Law School Just Got One Step Closer

Okay, wow. I am trying to not freak out with excitement/nervousness/relief. I submitted 8 complete law school applications today! I am submitting two more next week and one probably later once I get the seriously tedious paperwork finished. I am very proud of this accomplishment because my own personal goal was to get my applications in by September, and most of them will be! WOOT WOOT!Here is my final school list by location:

Bay Area (6)

Berkeley

Stanford (still working on paperwork...gerr)

Hastings (done, but I can't submit until next week)

Golden Gate

University of San Francisco

Santa Clara

Los Angeles (2)

UC Los Angeles

University of Southern California

Sacramento Area (2)

Pacific McGeorge

UC Davis (done, but I can't submit until next week)

San Diego (1)

University of San Diego

Yes, for those of you counting, that is eleven schools. ELEVEN! I though five was excessive before I started the application process but two things made it easier and cheaper for me to apply to more schools. First, I applied for a fee waiver from the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) to waive the LSAC fees. They denied me at first but I wrote an appeal and they granted the fee waiver! This qualified me not only for the LSAC fee waiver but for most school's individual application fees (ranging from $50-$100 each!). With that fee waiver there is virtually no price limitation for me. I think the total cost of applying to all eleven schools will only be around $100 total. The second thing that made applying to eleven schools easier than you might imagine, is the LSAC online FlexApp. It is basically a standard application and when you enter your information in one schools application it carries over to all the other applications too. Each school has some of their own questions in the application but most of the forms are already filled in after you have done it once! It made the process so easy!

So now that 8 out of 11 applications are done I feel relieved. I know I still have a lot of work to do, such as general financial aid paper work in December/January and looking into grants/scholarships from each individual school. I think the hardest part of this process is going to be making the tough decisions when the offers from schools come in. For now I am keeping my options and mind open and hoping for a generous scholarship package from a super school. But I probably won't hear anything back from schools until December at the earliest, so I can put that out of my mind for a while and concentrate on enjoying life here in Guyana.

Eye issues and Some Projects

Recently, I've been battling an eye ailment known as “pinguecula.” Well, battling might be too hard a word while “living with” is a better descriptor. Don't worry it's benign. It's some sort of growth on the eye that comes from too much exposure to ultraviolet light. There is not much that I can do. If it gets worse I can get surgery, but if it remains the same it will be alright. The real danger, or so the experts say, is if it gets into my cornea, but that isn't guarenteed. You can read more about it here 

In other news, these last few weeks have been full of stuff. I'm trying to keep busy to stave off the impending “senioritis” and complacency. I finished teaching my IT class at the Teacher's College (CPCE) last week. All the students passed (HSHMC stylee). It was fun to have a steady classroom again and it made me remember why I began teaching in the first place. It was a tough few weeks, though, we were going 430-630 everyday in addition to all my duties at the Education Department. Sleep was a welcome relief when it finally arrived. All-in-all they all worked hard and, I hope, learned something.

At the end of last week I went to Town with my counterpart and we assisted in a booth put on by the Ministry of Education. It was fun working with the primary children who came by our booth all day long. We played some literacy games, read some books, and put on some dramatic performances. Coming up, tomorrow actually, we are organizing our own literacy tent where we will have local schools (nursery and primary; Thursday and Monday, respectively) coming in and playing our own games, giving out prizes, and reading stories. Should be fun. Additionally, we are planning an elocution competition (where students will compete in reading poems from Guyanese poets) and a reading competition where they will read short stories and answer questions about it. All in the name of Education Month which has run from September 1 to October 5.

In other news, I am revamping the professional development programme and hope to work with teachers starting next month. We'll see how it goes.

But now Sex in the City calls, with a side of Battlestar Galactica. Oh, home. Oh, Guyana.

