twenty-seven months

so you remember how i said there has been some heavy thinking going on lately? well i thought it was about time i filled everyone in (and my apologies for keeping this under wraps)

it's not usually the thing here to digress too far from the world of fashion and travel, but i do love sharing my life with the world so here we go...

when i was in high school i was an international relations nerd for lack of a better word. i was in model UN all four years. i petitioned my school to offer comparative government. yeah, i was that girl. i was a save the world type.  and shocker (!) not much has changed.

seventeen months ago i started the application to join the peace corps. i learned about it through high school government classes, and it's kinda stuck. throughout the period there have been periods where i was sure nothing would come of it all, times when i really wondered if it was right for me, if i could even really do it. but then it would boil down to the point where i can't imagine my life without it. so i went through all the forms, the interviews, the doctors appointments (and more appointments, and more...). until now. 

i.got.in.

and now i have my country assignment. 

i leave june 1 2011. i'm going to be a education/literacy volunteer. in mali. 

MALI.

like the country in west africa. a muslim, french-speaking, african country. 

pale white me. in africa. for real. probably no running water, probably no electricity. probably no internet or cell phone. 

talk about a change. i think this can classify as a radical readjustment. 

i think i may be insane enough to find this the right thing to do. in fact i know i did because i accepted on monday and it's totally official. 

there are moments when i think i've lost all my marbles. i don't know if i can do this. if i can get on that airplane and travel around the world and learn to speak the language, learn to be Malian. there are moments when i know, to my very core, that this is exactly what i should be doing. i sticking to that. i believe that this is going to make me the person i am meant to be. 

so between now and june there will be a ton of preparations, shopping, learning about the Malian culture, working on my language lessons. and then there is of course learning about outdoor equipment (something i  know nothing about...who knew there were all these kinds of sleeping bags and short wave radios and all this other jargon! it's a whole new world!). 

on top of all that. as if that were not enough on its own. my dad is being transferred to san diego, CA. so because i need to have somewhere to keep my belongings, and i want to spend as much time as possible with my parents, i will be, first, moving to california. 

seriously. are you following all this?

here's the short of it all: mid april--to california. june--to mali. 

i'm trying to breathe. 

if you have any thoughts...on what to wear, what to bring, what to research...in mali or CA...pass them along!

more fashion to come as well...linen, linen and more linen..soooo goooodddd!

(map)

happy friday everyone! thanks for reading!