2(nine) & Thirty

(29) My sister and her boyfriend let me harass them and their lovey-dovey dog all weekend.  Good times!

(30) How many cheesecakes does it take to celebrate my 24th birthday? Three, apparently.  I am okay with that :)

2(six), 2(seven) & 2(eight)

(26) The journals and SD cards for Snapshots of Service!  Getting it all ready to go!

(27) My birthday is on Sunday.  Right now I am in Tampa visiting and misbehaving with my sister.  She gives me the best birthday cards of randomness.

 

(28)  Went to Fort de Soto with my sis and her boyfriend (along with their puppy) to see the water and let the dog run around.  Had fun taking pictures!

Snapshots of Service

Now that the travelling journal project I am putting together has a name, it also has its very own corner of the web located at http://pcsnapshotsofservice.blogspot.com/

Getting this thing started up is a lot of work!  I foresee more work on it in the horizon now that I have been easily convinced by my local PC recruiter at UF to expand it to 50 PCVs in 50 countries (yay 50th anniversary!).  Thankfully, she has offered to help me find people willing to do it via her magic PC contact skills.  My to do list for this in the near future includes: compiling an easy-to-copy-and-paste address book (in addition to my handwritten back up), finding someone willing to help with the second journal that will be going around, update Google map, finish tabs on Snapshots blog, and most importantly is to get the first journal ready to go! But it is a cool project and I think it is going to be worth it.   It is leaving on Monday for Zambia with miss Jessica (who I also still need to dig out a Microsoft Office key for!).  

 I have really appreciated all of the great feedback and comments, so thanks everyone!

Twenty-Four & Twenty-Five

(24) What happens when you have some downtime and a brand new Sharpie pen?  This. And yes, that is a smiley face on my thumb nail :)

(25) So I have spent the past couple of hours working on this journal project.  Addresses are hand written in case of computer mishap, but I still need to do an electronic version.  Map is also put together, but still rough since I don't have everyone yet.  It was incredibly hard hunting down where PC headquarters are for each country!  I think I got it though.

C/SA, Pacific Islands, Caribbean, Asia, and Eastern Europe Invitees, WHERE ARE YOU!?

I am not trying to discriminate again Africa volunteers (you are welcome to sign up!), but they are dominating the journal project thus far!  It would be great to get PCVs from multiple countries in each region where possible. Here are the countries that have a PCV signed up:
Africa: Botswana, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, Cameroon
Central/South America: Panama, Ecuador
Central Asia/Asia: Kazakhstan, China
Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Romania

I have loved the enthusiasm about this endeavor and I cannot wait to get things started!  We still need 11 more PCVs.  If you are interested in this little art project, please E-MAIL me with: Your assignment, departure date, country, last name, e-mail address that you will use during service, and your training address (usually found in your Welcome stuff!).  It is too time consuming to track down all of your information via blog!

Thanks!
Note to self: Buy journal this week!

Twenty-Three

Something a little different today: My first ever video! I have forgotten for so long how to do video on my D-90 that I was pretty excited to figure it out :)  This will be my Day 23 in lieu of a photo, which I can do if I want to! I had a pretty sweet day hanging with my sisters.  We did some baking (Oreo-filled Chocolate Chip Cookies) and some dinner making (sun-dried tomato fettuccine alfredo with blackened chicken).  Then we followed things up with a little Wii with the little brother :)

I had a pretty awesome weekend off of work.  Yesterday was uneventful during the day, but at night I went to Gainesville for a Peace Corps Bowling Social at UF thrown by the wonderful campus recruiter Amy Panikowski.  I got there a bit late, so I didn't actually get to bowl which is fine since I had a good time talking to Liz and Jessica while messing with Jessica's bowling score via distraction.  It was nice to get out of the house for something other than work or going to hang out at my mom's house.  Jessica was awesome enough to invite me to hang out with her and some friends afterward which was also enjoyable and reminded me how much I like small get-togethers and drinking games.

Once again I didn't feel like proofreading.  Sue me :)

Let's do a project!

