PC Wanderlust

Reenrolling

In the words of a good friend of mine from PC Bangladesh (hi Zeke!), I surprised myself. I’ve decided to reenroll in Peace Corps after all. Right when I got back to the US, I wasn't sure if going to do it again right away, but the idea of going back to another country and having another chance at two years just kept growing on me. So, a couple of weeks ago, I sent in the paperwork to reenroll. The waiting to find out where I’ll be headed next begins again! I know of at least two others from my group from Bangladesh who came back to the US are also in the process of getting back in to other programs. One is leaving for Bulgaria in April and another is going to Latin America in June. I’m hoping for Eastern Europe. I discussed the possibility of doing something other than Teaching English as a Foreign Language with my placement officer, but she said that’s what the majority of the programs are in Eastern Europe. So either I need to compromise where I want to go, or what I want to do. Peace Corps seems to be really working with me this time around to make sure I’m really happy with my placement (not that they weren’t the first time around, just even more so now).
Anyway, I’ll have to get medically cleared again, which means I’ll probably have to get some more medical and dental tests. And since I’ve only got this puny medical insurance that Peace Corps provides which doesn’t really cover much at all, that means shelling about a lot more dough. Bleh. I haven’t gotten a job yet, but I plan to pretty soon here. I moved to Columbus to live with my aunt a few weeks ago, and it’s been a blast.
I’ve been in the US for about two months now. It’s been a weird process adjusting to being back. I’ve lived abroad before a couple times, so I didn’t have such a hard time adjusting to seeing my friends and family again, or to how different Americans are compared to Bangladeshis, or even to how much STUFF we have and take for granted. Seriously, do we really need readymade coffee cans that heat the coffee up by themselves? (Ok, so I bought that one just because I had to see it to believe it. Guilty!) Really it was missing Bangladesh that was the most difficult thing about being back. And that surprised me too. After how difficult it was to live there, and all the crap we put up with there, I miss it so much! I miss my host families, the friends I was just beginning to make at site, all my fellow PCV friends! I miss how wonderfully different everything was most of all. It’s incredibly hard adjusting to living in another country, but I just love it. It’s the wanderlust in me. :)

posted by Kathryn @ 3/02/2006 07:03:00 PM