Saturday, February 12, 2011

Flip Flip Flipadelphia!

I don’t really believe in good omens and I am not really superstitious, but if there was ever a time to believe in that mumbo jumbo, well….now is the time. We are in Philadelphia! Why am I so excited, and why is this a good omen? Drum roll please…our blog name was named after the brilliant show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and we are in Philly! Do you see the connection? Good omen, huh? I think so! So here is our whirlwind of a schedule for the next three days. We left for Philly on Sunday Feb. 13th and spent 24 hrs at a pre, pre-service training on the basics called “Staging.” After a full day of training we got on a bus to NYC to take a flight at 1am to Guyana where we will arrive at 8am, check into a hotel, freshen up and start a half day of training until that evening. We will be spending four days in the hotel getting briefed on every possible thing like bus etiquette, vaccinations, and safety procedures, among many other things. On Friday Feb. 18th we get bused to our host family, where we finally get to settle in a bit and start our 2 months of Pre-Service training before we officially get sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. Jeez, just typing that exhausts me. We cant wait to start our new adventure, and to be honest we can’t believe it is finally here. It feels like we have been waiting an eternity to get this show on the road and we are finally getting on the road, figuratively and literally.

The last two months have already been a life-changing experience and I know I have said this before, but I will say it again, I don’t think I could have done any of them with out some essential people in my life. Nate is awesome in every sense of the word; actually come to think of it the word awesome should be changed to Nawesome, (haha I crack myself up). Our parents are rock stars and with out them we would have been broke and homeless, our grandparents are endless pits of valuable information and they have already taught us some many tricks like how to wash clothes by hand without killing ourselves, our siblings have spoiled us with top-of-the-line media so we have enough music and movies to last our two years of service, our aunts and uncles who have been incredible cheerleaders (watch out “Glee” Cheerios) and lastly our hard-drinking, hard-partying, travel-junkie friends who always manage to put a smile on our face and make us laugh when all we wanted to do was cry and wished we owned a punching bag. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Puerto Rico was incredible and being home for six weeks reminded me how much I love that beautiful little island of mine and why when Puerto Ricans leave the island they never shut-up about it. Some good times were had, especially at the cost of my dear husband who tried to practice his Spanish as much as possible. Let’s see, he made some pretty hysterical mistakes such as calling ants (hormigas) meatballs (albondigas)~asking for ice cream (helado) in his scotch instead of ice (hielo) ~asking the woman attendant at the supermarket where the pool (piscina) was instead of where the fish (pescado) was, in which she giggled and then very seriously said “No,” I think she thought he was hitting on her, and lastly telling the Campesino who was working on my dad’s land that everyone was dead inside, when he was trying to express that he had killed the wasps that had stung the man earlier in the day. Needless to say, I laughed a lot. Spending time with my family and all of our incredible friends, all 11 of them that visited us in PR, going to the most beautiful beaches, listening to incredible live music a couple of times a week, sight-seeing, sleeping in hammocks, going to the cock fights (Azul, Azul, Azul), made this vacation hands-down the best one yet.

So now its time to finally start this new chapter in our lives and start writing about Guyana, Peace Corps and our simplified life, the real reason you signed up to follow this blog. But this blog thing works two ways people, so please post and tell us what’s new in the world and with you, in other words let us know we aren’t talking to ourselves. We also have our emails so write us at ilae85@gmail.com and n8stew@gmail.com or send us handwritten letters to the address on the right-hand side. I know, I know who writes hand-written letters anymore? But here is the solution, type your letter on your handy dandy laptops, print it and then put it in an envelope. Brilliant, I know; so no excuses. We love you all and already miss you.

Till next time.

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