Peace Corps Pre-Departure: Shopping!

In preparation for the Peace Corps, Adam and I purged A LOT of stuff, but we also had to gather a few items to bring with us. Here are some of the goodies that we've picked up over the past several months:

REI Backpack (2)
Black Diamond Headlamp (2)
Keen sandals (for Emily)
Salomon waterproof shoes (for Adam)
Waterproof Rain Jacket (2)
Travel Alarm Clock
Duffel Bag
Lonely Planet Ecuador
Quick dry pants (a pair for each of us)
Camp towels (2)
After-Bite (for Emily)

It isn't much, but boy do things add up when you aren't really shoppers like Adam and I! We have a few more things to gather (like those new Off! Clip Ons to keep the bugs away from sweet-meat Emily).

Ok, well I need to hop into the shower and get ready for some all-you-can-MEAT at the brazilian steakhouse in Provo, UT (Tucanos) with Jared and Paul! Hooray!

Peace Corps: The Beginnings!

After not really mentioning Peace Corps at all in our blog, I figure Adam and I should probably catch everyone up to speed regarding our Peace Corps assignments, etc. This will probably be a series of posts and also will probably record all the frenzy that will be the next few weeks!

Our General Timeline *some details not included*

11/03/07 - Adam and I attend a Peace Corps info session with Jennifer
01/03/08- Online applications submitted
04/04/08-Interview from 1pm-5pm in Los Angeles (for couples, we each had separate interviews, and then we were interviewed together...it was a long afternoon!)
05/30/08- Received nomination for Carribean, but it was for Feb. 09 which was too early for us
06/04/08- Received and accepted our new nomination for Central/South America, Spanish Speaking, June 09!
06/09/08- Received our nomination packet from Peace Corps
06/13/08- Received our medical, dental and vision packet
June & July- Medical and dental appointments, exams, & tests galore
10/24/08- We are medically cleared!
01/16/09- Received our invitation in the mail! We're going to Ecuador! Assignment for Emily is Youth & Families: Urban Youth Development and Assignment for Adam is Youth & Families: Information Technology. We accepted that week, sent in all of our aspiration statements, passport applications, etc. off
04/02/09- We quit our jobs and begin our 2 month road trip across the country
05/19/09- Received our staging information via email and we booked our flights. We fly out of Inyokern Airport on June 15 to Miami and we fly to Ecuador on June 17! Our adventure is about to start!

Peace Corps Info!

As a side note, separate from the trip updates- Adam and I received our staging information via email yesterday!! We will be flying into Miami on Monday, June 15th. We depart from the Inyokern Airport at 5am so that our family doesn't have to drive 3 hours to LA...just 20 minutes at 4am. =D It definitely feels much more like a reality now that we have our plane ticket booked and we know exactly what day we fly out.

On Tuesday in Miami, we have our Welcome to the Peace Corps and then we are off to Quito, where we will be greeted by the Country Director and other Peace Corps Staff and Volunteers!!

The next several days are supposed to be intense orientation to the Peace Corps, the local area and the culture, and "Survival Spanish." It will also be language proficiency testing and vaccinations. That following Sunday, we are supposed to meet our host families and move to our 9-week training site somewhere outside of Quito by 1.5 hours. I'm thankful that Adam and I, as a couple, will get to stay together with a host family. May we not slow down our Spanish learning during that time.

Well, we are definitely down to the wire. We are already starting to take care of a few things, but there seem to be so many other things we need to do before we leave (bank accounts, credit cards, power of attorney, wills, and PACKING!). However, this road trip has helped me realize how little clothing I really need to have (but, ahem Jennifer, I will be bringing lots of underwear).

More details to come as we get them!

All Caught Up on the Blog!

Whew! Blogging is hard work! But I'm finally caught up! That's right, Adam and I are STILL in Utah, and I am writing about Utah!

We arrived in Utah on Friday, May 15th. We arrived at Amy (Adam's sister) and Kevin's house and our Friday night was pretty relaxed. We just caught up since the last time we saw them was in October at Disneyland. Our niece Serenna (almost 1) has gotten really big! She is probably going to take her first steps any day now! Our other nieces Arianna (8), Chalysse (6) and Jenessa (4) are also getting big and are such funny characters! And our nephew Mark (15) also hit a growth spurt. In October, he was shorter than Adam, and now, just 7 months later, he is taller than him.

Saturday, I was woken up by the nieces, who informed me that it was time to wake up! They entertained me by spelling out their names and sharing funny anectdotes about life. Adam and I ran a few errands and I stopped by Robert's Crafts to get some scrapbooking supplies. That afternoon Arianna was insistent on getting me into shape, so we played soccer. Then I pushed the girls on their swingset, and finally I scrapbooked with Amy until 5, when it was time to get ready for the neighborhood barbecue that Amy organized with some neighbors.

Serenna!