After talking with some other Future PCVs, we decided it would be kind of awesome to compile a notebook between PCVs in different countries over the course of two years and have each person do their thing in the book twice during their service. What each person decides to put on their pages is up to them, the point is for it to be a snapshot of the volunteer's life at that point in time.  Pictures, anecdotes, poems, drawings, whatever floats your boat!  The notebook I have in mind is this one and it has 100 pages, so I was figuring each person would get 2 spreads of two open-faced pages each (I hope that makes sense!) over the course of two years. Since shipping between countries can take awhile, I'd like to limit the book to staying with each person for 2-3 weeks if possible!

Basically, I want 23 people going to 23 different countries (if possible) to volunteer for this project!  Ultimately, it would be great for something like this to be out there via scanned copy for future volunteers or even an actual published version :)  So if you are leaving for service in 2011 and have an invite already (or have already left) and want to be a part of this yet-to-be named project, then e-mail me at:
 k i m b e r l e y r o s e p h o t o @ g m a i l . c o m (no spaces!) with your name, country, and departure date.  As soon as you have a training or permanent address for service, you must let me know!

I will keep an index of all the addresses and send everyone the address that they will need to ship the journal to next.

If you have any other suggestions as to how to make this even better or smoother of an idea, please let me know!

**It may be a bit pricey, so keep this in mind! Luckily, you will only have to ship twice during your two years of service

:)

List of participants

Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One & Twenty-Two

(19) Car wash day! I now have a happier car.

(20) Went for a drive around my area. I also did not get lost, which makes me extra impressed with myself.

(21) Yes, this is a road (it even had a street sign!) This was day two of exploring the area.

(22) Flip cup after PC Bowling at UF.  Had a great time talking with Liz (Uganda) and Jessica (Zambia).

Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen & Eighteen

(15) A view from my back porch 

 (16) My cats pretty much never keep these suckers on anymore.  They now sit as decoration. As a side note, I have given up bottled water as of 1/16! Totally an adjustment for me. 

(17) I pretty much love this run down half sign.

(18) Abandoned trailer next to the Loin-tree's (aka: Mom's)  house.

Joining the Peace Corps with Tattoos

One of the pages on my blog is labeled "My Little Big Push."  When I started out my application for the Peace Corps, I thought to myself  "They'll never take me.  I have too many visible tattoos and they tend to be looked down on in many places."  I then set to the internet searching for instances of other people who had the same situation I did, and boy were they far and few between to find.  I didn't find much information out there on the interwebs, but I did find a website that had a section where people could ask questions to a former recruiter regarding Peace Corps.  I submitted a question and subsequently forgot about it.  A month or so later I started searching around again for an answer to my question and found that I had been answered in such a way that I finished my application the next day.

During my phone interview, I answered all of the basic questions that can be found on PC Wiki and then was asked if I had any questions or concerns.  I shared with my recruiter my concerns about having so many visible tattoos and whether it would hinder my getting accepted.  I explained that I understood how other people perceive them in foreign cultures and that I was willing to cover them during service.  She commended me on being culturally aware of issues that may arise and my understanding of being culturally sensitive to the issue, and because I knew full well what I was getting into, she had no issues sending me forward in the process (after some addition info for my file, that is).

When it came to my medical kit, the Clinical Examination portion asks about identifying marks, scars, and tattoos.  I wrote in the empty space to the right the following: "Nautical tattoos covering right arm.  Star tattoo on left wrist. Banana tattoo right foot.  Rose tattoos on L&R side of chest near shoulders.  Butterfly tattoo on right shoulder blade."  Easy-peasy.

During my medical evaluation, nothing was asked of me by my nurse in regards to the matter.  No statement, nothing.

My placement interview was essentially an e-mail with questions to respond back with.  It was all basic, run-of-the-mill questions re-asking many of the same things asked by my recruiter the first time around.  After responding I was issued an invitation.

My assumption has been that my recruiter wrote something amazing in my file in regards to my attitude about fitting in and serving while being so decorated, that no one else from PC Land had to bother to ask me about it. (So thanks Elene H.!)

Another invitee asked to see pictures of my tattoos, so I figured I'd share my visible ones here in hopes that other future PCVs that may come across this can find their "Little Big Push," too.

Since I have an almost sleeve going on, I will be investing in a couple of these for my service so that I can get away with short sleeves and rolling up my sleeves as well.

PS: Sorry for the quality of some of the pictures.  It is very hard to hold a heavy camera in your non-dominant hand to take a picture!

