As one door closes, another one opens...

For the last month or two my life has been a balancing act of sorts. Between wrapping things up at my job, preparing and packing for the DR and helping my sister pack to move out, my life has been one juggle after another.

Today was the last day at my job. This is a job I really love and am so grateful to have had – I learned so much about myself and a ton about something I may want to pursue. What I will never forget will be the incredible friendships I made throughout the past year. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing individuals; funny, kind, thought provoking and incredibly supportive. As you can imagine this made my leaving much more difficult than I had anticipated when I began. I was also very lucky to have had an incredible boss who knew exactly how to balance the supportive nature of a supervisor and the eloquent delivery of constructive criticism. It has truly been an honor to work with such amazing people and I will forever be thankful!

As this chapter comes to a close, so does another; a major 15 year-long chapter. Tonight is the last night I will be sleeping in my own bed and have all my furniture in my room. Tomorrow I leave for a 10 day trip to Maine and in the meantime my sister will be taking my bed, my dresser and an ikea bookshelf to her new apartment. After packing up the last of my books on the bookshelf, organizing the clothes I will need for the next 2-3 weeks and making my bed one last time I caught myself with a little smile. It hit me that this is all really happening.

 You might be asking yourself, “geeze  laura, this whole process you have been saying  ‘this is really happening’ what gives?”  Well, the answer is simple – my job has come to a close and most of my things are packed. Instead of splitting my day in half where during the day I was excited about my job here and at night I was excited about Peace Corps I can now move forward and focus completely on something I have been working on for years – Peace Corps.

Now I am off to the woods for 10 days to return and pack for the adventure of a lifetime!

Happy Reading!

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!!!!

Let it be - jump with two feet in

The checklist is getting longer & longer the closer I get to August 21st. I am thinking of last minute things I may have to do, adding some to the list, procrastinating on most, and stressing over all. Most items are out of my control which is driving me a little crazy because all I want to do is cross things off. You may be thinking, why are you only putting "some" of the things on your to-do list? Well, if I put them all on there I know I will get stressed about having to accomplish them all way to soon. By keeping some off the list, I can add them as my list slowly disappears. I don't know, I am a visual person, this is what works!

         Staying too on-top of things has never prooven to let people me live with spontaneity and passion.

        My vagabondish-wanderlusty-adventurous self has been built on a series of spontaneous decision making. Many of which I can't capture on camera considering the very nature of spontaneity, but here are a few I could catch!

This is me - you will usually find me near water, adventuring, ready for  anything - this is how it begins...

Do something that scares you. And do it again!

Sometimes you just gotta jump in with both feet

Do whatever you can to reach where you want to be.

As far as things I have done!
- I finally booked my flight to D.C. We weren't able to until we got information about where and when to be there by, which was last Wednesday. Although it was a huge relief, it was also the first time the reality of this adventure shined its pearly whites...
- I committed to a buying some fun, chunky, cheap jewelry. This was definitely a primary procrastination point. I was unsure of what to buy or take. For those of you who don't know me, I am obsessed with fun earrings, bracelets and rings! So I took myself to Forever 21 and got some fun stuff!
- Decided which two luggage pieces I will be taking. a 65 Liter Backpack and a medium sized rolling duffle.
- Made a final packing list and purchased/decided/put together almost all the clothes, gear and electronics I am taking.

I have grown rather fond of the constant need to do something for Peace Corps - whether it was waiting to get finger-printed in month 1 of application, to sitting in countless waiting rooms for shots and vaccines for medical clearance, followed by anxiously waiting for the placement office. Now, everything I must do is towards knowing that I am finally leaving. However, now I am waiting for insurance companies to send me a statement, an IRA fund to give me account number, the date to come when I can finally start insuring the personal property I will be taking with me, and waiting for the heat to die down so that I can actually begin packing. I know, I know...."get used to it Laura"!  -  I'm trying!!

I can't imagine not having to run through lists in my mind, constantly feeling like I have forgotten about something, explaining why my packing list has what it has on it multiple times/week and various other daily rants and complicated trains of thought that run in my head!

I do know that I plan to be fully in the moment for every step of the way starting with boarding the plane at Boston Logan Airport at 8:30 A.M. on August 21st. Knowing me, I will probably leave thinking I forgot about some super-duper important document. However, as I will say and repeat again, being too on top of things doesn't allow for a life full of spontaneous moments and filled with passion for whatever you are doing in the moment. So I will do what I can before I leave and let life take over the rest. C'est la vie!

Don't worry about doing it with class. As long as you take a chance, you will be happy.

  If you have been reading this and have not yet noticed my re-vamped page your not observant.                                                                                                         
                                                           PAY MORE ATTENTION!


  I was inspired by a gorgeous picture I found of a hidden treasure in the DR and absolutely had to share. I also realized that I don't feel I have shared the passion I have for this kind of work. From that came 3 simple words that I try to live by every day - hence the new blog title!



Happy Reading!!!!

Constant Chaos at the Castellos.