Jenessa, Arianna and Chalysse

Neighborhood BBQ (folks were wondering if Adam and I were new to the neighborhood, or just some crazed hungry couple mooching off their grills...not really)

Kevin (our brother-in-law) and Serenna

Amy (Adam's sister) and Serenna

Sunday was also another nice day with the family. While Amy, Kevin & family were at church, Adam and I picked up some supplies. We also stopped at a Joann Fabric so Adam could get fabric to make a little chef's toolkit (with lots of Amy's help!). Dinner for the night was yummy picadillo with fried plantains and black beans. I had to do quite a bit of driving to hunt down some green plantains, but I found them!

On Monday, it was time to drive down to Salt Lake City to hang out with Susan and Paul. We got to Susan's house (very nice place that is set right next to the mountains and overlooks Salt Lake City) and then headed off to Pei Wei to meet up with Jared for lunch (yes Jennifer, I ordered some crab wontons). After that, we lounged around the house before we took a nice, HOT hike. Because it was a tad too toasty, we cut the hike short and ended up at REI, then at a frozen custard place, the yummy bakery, and then finally back to Susan's place where she cooked up a mean mapo tofu. It was fabulous! And luckily, Jared was able to join us for that too.

Sisterhood and Peace (right dad?)

Today Susan and Paul both had to work, so Adam and I did our errands. Well, first, I slept in until almost 11! It was great! Then we had lunch of corn dogs (mmmm...) before we headed out to Barnes & Noble, the camera store (another lens may be in my future...maybe a more versatile 18-200 lens?), and the A&W for another root beer float! When Susan got home, we went off to the library where I perused a scrapbook magazine. Dinner was Molca Salsa...a burrito joint that got Adam's approval (and mine, because they have a California burrito and decent hot sauce. Though I ordered the Carnitas Burrito...what was I thinking?). We ended the night with a trip to the movies to watch Angels and Demons. Two movie previews caught my eye...and I won't get to watch them before I leave for Ecuador. They were- Julie & Julia (with Amy Adams) and The Proposal (with Sandra Bullock). Jennifer: these are two chick flicks you'll have to watch!!

Ok. Now it is 5:30am and I am still up but I am going to bed soon. But with good reason. I caught up on the blog, talked to Jennifer on the phone, talked to Betty, read up on some Peace Corps stuff...and that's about it.

More photos to come...

From the UP to South Dakota

**WARNING** Long post ahead with lots of photos and one video! =)

May 11- Off we went to St. Paul, MN to meet Nancy Wall, who will be with us as part of the Peace Corps Ecuador group! Since her daughter was in town, we wanted to give her time to spend with her. So we hit up the Trader Joe's, stopped by some outlets (and of course, didn't buy anything), and just waffled around. When we got to Nancy's, we chatted away. It was nice to chat with her about our shared fears, anxieties, and excitements. She is currently a social worker and is one of the older volunteers (I think she is 55). We had a great time chatting with her, and she was such a wonderful host. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of us together, but I'm sure I'll have one of her when we are in Ecuador. She lives very close to downtown, so we walked to this Thai restaurant that she recommended, then chatted some more about everything from language proficiency and packing options, to totally non-Peace Corps related chit chat.

My only picture from Minnesota

May 12- We got up the next morning, had breakfast with Nancy, and then headed off to South Dakota. It was a very long day of driving, but I got to see some amazing prairies. I didn't realize that South Dakota was home to Laura Ingalls Wilder and inspired her Little House on the Prairie book. It reminds me of when my dad used to make ribs. If you are curious, just ask me...I get longwinded with my stories (surprise surprise!). We got into the Badlands around 7pm finally. Originally, we had planned to camp, but it was outrageously windy, so we decided to drive around and see the sunset before heading back to a hotel we found to stay at for the night. We ended up staying in this town called Wall...home to the famous Wall Drug (more info below!).

Sunset light reflecting off the badlands

Prairie grass and badland formations

I resorted to taking pictures from the car because it was so windy

May 13- First stop of the morning was Wall Drug for some 5 cents coffee and donuts! We first heard about Wall Drug from Charlie and Mary when we visited them in Knoxville. They had shown us their scrapbook and told us that we must stop at Wall Drug. While driving across South Dakota, I saw dozens of Wall Drug signs advertising free water and nickel coffee. We perused around a bit, I bought some postcards, we filled up on free ice water, and had a great time before driving through the Badlands.

Our drive through the Badlands was pretty quick. We stopped by the visitor center, went into several of the lookout points, and tried to take a hike but it was way too windy. We stopped by the campground to see what it would have been like. There was not a single camper except for a few RVs because of the wind. I have a short video but I couldn't even bear to be outside for that long.

Our Matrix...looking good with the Badlands as a backdrop! We're going to miss this car!

After the Badlands, we passed through Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Unfortunately, they just built this monstrous parking garage, so they charge $10 to park. We weren't able to actually walk into the monument and see the museum, but we got some good shots from the various viewpoints.

