Lauren's Peace Corps Experience in Honduras

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed and experiences described in this travelogue are mine personally. Nothing written here should be interpreted as official or unofficial Peace Corps literature or as sanctioned by the Peace Corps or the U.S. government. I have chosen to write about my experience online in order to update family and friends; I am earning no money whatsoever from this endeavor. Please do not copy or forward any of these contents without my permission.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Happy Holidays

As predicted, time is flying by!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is already over. I had a great time with family this year. We spent it in Midlothian this year with just the immediate family and Chris and some of Ian's friends from church. Since my mom was somewhat incapacitated due to her recent heart surgery, I had the chance to do most of the cooking this year with my mom nearby. I was in charge of the turkey, the sweet potato casserole, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the pumpkin and blueberry pies from scratch, the salad, the punch, the sesame green beans, and the ambrosia. Now I feel pretty comfortable making my favorite dishes when I'm on my own in Honduras! I hear that PC brings in turkeys and that volunteers often get together to cook big feasts. It won't be the same without family though, that's for sure.

Now that December is here it's becoming clear that I need to get off my butt and get some important things done. I only have a little more than a month to go! Scary...

I need to figure out this Power of Attorney thing, get my credit card situation figured out, collect everyone's email and mailing address, finish collecting various small items that I still need, buy Christmas presents at some point, organize my belongings that I'm going to store at my parents' house, figure out if I'll need to send myself any of my stuff, try not to spend much money since I want to have some left to bring with me, get some passport photos taken, and somehow absorb enough of Chris to last me 27 months. Just kidding babe.

When I'm in the final stages of packing I'm going to post the list of things I'm bringing so you can get a feel for it. I probably won't end up bringing everything on my current list because I think it would cause me to go over my weight limit of 80 lbs, and everyone assures me I can find most things in Honduras.

I did get my wisdom teeth taken out on Monday, so that's a big thing to cross off the list. I finally sent off my dental packet, so I should be all cleared in a matter of days! That means I will soon receive my plane tickets and travel arrangements for staging in Miami on January 17, 2005. They give you until 30 days before your departure date to finish any required dental procedures, which was nice since I wanted to wait until I finished with my job at VHDA.

Did I mention I stopped working on November 18? Yep, all done. It's weird considering I won't exactly be working the normal 9-5 job for the next couple years. I loved my time there and met some really great people (Holla back Leigh, Danielle, Reina, and Ira!). I hope that I can somehow keep in touch with everyone I met there.

This weekend I'm going up to see Chris and hang out up in Arlington. While I'm there I want to go over to LL Bean and pick out some hiking boots and a swiss army knife and a couple other things I asked for from my parents for Christmas. Good timing with Christmas coming right before I leave! It's a great time to cherish loved ones before saying goodbye for a while.

A few people from my training group - the 50 or so people leaving for Honduras on January 17 - have started a Yahoo! group so I've been able to get to know some of the people I'll be spending a lot of time with the first few months. There are about 6 people that have found each other so far so it's really exciting to have that to look forward to, getting to know a whole new group of people that at least have the desire to help others in common. I know you'd like to warn them about me, but please, just keep quiet ;)

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