New Years - Me, Bill, sister, her BF, brother, his GF

       2012 started out the same as every other year. Waking up from a food coma, lying in bed scrolling through half blurry pictures of last night’s festivities and wondering how you’re going to spend the first day of the year. I typically end the first day riddled with confusion of resolutions, goals and things I wanted to accomplish by 2013. At the time I had no idea what lay ahead with Peace Corps, I had just started a new job, and my relationship was going strong. As any previous turn of the year, companies were blasting advertisements of things to come by December 2012. New iphones, gadgets, e-readers, laptops, etc. are being sold and advertised everywhere. Just another time of the year for American consumerism to show its face once again, only a week after one of the biggest shopping holidays. While all this white noise if happening, my older brother, who I have been very close with since we both realized that just because we are siblings we don’t HAVE to fight, he decided it was time for him to move out and in with his girlfriend. Thus begins the chaos that I have been living in and preparing for Peace Corps with.

     He and his girlfriend found a really nice place in a town nearby and spent about a month preparing to move – this meant a lot of distractions, packing, stuff everywhere, excitement and some sadness ; this is the first of our family beginning to grow apart (in a normal, healthy way).  My brother continuously packed up his car, and had several trips to make – and then there were four.

My Sister and Me at Fenway

My Sister and Me 

     At this time, my sister started looking for an apartment in the city to live with her friends. They were looking for an apartment to move into in September. This was quite the process and ultimately found something for August 1^st.  Despite the overwhelming sense of the unknown on my part with Peace Corps, I was really excited for both my siblings to be making steps forward towards more independence and living the life of young professionals in a young, vibrant city.

The city she will now call home.

     Around this time was when I was finding out about when and where I would be spending the next 27 months of my life. I can imagine my parents’ reactions to the whirlwind of 2012 thus far. I found out that I would be leaving about 3 weeks after my little sister moves out and before my parents would start fixing up the house to put it up for sale…WAIT, WHAT?!?!

Just the Begining

     Yes, if all this change isn’t enough, in April my parents’ tenants in our house in Florida told us they would be moving to NY in June. This was the perfect opportunity for my parents to not re-rent it and open it up for the family to head down there when we could. Before I knew it, my mom was at Home Depot purchasing more boxes than I could count and sorting through old dishes, clothes, appliances, and 10948198 other necessities for an empty house. As days and weeks flew off the calendar, our house was the definition of chaos we are ALL preparing to move and spend time together at the same time. Everywhere you turn there are boxes. A moving truck finally came this past Monday to take about 35 boxes and 10 (give or take) huge pieces of furniture down to Florida. This is actually happening – All before June even started.

My Family taking a swim, and Trocolis (my dad invented this cocktail) at our house in Florida!

Bill's Home until October

      As we packed up, my boyfriend, Bill, was packing up to make a huge move up to Maine where he would be living in a tent for 6 months for his new job. We have been together for so long as both realized this would be a good transition and good practice for what is to come with my Peace Corps service. Helping him pack and throwing him a going away party were all thrown in the mix there as well. He left just two days before I found out my departure date – he really wanted to be there for that so I took a video of me opening the BBP!!

     For some time it was hard to believe this was all happening. Too much change in too little time. Who knew that as we rung in the new year with appetizers and cocktails at a popular downtown bar, that all this was coming!

      We have all been spending time together, mostly bonding over packing lists, furniture and give away items and at times I try to escape to my brothers apartment to just chill. For now I will continue to find peace in organizing my things, running, meditation and getting excited for adventures in the DR!!


                                       I'll take this opportunity to share other 2012 adventures!


                                                                ICELAND - February 2012!!!

 Bill and I wanted to cross something off our bucket lists prior to possible separating for 2 years so we decided  to explore the glaciers of Iceland. We hiked up a glacier (first thing on my bucket list), witnessed and awed at the Northern Lights (first thing on Bill's bucket list), swam in the blue lagoon, road tripped it to find beautiful waterfalls and landscapes, witnessed the geyser's, and found an inactive volcano to climb!!

After a swim in the Blue Lagoon

Me in the Blue Lagoon - incredible experience

I don't feel this requires any explanation...

Getting our Glacier Hike on!!!

Capital City - Reykjavik

               MEXICO!! April 2012

Exploring Tulum

Bill and I took a trip to Mexico to learn about the Mayan ruins inThe Mayan Riviera. We stayed at a small hotel in Playa del Carmen. We Took tours of Tulum - Mayan ruins on the water and Coba - the only ruins in the jungle in Mexico and the highest pyramid you can climb of the ruins. We took the ferry to Cozumel where we rented an moped and rode the perimeter of the island stopping at beaches and taking our time exploring! thanks to bill for being coordinated enough to maneuver it for both of us!

Tulum - Ruins on the Carribean Water

Climbed the tallest Mayan Pyramid in Coba

MoPed in Cozumel, Mexico

One of many stops on our ride around the island of Cozumel

Happy Reading!!!!