I never thought unemployment could be so.... well, boring. Back in Potomac, Maryland where my high school parking lot looks more like an exotic car dealership than a place of education, I sit and wait for the day to come when I finally leave for Ouagadougou. I have been spending my time doing what many people outside of the work force do, drinking too much beer and catching up on the television that I missed over the summer working on the farm in Louisville. Lengthy side note here: Maryland has to be the WORST state besides Utah when it comes to buying alcohol. That, or Kentucky has to be the best. The absolute latest store here is only open until 1 a.m. and you have to drive fifteen minutes to get there. You can only purchase beer & wine at designated stores or liquor stores. Stores overprice everything because it is so limited, and if you couldn't understand this from the last sentence, I cannot go to a gas station (which almost all also close at about 1 a.m. for some stupid reason) and purchase a 6-pack. I understand the reasoning. We want to keep Montgomery County safe for our children and make it so it is challenging for them to purchase alcohol. Little problem there: I see more eighteen year olds walking out of these beer & wine stores than adults! Not to mention this is an extremely liberal state that is supposed to promote free enterprise and privacy, and we limit sales of alcohol and have speed cameras every fifteen yards that make people drive ten miles under the speed limit. I'm losing my mind I tell you!
Now that I am finished with that "little" tangent, it really has been nice to actually see my friends from the past for an extended period of time. Usually these visits are fleeting, with all of us at different schools with different friends and different lives. Being back home has enabled me to see the instant success of some friends, and see the recession struggles of a college graduate in 2012 in others. It is an unusual situation I am in. I get to have the freedom and boredom of unemployment, but still have a rather unusual job staring me in the face in less than three weeks.
Speaking of leaving shortly, I finally found out my travel plans. I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Sorry, a little satire for you. I will be connecting in Brussels where I can explore the beautiful airport for a few hours and then en route to Burkina Faso. Basically it is like herding cats. We meet, we are chauffeured around, and we arrive after a day of travel. I'm not complaining; I would be the one that gets abducted in Europe, Hostel, style and end up with a left eye and a right Achilles at a train station in Bratislava. The reason I mention this connecting flight is because after my service is complete I will also be connecting in Europe, most likely Brussels. It may be a bit early for speculation of life after the Peace Corps, but this leaves an incredible opportunity for travel! According to Euro Trip (I get all of my information from fiction movies), every country in Europe is basically a hop, skip, and a jump from its neighbor and I have read many stories of people selling their plane tickets back to the U.S. post service and using their readjustment stipend to travel. This sounds incredible to me right now... We'll see how thrilling that sounds after ≈ 27 months away from home. Honestly though, the first two years of college FLEW by and I'm sure this will too.
I have been thinking about this entire experience in one of two ways. In one sense this could be the most free experience you could ever imagine. It will be the only time in my life where I will be free of instant communication. No Internet, no Facebook, no stupid Twitter, and no horribly biased "news" articles that read more like blog posts than anything else. What an absolute dream. I won't have to look at people's ridiculous Instagram photos that completely ruin a picture. Have you not noticed that all Instagram does is take what is probably a good picture and stick what seems to be Sepia on top of it and ruins the clarity? What part of that is appealing to you?! Another tangent, I apologize. But honestly, does that not sound like a dream to get away from all of this? One more: no reading post after post of moronic political arguments that will not sway anybody but instead serve as self-serving "genius" posts. Oh how I will not miss those.
The other side is the exact opposite. I'll be away from the connection that I have grown so accustomed to. People will get engaged and married while I'm gone, and I will have no idea that it happened! Friends will have kids, or more kids, and they'll be walking by the time I get back! The iPhone will be on like the 14S, and I'm sure 3D TVs will have turned into eye implants or something ridiculous like that. Oh, and we'll have flying cars. I really cannot imagine how far technology will travel in two years. No, seriously, I can't imagine. Things could be basically the same, or things could have totally changed. Maybe Siri will actually work by then. Maybe my iPhone will turn into a robot and start taking over the world. If that happens, somebody send me a letter... I'll just stay in Ouagadougou.
The point is, regardless of how it actually seems while I'm over there, I'm sure it will seem like no time from now, and when I am finished with my service. It's like when you go on vacation. The first two days seem like they are never-ending, and by day seven it seems like the entire trip has flown by. I'll be back before you know it, so schedule your plane ticket to come visit me in eight months, but plan accordingly, because it'll take you a week just to reach my village!
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