Today I got the list of e-mail addresses of the other volunteers who are going to Ukraine with me! I was so excited to get this, I have been waiting for it, to see which names would come up, if anyone was from Colorado, if other people are as extremely stressed out as I am!?! Well, I jumped on the boat as quickly as possible and joined the newly formed Yahoo group that was almost instantaneously formed upon getting this list! It was pretty cool, turns out there is someone living in Denver. I will most certainly be meeting up with her before we leave.
As the time gets closer to leave I become more and more stressed out and having nightmares on a pretty regular basis. I am very excited to go, but I think I am more nervous or scared than I let myself think. I have traveled before, lived out of the country and even been to Eastern Europe...I loved it! I think my concerns stem from the fear of leaving everyone I know to go forth to be with nothing I am familiar with. In past travels I was either with friends, meeting family or could speak the language. This time around everything is going to me new. It is so nervewracking! I am so excited, and there are times where I can hardly contain my excitement to learn Russian (hopefully) live in a very foreign country (living in Chile wasn't too foreign as I had visited there before and was familiar with customs and food, etc) and travel around the world. I am now very happy that I was able to save some cash that I will use to travel around on my vacations and my time after the Corps (although there is no guarantee as to what will happen after service is done).
Another thing I learned was that a million and a half people who are in the PC have blogs, and a lot of them have some really awesome things to say about it. I think that taking my laptop will be a really good idea (hopefully, cinsidering that I just dropped some cash for a new laptop that doesn't overheat, and is a bit lighter and brighter!) I see that a lot of people use their laptops as an everything machine, and I doubt it will be any different for me! I love my computer, and I love watching movies...bad combo, but I'm sure it will help get me through some lonely nights where for some reason a corny JLo flick will help cheer me up...I can't believe I even admitted to that! So, I have spent a large part of my day reading other people's blogs, and reading about their experiences. I see it as such: people in the PC are the same as real world people. This sounds so common sense, but it is a difficult concept for people to grasp. People make assumptions that all Peace Corps people are awesome and cool and nice and listen to good music (I might have added that in myself). My dad told me this a million years ago, but I finally see it for myself. There are people who go in with negative attitudes, bitchy tendencies, pessimistic attitudes and aren't easy to get along with. The good news is that I am easy to get along with and will surely seek out those who feel the same way. I am not being negative (or weird) here, but it is something that a lot of people don't think about...PC people are people too! haha.
Anyway, in MYYYY group, I have found that a lot of the people who have signed up in the group seem pretty cool and have positive outlooks on life. On gal's blog talked about how some friends and family were ebing hard on her, saying that the PC was a poor decision to make. This made me want to cry! It also made me realize how lucky I am to have friends and family who support my choice 100%, and my dad who has supported this decision since before I was born in '82, yet never for a SECOND pressured me to make the choice I made (but oh golly is he ever glad I am going!). So that is my 2 cents for now. I know that nobody is reading this blog now, but I think this will be something people would like to read as time goes on.
Thanks everyone for your support, you keep a smile on my face!
