Bienvenue a moi!

Creating a blog has become somewhat of a rite of passage for peace corps volunteers these days. Many future volunteers ruminate on their expectations, their trepidation, whether socks are a waste of space, etc. While I by now know that it's difficult to pick one blog out from the plethora available for every single country (I found 94 written about Benin alone on http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/), I'm still going to throw my hat into the ring. So, without further ado, here is a bit about myself.

I was born and raised on the Great Lake of Ontario, where I spent the majority of my life in the sleepy harbor town of Oswego, NY (the New York Times affectionately called my city "one of a string of rustic villages" in upstate NY). While I love my hometown and its 17,000 residents, I knew that I was going to need a little more to quench my thirst for adventure. When I was younger, I shared George Bailey's view - "I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and..." - but my idea of adventure evolved and I eventually found the Peace Corps in my sights. I've never quite been able to shake the idea.

I attended Boston University as an undergrad, where I majored in International Relations and Psychology. Since then, I've taken graduate classes in Environmental Science and Int'l Econ in both Boston and Buffalo. I've worked with various nonprofits and for-profits, and I've liked and disliked certain things about each of them. I decided last summer that it was time to take the Peace Corps plunge, not knowing that it would be a full year before I'd actually be embarking.

A lot's changed since then. I was nominated to volunteer in the area of water sanitation, but that fell by the wayside due to funding issues. I also, along with a good chunk of my fellow Beninese TEFLers, was originally invited to serve in Madagascar. Due to a seemingly pointless coup devised and (poorly) executed by a young mayor, my plane will be landing in Cotonou, Benin instead of Antananarivo, Madagascar. That, at first, was tough to swallow, but everything happens for a reason, I suppose.

And thus, I am sitting at my family's camp today. I have my dog Jake at my side and I'm looking out over the placid Cross Lake in Upstate New York. Tonight I'm headed to see John Smoltz pitch for the Pawtucket Red Sox in Syracuse, and I really can't complain. It's his last rehab start before hitting the majors, so I'm pretty excited to see what he can do in a small venue against some lackluster talent. But still, I was supposed to already be on my way to the Red Island by today. So let's just put it this way: I love my life now...

But I can't wait to get started.