Snapshot of El Capulin

Last week I traveled to my new home of El Capulin, Liberia, Guanacaste for a site visit. It is really different from San Miguel and training in almost every way, but I think it will be a great place to live for the next two years. I’ll break it down into the important parts:

Climate: H. O. T. It is so hot. I am sweating constantly. It is also fairly dry. The rainy season is from May until November, but it is not as heavy or as often as other places in Costa Rica. It also supposedly is very windy from December through January. When I was there last week, it rained one day, for twenty minutes, and then it was super dry and dusty the rest of the time. And hot.  

Housing: I have to live with a host family for the first six months of service. After that, I am able to move out on my own, with a new family, or stay with the same family. Right now, I live with a 40ish year old mom, Albina, an 18 year old host sister, Adriana, a nine year old host sister, Celeste, and a four year old brother. There is another brother who is 14, but lives with his grandparents in Upala.

I have my own room with bunk-beds, a shelf and a fan! The house is “humble,” just as my program manager told me. The floors and walls are cement and the roof is corrugated metal. There is a good foot or two between all of the walls and roof, so it is kind of open. Everyone can hear everything, including my bathroom business. I suppose I’ll get used to that fairly quickly.

The house is about ten meters from the Escuela El Capulin, where I will be working. I can see every person that goes into the school from my front porch. This is super helpful because I won’t have to wake up early to get to work, but also could be a little rough when I am working on other projects or just taking a break and all the kids can see me hanging at my house while they are all in school. We’ll see how it goes.

Community: El Capulin is a barrio of Liberia, the capital of the Guanacaste province. There are around 40,000 people in Liberia, and when I asked people about the population of El Capulin, no one had a clue. From what I observed, it is big. So far, I have divided it into three main sections. These might change as I learn more and become familiar with different spaces in El Capulin, but it’s what I have as of now…

First, there is the area where I live. Most of the houses are similar to mine, with a few made completely of corrugated metal, and others that are nicer. However, it is a fairly poor area. Most kids in this part of town go to Escuela El Capulin, which has 160 students. It is a super cute area and everyone is really friendly. The neighbor kids are in and out of my house all the time, and running around the community like they own the place. There are a couple of mini-supermarkets and pulperias, and a few bars. There is also a soccer field and three different churches. Other than that, it is all houses.

The second area I’ve dubbed as “fancy El Capulin.” You cross Rio Liberia and all of the sudden you are surrounded by condos that look straight from Florida, sheik apartments, and the beginnings of a suburb. This is where all of the professors and doctors live, and all the kids in this area go to private schools. I am not sure if I’ll be working or spending much time in this area, but it might be a potential spot for resources.   

The last area is the “across the highway” area. Escuela Labrotorio John F. Kennedy is right on the other side of the highway from my “home community section” and I will be working in that school as well. I have not explored much of this section and I think it is mostly houses, although I cannot be sure. Figuring out this part of El Capulin is on my “to do” list during my first three months of service.

There might be more of El Capulin that I don’t even know about, but I’m going to take it chunks at a time, starting with where my home is. I really love the feeling that I have in the community though. I feel very safe and I like the fact that kids are out and about at all times and feel comfortable enough to go into pretty much anyone’s home to play. It seems very community oriented and I think that will be helpful to meet people and to begin integrating into culture and way of life in El Capulin.  

My Job: If you haven’t been paying attention, I am a TEFL volunteer, which stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. My primary job is to work with Costa Rican English teachers to help improve their levels of English, as well as collaborate on ideas and activities for the classroom. This consists of co-planning lessons and co-teaching those lessons in the schools. I am supposed to be in a classroom 15 to 18 hours a week, but can go more if the teacher wants me.

            

I will be working with two primary school English teachers, one from Escuela El Capulin, and the other from Escuela Labrotorio John F. Kennedy. These two teachers teach grades 1 through 6 in their respective schools. I don’t have a schedule yet because I still haven’t actually met with the teachers to talk about what they want from me and the expectations we have of each other, but I did meet them both, and it seems like they both really want my help which makes me very excited.

