almost anything for me. I now realize that was dumb because I can't even remember all the things I wanted to say. Guess I'm just going to have to do my best to remember and give the abridged version.

Let's see...since I last posted I've basically been scrambling to find all the things that I think I might need with me in Moldova and hanging out with family and friends while I can. I guess this paragraph can be dedicated to the series finale of Lost. All I can say is that I'm so happy I got to see it end before leaving. I do like that they wrapped up the characters' stories, but it felt kind of rushed. I also still want to know why that stupid statue has 4 toes and why they decided to irritate the audience by not ever saying what black smoke monster's name was. The best part though was my friend Nicole decided to go all out and turn her place into the hatch and decked it out with dharma initiative stuff. I only wish we had coveralls.

I've spent a lot of time with my nephew since I time with him was running out. I love that little guy. I'm really going to miss the sound of his laugh, so basically I'm glad Skpe exists because it would be really sad to go 2 years not seeing that face. I will also miss my brother and sister in law, but I'm fairly certain they will look relatively the same when I get back.

My family threw me a goodbye party this weekend which was super fun. They hired a taco truck because they know that I'm going to miss Mexican food. Mmmm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. So the theme was my favorite things....and they don't include raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, although nice things and make for a good song, they are not my favorite things. My favorite things included Mexican food, egg rolls, cake, lot's of dessert, lots of chips and dips, and lots of drinks. Oh, and most importantly, my favorite people. It was very touching that all those people came to say goodbye, especially the ones that traveled from super far and surprised me. So it was a good time all around.

The worst thing about all of this is waiting around to say goodbye to everyone. I'm beginning to realize that I am super lucky to have all these people in my life, and am wondering why would I ever want to leave. Then I think, why wouldn't I go do the things I want to do when I have all these people who support me and will welcome me back with open arms? Yeah, the only thing harder than waiting to say goodbye, is actually doing it.

On Sunday, I said goodbye to my brother, his wife, and my nephew. You may ask why goodbyes started so early when I still have about week left. Well, they are all going to Cancun for a week, and getting back the day after I leave for Philly. What was really rough was saying goodbye to my sister yesterday. Since I pretty much see her everyday and practically have moved into her loft, it felt pretty horrible. Especially since I was taking her and our friend, Ruby, to the airport but everyone forgot to set an alarm so we all woke up to a phone call asking if they were at the airport yet. Um yeah, that would be a negative. So we rushed out and unfortunately rushed our goodbye, but I'm thinking that it might have been better that way. Like ripping off a band aid. Quick and easy. Except it wasn't easy. I pretty much cried the whole way back from the airport and then some. So, that's 2 days in a row of tears. Hopefully, today will be better.

So to make yesterday even better, because the 5 am wake up wasn't enough, I had to take my mom for a colonoscopy (sp?), and then drive down to LA to visit my uncle in the hospital. He had stroke this weekend, so that's rough. The family is freaked out a bit, since it mirrors what happened to my dad. I'm just glad I got to visit before I leave.

Well, I gotta get going since we're all getting ready to go the hospital. Hopefully my next post won't end on such a down note.

Ok, I was going to post pictures, but it's not working right now...so I'll attach them on my next post.

Lists are taking over my life

So basically, as you can probably gather from the title of this blog, my life has been compartmentalized into various lists. Besides the countdown to Moldova, all I can think about are lists or the things on them. I have lists for packing, of things I still need to get, of people I need to see, things I want to do, places I want to eat, movies and TV shows I want to take with me, music I need to download, people to invite to my going away party, things that I'll miss, and the list goes on. While this sounds really whiny, it has actually been nice getting through at least a few of my lists. For example, getting to do the things that I want to do and spending time with the people I care about has been amazing.

Last week I went to Santa Cruz with my sister, Maelyn, to take her dog and my brother's labs to dog beach. I sometimes forget how much I absolutely love the ocean and everything about it. I love its vastness, the smell, the sound, the sand. There's just something so soothing about it. It's going to be weird not living near an ocean for 2 years. I've never done that before. Even in Scotland I could see the ocean from the windows in class.

Anyway, I think the only one more excited than I was about going to the beach was Ellie, the older of the labs. I have never seen her so excited in my life. I guess I should explain that she is an old girl who usually lays back and keeps to herself. She also tends to look sad...except for around water it turns out. Seriously, she turned back into a puppy as we exited off 17. It was pretty cute.