Senioritis and Amerindian Heritage

Tim and I have finally identified our most recent emotional stage in our PC service. We have been experiencing a strange combo of enui, mild laziness mixed with confidence and competence. This all felt familiar but we didn't figure it out until about a week ago: senioritis. We both remembered feeling this way as we prepared to graduate high school, and agin in our senior year of college. Yep. We have self-diagnosed ourselves with a classic case of senioritis. In Peace Corps, with 6 months to go, we feel like we rule the proverbial school. To stretch the metaphor, we are familiar with our teachers, classes and know all the cool places to hang out on campus. We know that this is the best, most fun and most productive time in our service, but we know how much we can procrastinate and still write an A paper. We aren't skipping classes, but we might be daydreaming in AP History more than we did last year. We are looking ahead with excitement and mild terror to what lies ahead, after Peace Corps. And we are making sure to spend quality time with our friends, knowing that soon we will be going our own ways and may not be in each other's lives in the same way again.

The prescription for Peace Corps Senioritis is this: try to live enjoying each moment to the fullest yet acknowledge that the next step is eminent and take steps and make plans to get there smoothly. The making plans part is easy, I am almost ready to turn in my law school applications (just waiting on one more letter of recommendation) and Tim doesn't have to worry about job hunting until 2012. At the same time, we have been taking advantage of every opportunity to enjoy the rich culture of Guyana while we still can. Hanging out with local friends, staying later at work to gaff with coworkers and adventuring to other locales. This past weekend we spent at St. Cuthbert's Mission to join in their annual Amerindian Heritage celebration.

St. Cuthbert's is possibly one of our favorite places in Guyana. We were lucky enough to spend a few weeks there last spring while helping with the newbie group training. The Mission, as it is called for short, is pne of the largest and olderst Amerindian settlements. About 1300 people live in the village, set off the Linden highway. The families there are so welcoming and generous. When we arrived for Heritage we spent some time visiting with the families who had hosted us during training, remarking on how much bigger their children had gotten and complimenting improvements in their homes. Then we headed out to sample the array of classic Amerindian foods for sale at the many booths that people had set up in the main village centre. There was cassava bread, wild meat like labba and bush hog, pepper pot, classic Guyanese dishes like cook up and fry rice, and of course the famous delicacy: tocuma. Tocuma is a grub that lives in rotten coconut trees and is apparently delicious when eaten live, or fried in oil. Tim and I were resolved to try them but by the time we got to the booth it was all sold out. Bummer, no squirmy worms for us.

We spent the day watching cultural performances, poems, songs and dances and then trekked down to the creek to take a swim. The cold black water was refreshing and fortified us for a busy afternoon of socializing with host families, drinking piewari (locally made alcoholic beverages made from cassava) from calabash bowls, and buying hand-woven, palm frond crafts. I payed for and picked up a HUGE basket that I had ordered when I visited in the spring. I am not sure how I will get it home, but I can't wait to have it in my house to hold blankets and pillows or clothes. Eventually we will use the basket for it's indented purpose, a baby, but that won't be for a while yet.

Heritage night was full of dancing, catching up with friends, another evening dip in the creek and a nighttime speed boat ride down the river with a PCV's host dad. On the midnight ride we spotted the red, shiny eyes of a caiman along the river bank and an owl perched in a tree. It was very, very fun! Now we are back in Linden in good spirits, with more priceless memories to put in our “yearbook”.

Tim and fellow PCV, Kristen in her Amerindian costume

My baskets!

Swimming in black water

Kelly, the PCV who lives in St. Cuthbert's in local garb with local baby

Portland Family Wedding Time

Woo hoo America! Our second, and final, visit to America during our Peace Corps service started off in stereotypical American fashion: with fast food! Tim and I found a Taco Bell in the Dallas airport and decided to eat there, instead of buying expensive airport food, during our 5 hour layover in Texas. Even with a layover in Miami and Dallas, our trip from Barbados to Portland was smooth, easy and not affected by hurricane Irene. Lucky us.