            

I am also encouraged to do other projects and people were already asking for a community English class, so I might start that as soon as I feel comfortable in the community. People also talked about wanting a computer lab, kids camps, and working on other projects in the school, so hopefully I will be kept busy.

I officially swear-in as a volunteer on Friday, and I am kind of freakin. I am super excited to be moving on to my real job and having a chance to do things on my own. But I am also really nervous because I am going to be super vulnerable in a brand new community, with limited language, and no one to hang out with that understands U.S. culture. I know these are feelings that I will have throughout my entire two years, and some days will be better than others. One of the main things that I find helpful is revisiting why I decided doing Peace Corps was so important in the first place, and this tends to help put things in perspective until I 

get back into the groove.

Training has really gone by so fast and I can’t believe I’ve been in Costa Rica for almost three months. The two year countdown officially begins on Friday, and I know that it is going to fly by as well.

If you want to watch me swear-in, Costa Rica is fancy and streams it live. I might be a bit boring, but you get to see inside an ambassador’s house… http://www.livestream.com/usembassy. It is happening this Friday, May 11^th, at 11:00 EST.

I love you all, miss everyone, and think of you often.

Annie

My Site!

I did it again. I came home from class and no one was home. I wanted to get some letters written so I sat down with my new stationary from Meghan, and new sharpies from my mom, and started writing. I heard an, “Upe! Dona Luz?!” and knew that I had to go outside to tell whoever it was that Dona Luz wasn’t home and that I couldn’t recharge their phones. I barely stepped out of the front door when a gust of wind slammed it shut. Shit. Why do I keep pad-locking the gate?

I was not about to sit for another hour, so I immediately started, quietly, shouting “Upe?” at my neighbor’s house. I heard movement so I waited. No one came. I shouted a little louder, and a little louder, and louder until I was using my cheerleading voice. Finally, my neighbor poked her head around the curtain and saw me standing about a foot and a half from her window, just on the other side of the cement wall. She came out and I explained that I was locked in my yard and asked if I could climb over the wall and leave through her yard. She laughed and told me “tranquilla,” which is relax, and said of course. Within ten minutes of getting locked in, I was able to get out and walk to the safety of Dona Luz and her keys. It’s amazing what changes in a week. I don’t know if it was my overwhelming confidence that made me believe that I could explain my situation to my neighbor using Spanish, or my dread of sitting there for more than an hour that made me take action, but I am so glad I did.   

On to the really exciting news, I officially have my site placement! For the duration of my service, I will be living in El Capulin, a barrio of Liberia, in the province of Guanacaste. El Capulin is only two kilometers outside of Liberia, which is the capital of Guanacaste, the home of an international airport and has a population of about 40,000. In contrast to the fancy living of Liberia, El Capulin is a pretty poor town and fairly small. I will be working in two elementary schools, each with less than 200 students. Each school has one English teacher and I will be working with them to improve their English and teaching habits. Hopefully they like me.

Guanacaste, the province I’ll be living in, is dubbed the wild, wild west of Costa Rica. It is hot and dry and there is a lot of cattle ranching. I don’t know what El Capulin will be like, since it is so close to a city, but lucky for you, and me, I am visiting it from Saturday until next Wednesday and can give a more detailed post then.

I am really excited to finally have a place to call home for the next two years. And I am super nervous to actually move there and start my life, which will be in three weeks. I think once I am there, everything will feel real and I might freak a little. I have to live with a host family for the first six months, so hopefully I won’t feel super lonely. But I think the reality that I am going to be here, in Costa Rica, for two years, will sink in.

But, hopefully the site visit this coming week will give me a good idea of what my site is like and what I potentially will be working on. How exciting!

