a whole new year

I am 23 now, seems crazy I remember like it was yesterday turning 21 and heading to Bently’s, miss that. But things change, people change, I have changed. For this entry I am going to do a little review of my past year and then a synopsis of what is new.

A year ago I moved home to reading Pennsylvania to spend my last couple months with my parents before I left the country for 2+ years. Well at least that’s what I told Faith and Mike. In reality I had just spent a summer at the beach with my bff Maggie renting bikes to tourist at the incredible rate of $7.50 an hour for about 25 hours a week and spending the rest of those hours at the Chincoteague inn, golfing and people watching on the best beach in history to partake in such activity. Therefore putting me into a good amount of debt that had to be paid back by the time I left, February. Best option was to live with mom and dad.

So I headed home but stopped by a rugby tournament on the way and accidentally messed up my knee once again putting me on crutches and an immobilizer. Really no surprise there. So in my great attempt to both make money and rehabilitate I got a job at the local meat head “I do roids” station called LA Fitness. I had worked at a gym before in the frat row district in college so I knew my way around the power shakes and boneless skinless grilled chicken diet but never had I encountered such beings that work in a LA Fitness, I said wtf at least 10 times a shift, that plus I was straight up awful at the job, so it was only a 2 month gig .  I then moved on to bigger better positions, one as a sales attendant at Clarks shoe stores and as a waitress at the Rugby Tuesdays in a mall. I worked my ass off seeing how I was in even bigger debt.

It was about November or Decemberish that I got a call from peace corps saying that things got messed up and my departure date was not for another 6 months, but they had a position leaving in February for South America if I wanted it. Though pretty far away from my original plan of Africa working in health, I bought a bottle or two of wine, and invited my bff Beth over to decide with me. Peace Corps gave me two days to decide my fate. Well not hard to put together, I obviously decided that maybe with wine I can speak Spanish and that this was a sign of fate pulling me away from my long time goal of living in Africa. Thanks Beth, I have not regretted it yet.

By February I had pulled myself out of debt, even had some cash in the bank, could size a person’s foot by the sound of their step and knew exactly how cheap the bastards are that live in Reading PA. So yeah I was about ready to leave, plus my faithful car’s heater pooped out on me mid January in the coldest winter PA has had in decades. I packed my bags and alligator and moved far far away. From that point on I think I have it all written in the blogs before this, so if you need to catch up feel free to scroll upwards. Put in short, one of the most sweaty, and tallest Americans was put at zero altitude directly on the equator and told to try to make friends. Against all odds it worked!

Now for what is new. I turned 23, have my very own house (think jail cell) its made out of cement and has bars on the windows but I love my house. I teach aerobics classes in Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays . I have my very own garden with some tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, squash, and well I am not really sure. I know what compost is and I have made some. But that’s all well and good, the more important things are that on my birthday I brought home a puppy! The cutest little shit in the world. I named her Isla, that means island, yeah I know its not a name but its her name. She has no race just mutt, officially has gone outside to poop but refuses to pee anywhere but the kitchen floor. But as you sigh don’t forget that my awesome house is made completely out of cement, so who really cares how many times she pees on it, its not like it will get uglier. Isla also has a bad case of fleas and ticks, I call it a fiesta here at my house, with all the wildlife running around. But she is the most adorable little thing that pees when she gets scared/nervous which is exactly what I do so yeah we are life partners.

Second new thing in my life is my Ecua-novio. Ecua for Ecuador, novio for boyfriend. His name is Kleber, which is pronounced clever, now don’t get too excited, this is nothing big or realistic. It is though the best way to learn Spanish, and keep other cat calling men at bay. If you can remember from my other blog, Kleber is the guy I described as the tall one. He is approximately my height, is the only guy in my town with bigger feet than me and thinks I am really cool, therefore puts up with all the times I ask “what?” We will see how this goes… Also if there is a six figure income making guy reading my blog thinking I am the one for him, I want to make it clear that I am very much still on the market J

Oh and before I forget to mention,  I think the purpose of Peace Corps is to make girls like me a little more domesticated, you should see what I have popped out of my kitchen. Some top notch stuff, plus that whole cleaning and putting your shit away after you use it, I had no idea I could ever be this person, well I should say, I had no idea I could ever be my mom J