Really Stoked and A Little Crazy

I am super excited to be leaving the country finally! However, I don't think it has totally hit me yet. It comes in waves. Like today when I saw the date April 11th somewhere. My first thought was "I'll be out of America by then!" My second was, "I'll be in Botswana that day, probably meeting my host family." That's when it starts to sink in that I've never been to Botswana or even Africa before, and I'm moving there for 27 months. My former roommate, Sara, is moving to Japan to teach English a couple of weeks before I leave . She's never been to Japan. We were talking the other day about our impending departures, and agreed that we feel really stoked, but also a little like crazy people.

I can't wait for my next two years in Africa! I have no doubts that it will be an amazing and stretching experience. Beyond that, though, I'm not really sure what to expect. But, I guess this is also about teaching myself how to be flexible and patient in the face of uncertainty. Lord knows that what I took out of the application process!

As for the crazy person part of this post...

I remember thinking while working in the international office how thick the students' files were. It takes a lot of paperwork to get out of the country. Just explaining the application process to the perspective international students made me tired. And, that was just paperwork that went through our office, not even personal life things like packing or saying goodbye to friends. Now, I am experiencing first hand what the students had to go through. Between applying for a passport, packing, shopping, moving all my stuff to my parents house, and doing my Setswana lessons, I don't know that I'll have much time to worry about actually living in Botswana. I think it will just be a relief to board the plane.

So, instead of thinking about things I am nervous about (learning the language, wearing a skirt everyday...ect.) I have decided to make a list of things I am excited about:

• My new Peace Corps friends
• My new Batswana friends
• Learning a new language (it's on both lists)
• My new job- I get to fight AIDS
• Meeting my host family
• Learning to cook new foods
• Traveling
• Learning about a new culture
• All the African sunshine I'm going to get walking around

I'm going to stop there, because the most common advice I've heard from PCV's is not to have too many expectations. Peace.

Anniversary...

Today is the fourth anniversary of the day I decided to join the Peace Corps. It was super bowl Sunday of my freshman year. I, of course, was oblivious to that fact, and was instead, looking online for possible career paths when I came across the Peace Corps website. I called my mother to let her start preparing. "I've decided to join the Peace Corps after college." To which she responded, "Over my dead body." And, then added, "Can we talk about this after the game?" "Of course, we have several years to talk about it." She thought it would be one of those ideas that would blow over in time. But alas, it is four years later and once again we were on the phone during the super bowl talking about the Peace Corps. Only this time I was giving her the web address to the packing list I found.

So, after a year and half of applying for the Peace Corps and jumping through hoops, I finally received my invitation to Botswana! I called earlier this week and accepted the invitation. Now I'm just working on my aspiration statement and updated resume. Also, I'm trying to learn Setswana. It is a beautiful language, and it's really cool. They have a clicking noise in their alphabet! But, it's also really hard. We'll see how I do with that. Anyway, I leave in exactly two months for staging (kind of like orientation) probably in Philadelphia. And then, three days later I'll leave for Botswana with my new Peace Corps friends.

I thought about starting this blog earlier in the process, but honestly it was just a year and a half of speculation and uncertainty. The important thing is that this might actually happen now!

Also, I haven't decided how I feel about the name of this blog. Let me know if you like it, or if you have a better idea than Texswanan.

Alright, I guess I should get back to that aspiration statement. Peace out.