Alright, I'm done...

[TheEschaton]

So, I've been back now for more than 3 weeks, and I've played too much Gemstone and eaten too much crap food and watched too many movies, and I'm sick and I'm ready to go back to Africa.

I really gotta work on this binge/purge cycle of Americanism I operate on.

What should I do with my last remaining week? I fly out a week from today.

-TheE-

[Toxicvixen]

I say play some gemstone, eat some food and watch some movies! How is that not fun? :bouncy:

[Warriorbird]

Hot American women.

[TheEschaton]

Well - I've gained 10 pounds in the past month doing that, and I'm feeling fat and bloated. ;)

Was eating a chicken finger (smothered in hot sauce) sub at 4 am this morning, and it was making me sick. That's when I knew I was over. I've already started packing.

Edited to add: The 10 pounds might hurt with the whole Hot American Women thing too.

-TheE-

[Edited on 12-30-2005 by TheEschaton]

[Ravenstorm]

Write out your apology to that British woman who you called crazy for re: the seeing-eye horses.

Raven

[TheEschaton]

She's hot, so I'll instead try and slip it in her. ;)


-TheE-

[Ravenstorm]

I have, by the way, decided to make a banoffee pie for New Years. Well, New Years is just an excuse. I just wanted to make one.

Raven

[Toxicvixen]

Try to slip it in her? That saying always makes me laugh. I can see the reaction. "OH! I'm sorry I didn't realize your vagina was right there!." Like the girl wouldn't notice... Then again I guess that could happen, maybe. :lol:

[Latrinsorm]

Proselytize. I recommend a lot of loud speeches given to strangers that start with "The WORD of GOD..." :thumbsup:

[Snapp]

Originally posted by Ravenstorm
I have, by the way, decided to make a banoffee pie for New Years. Well, New Years is just an excuse. I just wanted to make one.

Raven
Make two and send one to Delaware! :saint:

As for TheE's question, I'd just party it up and enjoy your last week home for a while (without GS).

[Caiylania]

Whatever you do, safe journeys back and safe travels while there.

Hit an IHOP for me maybe.... oh I miss the IHOP.

For an International House, I never see it internationally :(

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by Snapp

Originally posted by Ravenstorm
I have, by the way, decided to make a banoffee pie for New Years. Well, New Years is just an excuse. I just wanted to make one.

Raven
Make two and send one to Delaware! :saint:

Okay, for the record? Banoffee Pie: two thumbs down. Nice flavor combination but it's way too sweet. And I mean that in an 'OMFG I'm going into diabetic shock' way too sweet way.

Raven

[TheEschaton]

Yeah....yeah it is.


But we have nothing else to do but whip our own cream and boil condensed milk into caramel for hours. Not requiring a stove ftw.


-TheE-

[Moist Happenings]

Well, it seems you've already done the two things that people in America are known to do a lot: gain weight and binge on video games.

Only thing left is to go to sleep for a while, and then wake up and smoke some crack.

[Dwarven Empath]

Friend of mine just started working for the company I work for. Waste Management. He started about two weeks ago and has lost ten pounds.

Them trash laborers get in shape real fast!

[Atlanteax]

Go join your local "Young Republicans" chapter with a hefty donation.

Bush for 2008 !!

[Daniel]

Hey man what org do you work for again?

[TheEschaton]

I work for the Peace Corps. Not so much an organization as The Man.


-TheE-

[Daniel]

Was it difficult to get accepted into it? I seriously think I want to drop off the map after I finish school.

[TheEschaton]

"Dropping off the map" is not a good reason to join the Peace Corps, man.

But the current statistics are 1 in 10 applicants will eventually get on a plane to go serve somewhere. Only 1 in 3 of that 1 in 10 will complete their two years.

The 1 in 10 part is misleading - it's not difficult to get in, it's just a long process, and most people just give up with all the gov't bureaucracy which involves being accepted. From the moment I started my application, it took me a year before I flew to Namibia. For good reason: if you can't A) be patient, or B) deal with gov't bureaucracy, you shouldn't be in the Peace Corps.

Edited to add: The 1 in 3 part is not misleading. It's very tough to be in the Peace Corps from a mental standpoint. From a physical standpoint, you get used to not having running water, electricity, or a toilet, but sometimes the mental thing can get to you. You may be helped because of your experience in the military, but then again, the mental experience of the Peace Corps is usually one of isolation, and (from my understanding) the Armed Forces forges mental toughness through comraderie - so lacking that company, it might be even worse. Who knows?

Also, if you've been involved in intelligence activities in the Armed Forces (or before that, like the CIA), you're automatically disqualified from the Peace Corps.

Lastly....we're all wildly liberal, man. Be forewarned. Some of my Peace Corps friends actually think I'm kind of conservative.

-TheE-

[Edited on 1-2-2006 by TheEschaton]

[Daniel]

Eh, whatever. I did "recon" where it was like neccessary to be alone in the woods with maybe one person in the same spot for like days or even weeks a time. I can deal with the isolation, and what I meant by isolation was more of a "Go somewhere in the world where there isn't alot of spoiled bitches." If you can understand that.

don't know about the Peace corps but I might try something along those lines.

[Jorddyn]

I have great respect for anyone who actually manages to do it. I filled out my application no less than 3 times, and was always too chicken to send it in. Now, I really wish I had right after college. Maybe when I retire :)

Jorddyn

[Warriorbird]

They accept up to senior citizens.

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Warriorbird
They accept up to senior citizens.

I am only 29, plan on retiring by 55 if all goes well.

That should give me a few good years to do it :) Of course, I could just drop everything and go now, but my life is stable for the first time ever (well, since high school). I am rather enjoying it.

