Traveler, Writer, Aquarius, Peace Corps Volunteer
The evidence
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Well, I figure this is as good a time as any to begin my online journal. I�m sitting here in the computer room at my aunt and uncle�s condo in Ventnor, NJ, killing time before having dinner tonight with my dad�s cousin Susan and her husband Gerald. So if she�s my dad�s first cousin, that means she�s my first cousin, once removed, right? Ah, who cares? It�s an overcast day and very muggy, not exactly conducive to lying out on the beach. It�s amazing. I�m more concerned about making sure I have a nice tan at the end of the month than the reality that I�m moving to another country for 27 months and I don�t speak the language. Shows you where my priorities are.
Which brings me to the Peace Corps stuff. The first real correspondence came in last Thursday, the 29th. An email went out to all the people in my training group welcoming us to Group 25. As it turns out, there are 100 people in my group, and I believe everyone is either a teacher or teacher teacher. The teachers, like me, will teach English as a foreign language. The teacher teachers are people with more advanced teaching experience who will literally teach the Ukrainian teachers Western teaching methodologies. To me, that sounds like a waste of time, but what do I know?
Here are some interesting facts about my group so far as I can tell. So far, everyone has either just graduated college or grad school, so the average age looks to be 23, with the majority of volunteers just out of college. Looks like my new nickname will be grandpa. Also, there�s a ton of geographical diversity in the group. People from Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, California, etc. I also seem to be the only New Yorker. It might be as difficult a cultural adjustment dealing with the rest of my group as it will be the Ukrainians.
(Note to self: try to get rid of the big city/academic arrogance before the 30th. Otherwise, it could be a long two years. �So, Jethro� guess Ukraine won�t be that different from Montana this time of year? Me, well, all I�d be doing back home is gallivanting around dreary old Manhattan. You know how hard it is to find anything to do there��)
But if the personalities are anything like the folks I�ve met at various Peace Corps events in New York, it would be a struggle to find some cool kids regardless of where there from. Fuck it, I�m being a dick. I�m actually excited about meeting everyone.
Anyway, everyone has been emailing the group and giving a little background about where they�re from and how nervous and anxious they are about everything. It turns out there�s one girl from Philly, and I�m going to try and meet up with her before we do our Staging in Chicago on the 30th. We'll see what happens. One thing everyone seems to have in common is that no one speaks Russian or Ukrainian, so we're all in the same boat. That's actually a big relief, as I would hate to be the one poor bastard that doesn't know how to find the bathroom,
Let's see, what else? Well, this has been a fairly trying summer since I left New York. I was only in Philly less than a week when I got a call that my grandfather was very sick and I needed to fly down to Florida to help out my grandmother. I was there about a week, and a few days after I came back to Philly he passed away. The funeral was a few days later back in Philly, and I've been with my grandmother and dad ever since here in Ventnor (basically Atlantic City, one town down on the boardwalk). I was really close to my pop-pop (as I called him), and was the only Gitter representative to speak at the funeral (he married my grandmother after my blood grandfather died, years before I was born). This was my first funeral and first real experience losing anyone close to me. I've dealt with everything okay, but it is a weird feeling to realize that I'll never see him again. I miss him.
Now my grandmother (mom-mom) and my dad and I are flying down to Florida on Thursday so she doesn't have to deal with the condo alone. With any luck, I'll get a little sun.
Then it's back to Philly on the 13th, and only two weeks before I stage in Chicago. Pretty crazy, but I'm definitely ready. And I actually like being the oldest one in the group. Got that whole maturity and experience thing working.
Besides the family tragedy, I've still managed to have some fun this summer. I went whitewater rafting with my mom, stepdad, Kacy, Mer, Cristy, and Scott, which was awesome. We went to see the Frank Lloyd Wright house "Falling Water" too, which was a real highlight. Also, Jono got married two weeks ago. I was glad to see so many friends before I go.
Well shit, that's about it for now. I had my Uncle Michael here this past weekend, and it was terrific to see him. We really have so much in common and just wonderful conversations about everything under the sun. He really enjoyed my screenplay too, so with a little luck he and my Aunt Lisa know someone in Hollywood who wants to make a debaucherous teen comedy, We'll see... But it would be great to come back from Ukraine with a movie deal, wouldn't it?
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