I Got Baggage...

So I weighed my bags today and they are just a little overweight...oops!  This means that I have to do what I hate doing: go through my bags and decide what's not necessary and take it all out.  This is so difficult because I'm packing for a two year trip to a place I've never been.  I usually don't mind packing because I love organizing and such, but this is a little too overwhelming!  I have two weeks to figure this all out so the clock is ticking.  I think I need to take a packing break for a couple days, which means our camping trip this week is coming at just the right time :) 

Days of Summer

My brother has been here since Tuesday and his girlfriend got in Thursday and it has been quite a whirlwind of activities.  We've gone out to many meals together to share favorite places and try some new ones.  We have met up with old friends and visited family. We spent the day fishing, then hiking, then eating our catch.  We traveled on the coast on a foggy, yet warm day, and hit up the Tillamook Cheese Factory and a tour of Linfield College by my brother.  We shared dinner on the rooftop of the McMenamin's in McMinnville with a nice summer breeze as the sun set over the coastal range.  Tomorrow is packed once again with more festivities and then Monday we'll get to relax a little before taking Ty and Jess to the airport in the afternoon.  I can't believe Saturday is already over and Monday is coming so soon.  It has been great having my brother here--yes, we do argue still, but it wouldn't be family if we didn't disagree once in awhile :)

Onto Peace Corps news...I found out that when we arrive in country we stay in a hotel for 3 days for some orientation stuff, vacinations, and I think language placements, before being sent out to our training towns.  I'm so excited for all of this and it's coming up quick!  The countdown to DC is 15 days and then for Nicaragua it's 17 days!  Oh my gosh,I can barely believe it...

Address

Well apparently I have WAY too much on my mind because I had my address for the training period in Nicaragua in a pdf file from about a few months ago and totally forgot about it. Hmmm...don't know what I was thinking, but anyway, I'll post it here so feel free to send something to me. It takes about 2 weeks for mail to get there so you could send something to me soon and I might arrive to Nicaragua with mail waiting for me hint hint :)

My address in Nicaragua from September 1-November 22nd (approximately):

Megan McCann, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America

If sending packages, try to keep it under 2 pounds and send it through regular USPS mail (not FedEx, UPS, etc).  Padded envelopes are actually better, because apparently all boxes get opened :(

Some people have suggested writing "Dios le bendiga" (God bless you) on mail as well as small crosses.  Also, writing in red ink helps.  Not quite sure about all of this, but it's worth a try!

Hope to here from you soon!  Countdown: 21 days!

Brother is here!

We picked up my brother yesterday!  It's crazy that it's been 8 months since we've seen him, but it was so nice to finally get him home :)  He seems a little taller too, which just makes me feel that much shorter, but oh well.  We have lots of things planned for this week, especially with Tyler's girlfriend flying in tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully we'll get to visit the beach (of "the coast" since Oregon beaches are a little different than let's say, Mexican beaches...) and we're going fishing Friday & maybe a little hiking.  I'm so excited for all of this.  It will be fun to get out and take a little break from packing. 

Packing, Packing, and MORE Packing...

Hmm...well my title kind of explains what I have been doing for the past month and a half.  I gradually packed to come home to Oregon because I like to begin early and get things together so everything is organized.  Now that I'm in Oregon, it's been a mess of unpacking, sorting, repacking, and just craziness.  This is not as easy as I thought it would be.  I was thinking, well, I'll have a month in Oregon to relax, get everything together, spend time with family and friends, and then fly out to DC.  There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day and days in the week...  There are only 22 days left!  Yikes!  I'm already overwhelmed with this packing and it's only been 1 week in Oregon! Ugh :(  I was frustrated because I was trying to find a hiking pack--I knew we had one or two at my parent's house, but I could not find it anywhere.  I wanted to take one with me and I was in a packing halt, just trying to find the pack.  I finally settled on buying one on Amazon, which I'm not sure why I didn't look on there earlier.  I'm slightly addicted to purchasing things on Amazon (mainly books), but that's another story ;)

One thing I can be thankful and excited for is that my brother will be visiting soon.  I really miss him and my family hasn't seen him in 8 months so it will be a nice reunion :)  I love my brother and it's going to be hard to be away from him in Nicaragua, but hopefully my family will come out to visit me during my second year.  Also, my brother is bringing his girlfriend to Oregon.  Well, she's flying over a few days after he gets here, but that will be fun.  She's never been to Oregon before so we'll have to show her a good time. 

This morning I wrote an email to PC Nicaragua to check what my address will be so I'll let you all know when I get that.  I've seen some people posting their addresses from past volunteers, but I wanted to make sure I got the right one.  Then feel free to send me letters :)

I'm also having a going away party in Oregon soon...so hope to see you there!

26 days...

Just 26 more days until I fly out for DC and then a day and a half later I'm off to Nicaragua :)  After waiting and talking about this for so long, I can't believe I have less than one month til departure.  I still have a lot to do and a lot of people to see before I leave, but I'm really looking forward to this adventure! 

Hello Oregon! Nicaragua, I'll be there soon!

I'm back in Oregon...yay!  I really love Oregon and I'm glad I get to spend a month here with my family and friends.  It will be a nice time to relax and get things together slowly for Nicaragua.  I know it will come up fast, but I'm going to take it day by day :) 

Well my parents drove up Saturday, July 31st to Spokane and we hung out for awhile.  I had pretty much everything packed, but we planned to drive back the next day because two 7 hour drives in one day is a little much and I wanted to keep my parents happy :)  We visited my "BFF" Piah to say goodbye and there were some tears.  I'm gonna miss that girl!

This is Piah not wanting me to go...notice that "death grip" she has around me...

Then we went over to Drew & Erin's to show off their house & garden to my parents.  After the garden tour, we went out to dinner at the Steam Plant Grill downtown.  It was sooo good and I'm sad that I waited until my last night in Spokane to try it. I'll be back in 2 1/2 years though...  Unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture together at the restaurant so I'm a little sad about that, but I have many pictures of my wonderful friends so no worries there :) 

I dropped off my parents at their hotel for the night and I had one last girls' night watching Friends with friends :)  We've had a little tradition to get together and watch some episodes of Friends while eating junk food.  It's been so much fun and I'm gonna miss those girls! 

So, the next morning we packed up the cars and I said my goodbyes to my roommates (very sad) and headed out around 10am.  It was nice to chat with my mom in my car--she drove half the way and I drove the rest.  My dad drove my grandparents' van which is good because he likes to listen to talk radio...not sure how he doesn't fall asleep!  haha  We got back home and unloaded the cars and then drove down to my grandparents house to return their van and pick up our car and dog (Stevie).  I was a little disappointed because he was more excited to see my dad than me, even though he had seen my dad two days before.  He really does love my dad though and it's cute :) 

Anyway, I'm here now in Oregon, trying to unpack everything, organize, sort through what I want to take with me to Nicaragua, donate, or put in storage.  Lots of stuff to go through so I'll be busy!  It's weird how I ended up with all of this stuff and it really makes me want to donate a lot of it because I know I don't really need most of it.  I bet when I get back from Nicaragua I'll get rid of even more when I see how little they have down there.  It will be nice to put things in perspective. 

Well that's about it for now.  I booked my flight for DC and since I'm on the west coast I get to fly in a day early, so hopefully I can check out some things around the city before staging begins.  Can't wait!