After the beach we went to Marini's for candy apples and salt water taffy. Mmmmm, delicious. We also saw a guy wearing a black cape. I'm fairly certain he was going for the vampire look. Oh the weird people of Santa Cruz, I will miss you. I'm almost sad that we didn't see the pink umbrella man. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, he is a man who cross-dresses in pink and holds a pink umbrella and walks unbelievable slow through downtown Santa Cruz. Seriously, my dad walks faster than him and the right half his body doesn't even work properly. This man is widely known through Santa Cruz.

Running with the dogs.

My sister running with the dogs.

The dogs playing in the water, obviously.

Nevada and Bentley looking goofy.

So then that weekend I went to my cousin's kid's baptism. I decided that when you are 1 out of 24 godparents, things get embarrassing when the priest calls all godparents to come up to the alter. It's like half of the church ends up getting up out of their seat to watch the baby get doused with water. Well, it was a successful baptism anyway. And the reception was kinda crazy for a little baby. There was this crazy Filipino DJ who pumped up the volume and decided to play hip hop, which is weird for a 1 yr old kid in the first place, but man! he did not stop talking. It was like he loved the sound of his own voice. And then to be totally stereotypical Filipino, he busted out the karaoke. Yup, it was embarrassing and loud and painful. Although some people seemed to enjoy it, most of my family ended up hanging out outside. It was a pretty good party though. The food was yummy.

Speaking of food, I've been eating so much I am actually kinda worried about fitting into my clothes by the time I leave for Moldova. It's been a food marathon for the past month! Seriously it's been so delicious, but I feel like a turkey getting fattened up for the big Thanksgiving feast. I figure that I won't be able to get Mexican, sushi, Thai, bbq and all of that good stuff in Moldova so I might as well get tired of it now and appreciate it for what it's worth. The good thing about eating so much is that I get to do it with other people and so I can get some good hangout time.

Tonight I had one of my last friday night dinners at my grandparents' house. You may be thinking, "Wow, what Gilmore Girl biters." Well, I'll have you know that we've been doing weekly dinners at my grandparents since before I can remember so I say they bit off of us. It was the typical dinner full of confusing stories, talk of pop culture, and lots of laughs. I must say, this is one of the things I will definitely miss for the next couple of years. My family is full of characters and even if you don't participate in conversation, you will end up dying laughing. We are that ridiculous sometimes.

So I guess that's all for now. I'll try to wait so long before my next post so that it won't have to be so long.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone! This weekend has been so crazy, but I'm glad that it ended well. First of all, how fun was it to watch the Sharks shutout the Red Wings?! That was such an intense game to watch. I love how when people text me to ask what I'm doing and I say "watching the game," they know exactly what I'm talking about and respond with a "Me too." Moving on to Western Conference Finals! Yay!

Besides the game, I spent half of yesterday trying to figure out what kind of point and shoot camera to invest the little money I have left on. I'm still going to bring my digital SLR with me to Moldova, but I figure that a small compact one will come in handy on some occasions. Also, the fact that these little ones can do video also is a big plus. Should I get the smaller newer one, or the bigger one with more functions? Decisions, decisions. Oh, and I kind of want to get an external hard drive to load up movies, TV shows, and music on for entertainment when things get slow out there. Plus, I figure it might be good to back up my stuff anyway. I don't want to be that kid who loses her computer and then feels sorry for oneself for not being smarter about these things. Also, I'm debating about getting a Kindle or iPad to download books so that I can stay literate. JK, I'm sure I'll still be literate regardless...if I'm not, there's something very wrong with my brain. I don't know about all these electronics. I think maybe I'll wait on an electronic reader until I meet up with my family over Christmas and have figured out what internet access is like before committing to anything.

So all of a sudden it feels like I'm running out of time and still have a million things to do. I need to get some stuff for winter over there and I haven't started that yet. I need to get my H1N1 vaccination. I should have done that when my mom was bugging me about it, but I figured since she got it and I never did, there was no need to. I mean I really don't think I could get in closer proximity to the virus, but since it's required in order for me to go to Moldova, I'll do it. That should make my mom happy. I also need to figure out my luggage situation. It is starting to feel like I'm running out of room and I haven't even started packing yet! Maybe I should do some pilot tests on that so I have an idea what to leave out and what else I need to get. Man, I thought packing for a year in Scotland was tough...this is crazy.