Thirteen & Fourteen

I fell asleep early last night an failed to post my picture! Good thing the point is to take a picture daily, not post one daily :)

I have been working my way through that blue book since I got it in the mail the other day! So interesting and useful.  They make the Culture Smart! Series for quite a few countries that PC serves in. (Thirteen)

I ate the last of these suckers today with my mom and step-sister.  So yummy! (Fourteen)

Twelve

Deliveries!

Not only did I get some books from Amazon today, but my Godiva order arrived today as well!  I love that I found that old gift card, especially since I love me some dark chocolate :)  I did find it hilarious that my one little box of chocolate came in a HUGE box containing a Styrofoam cooler with an ice pack inside.  Extravagant for candy, but hey, at least it didn't melt. 

My big accomplishments for the day, however, were making my own coffee (something I haven't done in years! It came out delicious, btw) and annoying the sourpuss lady who works at the Post Office by writing a check for $0.57 so I could mail off more than half off my paycheck to pay for carpeting.  Upside is I will now only owe another $700!

On the PC front...
I really need to get studying this Ukrainian, but I am having a hard time making myself do it!  Damn you Lost and your Instant-Watch-on-Netflix ways.

Eleven

I am kind of a work nerd...

I may not be enjoying my current store, but that doesn't stop me from taking pride in what I do when I am at work.  It also doesn't stop me from want to STRANGLE other people I work with who don't pay attention to details.  I constantly work on the women's denim wall in my store and if I don't, then I wind up having to 

re-organize the entire thing a week later anyway.  This is bother some because it is easy to maintain! There are labels under each stack that say which color and size belong there along with how many of each size!  As I have been working on this never ending project, I keep finding "Online Only" sizes, that have been returned to the store, which DO NOT go in the wall. In addition to this, I also find re-ticketed item with incorrect size codes. I usually throw them across the shop into our customer service area in frustration. I think these things bother me as much as they do because I know better and I understand how it impacts our customers as well as the store's inventories when things that were coded wrong get sold or returned.

Anyway...The point of the chart above is so that people at work (hopefully) start coding items correctly.  I put  taped the crap out of these suckers onto every register, in the FR, and on the customer service counter.

Like I said, I am kind of a work nerd :)

Ten.

Traveling gnome?! 

You bet I have one!

Nine

I get far too much amusement out of the Smart Water animals.

"Let's drink responsibly and recycle! (You know you really otter)"

Gah, I need a new camera lens.  I love mine in some instances and hate it in others :(

PS: I have been posting some shitty pictures. Please don't judge my photo skills based on them!  I am hoping to soon have the motivation to care what my 365 pictures look like and hopefully find some photography inspiration.

Eight

And so I again start the scarf that I have started and restarted numerous time since 2007.  As I was cleaning the other day, I found my incomplete knitting and have been working on it here and there since then.

I am actually surprised that I didn't unravel the whole thing and start from scratch again.  New scarf for Ukraine!

Day Seven

Okay, so technically it is past midnight, but I haven't been to bed yet, so it is still Day Seven.  I did something I consider to be AMAZING today, for me at least.  Let me start by saying I am a dumb ass.  Not because I lack intelligence, but because I made a stupid mistake when I placed an Amazon order.  What was the mistake?  I somehow sent it to a house that I used to live in back in Las Vegas.  Not even my most recent previous address, or the one after that, but the one I moved into after I left Reno in 2007!  Damn you, Amazon for making this mistake easy for me to make!  Now, I don't know how I managed to have it sent there, since a second order has the correct shipping address, but I didn't find out my stuff was going to an old address until I checked the tracking and saw it as delivered!  FML.

What was in the package?  Two Nalgene bottles and an AC adapter.  While I don't need any of this right away, I have been wanting to get music, pictures, and person info off of my old laptop, which cannot be done with out this AC adapter, since my less-than-a-year-old one crapped out.  Or so I thought...

