This post Peace Corps life has been insanely busy, which is why I
haven't found the time to write the last chapter in this adventure- the
journey home.
I have now been in America a month and the adjustment process has
been both easier and harder than I expected. So much of America is the
same, but it is different too. Things that I loved before, I now dislike
and visa versa. I am now annoyed by things that didn't use to bother
me, or these annoyances have been heightened. A couple days ago as I stood in the shampoo aisle at Target trying to decide on conditioner, I almost burst into tears because the Target was packed and there were so many options, I couldn't do it and walked out of the store without conditioner.
But now I am getting a but ahead of myself talking about what America is
like and the last time you left me, I was in Macedonia and had just
become an RPCV. Our story continues there.
I completed my service before Phil, so we hung out in Skopje and
Kumanovo with a friend and did some last minute gift shopping. The day
Phil completed his service, we hopped on out last bus in Macedonia and
went to Berovo (where our final Peace Corps conference back in August
was) for the night. We stayed with my American host sister (the PCV who
had my Losovo family after me). She was the best host ever! Erika met us
at the bus stop to help us with all our luggage, made us an amazing
multi-course dinner, had hot water heated up for showers, and gave us
her big comfy bed to sleep in. She had breakfast ready in the morning
and fun cats to play with.
In the morning, Erika's neighbor came to pick us up to drive us to Sofia
for our flight. The weather was starting to get bad as we left, but
luckily we made it out before the blizzard hit. In Sofia, our bags were
extremely overweight, but we got lucky and the Wizz Air staff didn't
care (we had paid a lot of money already just to check bags, so that
might have helped). Our flight from Sofia to Barcelona was a breeze and
we arrived on time with all our luggage.
Since we were only in Barcelona for about 20 hours, we rushed to the
hostel (Phil having to break out his rusty and selective Spanish
to get there), then met up with some other RPCVs going on the boat with
us for dinner.
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Cool buildings were all around us |
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Gaudi is the architect of Barcelona, so his buildings can be seen all over |
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Another Gaudi |
The rest of our time in Barcelona went by quickly, but we were able to
sneak in a visit to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's amazing work that has
yet to be completed.
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The outside of La Sagrada Familia |
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Inside- the colors from the stained glass were nothing short of amazing. |
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One side was filled with blues and greens |
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The other side lots of reds, yellows, and oranges |
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The organ pipes are one the side |
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The other tourist attraction we saw in Barcelona- sangria! |
On the 27th, we made our way to the cruise terminal and oh my, the ships
were huge! Boarding was the easiest ever and soon, we were on the ship,
ready to start our 15 day cruise. We met up with the others in our
group and explored the boat after checking out our staterooms (even the
cheap inside, no window, lower deck cabins were fantastic).
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Our first real view of the ship as we embarked. |
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Our ship (taken from the Bahamas actually) |
Our first
lunch on board was delicious, so we knew we were in for a delectable
time. If was great having other brand new RPCVs on board with us as we
spent a good 10 minutes walking around the buffet commenting on all the
foods we hadn't seen for 27 months and that would have annoyed many
people, although most people on the boat were kind of fascinated by us
and our journey home.
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The captain of our boat |
The first night of the cruise, Phil found out he was given a place in
the January 1014 A-100 foreign service officer training class, so we got
some champagne and celebrated Phil's success. We both were
over-the-moon with happiness and the boat became our celebration cruise.
I can't even begin to recount the multitude of things we did on the
ship- there was always something going on. Our boat had around 4000
passengers and we were in the select group of about 40 people under the
age of 35.
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View of the boat from the top deck |
One of the best parts of the boat though, was our main waiter each night
at dinner. His name was Alex and he was from Ukraine. He was amazing
and our group of 11 (8 RPCVs from Macedonia, one RPCV from Ukraine, and a
young Spanish/American couple) enjoyed making jokes with Alex and tried
to make his 14 hour days a bit more enjoyable. On the last night, Alex
took 11 of the menus from that nights dinner and signed them for is as a
keepsake.
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At lunch, we would request Alex as our waiter if he had a large enough table. |
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In the dining room at dinner. |
While I had heard about the grandeur of such ships, this was my first
time on one, so I had no idea what to expect. The boat was above my
expectations. This boat had everything from a hospital, casino, and two
swimming pools, to a rock climbing wall, complete gym and spa, and about
10 different places to eat.
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The walking/jogging track on the top deck. |
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The indoor pool |
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Sports court |
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The outdoor pool and hot tubs. There was an outdoor movie screen so you could watch the movie of the day in the pool. This is also where they held the belly-flop competition. |
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Mini golf |
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Julie demonstrating how to work out in the gym. |
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The Centrum- the inside stage area of the ship. |
The food was as delicious as I had heard. We ate roasted rack of lamb,
lobster tails, all kinds of fish, and an array of fruits and vegetables.
The desserts, however, were on a whole new level. After night one, the
chef was alerted that I couldn't eat any dairy, so he got to be creative
on my desserts as most on the menu had milk. I had braised peaches, soy
chocolate mouse, a chocolate cake that was to die for, and raspberry
rhubarb cobbler to name just a few. One night, our table ordered all of
the desserts on the menu with the goal being to share and sample all the
desserts. Alex, however, felt a bite of each wouldn't be enough, so he
brought us 3-4 of each, totaling around 30 desserts for 11 of us!
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The table of gluttony. |
Our ship stopped three times along the journey- Cadiz, Spain; Tenerife, Canary Islands; and Coco Cay, Bahamas. In Cadiz, we met up with another RPCV, Anna, and her friend who lives there for some tapas and a little site seeing.
