2 weeks left!!

That's right folks just 14 more days! By this time 2 weeks from now I will have already boarded the plane head for DC for pre-departure staging.  My anxiety and excitement levels are only increasing. I can't believe that the summer has gone by so fast. I have been reading up as much as I can on Nicaragua as well as blogs and packing lists. I think I have pretty much everything I need and what I don't have I hope to have by the end of the week. plus a few last minute purchases in Portland.

For anybody interested in Nicaragua and their tumultuous history, I recommend reading Blood of Brothers Life and War in Nicaragua, by Stephen Kinzer. I have never been a big fan of history books but this one reads like a spy novel. Kinzer was a New York Times Foreign Correspondent there during the 70's and 80's, so he has an eyewitness account of everything from the Somoza dictatorship to the Sandinistas and Contras rebellion. I picked it up at the library because it was on the Peace Corps recommended reading list and I'm glad I did it has been a real page turner. Before I started reading I didn't know much about Nicaragua's history, other than like many Central and South American countries the US government meddled in their country's affairs for our own benefit regardless of outcome. So I figured that I would educate my self more on the topic in the event it came up in conversation, I didn't want to be perceived as an ignorant American.

Well that's all for now more soon!

T-MINUS 45 DAYS AND COUNTING!!

Welcome to my first ever blog!!!

I have been reading the blogs of other PC volunteers already in Nicaragua ever since I found out where the Peace Corps would be sending me. So I figured that I should probably make one of my own. After a lot of trial and error I was finally able to set up a blog for myself. I got a lot of inspiration from other PC volunteers and their blogs but there is still design and formatting stuff I'd still like to do but have yet to figure out. In any event I'm sure that I will get plenty of practice blogging in the upcoming months. 

As would be expected I'm both excited and nervous as hell about my newest adventure. I think it is just because I have been stressing out about packing and the different seasons....or lack there of as I have found out from my online research. Hot and rainy or hot and not rainy, depending on the time of year haha.  That among many other things I'm sure I will adapt to.  Being from Oregon I am more accustomed to temperate weather, and no rookie when it come to rain just like any other native Oregonian. However from what I've read these Nicaraguan rainstorms sound much more intense that your average Oregon rainstorm. We'll see.  

I am ready to expect the unexpected and take on challenges head on as they come. This will be my 3rd time away from my family and friends for a long period of time and probably won't be the last. Although its never easy I am getting better with practice. Comes with the territory of traveling I guess. Right now I'd much rather do this than sit behind a desk or in a cubicle.

 "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

– Mark Twain 

I love this quote I think its very true and is how I want to live my life. They say being a Peace Corps volunteer is the toughest job you'll ever love.  I say BRING IT ON!!