Imported from Detroit

Send-Off

My family put all other PC families to shame this morning when they showed up early in the morning at MSP, balloons, banners, and teddy bears in hand. I couldn't have asked for a nicer send-off. Of course, having a family this wonderful makes it very hard to leave your hometown. Quite a few tears were shed- mine and those of a horrible sobbing baby next to me.

I didn't think landing in Detroit would be the thing to bring me comfort, but surrounded by my fellow volunteers at check-in, I felt at ease.

Even after a long and intense orientation session with Peace Corps Recruiter Jeff (whose name you may remember from the embarrassing incident when he called me for an interview during a post-op Percocet stupor) I still feel at ease. At ease and ready to serve in Thailand with the other passionate volunteers I am enjoying getting to know. You might say, Detroit's been good to me.

Westin Detroit

I Wait So Long

Occasionally, my creative side and my egotistical side team up to replace words in popular songs with lyrics more relevant to my life.

One of my better parodies was born the weekend I went fishing in Necedah, WI.

To the tune of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling:”

It’s a long day fishing in Necedah…

And that's all she wrote. Sadly, my creativity usually wears out long before my ego.

Today, inspired by a seemingly endless wait for staging on January 8^th, I took on the Trampled by Turtle song, “Wait So Long.”

I wait so long, I wait so looonnng. I wait so long, I wait so loooonnng…

…That’s as far as I got.

Please enjoy the real version.

Detroit Plans to Welcome Guests

Detroit Free Press  1912

January 8th I begin training as Peace Corps Volunteer in the Paris of the Midwest (a snarky nickname I usually reserve for Milwaukee). I wasn't looking forward to spending my last stateside hours in Motown, but I was reassured that the Motor City "will set a high standard of entertainment for tourists."

Last Christmas

Yesterday, I pledged to thoroughly and unabashedly celebrate Christmas until the minute I board the plane for staging. To comply with this personal mandate I will feel no guilt while listening to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on repeat fifteen days before Thanksgiving and I will only drink coffee from my Christmas mug. I'm going to deck the halls so hard, the slightest whiff of pine after January 6th will make me nauseous. I will need till  December 2014 just to recover. After all, this is my last Christmas in the States and I will by merry enough for three holiday seasons. 

So if you see me on the street sporting an ugly Rudolph sweater, don't judge, I'm just getting my fill. And to help you get yours, I leave you with this video of- not because it's relevant but because it shares its name with this post- "Last Christmas" featuring Elton "Wishes he were John" Langland as the singer-songwriter, George Michael.

Also Featuring: Nicki Reichelt, Claire Langland, and myself

Eating Cheesesteak Next to the Liberty Bell

Apparently I was in Philadelphia in 1992.  I don’t remember it, so I was really looking forward to a brief sojourn in Ben Franklin’s home town  while the Peace Corps shot me up with the typhoid vaccine. I made a  Philly "hits list" and then preceded to tell everyone I know that on January 6^th (or 7th) I would eat my first ever Philly Cheesesteak on the steps of Independence Hall, basking in the copper glory of the Liberty Bell. If my last US meal was a greasy meat sandwich next to a beloved American bell, I could die happy, or at least leave for Bangkok happy. Then, if I got around to it I would go see the fictional site of Paddy’s Pub.

I was very sure that staging was in Philadelphia. My mind’s eye had seen it written all over the place. It was clearly noted in my invitation packet and written on the walls of PC Mecca, Peace Corps Wiki.

So in a “Classic El” move I shared with the other volunteers that staging was in Philadelphia. I think they were jealous that the Peace Corps chose me as the sole recipient of this knowledge.

I’m kidding, because as you may have guessed the news wasn’t broken on any of those sources. Nowhere does it say where Group 124 has staging. Last year’s group went through Philly. So I guess I read that and “over-connected” the dots.

Already being the laughing-stock of PC Thailand I can deal with but I’m struggling with the cheesesteak insecurity. Not being a beef fan, they may look better than they taste. But dammit, they’re as American as the Liberty Bell and that’s good enough for me.