What's in a year?

Every year for the last several I’ve written a “things I’ve learned in the last year” blogpost, usually posted to MySpace. Since MySpace died a slow and painful death last year, and I’m quite certain no one reads it, and a lot has happened in the last year, I’ll post here as I know I have a pretty solid readership. For those of you, who know me solely through Peace Corps, keep in mind that for a lot of the year, I wasn’t in Peace Corps yet. Next year will probably wholly be things I learned in Peace Corps. Some of the points are fluffy, or silly, or dumb, others are more serious, others are hard for me to swallow still now, but the point is to get it all out there, reflect, and move on. So, here we go…

• Having my own apartment with no roommates, and no parents, and no clandestine animals, and no split payments, and one rent payment that I could barely afford on my own was one of the most freeing and wonderful feelings I’ve ever had. It is also one of the first times that I came to the realization that I am an adult and expect to be treated as one. Interestingly, not living in college flop house style at 25 afforded me this very respect.
• I truly and honestly don’t give two shits about snow. I think snowboarding is really fun, and I wouldn’t trade my time learning and playing, but in the end, I don’t and won’t live or die by the inch count. I will still go snowboarding, and I even hope to learn to ski one day but if I miss a season, I refuse to apologize. There, I said it.
• There’s nothing like waking up after an intense fight and diving head first into a Peace Corps application. There’s also nothing like having an intense fight to make you realize that you’ve been putting life on hold and it’s time to start that Peace Corps application already.
• My family are amazingly supportive of the crazy adventures I tell them I’m about to go do, every time.
• I love everything about cupcakes. I love eating them. I love baking them. I love coming up with different possible flavors on slow days. I miss them every day. I also love sprinkles. And I love the competitiveness of the cupcake world and talking shit about “designer cupcakes”. How silly life has gotten when you’re gossiping about the other cupcake shops, and also how entertainingly wonderful.
• According to Peace Corps-DR I’m one of the healthier people here. Take that Jackson Hole OB/GYN.
• Anticipation is a gloriously painful feeling, but ever so rewarding in the end.
• The Northwest String Summit is the best festival in the world.
• I love hula hoops.
• I wish as a small child, grade school say, that I had had the opportunity to learn a foreign language. This is not the fault of my parents, for schools don’t offer foreign language with any degree of learning until high school unless you want to pay through the nose for private school, and frankly we couldn’t afford it. I don’t know if the school systems assume that young brains can’t learn it, but young brains are the only ones who can. I sit here immersed in another language at the age of 25 and my rate for picking it up is intangibly slow, and I’m embarrassed because while the school system here leaves something to be desired, they are still ambitious enough to require English AND French for their high school students. And speaking of this Spanish speaking country I’m in, what is it now, like half of the U.S. is Spanish speaking. Why shouldn’t we learn it? They all learn English, and for anyone who thinks they damn well should, well keep in mind, there are far more jobs at home and the world over that would rather hire someone bi-lingual than not.
• I just plain don’t get racism. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ve witnessed it now in a few different countries, but with intensity in two, and honestly, what’s the point? It doesn’t make you a better person to hate, especially based on something so superficial.
• I don’t know where we get the name Christopher Colombus. His name was Cristofer Colon. Colon! We can pronounce that in English! Colombus was WAY off. And I know, because this is where he landed. On another note, I hope someone else is as astonished as I was that for the entire landmass of the Western Hemisphere he managed to land on a tiny little Island in the middle of more water…and think it was India.
• Parents (not just mine, parents in general) imagine if your kids were only in school from 8-noon everyday. Would you rip your hair out or what?
• There are these great things in the Dominican Republic that you don’t find a lot of in the U.S. anymore and I love it. They’re called neighbors. They come over to talk, they watch your kids, they keep an eye on your house when you’re gone, they share their dinner, they yell at you to let you know the lights or water have been turned back on, they tell you what the girl around the corner has been doing. When did we stop trusting people in America?
• Housewifery/Stay-at-home mommery is a thankless job everywhere on earth I think. Sarah, you’re doing an awesome job.
• We’re already planning our 10 year Peace Corps reunion before we’ve even started our full two years here. I think I have some best friends for life.
• My life goal is to work for Sesame Street.
• With all its flaws, the social service welfare system in the U.S. is an amazing and beautiful thing. Believe me.
• I feel lucky to have been given the hand I was dealt. There is no reason in my belief, metaphysical or otherwise, that I was born into and lived such a life without serious hardship.

2009 has been one of the best years of my life, thank god since 2008 was probably one of the worst. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, I lost some friendships, others soured for reasons I do and don’t understand. But I’ve gained a lot this year. I’ve learned a lot about myself and others. I’ve become pretty confident in who I am as a person, and I’ve gained countless friendships that will stand the test of time if for no other reason than we share a bond of throwing ourselves into another culture and place all for the purpose of doing something that feels right. The Peace Corps journey has just begun, and I hope you stick with me for it, it’s certain to be quite a story. (And I still really hate mosquitoes).

-I went spearfishing. Well, I didn’t do the spearing just the snorkeling but I watched the spearfishing taking place. I also saw a shark and almost had a heart attack. It may have been a baby shark but I thought it was large and scary looking and my frightened mind is absolutely willing to exaggerate. We only speared four fish, and by “we” I mean the person I was fishing with. The snorkeling was awesome though, all that stuff you see in Finding Nemo, yeah, it’s real.

-I was proposed marriage four times in one day. This may seem funny, but it’s really pretty disgusting the way these men go about it, and one of them was offered as a business proposition—with benefits. This same day I was asked by a Dutch tourist if I was here because I was married to a Dominican. Apparently I exude matrimony.

-I’m getting REALLY good at dominoes, at least by American standards (it’s like the national sport here, I regularly get beat by a nine year old). I’ve played every day since I’ve been here and I’m finally starting to win some, and not even out of pity.

-I went to the equivalent of a PTA meeting the other day that I was entirely unprepared for (jeans and a wifebeater unprepared) and lasted three hours. THREE HOURS. The regular school day is four hours and the meeting was three hours. Interestingly the subject was interfamily violence, and then about a half hour later I heard someone hitting their kid. Hmm.

-I need to practice my bachata, it seems as though I have no rhythm.

-I eat halls cough drops like candy. I actually don’t mean that figuratively like “I’ve had a cold so I eat halls like candy.” We literally eat them as though they were candy.

-There’s this telenovela on Telemundo called Niños Ricos Pobres Padres that’s about a group of prep school students who have love affairs with one another and what not. The catch? Pretty much all of the actors are at least in their late twenties, early thirties, and it’s obvious. And they’re playing high school students. Good news Zac Efron (and better news for you Rachel) you can play a high school senior for at least 10 or 15 more years.

-I live about a mile from a mangrove forest. These mangroves kick the ass of Florida’s mangroves and here’s why: There are no alligators, crocodiles, or snakes; contrary to logic they’re really clean; the water is crystal clear and absolutely swimmable. Take that, everglades.

-For those of you who don’t know, I grew up playing softball. Just because I grew up this way by no means signifies that I was any good. I also haven’t played more than a handful of times in probably ten or so years. But, by virtue of knowing how to play, I’m considered amazing at softball here. The DR is going to be really good for my self esteem I think.

-I’m getting used to and/or starting to enjoy: sugar with a side of coffee, riding on the back of a motorcycle (with one other person, when it’s more it’s still incomodo), everything about plaintains (it took me a solid minute to think of the English word), conducting my daily life in Spanish (though I’m still what some might call really rusty), ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast.