Saying Good Byes #1 (Denver, Colorado)

From about the 20th to the 28th I travelled down to Denver to see my older brother, my beautiful niece and as many good-ol' college buddies as I could meet up with.  Nathan was an amazing host and very accommodating to all my needs.  He picked me up from the airport as well as dropped me off.  He gave me a bed to sleep on the entire time I stayed at his house, he also provided me with food and some of history's best ever games on NCDubs not counting the series biggest blowout a 21 point stomping done by me on Nathan's weak skillz, (NCAA 2009, College Football on XBox for those of you that are unfamiliar.)   Nathan also drove me to the other side of Denver so that I could spend time with my brother.  To try and repay Nathan I have made him many meals for when he came home, bought him 3 bags of sour patch kids (the first bag was totally unacceptable so I bought him 2 more), and of course, put the dirty dishes on the counter and absolutely not in the sink.  I owe Nathan a lot for his great hospitality, but for now I would like to tell Nathan, BIG UPPPS!  RESPECT!  And of course, Much Love.  

One of the things Nathan and I did while  I was in town was drive to Aspen/Glenwood to meet up with our old college buddies and go watch the X Games.  Traffic prevented us from being able to make it out to the X Games Friday but it didn't prevent us from going out Friday night in Glenwood where we were staying at our friend Jaime's house.  Jaime was a great host as well but boy was his house crowded.  There was 5 of us staying at his house, 6 including Jaime.  Out of the 6 staying there, there was one girl (Stephanie, Tim's wife, and one of my first friends at college, yay Cornado hall!)  All I have to say is poor, poor Steph.  She is a saint for surviving putting up with 5 idiot men for 2 whole days.  Thinking about it now, if you counted up all the farts between us in 2 days then I would say on average there was at least one person farting every 5 minutes.  Also, Jaime only had one toilet...One toilet for 6 

people, 5 of which filled up on Beer and 3AM 7-11 burritos, spicy cheetos and bean dip.  Needless to say I am pretty sure that someone was always someone waiting to use the bathroom. 

Once the trip was all said and done I had a blast.  I wish I could have seen more of my brother and niece but circumstances did not really allow it but beggars can't be choosers and I will take the night I got to spend with them versus not seeing them at all.  It's already been 2 summers since I had last seen my niece Emily and 4 years would be way too long!  Not too mention, my brother is a great cook and I have a goal to eat as much great food in my life as I can!  Now that I am done in Denver, I have to packup/give away everything that I own and leave Anchorage! Things are starting to pickup and everyday things are starting to click, however I still don't realize that I will be in a different continent in less then a month. 

Still waiting, stewing, kinda ready, kinda not!

A tip of advice to all future PCV's, don't tell people around you that you are leaving for the corps outside of your family and closest friends until at least 2 weeks before you leave.  Otherwise you will be telling the same stories over and over and over about where you are going, giving a B.S. response as to what you will be doing (because I have no clue really!  something with teaching!), hearing from many people how they wish they could do what you are doing (annoying because in most cases they could be).  They will want to know a million detailed things about the country where you are going to serve even though you have probably never been to it.  You will find yourself reciting what you have read on other PCV's blogs, your slightly outdated PC Welcome book, Wikipedia or what you have heard from you recruiter or whomever else.  You will be praised as a great person for your sacrifice, even though you haven't done anything yet! Don’t get me wrong, part of my reason in doing the Peace Corps is to try to do some good in this world.  However, if my main intention was to do good things, I don’t have to travel across the world to start doing it!  I understand what people mean about the whole process and I thank them for their compliments and yes I do agree that the Peace Corps has great intentions and hopefully after I served my two years I will have had made a positive difference, I just don’t think what myself and however many other PCV’s are doing is that big of a sacrifice.  I think if more people thought that it wasn’t such a big deal or sacrifice, maybe we could get more people to do it!  

The past 3-4 weeks in Alaska has been the coldest I have ever experienced in the 4 years I have lived here.  We had 3 weeks of sub-zero temperatures, I think our high might have been like 4 degrees.  Yesterday the temp hit 22*!!!  22 felt like a freaking heat wave, not once did my nostril hairs freeze! Knowing that soon I will be in tropical temperatures has helped keep me warm, even though I know I will be bitching about the heat, humidity and hairy insects crawling everywhere around me  here shortly!