The Peace Corps sent me this giant packet full of information that I’ve been overwhelming myself with. The thing is, most Peace Corps volunteers don’t leave for months and months after they get accepted. I think the average was 6-9 months. I have 2 months. So I’ve got to cram all this information into my brain before I leave to try and prepare myself. Basically, I have 8 weeks to ready my life to be completely flipped upside down.
The packet came with this book called “A Few (Minor) Adjustments” and this passage from the first chapter, A New Country, caught my attention. It refers to culture shock and what to expect as well as tools to help prepare:
We should try to be precise about the source of our frustrations. Some of our trials are new, the result of our new environment and changed circumstances, and may require original solutions. But many others are simply old trials turning up in a new place. As such, we already know what to do about them, provided, that is, we identify them for what they are. On the whole, life doesn’t pose that many dilemmas; it merely recycles the same ones in new packaging.
So they’re telling me I already have the tools, I already know how to deal with all these changes, and I’m already awesome. I knew it.
Bulgarian problems = American problems
I just have to adjust to a new culture, learn a new language, adjust to climate changes, form brand new relationships with every single person I come in contact with, receive my TEFL certification to teach English as a second language, train in community work projects…and that’s just the first three month training period.
What have I gotten myself into?
Actually this all sounds very exciting and I can’t wait. Seriously, I can’t wait to start this new adventure!
And thanks for all the support, I appreciate it more than I can say!
-Age
ha, sounds like you should have everything figured out in about... 2.5 years:)
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited for you! This is going to be an awesome adventure and I don't know if I could do it. I can't wait to hear more!
ReplyDeleteSean - Exactly
ReplyDeleteStephany - Thank you...I'm not sure if I can do it either! Though I've given myself little choice ;)
Soo flippin' cool. You'll do great. As vague as that little excerpt was, I can kind of understand it in an other-worldly haze of quasi-dimensional space that I can't necessarily translate back in to words, but vaguely put the general ideas down in basically that exact form, based on my experience living in France.
ReplyDeleteIt's like simple things like, "I have a headache, but they don't have acetaminophen in France (?!) and I feel like those giant ibuprofen tablets on the shelf won't mix well with my average daily alcohol consumption, so how the hell do I communicate that to this pharmacist?" The answer was paracetamol. See? Simple. It just took an awkward, rambling conversation where I tried to spell "acetaminophen" in French letter pronunciation, which is harder than you think, and them being like, "write it down," me spelling it awfully, them eventually looking it up in the back and finally referring me to the thing they suggested in the first place, paracetamol.
It was a fun day.
I hope you like that I write the longest comments ever. I feel like I should get a "co-written by" credit on your blog.
You are a Rambling Man. Which would be your co-writer pseudo-name if I were going to cut you in on all my bloggin riches...which I'm not. If this makes you sad, take a paracetamol but only after saying the entire French alphabet backwards.
ReplyDelete(and thanks)