in just one month...

I will be stepping off the plane in Santo Domingo with 35 (+/-) other volunteers ready to take on whatever this new adventure brings! With pack and duffle in tow, we will be joining thousands in the call to serve and promote peace and friendships abroad!

I will have spent the day before in D.C. - I booked my flight, which I must say was the realist step in the whole process. I will be leaving Boston at 9:00am on August 21st to arrive in Washington D.C. for 12:30pm staging time. We will spend the day learning and getting oriented to Peace Corps' goals and expectations, getting to know our fellow trainees and I am sure a lot of ice-breakers. From what I hear, after all the scheduled activities we are encouraged to go out together for a "Last Supper" - our last american meal. We will then head back, get only a couple of hours of sleep before checking out of the hotel at 2:00am the following morning. Our flight leaves D.C. at 6:00am for Miami, where we will have a 2 hour layover before boarding to Santo Domingo!!!


I can't believe it is almost here - one month from yesterday I will be saying good-bye to my family, to Bill and to my life here and saying hello to a new life. It has been a dream years in the making - many times I thought I wouldn't get here because life got in the way. For any future PCVs currently in the application process - stick with it - if you have the drive and motivation to to make it happen (even if it means dealing with Restless Applicant Syndrome, appealing whatever decision is made, knowing that Peace Corps would regret not accepting you and all else PC Application) it will happen.

My one month-to-go day started like any other lazy Sunday. Woke up to then lay in bed for an hour Stumbling, finding out how people will be spending their day on Facebook and looking at my room to see which corner, pile or just general un-organized area I will tackle first. With a brief moment of motivation I got up, went downstairs to pour myself a LARGE coffee. My plan was to then go right back up stairs and get started...not so fast - I got distracted and decided to finish a 2.5 hours long movie - Shutter Island (So Good!) Of course right as the movie ended my mom came in and sat down with me, this led to more chatting - which we do A LOT of - but I was determined to do SOMETHING productive with my day. As i begin to make my way upstairs, I hear my father's voice "HELLO..." ANOTHER DISTRACTION - my dad was rolling up the front walkway with his suitcase, returning from his week long trip to Kenya! Prior to his trip he was in Florida for 2 weeks - this means 3 weeks of catching up to do. We talked about his trip, the baby elephants he saw, the beautiful jewelry he brought back for my sister, my mom, and me; this jewelry is made by single women who have no way of supporting themselves or families after being widowed due to AIDS. Immediately I wanted to know more about this and my dad and I continue to talk. I then showed my dad everything I have purchased since he has been gone and he chose to take a comfortable seat on my bed. I began telling him everything that has been going on while he relaxed and listened.

I didn't know where to begin so my dad proceeded to point at a pile of clothes and start asking "taking, throwing or giving" 

This is how I started - after I emptied out the blue dresser and closet

Did anyone ever read Sally's Room ? My mom read it to me quite a few times...I am wondering if there was a point in time when I wanted to be Sally...by the looks of my room sometimes i think it could be true..

Finally, this led to him saying "OKay, I think we should pack your first bag so that we can make sure everything fits, it meets the weight requirement and you can get all this junk off your floor" - YUPPI! I get to start packing!!! I brought my duffle bag in, laid out all the piles of clothing and gear.

Once I got rid of 1928490849 THINGS, tossed 1904201 pieces of clothing into my sister's room (so she could go through it before I give it away - we always share clothes - we have an unspoken agreement and somewhat of a system down - love it!) I was able to strategically pack my first bag. I had no idea if it would be the right size, if I had too much, too little...no frame of reference. So my dad helped me figure out what I would need the first 2 weeks and pack the rest - which we did! I was thinking this would be a trial run but by the looks of it, there is no need to unpack it! it weighs 45.7 lbs (4.3 below limit) !

I spent the next couple of hours packing up stuff in my room, getting rid of old nick-nacks and bagging up the rest of the clothes to be donated. almost 15 years worth of STUFF fit into only a few large boxes, 3 medium sized ones, a shoe box, and some smaller containers

What I will have when I get back - so much artwork I LOVE IT!

The result:
Almost everything is packed (except for a week's worth of work clothes, camping stuff - I'll be in ME for 8-10 days-, some hang out clothes and a party dress..just in case!

A VERY VERY clean, organized room - this is usually what it looks like, kind of, but without all my art, photography and posters up.

Ta-da

A packed duffle - the blue one

Everything laid out is all I have left which is going in my backpacking backpack (orange) - it isn't much at all which makes me quite happy!

After months, weeks, days, hours and sleepless nights writing out packing lists, going online to find tips, e-mailing back and forth with a few future PCV's and a lot of trial and error, I finally have it down!

I will be adding my final packing list as a separate page (tab) for future PCV's to use. During my time in the DR I will update it to mark the necessities and what note to bring - something I would have loved to reference the past few months!

As I slowly cross off everything on my to-do list I have been feeling the excitement and nervousness settle in...but NOTHING beat the excitement of packing up my first luggage! YUPPI!!

Happy Reading!!!!