Jorddyn

[Warriorbird]

Yeah. Hopefully in 3 more years I'll be stable. I don't plan on doing the Peace Corps till I'm significantly older. though a close friend of mine from college is heading out soon. I believe he's teaching sciences in Kenya.

[TheEschaton]

There's lots of older volunteers in the Corps.

It's odd, in the Peace Corps, you see two age ranges - early to mid 20s, and then the over 50 crowd. That middle age - about 28-50, you very rarely see volunteers.

Whereas with other volunteer organizations, from other countries (IE, VSO, from the Commonwealth countries, or Interteam from Switzerland), you see many of these young professional types....early to late 30s, coming out.

I guess it's part of the American mindset - I feel it too. I'm turning 25 in May, and part of my mind is tugging at me, going "Fuck, man, you should of been doing something worthwhile a long time ago."

As if what I'm doing isn't worthwhile, but that same part of the brain has a significantly different idea of what's worthwhile, it seems.

As for unspoilt bitches, if you mean mindset, then I suppose you're going to the right place. Most African women I've met are so sweet and nice it makes you angry at the way they're treated in society. And they look at you incredulously, like you're some kind of minor god, when you're not only willing, but want to, treat them like human beings instead of objects.

Which is why I refuse to be in a relationship out there - the power dynamic is already skewed so badly with the whole American-African dynamic, to weight it again with the whole male-female dynamic puts the African female in an unfavorable power situation which, if she doesn't like, she feels, due to societal pressure, the need to maintain. IOW, even if I'm the scum of the earth, A) because I'm male, all her upbringing will say to respect me, and all her male relatives will expect it of her, and B), because I'm American, ALL her relatives will pressure her to keep the relationship going, because extended family supporting each other is huge.

I have tons of female volunteer friends who have African boyfriends though, because the power struggle is more balanced - they have little power over their men because their men feel they are superior to them (though those girls try, they really do), but they have power over them, as they're American, and the men are not, and, in the men (and their family's eyes), this is better than being African.

So, IMHO, coming to the Peace Corps for women is also not so great an idea. ;)

But then again, I think I'm souring on relationships in general, because they all seem to be about power, and it's something I don't really seem to care for.

Edited to add: If you mean "not a lot of spoiled bitches" in the general sense of people in general: yes, the third world would be the place to find people who truly appreciate everything that comes their way, and welcome you with open arms. But I also don't recommend joining the Peace Corps to A) run away from something, or B) try and get a "high" off of a feeling, IE, being appreciated.

Edited to add again: Unless the thing you're running away from is G.W. Bush. (J/K - I know people who left because of the political climate and they're just as miserable as those who left because they can't stand their parents).

-TheE-

[Edited on 1-3-2006 by TheEschaton]

[Edited on 1-3-2006 by TheEschaton]

[Daniel]

Yea, I meant the general sense. I have noproblems meeting bitches. As it were, I'm not neccessarily running away from anything but I'm kinda sick of the whole American mentality and wanna do something different. W'ell see how things go, I might get asuper sweet scholarship to law school or some shit and then say fuck it.

[Sean of the Thread]

It's funny I almost got drunk enough to really consider joining the corps again recently.

RangerD we should roll to aussy land and pwn their women and children (female children the age of 18-25 for the record) I'm so up for a change of venue.

[TheEschaton]

So....

For like, 3 days, I couldn't log onto the website. Therefore, I decided "Fuck it, those guys don't care, I don't need to say goodbye or anything."

So, my flight was delayed an hour. Then, I get on the plane yesterday in Buffalo. It proceeds to sit on the runway for another hour in Buffalo. Then, when it finally reaches JFK it proceeds to taxi for another half hour.

So, all said and done - I missed my flight at JFK last night, to Jo'burg. Slept in the airport last night to get on the Standby list, only to find out this afternoon that the standby list already had 15 people on it - who had been on it since THURSDAY. So, they all get on, I don't.

I say fuck it, check into the Holiday Inn, and here I be. At least there's free wireless internet, FTW. All in all, though, I'm pretty cheesed.

Consider this your goodbye.

And this is a pre-emptive fuck you to Tayre and all the other asshats, who are thinking of hitting the Reply button to make a smartass remark.

.addname Tayre asshat

(that puts your name in bright green with a puke green background.....asshat!)


-TheE-

[Artha]

<smartass remark>

[TheEschaton]

.addname Artha asshat


asshat!

[Sean of the Thread]

<smartass remark x2>


Take a shower you dirty hippy. (x3)

[TheEschaton]

Now you're just doing it so you can be puke green on my list. I refuse.

Sole consolation: I can watch playoff football.

Edited to add: I enjoy being a dirty hippie, so you calling me one doesn't upset me. Get a clue.

-TheE-

[Edited on 1-8-2006 by TheEschaton]

[HarmNone]

Take care, The E. I hope you can get on the next flight and back to your temporary "home" where you can continue the work you're doing. Stop in when you can, even if it's just to drop a howdy and run. :)

[Snapp]

Be safe, TheE!

[Warriorbird]

Good luck.

[Caiylania]

Safe journeys and all that!

[TheEschaton]

Alright, time to check out and hope I get on the flight today. Lesson learned: Take the 9 AM flight, even if your connecting flight is only at 6 pm and it only takes an hour flight to get there.


-TheE-

[Miss X]

Good luck hon. Keep checking in when you can to let us know you're doing okay! :heart:

[TheEschaton]

Well, friends, I'm back in Rundu, Namibia. Finally flew out of JFK Sunday evening, reached Jo'burg Monday evening, flew to Windhoek the next morning, and on Wednesday took the public transport up to Rundu.

All in all - I'm glad I'm home, and don't have to travel anywhere for a long, long time. See you all in a bit.


-TheE-

[HarmNone]

Take good care, The E. I'm glad you made it "home" safely. :)