This past weekend sixteen of the trainees went to Manuel Antonio, on the Pacific Coast, to get a little sun before we are all split up throughout the country. The beach was gorgeous and the water was fantastic. There were waves and surfers and parasailing and food and sarongs and everyone had a really fun time.

This coming week is the site visit and the week after that is swearing-in and moving out. Everything is moving really fast but I like it! I am feeling really great and comfortable with Costa Rican living and Spanish and teaching. I know that will change when I move, but for now, I am very content.

Thanks for all of the letters and packages. It’s really incredible what an amazingly fantastic group of family and friends I have. I hope to get a PO Box in Liberia, so look for a new address in a few weeks.

I love and miss you all! And Happy Happy Birthday to Meghan! Hope you had the best day ever!!

Annie     

Changes in San Miguel

Time has gotten away from me and kind of a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. So far, I’ve thought about my time in Costa Rica in chunks and those chucks tend to have some big event related to them. I always tell myself, I know I’m going to want to write about that, so I’ll wait until it’s over. And I wait, but the next week has another event that I’m going to want to write about so I wait again. And now it’s been almost three weeks and I have lots of stories.    

Going back to Semana Santa, aka Holy Week:

Costa Rica is a Catholic country, and because of that, schools are closed and many people have the entire week off of work. Unfortunately, I had classes until Wednesday, but the rest of the week I had free.

I think I mentioned this before but my host sister, Ruth, was pregnant. When I came home from class on Wednesday, Dona Luz, my host mom, told me that she was at the hospital all day with Ruth because she was having contractions and it seemed like Jimena, the baby, would be born. I love babies; so obviously, I was super excited to have a host niece around.

About two hours after that initial conversation, Dona Luz told me to pack a bag for one or two days and that we would be leaving in an hour.   Whut?    Now, I had remembered that the week prior, Dona Luz talked about going to visit the Province of Cartago, where her son lives. But, we have talked about other plans before and rarely do they come to fruition. And Ruth was in the hospital. So, I thought, hm… ok, we can go to the hospital and hang out for a bit until the baby is born. It’s a little weird, but I’m down if that’s what we’re going to do!

Now, disclaimer here, Dona Luz very well could have said exactly where we were going and why I needed to pack a bag. And she probably did. But with my Spanish abilities I get the really important information, like pack a bag of clothes, but not the minor details, like where we are going, what to bring, how long we’ll be gone, who’s coming, ect.

So, just in case, I packed three outfits, six pairs of undies, and a bathing suit.

And good thing I did. It turns out we were, in fact, going to Cartago and we were going to stay at Freddy’s house, Dona Luz’s son. We stayed there for two nights and he was a fantastic tour guide and cook. We went to a couple of church ruins, La Negrita Cathedral, Rio Paloma, and other little stops along the way. It was really interesting to be traveling with Costa Ricans who know the history and stories that go along with the sites. It was a lot of fun but also quite a learning experience not knowing all of the details of the trip. Since that experience, I’ve gotten better at asking questions or repeating back information to make sure I understand it correctly and I have it all.   

Tech Week:

The week after Semana Santa I went to visit another PCV in a town next to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. [This is not the Puerto Viejo where Coco and Chris will be honeymooning, but it is the Puerto Viejo where Will Smith and his son were just filming] The goals of this week were to observe four hours of classes, co-plan for four hours, and to co-teach for four hours. And I did just that along with some other non-work-related things.

La Guaria, where Marlene volunteers, is super hot. I was sweating all the time. It’s in the plain lands but there were mountains within walking distance. There were a ton of pineapple and banana fields, which is where the majority of people work.

Marlene works in two primary schools and both are fairly large. Also, there are basically two school days in one, which I found interesting. One group of k-5^th grades comes in from 7:00am until 12:00 and another group goes from 1:00 until 5:00. The teachers teach the same lessons twice every day. And while the kids get about five hours of school every day, the teachers work about ten. The kids were really great though and I thought the English teachers that Marlene works with had a high level of English and worked really well with her.