Since my mom has Fridays off, she enjoys having me over for coffee in the morning, so I went over there today and hung out with her before work.  I had brought my old laptop over there so that my step-sister could go through my music to try to find new bands to load up her iPod with.  It was that day that my charger, which had been on the fritz for a while, finally crapped out.  While my mom and I were watching the news, I figured I would work on trying to fix the adapter, or at least rig it so the dead laptop could charge a bit.  First I worked on trying to get the piece that plugs into the computer into a more solid position since it has a few frayed wires exposed.  No such luck, this was not the issue.  Then I saw the part way down that cable had some more frayed wires exposed, so I stripped the black outer layer back and twisted them together.  Still didn't work.  At this point I gave in and went back to watching TV with my mom.

Half an hour later, as we are watching 3000 Miles to Graceland, I come up with another idea for the cable.  I stripped down the black outer layer on either side of the frayed wires and twisted the giant sections of cord together.  Yet another fail. Break time again.

After about twenty minutes, I started at it again, prompting my mom to tell me she liked my determination.  The next step I had decided to try was getting the plastic-y piece where the cord connects to the adapter box stripped away so I can see  if any frayed wires were deep in there.  They were, but they were not easily accessible without getting the adapter box open (which was a difficult task).  Once I got the box apart, I twisted the proper wires with one another, put the box back together again and tried to power on the computer for what felt like the millionth time.  SUCCESS!

I was so freaking proud of myself! I have never messed with wiring or anything electrical like that, so I am pretty impressed with this feat. Did I mention I did all of this using bulky scissors, a flat head screwdriver, tweezers, and electrical tape? Wire cutters and needle nose pliers would have been handy....

That is a lot of electrical tape...  :)

Bizarre Foods

So Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern often shows him in countries where Peace Corps serves, which makes those some of my favorite episodes since I tend to think: "I wonder how many PCVs have tried that!"  I really enjoy watching that show, as well as the show Taboo  from National Geographic.  They both are really eye opening for me in that they help me to realize certain things aren't weird or gross, just different from what I am used to which makes me, and most Americans, think: "Eww! That is weird and gross!"  I try my best not to have this reaction so much anymore and actually tend not to.  I think it is because I have grown to become more fascinated with cultural differences, rather than weirded out by them.  Basically, I recommend watching these shows (especially Bizarre Foods) just to see a taste of what you may be getting into.  Call it mental preparation :)

Let it be said though, trying to eat jellied meat or fish and salo (salted (or occasionally raw) unrendered pork fat lard) will be incredibly hard for me to try and eat, but I have committed to myself that I will try pretty much any food that is offered to me while in Ukraine.

Day Six

Clean and cleaned!

I spent the last 3 hours or so re-arranging, organizing, and cleaning up my room.  My goal was to have it done by the end of the week and I have succeeded, so yay!  I still have most of my stuff packed, but my clothes are in dresser drawers despite my hatred of dressers and the odds and ends now have homes.

Oh, and my Meme is quite shocked to be able see things looking tidy in here :)

Day Five

You know what I like about this 365 thing?  It helps give me things to write about!  I generally find myself to be a pretty crappy blogger as I tend to either give up and lose interest or wind up using my blog as a means to complain or vent (which I have avoided doing on the particular blog.)

Today I found myself rather stoked by the massive amount of rain I have seen today! Not so stoked to do as much driving in it as I did though.  I has been quite awhile since I have seen a downpour like that :)

My picture today is my first house item that I bought for Peace Corps, which came via FedEx today.  It is a measuring cup and spoon set with metric measurements and pretty colors.  I know I could have bought some when I get there, but I was looking for things to buy online to take with me and "measuring cups" popped into my head as a need.

Day Four

I managed to catch my brother online today and he forcefully convinced me to video call him with Skype despite the fact that video chat mildly freaks me out due to my own insecurities in regards to not photographing nicely.  I sucked it up though.

I haven't seen Matt in a couple years, not since he visited Las Vegas with a friend of his from Boston College, and even then I didn't see him much.  Matt is my unstep, never step-brother brother, and yes, that makes sense :)  When my family first moved to Las Vegas when I was three, Matt and his family lived across the street and we became instant buddies since he was only a few month younger than I.  A few year later my mom and his dad wound up together despite the upset it caused with our other parental units.  I also managed to inherit two other brothers from the situation, one older and one younger.  Our parents were together for over 15 years and never married and then split a few years ago.  Hence the unstep, never step-brother brother label.


