"I'm Hollow Inside"

Just kidding. I'm not hollow inside. The title of this blog will all make sense if you just read further.

Sunday the 13th was my going away party just for friends. I think it was originally supposed to be a surprise party, but my amazing sister Kara who hosted/planned figured it would be easier if I gave her a list of people who wanted to come. Kara and my mom and my other sister all planned the party on their own and without my input- which I appreciated, because besides the fact that my brain can hardly handle thinking about anything more anyway, but it kept it kind of surprisey. And as much as I love to throw a good party, sometimes its just fun to GO to one!

Everything that it takes for a great party was there- amazing amazing Angelo style party food, AND all of my very best friends that I love so sooo much. There were so many people there who came from near and far and every walk of my life, I was so touched. I was so happy to see everyone there that I was actually so overwhelmed during the party that I couldn't eat any of the party food!! Honestly- I was made nauseous by the overwhelming awesomeness because I was so happy. This was a feeling I had never experienced before. Luckily, I live at the house where all the leftovers were, so I've been eating the leftovers ever since.

And now, I am literally going to give a shout out to everyone who came to my party. I appreciate you guys coming so much and making the drive since we all don't live so close anymore. It was such a wonderful day and all of your friendships mean so much to me. I can't wait to be in touch with you guys over the next two years keeping up with the great things going on in all of your lives!! SHOUUUT OUUUUT- Gina, Shan ,Chris, Ian, Julia, Rachie, BBourne, Kdo, Leebooboo, Ashie, Bob, Alice, Mike, Alex, Cliff, Ryan, Andy, Brian, Casey, Caroline, Ms. Jane, Ms. Peggy... thank you for making the day so wonderful!!

One of my favorite gifts that I received from friends at the party is a "funny bunny" stuffed animal with the message "I'm Hollow Inside" written on the stomach. It is just hilariously ironic as he is a smiley bunny. I carried him around thru the entire party and he is coming to Malawi, just because... he has to. He is pretty stoked.

This post is delayed, and although there's only 2 days left til staging, there are more informative posts to come!! Love you all!

Special Peace Corps Info for YOU!

I got an email from the Malawi country desk the other day with some last minute info- and there was something especially for you guys! It was a letter from the Malawi country desk meant especially for you- and it is meant to be referred to during my entire service. So, I copied the letter into one of the tabs at the top of my blog. For now, the tab is entitled "Malawi Family & Friends". I really hope you all read it as it is important information that you will need to know so you can adjust your expectations about my experience and hopefully alleviate any worries you have.

Later on I will extract some of the keeping in touch info into my Keep In Touch! tab so you will have your go to info for how to get in touch with me while I am in Malawi. What I can say now about keeping in touch is, during orientation post mail will honestly be the only way to be in touch with me. I will be in training until the end of April. So I plan on writing you all letters and I hope to hear from you. It will take a few weeks for letters to arrive, so sending some letters now would be great so I'm not too out of touch for too long when I get in country.

Speaking of- please start sending me your addresses and preferred email so I can fill my address book and make an email listserv for more personal updates! Either email it to whatever email of mine you have, or use the beloved facebook.

(And for those wondrous people who attended my goodbye party this past Sunday- do not worry. You will all get personal shout outs in my upcoming post devoted entirely to my super awesome party! <3 )

THE VERY BEST.

I was riding in my friend's car the other day when he put on some "African"-ish kinda music, and I was jamming along enjoying it quite a bit. Then I stopped for a sec when I thought I heard the singer say "Warm Heart of Africa"! I was like "Dude, did he just say Warm Heart of Africa?" And he was like "Yeah that's the name of the whole album" and I was like "DUDE! Malawi IS the warm heart of Africa!!" and it was a huge epiphany moment when we were able to deduce that the artist actually is from Malawi (later confirmed by accessing Wikipedia with a Droid phone).