She also has a community class that I observed and taught in. It is a beginning class and she has about 30 adult students. It was awesome. The classroom was packed and every student was engaged and interested in learning. We played a lot of really fun and interactive games to help reinforce the vocab and get them speaking. I loved it and I thought Marlene did a great job.

When we weren’t working, we did some non-English-teaching related things. Marlene and I went to a “Zumba” class and it is in quotations because, in reality, it was a pretty hard core dance class with cumbia and meringue and other Latin dance moves. My hips just don’t move like that, but maybe by the time I leave Costa Rica I’ll be dancing like a Latina.

We also took a boat tour on the Rio Sarapiqui and it was gorgeous. We saw a crocodile, monkeys, an iguana, bats, and a ton of birds. All in the wild! It was super cool and I felt really one with nature. And, it was free because the boat driver was one of her community class students and insisted it was free. I can’t wait to have a community class!

I loved visiting another place in Costa Rica and seeing variance in weather and landscape firsthand. It was a great week.

Additions to the Family:

When I came back to San Miguel this past Saturday we had four new additions to my host family. We gained a dog and two parrots before I left for tech week, and Jimena was born on the Thursday that I was gone. She is beautiful, with a full head of hair, and sleeps a lot.

I had gotten a text from Dona Luz saying that Jimena was born, so when I got to the house on Saturday and no one was home, I figured they were at Ruth’s admiring the baby. I was going to drop my bags off and I head over after but, very suddenly, I became a prisoner.

Let me set the scene. Practically every house in Costa Rica has a fence around it. The one around my house is green and very tall and impossible to climb. It also has a padlock. On top of that, the door to the actual house automatically locks when it closes.

So, I got home, unlocked the padlock to the fence and locked it again to signal that no one is home because I didn’t want to talk to anyone to explain that Dona Luz wasn’t there (people ask for her a lot because she recharges cell phones). I unlocked the door to the house, put my stuff in my room and took Pinky, our new dog, out front to pee. As I walked outside, one of my students was walking by and stopped to ask where I was the last week and when I would be coming back. We were chatting it up in Spanish and I was feeling really good about it until I heard a SLAM of the front door. I whipped my head around just to confirm my fear that I was now locked out of my house, but inside my front yard without my phone or keys. Awesome. I explained this issue to my student and he laughed and waved goodbye and I was alone with Pinky who kept staring at me like, “Now what are we gonna do?”

It was a nice day so I sat down and I thought I would wait for 30 minutes and someone will probably come home. They knew I was coming home at 2:30 and they would meet me here. So I sat. And 30 minutes go by and I start thinking about an escape plan. I could hop the fence between my house and my neighbor’s house and leave out of their front yard. But, I was wearing a skirt and I would have to explain my situation to a stranger and my family should be coming home any time now. So I sat. And another 30 minutes passed and I was getting cold and I was coming to terms with the fact that I really need to take action. Just as I was about to start yelling for my neighbor, a friend of Dona Luz’s drove up and tells me that everyone is at Ruth’s house and what am I doing just sitting outside. I explain to her the situation and she starts cracking up. Not just a chuckle or even a laugh, but a full out belly laugh. She would have been rolling on the floor if she wasn’t in a car. Once she regained a smidgen of composure she said she would go back to the house and tell someone to release me.

About five minutes later Raquel and Angelo walk up, laughing, and let me out of the cage that I had been stuck in for more than an hour. It was absurd and all the while I kept thinking what a great story this is for my blog, but a horrible situation in real life.

This Friday I find out where I am living for the next two years and I am beyond excited and anxious to know. I cannot wait to google it and ask people about it and find out what type of schools I will be working in! We all go to a country club with a pool and we find out in the morning and they hang all day. So exciting.

And Saturday to Sunday all the trainees are going to Manuel Antonio, a beach on the Pacific Coast, that is supposed to be one of the best.

I was going to wait until these events were over to blog because I know I will want to, but good thing I didn’t! This sucker is loooong.