Anyway... He has been living in Columbia doing various internships in regards to their government for the past 15 months, which I think it pretty awesome of him.  He is one person who has been over the moon excited for me to go into the Peace Corps, which makes me feel better knowing I have someone beyond excited for me without telling me they are going to miss me (I never know how to quite respond to that one....)  We got to talking about integrating into a new community and culture and I found it amazing that despite his 7 years of studying Spanish, he couldn't understand a thing anyone was saying.  This actually makes me feel pretty good about the language aspect of things.  I also find myself amused that he has a hard time speaking English on the occasions that he does because he conducts every piece of his life in Spanish.  He even goes so far as to not hang out with Americans or other native English speakers he encounters because he wants that language and cultural immersion.

That is how I want my PC experience to be.  Obviously I want to be friends with other PCVs, but I don't want it to get in the way of my immersion like I know it can.  I have the ability to be a loner and homebody on far too many occasions, so I am glad I am taking on this whole 365 thing since it seems like a great way to get me out of the house and interacting with people while in Ukraine which, too, will help with the immersion thing.

Day Three

I love Spaghetti's "I am not amused" face.

I don't blame her, I hate having my picture taken, too and my camera has one bright flash.  Anyway, see those little bits of pink on her paw? Those are Kitty Caps which are a nifty little invention to keep people from de-clawing (AKA: amputating a piece of the paw!) their furry feline friends by offering an easy alternative.  I decided to buy them in colored form this time around and I am so amused by it!

I still don't know where my cats will go when I leave and I really don't want to think about giving them up.  My mom and step-dad are refusing to take them in since they don't do litter boxes and my sister HATES cats, so that is out of the question, and my Meme, while amused by them, only puts up with them since I am here to take care of the little monsters.  Le sigh.

Oh! And I got my duffel bags in the mail today. Yay! They are actually quite large and I am kind of excited to start getting my things together.

Day Two

Leave it to me to forget my fancy pants camera as I left for work today.  My little brother turns eleven tomorrow, so we did a birthday celebration today after I made it over to my mom's house from work.  I HATE camera phone cameras...

I am glad I was able to celebrate this birthday with my family since I have not been a part of my brother's birthday celebrations for eight years and here I am about to miss two (or three!) more.  He was pretty stoked to get the little iPod shuffle I got him.  It is a far cry from the iPod touch he wanted for Christmas, but I am a firm believer that kids don't need luxuries like that in their lives so young as it really seems to drive the sense of entitlement so many kids have nowadays.

I plan to actually post pictures of quality eventually, but for now crap-cam pictures will have to suffice since my motivation to try has been killed by my newly found hatred of work.  I'll post more on that later, but as of lately I am considering quitting a month earlier than I had initially planned for the sake of my sanity.

Making an Attempt; Day One

It is a new year! But really, we all know that as we aren't exactly living under a rock.  I am not one for resolutions since I think that we can start any goals we may have at any time we'd like to.  There are, however, some things that just seem perfect to aim for with the start of a new year, one of which is a 365 Photo Project (though, this year it shall be a 366!)

Before I post my Day One photo, I think I need to explain myself...

I moved to Florida just over (and I do mean just) two months ago.  I initially hoped that I wouldn't be living with my Meme past the end of March, and thankfully I found out that this would be the case a mere 9 days after moving in.  With this mindset, I have REFUSED to unpack my stuff, including setting up my clothes in the closet and dresser (mostly out a habit and a hatred of putting away laundry). This is pretty much because I both hate unpacking and packing and, to be realistic, I knew I would need to repack my room when March came around anyway.  My intention has been that I will go through my green bins of packed items when I start getting ready for Ukraine.

Today though, I realized that I am a little ashamed that my Meme will peek into my room to talk to me and shake her head a little bit at the thought of me living out of a few green bins with laundry strewn across two of them.  This brings me to my Day One picture:

I will break down and put my clothes away and repack a few things that happen to be out from my digging for items I have needed since moving.  I think I will also rearrange since this set up isn't my favorite ever.  My goal is to have this done by the end of this week, perhaps it will get worked on as I transfer music onto an external hard drive and load up a shiny new iPod Classic.

I understand that I may not be able to post daily, but that doesn't mean I cannot take a new picture daily and post them all at once as a recap :)

PS: Don't judge my hatred of processing laundry, retail has killed the folding and hanging monster in me on the home front.