Beautiful

Exactly one week from now I'll be on a plane making its way across the Atlantic Ocean that will separate me (geographically) from the country that I call my home. Hopefully my time in Mali will allow me to call another country my home, at least temporarily.

Feelings. Right now.
Okay. I'm nervous mostly because I really don't speak French yet. I know they say that immersion is the best way to learn, and I'm super excited to be immersed, but I've never done anything quite like this before. Spanish immersion camp didn't count-- we'd always cheat by speaking to our bunkmates completely in English. But this time I won't have English speaking bunkmates. For the first three (or so) months, I will live with a homestay family outside the city in a community that will host up to 15 other Peace Corps Volunteers. This is where I will put in to practice all of what I will learn at training. I hope that I'll have homestay siblings about my age who will demonstrate the dos and don'ts so I do shower twice daily and I don't smell a banana again (for those of you who missed out on my Uganda messages, smelling food is impolite in Uganda, but guess what I did even after I had learned this...)

The north country has been so gorgeous lately, I almost wish that I could stay a little longer to enjoy the tranquility that accompanies being in the middle of no where. As much as I despise north country winters and a general lack of action/motivation, the winds off the St. Lawrence immediately temper my mood and make me wonder why I chose to move away from this beautiful place. I'm excited, though, to add a new definition of "gorgeous" to my vocabulary as I make my way through the Sahel.