My American Year

It's been exactly one year since I left Tanzania. Wow, time flies. I'd be hard pressed to decide if this year or the year I was actually in Tanzania was crazier. Probably the year I was there, but this year has been pretty darn close. So much has happened. I think I'm finally at a place where I can celebrate all the awesome things I've done this year that I wouldn't have gotten to do if I had stayed in the Peace Corps.


1. I watched my best friend get married and stood beside her as Maid of Honor. She was the first of my group of friends to tie the knot, and I'm still oh-so-happy for her! Her marriage brought a lot of changes to our friendship and a lot of learning about this new phase of life we find ourselves in. Marriage changes all your relationships and married/very committed friends seem to live increasingly different lives from single/still-mingling friends. It's taken some getting used to and kind of makes me feel old that many of my friends (and myself, kind of) are settling down. But it's a good thing.

2. I went on so many awesome road trips! First, there was the super spontaneous "I'm-not-going-back-to-Africa-so-let's-drive-to-California" road trip. Before we left, Zach’s mom (who I had just recently met) commented, “Well, I guess you’ll know if you really like each other after 2 weeks in the car together.” Our response: “I think we already know that since we spent 9 months on opposite sides of the globe.” Hahaha. Needless to say, we survived 2 weeks in the car together. Highlights included our first couchsurfing experience, my first visit to California, falling in love with the city of San Diego, and spending time at the house in Williams, AZ (Zach starting to sneakily convince me to move there).
Then for Memorial Day weekend we drove to Chicago and took in that ginormous city. We went to Cleveland for the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros show and talked to the lead singer on the street. We had an awesome camping/rafting trip with lots of friends in West Virginia.
The second big road trip was the Northeast and Canada. I got to catch up with many dear old friends from college days and introduce Zach to New York City. Then we hit all the great cities in eastern Canada, learned a few words of French, and met awesome people through couchsurfing.
After that was another drive to move to Arizona. Since here we have visited Lake Havasu, Sedona/Jerome, Durango, Colorado, Verde Hot Springs, San Diego again, and Tijuana, Mexico (for a few hours).
And the road trips will only continue!!!!!!

3. I’ve learned about cultivating and sustaining a loving relationship. For the first time in my life I’m in a relationship that I know is totally right. I’m not worried about getting bored and I don’t miss being single. I’m in it to win it and loving that “I finally found my person” feeling. It doesn’t mean that every day is hearts, stars, and rainbows though. Living together has definitely taken some getting used to. I think it’s been made harder by the fact that we’re new in this state and don’t have friends close by to turn to when we need to release tension. I have nowhere else to go with my moody side and he doesn’t have the alone time he used to get sitting on his roof in Columbus. So yeah, we get on each other’s nerves sometimes. But we’re learning to understand each other more and more each day. I’m realizing that I may just have to get used to telling him to do the same thing 100 times, and he’s realizing that sometimes him cleaning the kitchen means more to me than a hug.

4. I’ve become more honest about who I am. I’m definitely still a bit of a people-pleaser but I think I’ve become a lot more open over the past year, especially with those closest to me. I’m allowing myself to accept that many disagree with me but it’s okay. If I was exactly the same as all my family and friends what fun would that be? I’m genuinely happy with my life and my choices, even if they are “against the grain.” I no longer hide anything about my life in an attempt to keep everyone happy.  The people who really love me will love me no matter what.

5.  Not to pat myself on the back too much, but one quality I think I've exhibited this year that I'm proud of is "actually doing  what I say I'm going to do."  I know so many people who are always saying "Someday I'll go here..." or "Yeah, I said I'd find a new job this year but then x and y came up..."  I hate that!  Don't talk about it unless you're really going to WORK to make it happen!!!  I said I'd drive to California and back on $600.  Check.  I talked about the east coast road trip for months before and then did it.  Check.  I said I'd move to Arizona and find a new job.  Done.  And this will continue!  I've talked a lot about going to South America now and I am not full of hot air!  It is happening, October 2011!  Just 8 short months from now!  Because you all know I can't stay put in America for too long!  ;-)

I'm sure the next year will be even crazier than this last one!!!