The artist I am referring to is The Very Best, and let me say, his music is THE JAM. With this new news of a really cool musical artist from Malawi, I have decided that one of my personal goals for my Peace Corps service is to find The Very Best, and make him my very best friend. Okay, even if he doesn't become my best friend, it's my hope that he is somewhere in Malawi during the next two years playing a show for me to hear! That would seriously be crazy awesome. So... we'll see. The Very Best, if you're out there reading this.... we should be friends.

17 days until I head to staging in Philadelphia... I really can't believe it. I haven't been nervous at all really, about leaving my friends and family, but now I am getting a little sad. Because I realize that I am leaving my whole life- and everyone else's lives will continue here and mine will become 100% new. And again, its not that I never realized this before, its just that now I am really feeling it. I know I will be fine, but I also know that the next 2.5 weeks will be hard. But the past few weeks have been really really fun and I know the next 2.5 will be too. It's kind of like I'm not even living my real life right now- every minute of my day involves me doing something, work and fun (oh and packing?), so I don't miss any life moment. Let me tell you, this has led to me not getting much sleep at all. It's hard work seizing the day so much! However, it turns out its not TOO bad functioning with so little sleep. I can say without any doubt that the lack of sleep has been totally worth it (although last night I had to crash a little early- and when I woke up at my couch at 3am I was very alarmed haha). My new phrase is "I'll sleep in Malawi", and hopefully, I will.

Well, I'm off to go continue with my quest to have the best life ever with all my very best friends and very best family nonstop. Whew!

(my goodbye party is this upcoming Sunday. There will no doubt be some sort of emotional post after that for you all to enjoy)

Snapshots of Service Project

My super cool friend Kim that I met on the blogosphere (and has willingly listened to all my woes via Skype) has started a super awesome project that I am lucky to be apart of! It's called "Snapshots of Service" and it is following 50 volunteers in 50 different cultures departing for their Peace Corps experience in 2011 (the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, are you getting the pattern yet?).

We will be sending two journals across the world from volunteer to volunteer, and twice during our service we will be filling out two pages of the journals with... whatever we want really! A reflection of our service, however we choose to translate it to paper. I am the Malawi representative :) It will be exciting to get the journal when it comes to me, to write in it and see what else is in there! The journal officially departs on its journey at the end of this month, with a PCT named Jessica who is going to Zambia! (which is right next to Malawi by the way) The journey is about to begin!

You can follow even more information about this amazing project at its very own blog, Snapshots of Service. I am so stoked to be apart of it!

(if you are a 2011 invitee out there, contact Kim on the blog if you want to join the project!)

Somebody in Malawi loves Bernard.

Bernard has been attending the Best Friends Furever daycare group twice weekly for about two weeks. He loves it! He gets to play outside for 6 hours a day with puppies in his puppy size group (the teenies!). It is great for him to be able to run outside so much because that is really all he wants out of life. So he has lots of new pup and people friends, is getting more than adequate exercise, and yeay, I can rest at ease knowing he will be attending while I am gone.

Bernard has to wear a collar at daycare- something he does not like to do at home, as he prefers to live his life a wild untamed puppy. Since his collar is kinda big and has several tags on it (jingly jingly jingly jingly) I wanted to get him a more lightweight one to wear to daycare so it wouldn't impede him running and running and running. Then I realize that I should get him a tag for the collar... with my sister's phone number on it, instead of mine :( It broke my heart just the littlest bit. My puppy!!! I mean, hopefully he won't ever be lost that someone would need to even look twice at his tag, but you know. It was like just another thing for really leaving him behind.

Luckily, I got him a tag that came with engraving on the front and back. So the front says "Bernard Angelo" and my sister's number. The back says "MY MOMMY LOVES ME!" as my little message to him and the world that... I love my dog. (I was originally going to write "My Mom is in Malawi" but then my mom and I agreed that that might be confusing if someone found him and thought that his only owner was in a different country... haha)

Catch Bernard on Best Friend Furever's PuppyCam this Friday morning at 9:30am-12pm, and 2:00-5pm!