About Me

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Nicaragua
I am a Small Business Development Volunteer in Nicaragua.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Family Matters!






Been home for a week, gonna be home one more week! Its amazing how things change when your gone! Usually all for the good, depending how you look at it. My little sister is now sixteen, driving, has a serious boyfriend, is winning surf competitions left and right, It feels like a couple of weeks ago, I was teaching her how to sit on a skateboard! She is awesome though. She won homecomign for the sophmores at her school, everybody likes her, i am really proud of her.
My mom is doing awesome too. Just when I think I am old enough to truly be on my own, she flys me home and cooks homecooked meals, finds ways for me to earn a little extra money around the house(which I know she is just doing it so I can a little more money in Nicaragua. My grandma and Grandpa drove down from Orlando for the weekend to come see me! And of course, even though we are celebrating mothers day this weekend for my grnadma, she still brings me presents! And my grandpa gives me words of advice on how to pick up girls in Nica!
Then the dogs, man they are such cool dogs, My two bassett Hounds, Daisy Mae & Captain Morgan! They are not even one years old. The are the most snuggliest dogs I have ever met. If they see you on a couch by yourself, w/in seconds they are snoozing on your laps! They fight over attention!
These are the things that I will miss about home! but thats ok.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Third Molar Extraction

Today I am sitting in my Aunt/Uncle/Cousin's house in Grass Lake, Michigan (about 35 miles west of Ann Arbor). Two days ago I was throwing snow down mountains in Snoqualmie Pass, and 5 days from now I will be farting around on Fort Lauderdale Beach, then three weeks from yesterday I will be in Georgetown, Washington D.C. Then two days from that I will be in Nicaragua eating more mangos than something that eats a lot of mangos.

Michigan this time of year is beautiful, Its sunny and 70 degrees. My family lives in the middle of the woods, Its awesome! There is so much wildlife roaming around. Yesterday when I woke up there were two deer outside my window looking at me curiously! Sniffing and then realizing that I am pretty uninteresting they moved along. But, there are muskrats running around, cool rare birds, mini frogs that are exactly the size of my thumbnail and the squeek instead of ribbiting (it sounds like the squeek language that me and steve have and all the time I think steve is trying to get my attention.)SQUEEK

So yesterday (tuesday april 15th) I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted. It was so much less painful and grooling as i hade made myself believe. I walked in, the doctor talked to me for about 30 minutes on the procedure, its possible reprecussions, and then put me to sleep (he counted down from three and I dont even remember him saying two), It was such an cool feeling when I woke up, I was mumbling stuff all over the place. Supposedly during the wake up process I had managed to hit on two of the nurses telling that once I get back from peace corps, that my first thing I am going to do is take them out to dinner!! Then I had a long lasting conversation with myself about the wonders of belgium ( Joey: did you know that in Brussels some of the churches have public urinals down the side of them?, Joey: wow, no i didn't know that!

But the healing process is going so easily, I only bled for about 4 hours. I am now fine and relaxing. No chipmunks cheeks or anything. Oh yeah and by the way, my cousin is an avid antique car collector. He has some of the coolest cars I have ever seen. Right now he is restoring a 1935 Rolls Royce Phantom II for a car show in Virginia. He also has 1911 Ford Model T, 2 Bently's (1934 + 1951), another 65' Rolls, a 1960 Jaguar MK IX (My favorite), an extremely rare Italian made luxury car called a 1922 Isotta-Fraschini (this actual car was originallymmisioned by the Queen of Romania), also a 28' Packard, and a 28'Graham-Page. Then of course my favorite; He has a 1978 Black Ferrari 308, mint condition. It is so beautiful, its hard to look at. Once you hit third gear in that pillar of awesomeness, it seriously goes way faster than any car should ever need to go!

Anyhoot, 19 days until I leave for Peace Corps!! I can't wait to meet all of the other volunteers!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Ohh yeah I forget to mention: Wanderlust II

The reason for the name of the blog...

