Awesome Navidad, and starting my last 6 months...
Hi everyone! I know many of you have been waiting for me to write an entry, and I´m sorry it´s taken me so long. Time flies and it´s easy to procrastinate. I just wanna say I had an amazing Christmas. It went by way too fast though. I had two weeks there, and I took Lester home with me and he loves his first experience in the states. My family was amazing as usual, mom made and bought all my favorite foods and stuffed me like a turkey, my brother Ian made sure that some of his latino friends were waiting for us at the airport to help Lester out and then we got together with them several times during our trip. My dad helped me with my grad school applications - I applied to 7 schools, and I am crossing my fingers for Johns Hopkins, but we will see. It was a big job though and took me almost two full days in front of the computer...blah, and not the way I wanted to spend my precious moments at home. But I know it was sooo much better to do all that stuff there than here, where everything takes ten times longer. We spend some good times in Richmond, sightseeing in DC (thanks to Aunt Marsha and Uncle Burt for letting us use the house in Arlington!), even made it to UVA and Wintergreen so that he could see "snow" and what a city-university is like. So it was a great trip. I think I am finally ready to go home...my first year and a half I hardly thought of him except when I talked to my family and Chris and missed them. But now I think of home much more, and although I am extending 2 and a half months, I am ready to go home. Not to say that I hate it here now, I still love my work and my friends, just that I am tired of certain things and missing certain things from home, or maybe just the feeling of being home. Sorry - very long run-on sentence!
I got back January 4th and spent my first few days resting...I was pretty beat. I tried to start up work but didn´t get much done before our COS conference came around. Wow, COS (Close Of Service). For most of my training group (Hondo 5), March is their last month. So we all got to meet in Tela at Hotel Sherwood to learn about the process, talk about job searches and resume building, RCPV networks, medical stuff, the non-competition law that RCPVs enjoy for their first year after COS to get government jobs, and of course, to spend time with each other and socialize (the best part!). I had an awesome time. The hotel/conference room was right on the beach and a tantalizing view of the ocean was just out the window all day long. We got a little beach and pool time luckily. At night we went out. It was so much fun being with my group again. It´s hard to believe that 2 years have passed. Actually our COS conference was exactly two years after staging, when we first met each other in DC (January 17-19, 2005). We talked to each other and interacting as if we had just had training a few months before. I know I have some life-long friends in that group, and have already made some plans to see them back home and we have planned a reunion. Most are finishing on time and many plan to travel around central and south america with our readjustment allowance, which is a few thousand dollars. I am gonna miss out on the travelling, but maybe can do it in a couple years before I get into the work force. I will finish PC in June and probably go back to the states to get ready for classes in July. Some are extending for a whole year to work on projects. Others are gonna hang out in Utila and bartend for a few months, or hang out here in their towns because of girlfriends or boyfriends, even though they´re not gonna be PCVs anymore. Many are planning on grad school.
Now that COS is done I am gonna try to get into my stove project and finish that up in a month or two. Also we are getting ready for the University of Maine group to come back in March. I will probably travel a lot my last few months here...I want to make it out to some other PCVs´sites before they go, and wanna get to San Salvador. I am also planning to help out with training of the new Health group arriving in February.
Well I will try to stay on top of this thing more! Love you all and take care....
I got back January 4th and spent my first few days resting...I was pretty beat. I tried to start up work but didn´t get much done before our COS conference came around. Wow, COS (Close Of Service). For most of my training group (Hondo 5), March is their last month. So we all got to meet in Tela at Hotel Sherwood to learn about the process, talk about job searches and resume building, RCPV networks, medical stuff, the non-competition law that RCPVs enjoy for their first year after COS to get government jobs, and of course, to spend time with each other and socialize (the best part!). I had an awesome time. The hotel/conference room was right on the beach and a tantalizing view of the ocean was just out the window all day long. We got a little beach and pool time luckily. At night we went out. It was so much fun being with my group again. It´s hard to believe that 2 years have passed. Actually our COS conference was exactly two years after staging, when we first met each other in DC (January 17-19, 2005). We talked to each other and interacting as if we had just had training a few months before. I know I have some life-long friends in that group, and have already made some plans to see them back home and we have planned a reunion. Most are finishing on time and many plan to travel around central and south america with our readjustment allowance, which is a few thousand dollars. I am gonna miss out on the travelling, but maybe can do it in a couple years before I get into the work force. I will finish PC in June and probably go back to the states to get ready for classes in July. Some are extending for a whole year to work on projects. Others are gonna hang out in Utila and bartend for a few months, or hang out here in their towns because of girlfriends or boyfriends, even though they´re not gonna be PCVs anymore. Many are planning on grad school.
Now that COS is done I am gonna try to get into my stove project and finish that up in a month or two. Also we are getting ready for the University of Maine group to come back in March. I will probably travel a lot my last few months here...I want to make it out to some other PCVs´sites before they go, and wanna get to San Salvador. I am also planning to help out with training of the new Health group arriving in February.
Well I will try to stay on top of this thing more! Love you all and take care....
posted by Lauren @ 12:06
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