However, we landed in Portland to be almost immediately caught up in another hurricane: Hurricane Wedding Preparation Madness! This is a much more fun and somewhat less dangerous hurricane than the one raging on the east coast and we were actually very glad to take part in the efforts to make Dad and Lisa's wedding perfect.

I say we got almost immediately caught up in planning because on out first day in the States, my aunt and her man, my two younger cousins and one cousin in-law and my first, and adorable, baby second cousin on my mom's side all came to collect us and take us out for a picnic for the day. The day was perfectly sunny. It was the kind of day that tricks a naive Californian like me into thinking that I could live in Oregon. However, that day was only an exception to the other 257 (or something similarly outrageous) consecutive days of rain that Portland boasts. Anyway, we enjoyed the warm sun in the Rose Garden with sandwiches, homemade pizza, wine and beer, family, good conversation, silly photo ops, and laughter as I tried to teach my baby cousin (4 months old) how to smell roses. She just wanted to eat them! (Tim note: and I tried to learn how to wield a baby!) The fam took us birthday shopping at Crocs outlet (I had been craving mary jane crocs for my post-peace corps South America trip) and hung around for coffee before dropping us off at Dad and Lisa's house.

Then, in between crossing things off the wedding to-do list, we had the pleasure of relaxing in the backyard, watching football, drinking coffee, eating amazing foods we missed like Greek yogurt, berries, BBQ, fresh corn on the cob, Haagen-Daaz, squash and broccoli, fresh pasta and ravioli and more. We got to meet new friends who were in for the wedding who we absolutely adore. We talked and drank wine (officially tasting it for the wedding, unofficially because it was GOOD!). Oh and, did I mention we crossed things off the to-do list?

On Friday, after four days of attacking the to-do list and “tasting” wine, the wedding events began in ernest. My broski landed in Oregon along with my grandma and some of my dad's cousins. It was so great to see my bro! We checked into our hotel downtown to find some amazing surprises; we were greeted in the lobby by an officially greeting dog named Timmy, there was a complimentary wine and beer tasting in the lobby every evening, a stuffed bear in our room (who Stephan and I decided was Russian and liked to drink vodka), and animal print robes in the closet. We had an amazing dinner with the grandma and family at a thai food restaurant and slept like babies in the hotel.

The next day we spent the whole day exploring downtown Portland with my bro. We had a leisurely breakfast and found ourselves at the Saturday Market, a Portland must see and do. It is a giant craft fair with local food vendors and tons of street performers who come out of the odd Oregonian-hidey holes to entertain us tourists with juggling, bucket drum ensembles, one-man bands, creepy performing clowns and hula hoopers. After losing ourselves in the weirdness for a while, we headed over to Powell's; the book lovers mecca. We lost Tim for a few hours in the multiple storied, color coded monstrosity that is this bookstore. (Tim note: I worship that place) Stephan and I escaped to a consignment store across the street for a quick bit to do a little wedding attire shopping and could only coax Tim out of Powell's with the promise of lunch and beers at Dechutte's brewery (Tim: a continuation of my Saturday devotions :) ). Lunch was fantastic, great beer and food and they even had a gluten-free menu so Stephan was able to eat a grilled cheese sandwich. Thanks for being awesome Dechutte's.

We got dolled up for the pre-wedding dinner on Saturday night which was at the hotel. It started off with a cozy, get to know you, style cocktail hour where we mingled with guests and got to know Dad and Lisa's unique, worldly, interesting, fun friends and family. The dinner was delicious, followed by equally sweet toasts and dancing and martinis into the night. Fun times!

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful and we headed off with my grandma to the wedding venue looking sharp in our new digs. Everything about the wedding was beautiful and perfect. The location, with a pond, geese, peacock, turtle, beaver and other wildlife was idyllic and perfectly landscaped. The weather was sunny and warm, the chuppa and flower arrangements were impeccably decorated. The bride and groom were stunning in outfits personally designed by their talented Israeli designer friend. The brunch and drinks were mouth watering (who doesn't love a waffle bar, really?). Everyone enjoyed themselves and all the planning and to-do-listing paid off!