After the awesome night of drinking I couldn't sleep past 8 so I got a huge fit of wanderlust and took a bus into downtown seattle and wandered around by myself all day. Seattle is such a cool and diverse city. I first went to chinatown and the chinese dollar markets, I met a nice older couple, He was a retired war vet and she was a vietnamese villager who met during the war and fell in love. They took me to this incredible authentic Chinese restaurant--(insert **Ho Chin Sa Chinese**,-- go if your in the seattle area) we chatted up about life and it's potential adventures around every corner. After an really great meal with unexpected new friends I wandered into Pioneer Square and ended up in a hippy coffee shop, all vegan food and soy coffee's (nasty), I ate a rice crispy treat (vegan style) and I was filling out some insurance stuff for the Peace Corps and someone came up to me and said "are you going into peace Corps", ends up this girl just got back from Moldova like 3 months ago, so we had some really cool things to talk about. I've got some friends from Chisnau and we exchanged stories. She was traveling around using her readjustment allowance. Small world sometimes..... So i ended up showing her around seattle, took her to the first starbucks, to pikes place market, the seattle art museum. Incredible day!! We then parted ways after exchanging e-mails and promises of keeping in touch.... Then i hitched a ride back with the coolest peruvian guy in the world. Alfio Susti!! Cool mofo you is!!

Days like this one prove that the more you travel, the more it becomes an extreme necessity.

I am going to miss seattle for sure!

Wanderlust!!!

After a great Season, we had a kick ass end o' year employee party on sunday night... It had all the proper elements of a good party; good food, great people, lots of beer, free snowboarding, drunk bosses dancing to music they've never even heard of, people under the influence admitting their seasonal crushes to each other. Any hoot, I hung out with everyone, made drunk plans I never intend to keep, and had some pot stirring conversations. All in all a good time.

On another note, its been almost a week since i've seen my twin brother. Its really strange to think we have been roommates ( or as steve calls it "womb-mates") for 24 years and its really time to do our own things. We have done some really cool things together, traveling the world, working the same job, dating the same girl, stuff like that. We always knew there would be a time when we would get the surgery to split us apart but reality is sinking in. But I'm really proud of him, he's got some really cool things happening for him in the future, its just now i don't have anyone to borrow money from. Oh well, I will live off my wealth from peace corps. Speaking of Peace Corps; I booked my flight today to D.C. for Peace Corps Staging. I will be in DC early morning May 5th, go through staging, signing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer Trainee. ( I won't be an official volunteer until after I have trained in Nicaragua for 3 Months) Then early on the morn of May 7th, we leave for Managua, Nicaragua. Man, I am soo fricking excited.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Its a good thing i like cabbage and I love Mangos.





Holy crap... Since graduation, much has happened, plans changed 3,000 times (sorry to ex-gf's), went to grad school, hated it, then took the worst job known to any man ever. Those who are close know to what I speak of! Those who don't know, I only pray we consider a chat before taking any jobs... But in all actuality, if it weren't for that job, I may not have taken my next job which sculpted a big part of my 2008 just going to prove that everything happens for a reason. Working for the Summit at Snoqualmie has been amazing! I am going to miss all the incredible people I have met. All of the fresh snow. All of the drinking with the Brazilians and Peruvians...Me getting drunk and singing in Portuguese. Vira Vira Vira!!!! Snowboarding until I can't feel my legs, Eating at the Fam Pan Ho... Im going to miss eating fresh smoked Slamon, PBR TallBoys.. On cloudy days, locals thinking that its sunny... All of the Teriyaki places in Seattle, I am willing to put 1,000 Cordobas that there are more teriyaki restaurants than Starbucks in Greater Seattle. So that said, with good times come great memories. On to bigger and better things. In the words of T.I. Big Shit Poppin' and Little Shit Stoppin'

In 33 days I am leaving for Nicaragua (land of Volcanoes and Lakes...also Dengue, Malaria, Scorpions, Tarantulas, Cabbage, and cigars but no one needs to here that) to be a Small Business Development Volunteer.... No idea what to expect, or where in Nica I will be. I am not sure what to bring or not to. I just figured I will bring one thing entertainment wise. Hence my PSP. Other than that I want to live as my nica counterparts do. Its a good thing i like cabbage and I love Mangos.