Leaving On A Jet Plane

Don't know when I'll be back again. And, actually, that's true. Possibly not for two whole years.

This is my last entry from the United States. After all those trials, those tribulations, that blood and those tears, I'm finally departing for the Peace Corps in Guyana. Almost one year, one nomination change, and ten thousand pages of paperwork have come and gone since then. And technically speaking I'm just beginning.

I wanted to do so much more before I left, like call my friends and spend a while on the phone with each of them. I got to call exactly NO ONE (well, except Melonie, but that's because I needed some contact info from her). So if you didn't get a call, don't feel bad because you're in good company.

My plane leaves in about 7 hours, and I still need to get some modicum of sleep, so I can't write long. Too bad, because before I went I also wanted to write a few more blog entries on Dominica. Well, maybe it will be a work in progress. My fear is that those memories will become a blur as they are replaced with newer, fresher (and hopefully more successful) memories. But that's probably a baseless fear. That Peace Corps experience and this one are totally different -- different place, different people, different experiences, and even from different times in my life. This experience won't supplant or replace that one. It will be totally new. And it's going to kick ass.

I'll try to update as often as I can. I'm aiming for once per week, maybe slightly more frequently -- but depending on circumstances, it might be more like bi-weekly. A lot of these Peace Corps blogs seems to get kinda quiet after someone gets into country, often because of inaccessibility to internet access, shortage of time, or diversion of energy. I can't make any promises, but I've really enjoyed writing this so far and have no intentions of letting this blog simply die, so at least I'll try to make it to a cybercafe or to the Peace Corps office every so often to drop a line. I thank all my readers for their support, advice, and comments. Peace out. And to those still in the application process, just wait -- your day will come sooner than it feels like. No doubt you'll feel like, right there in the last few hours, that you could use a couple more days to square away things. I sure could.

A hui hou,
-Bri

Itinerary:
Fly out of Abilene, TX at 7 am
Arrive Miami, FL at 12:30 pm
Drop off all my stuff in the hotel room around 2:00 pm
Report to Check-In and Staging at 3:00 pm
Meet tons of new, cool, and interesting people at 3:30 pm.
Go out to South Beach with some of them around 8 pm.
Crash back at the hotel at 11:00 pm.

More to come. Much, much more to come.