Alive!

Friends!

A remarkable miracle has descended upon me in this strange place called Oguz!

THE INTERNET! Like, the REAL internet–it’s unlimited, highspeed, and right here in my apartment. I am sitting at my kitchen table, making baked potatoes and being on the internet. AT THE SAME TIME!

Fall has arrived in full fury, although the number of layers I’ve been wearing and the snowcaps on the mountains might suggest we’re closer to winter. I’m back into school, although getting into the rhythm of things after summer has been difficult…I feel like I’m just getting started and it’s already time for their fall break from school.

I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch on the general ‘how’re things going?’ scale…a down time in the midst of the remarkable roller coaster that is Peace Corps service, but the sun came back out today (literally), and, when it comes down to it, I’ll be okay.

I passed the ‘one year’ mark in-country over a month ago, which is wild–AZ7′s are preparing to depart, AZ9′s have arrived, and we’re all gearing up for the cold winter and the sometimes dreary blues that come with it. Time is flying by; I blink and a month is passed…but sometimes 10 minutes in a classroom seems to take years. I’m beginning to think a little bit about my life post-Peace Corps. (There’s now a tab on my bookmarks menu labeled ‘post-pc’ with grad school links, volunteer programs, teaching jobs, and a plethora of other things.) Sure, it’s over a year away, but anyone who knows me well enough won’t be surprised.

To give a small update (I don’t want to do too much backtracking), Oguz camp, which I wrote about previously, went beautifully, thanks to awesome help from fellow PCV’s and a absolutely fantastic group of youth leaders/helpers. We had about 35 kids that got to do everything from pick up trash to play capture the flag in the woods. 4 days after camp finished, I departed on vacation with my friend Joe to Croatia and Italy. It was a beautiful trip, and went by far too quickly….this time last month I was arriving in Rome, as a matter of fact!

Since I have REAL internet now, I’ll share a couple photos from the adventure….This is an awesome chunk of water in an awesome park in Croatia.