I miss everyone a ton and love you all times a million.

Annie            

Out of the Routine

So, the schedule that I explained in the last post has been my life for the past five weeks or so. It was nice to get into a groove and feel some form of stability, but I was ready when we had two activities planned that were out of the norm.

First, each PCT visited a TEFL PCV. These are volunteers in our same program that have been in Costa Rica for about a year and a half. The point was to see how and where a volunteer lives and what they do. I visited Jackie for four days and we had a lot of fun. She lives in Congrejal de Acosta. It is in the San Jose Province, but is up in the mountains on the other side of the city from San Miguel. It was about an hour and a half bus ride to Acosta and then another 45 minute drive, in a yellow school bus, up the mountain to Congrejal. This was the first time that I felt like I was in more of a developing country. The roads were pretty bad and the town where she lives does not have many resources. There are about 300 people living there and most are cattle farmers. It was pretty hot during the day, but cooled off nicely at night.

Jackie moved out of her host family’s house and lives in a “mansion.” It is a two story house with a pool in the backyard. It doesn’t have water in it, but it is there… There are also a ton of orange and mango trees on the property and pigs and a horse. The house is a vacation home for a Costa Rican family and Jackie rents it from them. I was told not to expect something so fabulous wherever I am going.

The first day we hiked out behind Jackie’s house, down the side of the mountain, to a waterfall and river. It was gorgeous like something out of National Geographic where only five people have ever visited. It was really nice to hang out and swim there. We also visited another volunteer who lives an additional eight kilometers up the mountain in Sabanillas. We hung out at her house, way smaller and more Peace Corps-ish, and sang Karaoke at the bar next door.

The next day a couple of men were going to be installing toilets in the cultural center that Jackie is helping to organize so we went down to “help.” It was really cool to see the project. The building is an abandoned elementary school that Jackie is converting into a space for workshops, meetings, band practices, parties, and a library. She said it has taken some time getting everything in order and gathering resources, but it is coming together really nicely.

I was also able to go to one of the schools where she teaches and observe her in her first grade class. It was a lot of fun and the kids are so adorable. The school does not have an English teacher, so she is there alone which is kind of difficult to make sustainable, but the kids looked like they were having so much fun.

It was a great weekend and it was cool to see a glimpse of what my life might be like in a month and a half. I liked it.

The second event was this weekend. A PCV group planned a night for all the volunteers in Costa Rica to come together to welcome my group coming into the country and to say goodbye to a group that will be leaving in May. We all booked rooms at a hostel in San Jose, had a cafecito and then went to a bar for pizza and dancing. It was a lot of fun to meet the other volunteers and to hear everyone’s stories… and to be away from home.

This morning we had time to hang out and do whatever so, naturally, a group of us went to see The Hunger Games. Movies are CHEAP in Costa Rica and that movie is fab! We wandered around the mall and downtown before getting on the bus to come back home.

This week coming up is Holy Week. Costa Rica is a Catholic country so pretty much everyone except Peace Corps has the entire week off. Schools are included. I have class Monday through Wednesday and then there are a bunch of processions and activities that happen Thursday through Sunday. My family is actually not Catholic and does not celebrate Easter, I might meet up with another volunteer and their family to go to church.

And the week following Easter is “Tech Week.” I will be going to visit a different volunteer and will be teaching in the schools where she works. That is pretty much all of the information I have on that unfortunately. We find out more details on Tuesday, but it should be really good practice and will hopefully give me an idea of what working will be like.

The love is still rolling in. Thank you!

Love and miss you all.

Annie  

Welcome to San Miguel de Heredia

I am officially into a routine in Costa Rica, just to be uprooted in 2 months to start again at my site, but I am feeling really good about everything. I have had a ton of questions coming at me and I know I've been a little MIA, so I am going to try to address most of them in this one post. If it's too long you can take it in chunks, or don't read it all. I'll never know.