Before we knew it the wedding was over and we had said goodbye to friends and family and were back at the house catching our breath. We spent the last few days in Portland finishing up our errands and shopping we wanted to do before we returned to Guyana and celebrating (belatedly) my birthday with a sushi smorgasbord. (Tim: Sushi!So, so much sushi! It was on conveyor belts I loved it and thought it was my birthday rather than Chels'!) And then we blinked and we on plane after plane and back in Guyana.

I think this time it was harder to come back than our last vacation. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it is because we know we only have seven months left and that seems like a long time. Maybe because on our last trip home we were bouncing around from place to place and were relieved to come back to a steady home and during this trip we stayed in one place which started to feel like home so coming back felt like an uprooting. Maybe because we have just had enough of the heat, mosquitos, cold showers and other minor inconveniences. Again, I am not sure. But I know that the transition back to life in Guyana is more difficult this time.

I was talking to my friend Emily the other day and she described how she feels about going back to school for her final year in her master's program and we have similar feelings. We both want to be done with the phase of our lives and move on to whats next but we know we still have a LOT of work to do before than. We know that the work we put in in these final stages is necessary, beneficial and will be formative to our characters. When we aren't being whiney babies we actually enjoy what we are doing but sometimes we wish we had a remote control so we could fast forward.

Tim and I do have a LOT of work to do here in Guyana. We have projects to start and finish, we have holiday events to attend, family coming to visit, one more Peace Corps conference, law schools to finish applying to, jobs to find, a South America travel adventure to plan and more. So I guess I'm not really complaining. Plus, we packed our suitcases full of Oregonian coffee and wine that ought to last us a while so that should keep us happy and reminded of home until, in another blink of an eye, we actually are home for realsies.

We want to send a word of extreme GRATITUIDE to Dad and Lisa for making it possible for us to enjoy the celebration of your wedding with us. You gave us an amazing gift! We had a wonderful time and miss you already! THANK YOU!

Barbados Birthday Blog

When we were planning our trip back to the States for my Dad's wedding, we found that it was cheaper to fly through Barbados instead of going straight to America. Oh bummer. So we made a three day vacay out of it and I got to celebrate my 26^th birthday under a rainbow in the Caribbean ocean!

Tim and I landed in Barbados on Wednesday, checked into our beachside hotel, hit up a grocery store for snacks (bagles and cream cheese!!) and tequila and then shared margaritas on the beach. The next day, after taking a quick dip in the bluest blue ocean, we packed a picnic and caught a bus to Accra beach. We spent the whole day lounging at Accra on rented beach chairs and swimming in the ocean. We ate Greek food for dinner and had daiquiris for dessert. Friday was my birthday! Woo hoo! I was a little sad when I looked out the window and saw dark storm clouds (the only sign of hurricane Irene that we had seen so far). I was hoping for another idyllic beach day but it didn't look promising. However, we decided to take our morning dip in the ocean anyway and when we walked outside we saw an amazing double rainbow stretching over the beach and landing right in the water in front of us. As I floated in the water, staring at my birthday rainbow, laughing with my husband, I felt so blessed to be able to experience such beauty.

We spent the rest of my birthday day at Crane Beach, which is, according to Lifestyle's Magazine, one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. It was beautiful (maybe not one of the top 10 in the world but pretty cool anyway) and secluded. The only thing around was a super fancy resort on the cliff above us. There was a little cliff jutting out over the sea that we could jump off (Tim note: worst idea ever, but it was rad and did it anyway!) of and rasta men selling rum punch out of coconuts. I felt like a movie star! At the end of the day, Tim took me out to a Mexican food restaurant. Our meal was so delicious that we ate so much it hurt.

Then, on Saturday, it was off to America and into the land of wedding planning madness. It was a great prequel to an amazing trip home. More to come on our Portland visit later...

Tim: It was a glorious few days; perfect in every way! Barbados we will miss you, but you've made our time here phenomenal.