As for today, it was a nice day spent with family. Started out by waking up and going out to lunch with the parentals and my younger brother, Chris and ended with a Mother's Day Dinner with pretty much everyone at our house. Ended up being more work than I thought it would be because I honestly thought we were going to buy food for dinner, but my mom decided that Chris and I should make a couple entrees for dinner. We didn't do too bad considering we started to shop for ingredients at like 3:00 and dinner started at 6:00. Oh, and things got sticky when we went to get crabs for the crab dish my mom requested and they had zero crabs...we decided to improvise with lobster. I'm not going to lie though, it was nice to work on a project with my little brother and not argue about anything. Actually I thought it was comparable to Top Chef or something. Chris liked the idea of Kitchen Stadium better. Either way, we didn't do too shabby and we managed to finish before everyone got to the house and it was not only edible, but pretty tasty. Yup, I am tooting my own horn. Toot toot!

And while it was super fun hanging out with my aunts, uncle, cousins, grandparents and siblings tonight, I'm going to have to give my mom a shoutout. It is Mother's Day after all. If anyone else is reading this and doesn't want to read a mushy note to my mom, just skip to the next post.

To my mom, whenever you get the chance to read this, I just want to thank you for being, well, my mom. I meant to get you a card that I could write all of this down on, but since I got busy in the kitchen and didn't have time, I'll just put it down here. I just wanted to thank you for everything. I know you don't get enough credit for it, but you did a good job raising me and Chris. Even though you're not really a single parent, I consider myself being raised by one, at least for the latter half of my life. It wasn't easy and we definitely have had some bumps in the road, possibly even blown out some tires on this crazy life path, but we've come out pretty well and good. It's crazy to think that I was once a sullen teen angry at the world and now I'm out to do my best to save it and everything in it. I couldn't have made it if you hadn't tried your best and I do appreciate it. I know you're sad and worried about my leaving, I am too, but try not to worry so much. I'll be in good hands, and I'll be doing good, hopefully doing good well. So Happy Mother's Day.

Busy, busy, busy...

So since I last posted, I received my invitation packet from the Peace Corps. It was very exciting since I've been waiting to hear what country I am going to be sent to. So my official assignment is to be a Health Education Specialist in the country of Moldova. I know what you're thinking, "Where the hell is that?" or "I've never heard of it." Yeah, that's basically the response I've gotten from everyone I've talked to.

To give you an idea of where I'm going and what I'm going to do there, the basics on Moldova: It is a small country in between Romania and Ukraine. It was at multiple points in history part of the former Soviet Union and once a part of Romania. The official language is Romanian, but in some areas they speak Russian. It's a mostly agricultural country and their economy depends mostly on the goods they export to Russia. I am supposed to teach health education in school and also work with organizations in the community promoting health awareness. I will live with a host family for at least the first 6 or so months of my staying there, including my first 3 months of training.

Now, since receiving my invitation packet I have accepted the invitation, applied for my special passport, and turned in my revised resume and aspiration statement. It seems really crazy that after months of waiting, all of a sudden there's so much stuff to do in such a small amount of time. However I am glad that I did read the many handbooks they gave me because it makes it a lot less scary and it makes it feel more real. I can't believe that I will be leaving in a month. But for now, all I have to do is wait for my staging information stuff to come along, so I'm done with paperwork again for now. However, I'm kinda feeling anxious about what to pack. I feel like I have a lot of shopping to do.

As for my life outside of doing things to get ready to leave, basically I spent the weekend with dogs... Dogsitting for my brother, Royce's, dogs and our little family corgi. Normally, not a huge deal, but Nevada, one of the chocolate labs, was a hot mess from paws to ears. Literally. Basically I spent some time chasing her down, jumping on her and wrestling to get her ear medication in ears. And Tala, the corgi, gets neurotic when my mom leaves. Poor girl does not know what to do with herself. But I'm not going to lie, when I wasn't getting run over by an 82 lb lab with a cone on her head or waiting for my hearing to come because of the yappy little dog with a big bark, it was kind of relaxing. I'm going to miss my fury friends when I leave. OH...and watching the Sharks kick some Red Wings ass during the playoffs was nice too. Game 3 today should be a good one. I hope. Also, I'm going to spend as much time with my family and friends while I can. Let the good times roll...