I made a Picasa site to post pictures of my adventures... which hopefully I can keep updated while abroad. It should be fairly easy, because it's connected to both blogger and gmail (as if I wasn't already dependent enough on google).
Here's the URL: http://picasaweb.google.com/andreasorce
Since I'd never used Picasa before, I made a practice album with all the pictures of signs that I've taken since high school. I also just made an album with pictures from Yosemite, where Kelly and I went this weekend for my "fake" last weekend in California (I call it "fake" since I'll be in LA next weekend).
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Here we go!
It's official! I will be flying to Honduras on February 24, exactly a month from today! I got the details from Peace Corps this morning and figured it was as good a time as any to start the blog.
I've done this (the blog thing) before with study abroad, but no doubt this time around will be more challenging, interesting, and difficult to describe. I've spent the last 11 months, since applying to PC last February, explaining over and over again how the process works, sometimes not even understanding it myself. So here goes.
A little about Honduras: it's in Central America, Spanish-speaking, overwhelmingly Catholic, and the 3rd poorest country in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua. The capital is Tegucigalpa. What's craziest to me is that Honduras is actually closer to NC than California is - in other words, my flight there will only be 3 hours, I'm staying on the same continent, and I'll be moving to a closer time zone (CST).
On February 23, I'll start by flying to Atlanta for what is called staging. The purpose of staging is to gather all the volunteers together in one US city, fill out paperwork, and go through a brief training. The following morning, we'll all fly together to Tegucigalpa.
Once I get to Honduras, I'll go through 3 months of training, which involves living with a host family, practicing Spanish, learning about Honduras, and training in my job area, which is Business Development. At the end of training, the staff there will match me with a specific job somewhere in the country, and that's where I'll be living for the following 2 years. All I know at this point is that my work will either involve advising businesses/NGOs/microfinance, teaching business classes, or teaching computers. My guess is that I'll end up teaching, given my background - and while teaching IT would be a little random for me, it would at least ensure that I'm somewhere with regular internet access!
Apart from all of that, my journey will start by driving my car from California back to NC (where it will sit parked for 27 months... poor Jackie). I was originally supposed to leave in October, and I planned an amazing road trip through the north and mountain west. Unfortunately, getting bumped back to winter leaves me with the far-less-majestic southern route! Still, I have a lot of exciting things planned for the trip and will certainly be writing on here about it.
It's also worth mentioning that I've booked my flight to staging from Detroit. This may seem surprising, but it's actually the same thing I did before studying abroad. I flew from Raleigh to Cleveland, visited family for a few days, and then flew straight to Thailand. It's sort of my way of breaking up the journey - doing my own personal staging, if you will. More importantly, it saves time and money, allowing me to visit family without having to drive up to MI or fly round trip from NC.
I'll move out and start the drive on February 5. It's hard to believe I have less than 2 weeks left in California, but this whole process has taken over a year, and I'm definitely ready to go. I've been trying to make the most of my last few weeks here, doing all of my favorite things one last time... including running across this character:
I will miss California! But on to the next adventure...
I've done this (the blog thing) before with study abroad, but no doubt this time around will be more challenging, interesting, and difficult to describe. I've spent the last 11 months, since applying to PC last February, explaining over and over again how the process works, sometimes not even understanding it myself. So here goes.
A little about Honduras: it's in Central America, Spanish-speaking, overwhelmingly Catholic, and the 3rd poorest country in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua. The capital is Tegucigalpa. What's craziest to me is that Honduras is actually closer to NC than California is - in other words, my flight there will only be 3 hours, I'm staying on the same continent, and I'll be moving to a closer time zone (CST).
On February 23, I'll start by flying to Atlanta for what is called staging. The purpose of staging is to gather all the volunteers together in one US city, fill out paperwork, and go through a brief training. The following morning, we'll all fly together to Tegucigalpa.
Once I get to Honduras, I'll go through 3 months of training, which involves living with a host family, practicing Spanish, learning about Honduras, and training in my job area, which is Business Development. At the end of training, the staff there will match me with a specific job somewhere in the country, and that's where I'll be living for the following 2 years. All I know at this point is that my work will either involve advising businesses/NGOs/microfinance, teaching business classes, or teaching computers. My guess is that I'll end up teaching, given my background - and while teaching IT would be a little random for me, it would at least ensure that I'm somewhere with regular internet access!
Apart from all of that, my journey will start by driving my car from California back to NC (where it will sit parked for 27 months... poor Jackie). I was originally supposed to leave in October, and I planned an amazing road trip through the north and mountain west. Unfortunately, getting bumped back to winter leaves me with the far-less-majestic southern route! Still, I have a lot of exciting things planned for the trip and will certainly be writing on here about it.
It's also worth mentioning that I've booked my flight to staging from Detroit. This may seem surprising, but it's actually the same thing I did before studying abroad. I flew from Raleigh to Cleveland, visited family for a few days, and then flew straight to Thailand. It's sort of my way of breaking up the journey - doing my own personal staging, if you will. More importantly, it saves time and money, allowing me to visit family without having to drive up to MI or fly round trip from NC.
I'll move out and start the drive on February 5. It's hard to believe I have less than 2 weeks left in California, but this whole process has taken over a year, and I'm definitely ready to go. I've been trying to make the most of my last few weeks here, doing all of my favorite things one last time... including running across this character:
I will miss California! But on to the next adventure...
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