Monday, December 28, 2009

Last 100 days...

If someone had told me in February of 2008 that I would make it to the end of my service, then I probably would have laughed in that person's face. I'm sorry to those people in whose faces I laughed, because here I am staring down my last 100 days as a Peace Corps volunteer. I have no idea where I'll go after, or what I'll do, but the future is bright. In my last 100 days I will...make corrections to a grant proposal, finish a Peace Corps video, celebrate, new new year, old Christmas, old new year, Easter (of the living), unfortunately not Easter of the dead, and Post, Martisor, Opt Martea, see my host families one last time, say goodbye to MD friends, wait out law schools, and I'm many other things.

Good luck and may the road ahead of you be lit with dreams, and those dreams be your road ahead.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

What happened? July 2008-December 2009


I will give you a run down of all that has happened to me in the last...what is that like 17 months?

I went to the 4th of July party and lost my cell phone
I got a "new" cell phone
I became the new Mentor Coordinator for the ARBD Project
I got off of lock-down
I went back on lock-down
I attended a Democracy seminar
I turned 24
I had my first fight with my partner...he cited "language reasons" as to why I sucked
I got off of lock-down again
I did a team-building day with some volunteers
I had another fight with my partner...again language reasons
I learned the "secret" of my town
I went to Transylvania for Halloween!!!!
I started work with a new organization
I moved out of my village and to the Raion Center of Floresti
I started a business club
I had my first thanksgiving without my family, but with my new Peace Corps family
I made some Moldovan friends!!!!
I saw my first snow on Christmas day!
I had my first Christmas with my Peace Corps friends and prayed by the Christmas tree
I spent new years with my host family in Moldova and celebrated their Russian heritage
I had my first All ARBD-COD big fun family extravaganza
I went to Venice
I celebrated a year in Moldova
I co-taught a lesson on budgeting
I celebrated my 2nd Easter in Moldova!!!
I went home and visited my family in Texas
I helped welcome the M24s to Moldova
I started studying for the LSAT
I started co-leading Gender Workgroup with another awesome volunteer
I submitted my first grant with my partner...we lost but had fun doing it
I led a leadership session at a camp for Moldovan youth with some Flex students
I turned 25
I took the LSAT
I got my score back
I applied to law schools
I led a leadership seminar with some Winrock volunteers in Balti
I started an English club with my site-mate
I had a wonderful thanksgiving with some Peace Corps friends in Cahul
...and now I am on my last leg of my Peace Corps journey.

I am sorry to my dear friends who were once my loyal readers. I know you read my prose and it was decidedly funny yet I know me and I know that I can't stick to anything or really commit to anything...besides living to be 25, finishing college, manhandling this Peace Corps experience...etc, etc, altceva, altceva. I have about 120ish days left in the lovely Republic of Moldova. I have had many trying times, and I have had really awesome amazing times that I wouldn't trade for anything. I have been annoyed with people but I always seemed to have the exact person in my life that I needed, when I needed them. Over the last 2 years, at some points I felt like it was only me and god, and other times I knew and felt that the world was with me. I've eaten a lot of interesting things, and likewise, thrown up a lot of interesting things...yikes. Peace Corps is definitely not for the faint of heart, and even though I still have about 4 months left I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. I started with approximately 800 days and I am almost down to my last 100. I will try and remember to keep up the blog because my brain likes to forget things and I would hate for my wonderful stories to be lost to inescapable "mind melts."

This journal entry, although very late, is dedicated to my Aunt Marie. She died of Leukemia since I've been here. However, before I left to come to the Peace Corps, she gave me a journal to write all my thoughts and stories down over my 2 year experience, and I started keeping a journal but then stopped about the same time I stopped updating this blog. Now she's gone and I realize the importance of that journal...to keep a memory of everything that is important to me, how I see it, because in the blink of an eye what's important to us can be gone but our memories keep things important to us, such as our loved ones, alive.