Back to Brunette

Well not too much has happened since I last posted. About two weeks ago I read a post in a Peace Corps chat group that suggested someone look up their departure group on Facebook. I was curious if there was something for Bots7 (the nickname for the group of volunteers I’m in), so I searched and indeed there was! I joined it and by the next morning I had about 10 friend requests in my inbox. Hip hip! I added everybody and discovered a fellow volunteer who lives in Minneapolis. She messaged me and we decided to meet up and go to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer get together at a bar in Uptown that night. So in a matter of 24 hours of joining this facebook groupI was hanging out with one of the volunteers I’ll be leaving with in April to spend 3 months together in training! It was crazy! She turned out to be really cool and very fun, which made me even more excited about leaving. We also talked about how nervous we were and how we can’t even imagine what we are going to pack! :) It was nice to have someone to talk to who is in the same boat as me.

While I was at the RPCV get together that night, one of the RPCVs strongly suggested taking the GRE before leaving instead of once I get back. I said no way, there’s no time. I leave in less than three months… well, I’ve bought the books and I already know 360 essential GRE words (ok, I’ve technically learned 360 words. Do I actually KNOW them? Hell no!). I decided that RPCV was probably right and that if I want to go to grad school once I get back, it might be worthwhile to just study my ass off now, give it my best shot and get an okay score, rather than waiting until I get back after 3 years out of college and hope my study skills come back to me. Anyway, I’m going to go for it. My test is scheduled for March 13. Wish me luck! I’m gonna need it!

The only other thing I can think of that’s happened since I last posted that’s Peace Corps related is that I dyed my hair back to its original color (or at least what I think it is… it’s been awhile). I figured finding someone to redo my highlights in Botswana might be a little tough. Even if I did, I’m not sure I’d want to spend my limited funds on getting my hair done. I mean, c’mon, when have I ever cared about my hair that much? Pretty sure most of you have seen me with at least one of the following: blonde, brown, auburn, pretty much black, and thanks to box dyes pink, lavender, and gray hair! (Freshman year? Anyone? Anyone?) Haha And who knows, with the amount of sun I’ll be getting, I’ll probably end up getting natural highlights anyway! For free! Yay.

Ok, that’s it for now! I’ll try to post again at least once or twice in February with more EXCITING updates! Just like the super exciting updates in this post! ha! lucky you! ;)

Here goes nothin'!

Well hello everybody! This is my very first entry ever, so I guess I would like to kick it off with a thanks for being interested enough to bother coming to this site and an apology if you went through the hassle and come out disappointed. I'll try to make it as thrilling as I can, and if things get really dull, I might just start making stuff up. I also thought it would be important to mention that for those of you who have been fortunate enough to have a taste of my novel-length emails, I regret to say I'm going to try to change things and keep the blog entries relatively short.

Alright, with that said, I was getting a lot of "How was your trip?"s after I got back from Cozumel just a few days ago and figured this would be the perfect opportunity to promote my blog! So I promised I would post an entry about my trip, along with some pictures, and that way ya'll can bookmark it for future entertainment on a rainy day!

I'd like to start my Mexico adventures with this picture...

That's my totally cliche beach picture I took. Not bad, eh? That's postcard material right there. ;)

Ok, so moving on, I went on vacation to Cozumel last week with my boyfriend, Joe, and his parents. Joe, his dad, and one of Joe's cousins went down a week early to do some SCUBAing and I imagine share some male bonding time. From talking to Joe a few times over the course of that week, it sounded like the weather was rather poor and they only got to dive a few times. However, with our bright and sunny selves, Joe's mom and I traveled down the following week and we had beautiful weather all week. Coincidence? I think not. Cozumel was amazing. Once I got back, I found myself describing it to others as just a very well-paced vacation. We did a lot of different things, but it was equally relaxing as well. One of my favorite things we did while there was snorkeling. Now this was my first time, and it took me a few solid minutes to calm down and breathe normally through my snorkel air tube thing... I'm sure there's an actual word for that thing. Anyway, I found the best way to reach the desired level of breathing was to pretend I was Darth Vader. I'm serious, it works. Just a tip for all you snorkel virgins out there! I would love to post a picture from snorkeling but Joe and his dad were the ones with underwater cameras so I'll have to post one later when I get my hands on some.

Ok, other things we did while in Cozumel. Well, Joe's parents rented a house in the city so we ate a lot of home-cooked meals, which I thought were awesome! :) Apparently the beef (which was renamed camel meat) and ribs (a.k.a. water buffalo?) are not so tender in Mexico. But we found that if you leave it in a pot boiling on the stove for several days, it actually turns into quite the tasty stew! And of course, all the fresh fruit and avocados were sooo good! I even bought a coconut in the market and cracked that baby open like the good ol' days in Ghana! I think others were impressed with my cavewoman-like abilities. Lets see, we also spent many our nights feverishly working on probably the hardest puzzle I've ever helped assemble. Here's a picture to give you an idea.

Yah. Not your average puzzle. But loads of fun!

We also went fishing which was really cool. We caught… rainbow runners, barracuda, tuna, grouper, ummm… and some others. Ha. Towards the end of our fishing fun, Joe and his parents did some hand-line fishing, while I fished using a pole with two hooks. Hehe I cheat. And it worked! I was so shocked! I didn’t even think I had anything on my line and was reeling in for some other reason, and bam! Two fish!

Another thing I got to do was go down 110 feet below the surface of the ocean in a submarine to check out the coral reef and fish! That was so purrrty! I took pictures but they didn’t really turn out so well. But I can attest for how cool it was. I also enjoyed when the sub played the Mission Impossible theme song as we cruised along the drop-off. Haha

One of the days we drove across the island to hang out on the opposite coast, and that was gorgeous. I took a lot of pictures here. The first picture I posted was actually from that side of the island. We also got to see a super pretty (and colorful!) sunset, but my camera battery died right before then so I’ll have to steal some pics of that from Joe as well. Joe and I also went boogie boarding while there and that was awwwwesome. I’ve never done anything like that and it was such a rush when ya finally catch a wave. Again, I think I was surprised more than anything because I didn’t think I’d manage to make it work. I’m pretty sure everyone at that beach had to hear how excited I was because every time I was carried even the slightest distance, I couldn’t help but scream “Weeeeeee!”

(Sidenote for all those who have had to listen to my swimsuit woes the past month: I did not know I would be boogie-boarding that day and wore the dreaded Victoria Secret suit, but it actually wasn’t so bad! Had a few close calls but all in all, it stayed on! Whew! )

In between all those things, we did a lot of relaxing while drinking XXs and munching on chips and pico de gallo on the beach. Can’t really beat that.

And yes, this was a short entry...for me.

Here are a few extra pictures from the trip.

These are two of many towel animals that our maid made. Very impressive!

















I love this picture. How cool are those aviators!? and that 4-fingered wave! You know you wish you had one too! ha!





















These are some of the pretty flowers that we walked under every day to enter/leave the house.

A shot from within the submarine. We each had our own window for the most part. You can't see anything in this picture, but they got very close to the reef, which as you may have guessed, very close equals very cool! :)

There were tons of motorbikes everywhere! A lot of those and old school VW bugs.

And last but not least, another pic of the beautiful ocean. It was cool standing on these rocks and watching the waves crash into the rocks and spray up. You can kind of see it in the picture.

Ok, that's all! Hope you enjoyed the entry! I don't know when I'll post something next, but I'm sure an opportunity will present itself along the way! And come April I will definitely post some entries before I take off! Three months from yesterday! Yikes! :D