lessons in falling off the face of the earth
;) thought I disappeared did ya?
kinda did..a bit..not all intentionally though just getting back into things.
anywho...I haven't even gone back to see when the last time I posted was so if I repeat some stuff feel free to skim and pass on to the new stuff.
so in no particular order
1. so I have moved.. Erin, Karen, and I have RPCV Paraguay house going on. There is an RPCV Thailand house in town too. Three guys from PC-Thailand there. the cats are adjusting well and Pi is integrating delightfully with Si and Ollie. some growling and yowling but Si and Pi have been spotted snoozing together like little buddies. how sweet! They are also on a diet.. 16lbs is a bit excessive!
2. I am employed! as of sept 18th I have become a gainfully employed individual again. seemed like it would never happen and that no one ever wanted to interview me but after a month of submitting resumes I was finally called by a community mental health agency to interview with a school based program of their's called CASA START. had a second interview two weeks later as well as several interviews for county case worker positions and some rejection letters. Then they finally offered me the position!!! so I am now the new full time bilingual case coordinator for CASA START. yeah!! So I am working with kiddos between the ages of 8 & 14 at the elementary and middle schools that neighbor the CRC Office and their families. so far I have 8 kids on my caseload and will have a full load of 15 eventually. The team I work with is super nifty. They are waiting to hear back on one other new person and an intern and then we will be fully staffed. This job seems like it will be alot of fun and ful of variety.
3. I have been dating a really nice, smart, funny, easy-going, eclectic guy for about a month. He is a software developer/consultant, and is finishing up a masters in computer science. is fascinated by languages, math, different cultures. He is from Camaroon. Has a supper smart family (drs, dentist, math teacher, etc.)His youngest sister (he is the oldest of 6) has the same name as my brother. Has a fun group of friends. It has been fun getting to know him. so we will see where this goes.
4. um.. I still haven't told you my adventures in south america...probably won't here. so cliff notes version.. saw bolivia the salt flats were amazing, we learned a fun card game from three isrealis that were in our group, almost didn't make it to la paz because the bus decided they were only going as far as oruro after telling us they were a direct bus..so karen and I stirred up a bit of travel mutiny to get on a bus to la paz without having to pay pasaje again. La Paz, Lak Titicaca, another bus adventure to arequipa, peru. condors, frozen mummies, another bus misadventure..no more using "travel" places to get bus tix..they kept messing crap up! Cusco, machu pichu is amazing!! Lima not such a facinating place, another bus misadventure..protesters cut the road 3hrs before our destination and mind you this was a freaking long bus ride 18+ hrs w/o the cutting. so we were stopped for about an hour then they moved the cut and we got an a hour closer and were stopped again for about an hour again.. then finally got to Mancora! beach and ceviche for three days. then misadventures in Ecuador.. cuenca, banos, Latacunga (got my passport stolen and some other stuff) hiked a bit in some really pretty places, Quito misadventures..the Embassy was not a positive experience with getting the passport thing taken care of. 1. the friday after it was stolen they were closed for ecuadors independence day 2. the monday following was memorial day and so closed again! 3. one of the ladies in the OCS office was a complete bitch and not listening to me and because of this 4. it took 4hours or so for the other lady to figure out that I was on my way home from PC duty so there was gnashing of teeth and crying because they wanted me to pay $97 to replace my NO FEE passport and then were trying to tell me it was going to take EIGHT days to get the replacement!!! this mind you was tuesday and our flight was leaving at 6am on THURSDAY!!! eh.. so ran all over Quito to get visa verification and pictures and wasted the day but finally got the replacement that day after they got a clue and realized some of their ideas were not gonna work like having my parents overnight my regular passport from KS to me (yeah, no one was home when I was calling for someone to wire me the $97 they had asked for earlier what makes them think that an overnighted passport would arrive in time for me to get the visa verification and be able to catch my flight!) nope don't think so.. then my camera got stolen the next day. all of this in one week in ecuador! so finally got back to the states June 1.
