Two Weeks

Its hard to comprehend that I will be leaving for staging in two weeks. I imagined that the two plus months between finishing my degree at McGill and leaving for Senegal would drag on, but between a trip to Montreal to see the Spice Girls (and my friends) and my latest jaunt to Chicago and DC as well as a little bit of work and a lot of Project Runway reruns on Bravo!, I am simply two weeks away from leaving.

The night before I left for Chicago/DC, I went on a mad shopping spree at Amazon.com and upon arrival home today I was greeted with a shower of boxes. It was like Christmas morning expect for the fact that I paid for everything. Only time will tell how useful everything is. I am not entirely sure why I bought a fleece sleep sack but I am assuming that the new digital camera will come in handy. There are a few more little things that I need to buy before I leave. I may attempt to write up my packing list since I have found lists from current and past PCVs to be helpful. Although I am a notorious last minute packer (as my friends Jenny and Rina can attest to since they were at my house to 5 am the night I left for university helping me pack up my bags and the car) , I am attempting to me more prepared for this little jaunt.

While it still hasn't entirely hit me that I am leaving so quickly, I am still slightly stressed out thinking about all things I want to do "one last time" before I leave. Another day snowboarding ( while I am unsure of a lot of things in Senegal, I am pretty positive I will not be able to snowboard in the Sahel), a trip into NYC to see one last musical, time with family and oh yeah those pesky little GREs that I decided would be a good idea to sign up for two weeks before taking them. We will see what gets accomplished. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a teacher at my old elementary school in order to set up a correspondence program through the World Wise Schools Program which could be a great opportunity to spread the Third Goal of the Peace Corps.
Since I have yet to mention them, the three goals of the Peace Corps are:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans (www.peacecorps.gov).