HOUSING: I am living in the town of San Miguel in the Province of Heredia. It is a smaller town, but still pretty big compared to others. We have Pali grocery store, a large Catholic Church, two elementary schools and a high school, and a bunch of little shops (pulperias), bread stores (panaderias), and ice cream hang outs (heladerias). It is pretty chilly because we are up in the mountains a bit, and it is super windy.

I live with a host family in a small but nice house. There is Dona Luz, her daughter, Raquell, and Raquell's son, Angelo who is 6. Raquell goes to work in San Jose every day while Dona Luz looks after Angelo and me, and sells prepaid phone cards out of the house. There are a ton of people that stop by every day to put minutes on their phones so that has been a really easy way to meet people in the community.

FOOD: I'm gonna get fat. I have really enjoyed everything I have eaten and I know I should knock on wood because other volunteers have not had great experiences, but Dona Luz is a pretty good cook. There are definitely lots of rice and beans, but I'm still liking it as of week three. I've also had a nice variety of soups including a chickpea soup with chicken yesterday that was delicious. We also have a ton of vegtables in my house that are usually cooked a loads of butter, which I love. To be honest, I think everything is cooked in loads of butter which is why I like everything, but also why I am going to get fat. I think I need to take up running...

SPANISH: Oye. The dreaded Spanish. Well, we, the volunteers in my group, were divided into living commmunities based on our language abilities. That means that all my "novice-high" peeps live in San Miguel as well. There are 3 of us. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we go to the Salon Comunal, a big open room, and have Spanish classes with our Language and Cultural Facilitator, Emilia. I did not feel very good about my language situation for the first week or so, but I can tell it's getting better. I know I need to be patient, practice speaking in Spanish, and be willing to make mistakes, but it is pretty frustrating at times. I have so much to say and can't get it all out! But, it is coming along and I am thankful for that and excited to see how much more I'll know by the end of training.

TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS: On these days I travel a 20 minute bus ride to San Isidro, a bigger city, for TEFL and Peace Corps training. It has been really interesting learning about what we are actually going to be doing at our sites. The overall objective of the TEFL program is, "Costa Ricans will improve their English." Pretty straight forward and I feel good about having an effect on at least one person improving their English. We will be working with two or three Costa Rican English teachers to co-plan their classes to make them more didactic, and to give them general feedback on how to effectively teach English. This is where TFEL training comes in real handy because I am not a teacher. But we are also encouraged to do community classes, coversation clubs, and camps. Basically, whatever our community wants from us. It is really exciting and it seems like people want to learn English which makes the job a little easier.

I am going to visit a PCV in Acosta this weekend and am incredibly ready to get out of San Miguel and see where a real, live volunteer is and what she does. I was told to be prepared to walk and to bring a bathing suit. I'll take it! It will surely be an adventure getting there, but I am traveling with one other person from my group so it should be ok.

I've already missed some pretty big events back at home, and I think that coming to terms with that fact that everyone's life goes on while I'm gone is going to be harder than I origonally thought. Congrats to Cait and John! I am so happy for you!! Coco, you need to send me a pic of your dress. Meg and Jay, keep me updated. Rest in Peace Corey. You were an amazing boss and influenced my life tremendously. John, Meg, Kait, Mike, Ben and Cait, I hope one of you took a video of at least one song at that concert and you can send me a video.

With all that said, I have recieved a tremendous amount of letters, packages and love. Everyone in my group is totally jealous. Keep it coming!!! I love it!

I love you all and miss you tons.
 

I've Arrived!!!!!

First things first, Google in Costa Rica pops up in Spanish and I don't quite have the language skills to figure out how to turn it to English, but I did find out how to write a new post, so... good news!

I suppose I will start at the beginning of my travels. On Tuesday morning, at 5:30am, my mom, dad, John and I hopped in the car and drove to the airport for my 7:20am flight. I was literally shaking when checking my bags and I was unbelievably anxious about getting to Dallas and starting the entire traveling process. Saying goodbye was a little rough and the worst part was then waiting in the security lines and turning around to wave goodbye one more time, and one more time, and one more time. 

I slept the entire way to Dallas so I didn't have to think about leaving, and met up with a fellow volunteer at the airport so we could take a taxi to the hotel together. We checked into the hotel and started with our introduction to Peace Corps right away. I met all of the other volunteers who are from all over the U.S. and everyone is very nice and have super interesting life stories. The majority of us are under 30, but we have two married couples, a blind volunteer, and I think three volunteers with dual citizenship. Fascinating.   

I'm going to expedite this part of the story. At 2:00am, we checked out of the hotel and boarded the bus to the airport. We flew from Dallas to Houston, and then from Houston to Costa Rica, and then right into buses to our training center.    

I have been in the country for two and a half days and so far, I am loving it. The country is absolutely beautiful. As we were landing in San Jose, we could see all of the mountains and forests and it is really quite a sight. Right now I am at a hotel in the province of Heredia and it is pretty fancy. We obviously have internet and I even had a warm shower. We have been busy all day, every day with lectures and activities, introducing us to Peace Corps, and getting us ready to move in with our host families on Sunday. All 21 volunteers will be divided up by Spanish abilities into four different communities for the next 11 months of training, and each of us will have our own host family. We all had a language proficiency interview yesterday and I got "novice high," which really translates to "good try." I have a ton of work to do, but I've been told living with a family will help a ton. 

All the volunteers are going into downtown Heredia tomorrow to figure out how to navigate in Costa Rica and eat lunch if we master the navigation. We were told to eat a big breakfast. 

I'll talk more about my actual job in the next post because this is a little overwhelming for you, just as it has been for me. I am really enjoying everything though and I'll try to keep you as up-to-date as possible.

Peace and Love.

Less Than a Week

At this time next week I will be in Costa Rica, beginning my adventure as a Peace Corps Volunteer. My departure date, Tuesday, February 21st, is creeping up quickly and I am doing my best to stay on top of everything that I have to do. Packing for two years is quite the challenge, and while I thought I would be swimming in all the clothes I wanted to take, I am actually overwhelmed by the number of books, markers, flashcards, games, and general stuff that I NEED (or maybe just really want) to take. I have piles all over my room and keep looking from them, to the suitcases I am taking, and back. I'll probably tackle the task of fitting all of my things into a zippered pocket last minute on Monday.      

If we are being honest, which I am going to try to be, I am a ball of emotions right now. They include, but are not limited to, pure excitement and exhilaration because of what is ahead of me, devastation because of all the people and events I am leaving behind, and shock because this job, that I have been waiting a year to embark on, is actually happening. A lot of people say their emotions come in waves, but mine are more like land mines that explode without any warning. I want to imagine that these surges will dissipate once I get to Costa Rica and begin training, but in reality I know that this is only the beginning of a sensitive span of months.

With all of that said, I am so lucky to have a huge group of people supporting and encouraging me on this two year excursion. During the Peace Corps interview and throughout the various stages of paperwork, they ask "does anyone not support you in your decision?" And every time I answered I could not think of a single person who questioned my choice. This could be because two of my sisters are returned Peace Corps volunteers and paved the way for my desire to join, along with my family's acceptance, but I really think that I am simply surrounded by wonderful, sensitive and loving people.

I am blessed to have parents that allow me to create and follow dreams of my own, and siblings who are incredible role models and show what can be accomplished with a little passion and dedication. I am fortunate to have an extended family that love me and push me to be the best person I can. I am privileged to have best friends that always listen to my anxieties and anticipations. And I am so lucky to have a boyfriend that is understanding of my desire to join Peace Corps and is selfless enough to continually support me through this long-distance.

I have a lot to accomplish in the next five days, and a lot happening in my brain, but knowing I have a strong support system makes everything a little bit easier. I can't say thank you enough, but I hope that everyone knows how much I love them and how much I will miss them.

Peace and Love.