taking the long way home. almost to the finish line.

Monday, June 25, 2007

i think this time i will just upload a few random pics. lets see how it works



Women's Mosque


Women in my village


Safeway? In Jordan?


Mosque in Egypt. It says Remember Allah (God).


Ummm... Extract?


My favorite tourist trap in Aqaba.


Jerusalem. The old city.


My new hair. On the beach in Tel Aviv. And my new kicks too...


Wadi Rum. Real desert.

Hope you enjoyed! It's summer so that means the flys have returned. i'm off to hide from them.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

I’d like to start by saying happy fathers day dad and Nolan!!!
Well, it’s official. August 21st is my last day with Peace Corps. And I have so much paperwork to get through before then. Plus various pokings and proddings of my final medical clearance. And I will get to do a final language assessment test to see where I really am with my Arabic. But I am looking forward to it. Two years is a long time, and I am ready to pick up and move around a little. I have just about ten weeks left, which is approximately the amount of time I was in training. And while that felt like an eternity (I remember at the time thinking that I would trade my right thumb to get out of it), I think that this will fly by and I will be packing up to head south before I know it.
Granted, I have not made a ton of friends here in my village, but I have a few very close friends. The closest of these is my counterpart. She has helped me navigate my way through Jordan. I couldn’t have done it without here. And to be honest, she is something to be envied by the other volunteers. She has bent over backwards to help me achieve my goals at work, while many other counterparts just step back and wait for the magic to happen. She has been like a sister, and during the few conversations we have had about my immanent departure our “allergies” have kicked in and the talks have been moved on to lighter topics such as the color of some dress on tv and whether or not those diet pills actually work.
We had our Close of Service conference not too long ago. It was peace corps’ time to tell us exactly what we have to get done in our final weeks (weeks!) of service. We had a lot to get through, most importantly talking about our feelings. Well, my feelings were “where did all my friends go?” I looked around the room at the remaining half (yes only half of us stayed) of us and I realized that I had not chosen the table I was at for any reason other than necessity. Everyone else I came to care about in pc had gone home early, for one reason or another. And it made the conference not joyful, as I am sure that peace corps anticipated it might be, but sad and a little empty. And since I didn’t want to offend the 12 people in the room that I don’t feel close to, I just didn’t say much of anything. I just couldn’t help feeling that this past two years would have been so much more fun had the others hung around. So, these next few weeks will entail saying goodbye to my few remaining friends. For a year. I don’t know if it will be hard. I have watched my friend group dwindle, and now it is going to be a group of 2. me and my travel partner.
And then off to our adventure. Before I go, I will let you all know our tentative (and oh how very tentative they are) plans. It involves at least 10 african countries 6 south American countries and just about all of central America. I used to be so excited about this trip. It sounded like such a fun adventure. And then I met one too many who rolled their eyes and made me sound like I am crazy for even trying. I think the only crazy part is trying to make 5,000 dollars last through a year and 20 countries. Anyway, I have gotten tired of having people think I am crazy, so I don’t particularly like to talk about it anymore. For example, we just got a new country director and when he asked my post peace corps plans everyone kind of pshawed. I was embarrassed for even having the idea. I thought that somehow telling him my plans would make him think I am a nut.
But. I have decided that my plan is way cooler than going home and getting some crappy entry level job at some place I hate. So, I am going to pack up my antimalarials and hope for the best. I’ll try to keep y’all posted on the last bits of my service and the first bits of my travel.
And for those of you who are curious about who dan is….

Saturday, June 02, 2007

for those of you following the exploits of mr. o'brien. today is his birthday. he officially turned old. and despite a recent devastating loss of the snake title, he seems to be taking it in stride.