La Aventura Project website

Hey everyone!
Please check out the new blog/website for my awesome new documentary project!  CLICK HERE to go to the official website with it's own domain name and everything and then bookmark it!!! 
The project is going to be amazing and fundraising will be starting soon!
Thanks!

Looking to the new year

When I was an emo high-schooler and had a xanga blog at the end of December I used to always fill out and post this super-long questionaire about all my firsts, achievements, highlights, song lyrics describing the past year, etc.  Since I'm trying not to be that emo anymore but I'd still like to write something to conclude the year, I've decided to go with a list of PLANS (not resolutions, because I never keep those) for 2011:

1.  We'll start with the obvious one:  weight.  Ugh, I hate this.  Over the past few years I've pretty much realized that my natural "eat-whatever-I-want-and-occasionally-exercise" weight is a good 20 pounds more than I would like to be.  That sucks!  Oh, how I hate those people who can eat whatever they want and never gain a pound!  (Like my boyfriend, argh.)  I am SO TIRED of fighting my cravings and trying to lose it.  I know that if I could just suck it up and stick to a diet it would only take a few months to lose that pesky 20.  I've done it before, around junior year of college.  But of course I gained it all back a year or so later with my pre-Peace Corps feasting.  So this year, I've gotta do it!  I have the gym thing down (surprisingly, I never thought I'd be able to make myself a morning exerciser, but I've gotten in the habit thanks to sharing a car and Zach's early work schedule) so the diet is the missing piece.  I'm going to try to really discipline my calorie intake and only splurge for special occasions.  My goal is to be high-school weight again by the end of March.  So now it's on the internet!  Anyone who reads this better hold me to it!

2.  Get some nifty camera equipment.  It has been far too long since I've done anything with my major and my passion for documentary.  Now that I've at least got a steady paycheck, the goal is to pick up a few big things I need in order to start churning out work again.  This plan is also an integral piece of my latest big scheme (below).

3.  Be happier and less whiny.  I'm afraid to say the tumultuousness of the past year has too often made me into an unpleasant grump.  Zach faces the brunt of this, which is not at all fair.  Sure, my life took a complete 180 this year and I went through a lot of huge changes and emotional turmoil.  But I'm feeling more settled now and focusing a lot less on what I gave up (Peace Corps).  Sure I don't love my job now but at least I have one!  And, I have a grand escape scheme (below) to look forward to so I'm going to start looking on the bright side and being more cheerful in my day-to-day life!

4.  Study Spanish.  I have so much free time at work that I need to use for something other than internet surfing.  This also relates to the upcoming big shebang (below...don't you love how I leave it to last?).

Okay, here it is:
5.  Continue planning and begin LA AVENTURA PROJECT!!!!!!!  "What," you may ask, "is that?"  Well, friends, La Aventura Project is the latest, greatest, and biggest travel scheme which Zach and I have come up with.  As you all know, I can't stay in the US for more than a couple years straight without going nuts, and Zach has never really left the country (I don't count Canada and the Bahamas).  Add our good friend  Melissa, who is also feeling a bit bored with the 9 to 5 and itching for an adventure.  Then add the cheapest other continent to fly to from the US, and thus, most appealing destination at this time.  You guessed it: South America!  Here's what's going down:  In October of 2011 the three of us are going to take one backpack each, my camera equipment, our (sure to still be) very limited knowledge of Spanish, and $6,000 each and fly from Columbus to Colombia.  The rough plan is to spend an entire year and travel around the whole continent on $17/day each.  We will volunteer on organic farms (through WWWOOF.org), orphanages or other NGOs, and couchurf in order to get free accomodation and spend less money.  I will also make a sweet-ass documentary about our travel experiences and all the awesome stories we're sure to find.  So yeah, that's the big plan.  It's going to take a lot of fundraising, saving, and planning.  And it's going to be awesome.  We are setting up a blog for the trip, which can be found here.  So bookmark that now, yo!  I'll be sure to post updates as we get more prep done and get closer to the trip.  It's gonna be awesome.

So those are my basic plans for 2011.  Let's get to it!