1st Sunday in Tonga

Things are fine. Living is easy so far. Peace Corps has taken care of all thinking and I just cruise along from one event to the next. Some of the other trainees are really great; they're all nice and the skill set is impressively broad. They really impressed upon us at the training how we are  family for the next two years. That's really reassuring: I remember times in China when I felt pretty alone. Its nice to know we are all invested in each other's emotional health.

I'm supposedly with a very challenging language trainer, which I'm looking forward to, since I'll need the extra help... I've been sleepy since we got here, and I can't wait to be on some kind of regular sleep schedule. I'm wearing my first skirt and just got back from church. The real work begins next week with language class. Absolutely everyone is excited for the first year of costruction educators. The four of us are excited totally pumped and pretty diverse. We're anxious to get out there, be done with training and work with the communities on exciting projects.

Been swimming and running already. But not allowed to do it today, sunday, church day, total bummer dude!

Pre-Tonga Stats

I've heard a lot about PC guys losing weight... and the women gaining it, while in Tonga. I wonder if the total poundage gained by the women can exceed that lost by the men; would that violate some basic principle of physics? Anyway, I'd like to see just what happens to my guts while I'm in Tonga. So here's what I look like now:

weight: 181 lbs
height: 6'3" (not expecting this to change)
blood pressure: 121/80
pulse: 64 bpm
body fat percentage: 8.5% (YMCA formula, what's this even mean??)
gastrointestinal parasites: unknown
diet: predominately vegetable derived
facial hair: well trimmed
hair: 8 in below shoulders

dumb moves 1

Let's be honest, I do a lot of dumb things. In anticipation of having many silly mistakes to write about I'm numbering this post. This act may turn out to be a dumb move, but, well, that's me!

Today I went for a run in a new pair of vibram fivefingers, those ugly new shoes that the barefoot runners are pushing and I'm embarrassed to admit to caving into the fad. I've been running in sandles for months now and a store credit at EMS convinced me it was time to give these things a try. I'm sure it takes some getting used to, I'm flexing a bunch of new balance muscles and stuff... but man I'm wrecked from this short exploratory run. Just a few miles and my left foot alone has got 3 blisters. My right big toe looks, kind of troubled, like there is some real internal angst that it just can't seem to express. I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow. My legs are sore, but mostly in good ways. I think I'll give 'em another try, but I don't see them being very useful for the next two years.

T[onga] minus 6 days

There isn't actually time to do a blog entry right now, but I guess that's always going to be the case. Most importantly: I went from not even processing what was about to happen to being pretty darn excited about it. When you get the news that the US gov wants to send you to another country... and you are already off traveling in exotic lands, I guess its easy to move those feelings to the back burner. Now that I'm back in NY, shoveling all I can into this last little week, my excitement is flaring up. Everyday I get another email from someone offering more advice and information. It's good that the Peace Corps hasn't tried to give me all the information. I'm not sure if they intentionally withhold some or simply don't know it (a mix seems likely), either way it'd just be too much to handle to get it all at once.

I got a call from some PC office a couple days ago telling me they haven't received my passport yet and questioning me why I hadn't applied for it. The woman sounded slightly peeved with me. When I explained that I was holding the passport in my very own two hands, that didn't seemed to alleviate her... frustration. Apparently, when I applied for it at the Tel Aviv US consulate, something went wrong and it was returned to me, which isn't supposed to happen, which I didn't know, and I guess the consulate didn't know, and I guess no one at Peace Corps was alerted to, and ultimately there wasn't really anytime left to do anything about. I hung up the phone, quietly chuckling, relieved that I hadn't blurted out laughing while the perturbed woman was still on the line. I mean, I much to busy to be worrying about silly things like that. It was a humorous way to start my day; I hoped the caller's day would improve.