Goodbye Seattle

I'm not sure what's more difficult," I mused when selling off my franken-bike to a good friend, "leaving my boyfriend or my bike." (I meant this humorously of course, being pretty attached to both and all.)

Now, weeks after this comment and with only 17 days to go until staging (!!!) my feelings have been jumping all over the place at an rapidly increasing rate. Each little bit of news makes me both excited and nervous and I still can't totally grasp that I'll be landing in Madagascar just (barely) in time to celebrate my 23rd birthday.

The bike is gone, -- although we're having a brief romance this weekend while it's new owner is out of town -- the boyfriend is gone, and now all that's left is to say goodbye to Seattle and the amazing people I've come to know over the past 9 months. Since I'll be leaving this Wednesday for the east coast, this weekend is my last huzzah in the emerald city. That said, Seattle, I'll miss your obnoxiously steep hills, over-caffinated bike messengers loitering outside monorail espresso, Capitol hill's hipsters, and REI chic. I'll miss Joe Bar and the smell of buttery crepes, Thursday happy hours, and Elysian's jasmine IPA. Seattle, I'll miss you.

Goodbye everyone! Send me love and Cheetos. ;D

Madagascar

After a week of restless wondering and numerous peacecorpwiki searches to try and identify which country I will be serving in, I finally know where I'll be serving. I'll be teaching TEFL in Madagascar.

I didn't see that one coming, but feel incredibly lucky to get my placement in one of the most ecologically and culturally fascinating places in the world. I'm also hoping this means more baobab juice??

On the other hand, after telling most of my friends in Seattle last night, I realized that just as "I'm going to Malta" had the accompanying question of "Ooo, where's that?" or "Like the Maltese Falcon?" Madagascar seems to evoke a comment about lemurs or the 2005 Disney movie. At least people have heard of my future home this time, right?

An Invitation At Last!

First off... blogger was having some serious glitches the day I originally created this blog and as luck would have it, Peace-nik had been launched for less than 24 hours before it mysteriously disappeared from the blogosphere. That said, I apologize for excitedly advertising a broken link, and Blogger... I forgive you. You're lucky I have tons of down time at work these days...

Now to the exciting Peace Corps stuff:

After submitting my application waaay back on July 1, 2010, I have finally gotten word that an invitation is in the mail! Although I appreciate the heads-up e-mail (and surely this has the dual purpose of keeping to-be volunteers from pestering HQ too much) it's definitely a tease. Presently, all I know is that I've been assigned to Sub-Saharan Africa to Teach English with a program departing July 11, 2011. I have no idea which country, however, and it's hard to resist making guesses with peacecorpswiki.org.

Keep posted! Hopefully that letter is in the mailbox right now...