The profile view of George Washington

From there, we drove by Crazy Horse...it wasn't much to look at because it is so massive and so the progress that is made doesn't seem like a huge difference. I posted a picture of what it is eventually going to look like...but it has already been over 50 years in the making.


Next stop was Custer State Park! We drove the wildlife loop and didn't see a whole lot until we suddenly reached a buffalo jam. The folks at the visitor center said we might not see many animals because of the wind (foiled again!). Here is a little video for your enjoyment. We happened to come at a good time- when the buffalo (or bison, as some would call it) had 3-week old calves. You can see them because their coats are a reddish brown...and they look like little cows.

We saw lots of varieties of deer grazing in the prairies

Just a reminder of whose territory it is

One of my favorite photos that I took...a lone tree in the prairie

Mother feeding her calf

Another calf following his mom

Buffalo traffic jam!

We decided to stay the night in Keystone, SD since it is a larger town and still provided us access to Custer State Park, but from another scenic route. We ate dinner at this restaurant called The Ruby House, where Adam and I tried out buffalo burger. Adam actually liked it better than the hamburger...I am not sure I necessarily did though. Afterwards, we went in search of buffalo earrings and so we stopped in this gift shop. We ended up chatting with the guy that worked there for almost 45 minutes about coin and bill collecting. Look out for the bills with the star next to the number...they might be worth a bit more than you think! Who knew!

The inside of the restaurant with the buffalo hide on the wall

May 14- It was another day at Custer State Park. We first stopped and had a nice cheapy breakfast of eggs and toast at another local joint before driving along the scenic route where we got to pass through tunnels that looked straight into Mt. Rushmore. We chatted with the folks at the Visitor Center again (they were an older couple, volunteering for a few months and camping in their RV. They're from South Dakota but have gone all over the place) and then drove the wildlife loop once more. This time, we saw wild burros and tons of prairie dogs, as well as a good number of bison and their babies. We even made time for a hike before heading off to Wyoming.

Also, a few interesting things that we learned while at Custer State Park:

1) There are over 1500 bison roaming the park. Every year they have a round-up (actual wranglers ride their horses and round up the bison) so that they can count them up and also brand the new calves to signify that they are part of the Custer State Park. Most are released but some are kept for their November Auction, where people can actually purchase bison. The reason is to manage the size of the population in the park.

2) Prairie dogs have a LOUD bark...but it sounds more like a frightened bleet to me!

3) I really liked South Dakota. And I could've taken hundreds more photos of buffalo. And prairie dogs. And burros. And deer.

Visit Peggy's Place for $2.99 breakfast!

Mt. Rushmore from one of the many tunnels


Viewpoint of Mt. Rushmore from Custer State Park

Greeted by some curious burros that just stood and stared


Make me a home...where the buffalo roam...

Curious buffalo calf having a staring contest with us

Male bison stopping for a drink

This prairie dog was barking/yipping non-stop...I think because I got too close to their holes and he was warning the hundred others that a strange woman with a camera was coming



Finally, proof that Adam and I were actually there...and not just posting someone else's photos!

Our stay in Wyoming was brief. It consisted of driving through, stopping to eat, and sleeping at an Econolodge before driving to Utah. Sorry Wyoming...next time we'll take more time! But the drive was great...lots of wide open spaces

Wish we were Yoopers! =)

One word for the UP (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan)- COLD! It was a nice 35 degrees while we were there! We had big plans to to camp there (both in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area, and the Porcupine Mountains), but it was definitely still winter time. We did have a great time while we were there, but the wind along Lake Superior, along with the temperature, left us cold to the bone! We were in the UP from May 8-10, instead of May 8-12.

Our first night, we ate at Big Boy. In some ways, it seems like a must in Michigan, since there is seriously one every exit!

In Manistique, we stayed in the Star Motel, which had seriously the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen. For only $40 a night, we had a great view out our window of Lake Michigan. The lady who ran the place has lived in the UP for most of her life and she shared some fun stories. I also chatted up with one of the other motel guests who lives up in the UP and was in town for the gun show...seriously. Very nice folks that we interacted with!

The next day...off we went to Pictured Rocks Lakeshore, which is off of Lake Superior

Is it really May in the Upper Peninsula?

Grand Sable Dunes

Adam, all bundled up in his down jacket

Proof that it was 35 degrees!

Sable Falls

Pictured Rocks! This one was called Miner's Castle. To see the full impact of the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore, you need to go out on a boat...sadly the boat tours didn't run until the following weekend...because it was still WINTER in the UP! Lol.

Closer view

That night we stayed in the town of Munising. We stayed at this little motel that was in the middle of a neighborhood, so it was perfectly quiet. Not that there was really a main drag or a noisy part of town!

The Terrace Motel

In search for a local restaurant, we found The Dog Patch for a bowl of soup!

On Sunday, we headed out towards Superior, WI...but before we left the Upper Peninsula, I had to stop at the Yooper's Tourist Trap. I passed on Yooper t-shirts, but I did send out a few postcards!