I think I have filled you in on some things since then so I will call this one done. anyways.
new home, new guy, new job...and I have been horrible at keeping in contact with people so you will have to fogive me and maybe kick me every now and then if I fall off the face of the earth again.
hope all is well..
kinda did..a bit..not all intentionally though just getting back into things.
anywho...I haven't even gone back to see when the last time I posted was so if I repeat some stuff feel free to skim and pass on to the new stuff.
so in no particular order
1. so I have moved.. Erin, Karen, and I have RPCV Paraguay house going on. There is an RPCV Thailand house in town too. Three guys from PC-Thailand there. the cats are adjusting well and Pi is integrating delightfully with Si and Ollie. some growling and yowling but Si and Pi have been spotted snoozing together like little buddies. how sweet! They are also on a diet.. 16lbs is a bit excessive!
2. I am employed! as of sept 18th I have become a gainfully employed individual again. seemed like it would never happen and that no one ever wanted to interview me but after a month of submitting resumes I was finally called by a community mental health agency to interview with a school based program of their's called CASA START. had a second interview two weeks later as well as several interviews for county case worker positions and some rejection letters. Then they finally offered me the position!!! so I am now the new full time bilingual case coordinator for CASA START. yeah!! So I am working with kiddos between the ages of 8 & 14 at the elementary and middle schools that neighbor the CRC Office and their families. so far I have 8 kids on my caseload and will have a full load of 15 eventually. The team I work with is super nifty. They are waiting to hear back on one other new person and an intern and then we will be fully staffed. This job seems like it will be alot of fun and ful of variety.
3. I have been dating a really nice, smart, funny, easy-going, eclectic guy for about a month. He is a software developer/consultant, and is finishing up a masters in computer science. is fascinated by languages, math, different cultures. He is from Camaroon. Has a supper smart family (drs, dentist, math teacher, etc.)His youngest sister (he is the oldest of 6) has the same name as my brother. Has a fun group of friends. It has been fun getting to know him. so we will see where this goes.
4. um.. I still haven't told you my adventures in south america...probably won't here. so cliff notes version.. saw bolivia the salt flats were amazing, we learned a fun card game from three isrealis that were in our group, almost didn't make it to la paz because the bus decided they were only going as far as oruro after telling us they were a direct bus..so karen and I stirred up a bit of travel mutiny to get on a bus to la paz without having to pay pasaje again. La Paz, Lak Titicaca, another bus adventure to arequipa, peru. condors, frozen mummies, another bus misadventure..no more using "travel" places to get bus tix..they kept messing crap up! Cusco, machu pichu is amazing!! Lima not such a facinating place, another bus misadventure..protesters cut the road 3hrs before our destination and mind you this was a freaking long bus ride 18+ hrs w/o the cutting. so we were stopped for about an hour then they moved the cut and we got an a hour closer and were stopped again for about an hour again.. then finally got to Mancora! beach and ceviche for three days. then misadventures in Ecuador.. cuenca, banos, Latacunga (got my passport stolen and some other stuff) hiked a bit in some really pretty places, Quito misadventures..the Embassy was not a positive experience with getting the passport thing taken care of. 1. the friday after it was stolen they were closed for ecuadors independence day 2. the monday following was memorial day and so closed again! 3. one of the ladies in the OCS office was a complete bitch and not listening to me and because of this 4. it took 4hours or so for the other lady to figure out that I was on my way home from PC duty so there was gnashing of teeth and crying because they wanted me to pay $97 to replace my NO FEE passport and then were trying to tell me it was going to take EIGHT days to get the replacement!!! this mind you was tuesday and our flight was leaving at 6am on THURSDAY!!! eh.. so ran all over Quito to get visa verification and pictures and wasted the day but finally got the replacement that day after they got a clue and realized some of their ideas were not gonna work like having my parents overnight my regular passport from KS to me (yeah, no one was home when I was calling for someone to wire me the $97 they had asked for earlier what makes them think that an overnighted passport would arrive in time for me to get the visa verification and be able to catch my flight!) nope don't think so.. then my camera got stolen the next day. all of this in one week in ecuador! so finally got back to the states June 1.
I think I have filled you in on some things since then so I will call this one done. anyways.
new home, new guy, new job...and I have been horrible at keeping in contact with people so you will have to fogive me and maybe kick me every now and then if I fall off the face of the earth again.
hope all is well..