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Part of Julie's "set your camera on timed rapid fire and take seven pictures in the span on 10 seconds and insist people move around" |
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This photo gives a scale as to how big the ship was. |
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A monument in Plaza de Espana. |
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Julie likes to take surprise photos. |
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The narrow, cobble stoned streets |
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My PST Lozovo group in Cadiz. |
In the Canary Islands, we rented cars and drove up into the wilderness
towards the major volcano on the island. The landscape was amazing and
the closer we got to the base of the volcano, the more moonlike the
terrain became. Unfortunately due to the weather, we weren't able to get
to the top of the volcano. Anytime you travel with Julie, Andres, or
Shannon, you can expect hundreds of pictures to be taken.
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When we got off the boat, there were musicians playing traditional music and dancers dancing a traditional dance. |
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The view of Tenerife from the docks. |
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Starting our drive up the volcano. |
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The moonscape look has started thanks to the volcano. |
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Once again, we used Julie's rapid shot to get some group photos. |
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Andres always takes the "move quick" to a whole new level. |
After the Canaries, it was seven days straight at sea. This is the part
most people have had questions about. I will tell you that it was
amazing. We loved it as we were able to get into a bit of a routine.
There was so much going on on the boat that there wasn't time to be
bored.
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Our first formal night |
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Formal night one |
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Formal night two |
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Formal night two |
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Just having some fun with the decorations |
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Black and white night |
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Having fun on the helipad |
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The view from the boat- pretty amazing! |
Our first port after the transatlantic voyage, and out last port of
call, was at Royal Caribbean's private Bahamian island, Coco Cay. There
wasn't much to do there other than lay on the beach, swim in the ocean,
and drink rum and cokes made with local rum. It was a very relaxing
time. As we were getting ready to leave, Julie decided we needed some
group pictures.
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The waters in the Bahamas are too shallow for a ship as large as a cruise ship to dock, so we were tendered into the island and this was our first site. |
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The island was filled with bright, colorful buildings. |
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Looking out at the blue waters. |
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The island. |
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This is what you picture when you think of tropical island paradise. |
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Group picture #1 |
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Group picture #2 |
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Phil and I decided to take a picture in the hammock....it seemed safe enough... |
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Then Stephen thought it would be funny to do a headstand behind us, however, he lost his balance. |
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Julie, Shannon, and I decided to take a picture too, but we not going to allow anyone to do headstands near us. |
I could go on and on about the boat talking about the shows and
activities and other escapades onboard the Serenade of
the Seas, but there is more to write about, so I will summarize with
pictures.
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There were two performances each day, except for port days. We saw singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, and hypnotists. |
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Sometimes there were additional performances in the centrum that featured dancers flying above our heads. |
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Watching the sunset on the top deck. |
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Our housekeeper was a master at making towel animals. We had an elephant... |
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a monkey.... |
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and a dog to name just a few. |
The best part of the cruise though, and why I would recommend it to
other n PCVs returning home, is that it was a great way to unwind and
renter the American world. We were on an American ship with American
food, people, activities, and mindset. However, we were still with
people who has been there in Macedonia and understood the process we
were all going through. It gave us all a chance to get most the "oh my
gosh there is soap in the bathroom and yogurt that you eat with a spoon
rather than drink it again!" out of our system before we were around
people who wouldn't understand or care what we were doing. We could tell
as many stories about life in the old county as we wanted because we
knew the people and places that were being talked about. Immediately
flying home wouldn't have given us that closure and time to reflect and
reacclimate.
Enough about the about, even though it was fantastic. When we arrived in
New Orleans, we were met by Julie's parents. They waited outside in the
cold for hours for us, but the site of the Macedonian flag in America
was exciting. We went to their hotel to leave our luggage while we
travelled around the city. The site of 10 people struggling to walk down
the sidewalk while being loaded down with two years worth of luggage
was quite an unusual site in New Orleans, so we got many inquisitive
looks.
We were only in New Orleans until the morning (we have become pros at
the 20 hours in a city), so off we all went to eat poboys and jambalaya
and drink the local specialty drinks (horny alligator, atomic itch, and
hand grenade). We ended the night at Pat O'Brien's piano bar, which was a
ton of fun. You could request songs (any songs) and the pianists would
try to play and sing them and they certainly achieved that (anyone who
can make Sisqo's thong song sound good on the piano has major talent).
*All New Orleans photos are courtesy of Andres
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St. Louis Cathedral |
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Home of the famous beignets |
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Pat O'Brien's Piano Bar |
From New Orleans, it was on to Minnesota to spend time with my family.
There, I got to met and hold new babies, see old friends, show Phil
where I grew up and introduce him to all my parents' friends, celebrate
St. Lucia, an celebrate an early Christmas with my family and sister's
boyfriend. It was a fantastic mini trip to Minnesota, even though it
wasn't nearly enough time there.
From Minnesota, we headed to Tucson to spend Christmas with Phil's
family. I had met them all on Skype, but never in person. They were all
lovely and welcoming. We hung out in Tucson for 5 days, then went to San Antonio with Phil's
sister and brother-in-law. Lori and Vance were fantastic and took us to
meet lots of their friends and we ate tons of good food. After a few
days with them, we headed back to Tucson to get ready for the big move
to DC.
We cleaned, sorted, and packed up everything for the movers and
successfully completed our first of many pack outs. After a few more
days in Tucson, we boarded planes to DC (where I am writing this post),
and set off to start book 2 of Phillip and Sara's Overseas Adventures.
That said, it is now time to end book 1: A Peace Corps Journey, and with
that comes the conclusion of this blog. I intend to write a blog for our
Foreign Service life, however it's creation is still in the works. I will post on here once more with information about book.