3200+ Miles Later...

I'm here I'm here! Well, actually, I've been here (Arizona) for 3 weeks now. It's crazy to think that a month ago I was getting ready to leave for this amazing new adventure.

Work started 2 weeks ago and so far I've been in orientation and training. I won't be learning about my actual role until the end of September, until then I will be earning my Series 7 and 63 Licenses. So basically, I will be studying and panicking for the next month. But once I get through the exams I will start learning how to do my job!

But really, what everyone is curious about (or what I want to talk about ;) ) is how moving across country went. It's long, I just really liked my trip.

Just a short negative update, moving companies are awful and mine is a bit of a headache. They picked my stuff up 2 days late and I still haven't received on this end (that would be 30 days later). But the last day of pick-up dramatics my friend Amanda (the goddess that she is) waited 8 hours at my old apartment for them to arrive. Thanks to her amazing sacrifice Dad and I were able to start our drive one day late instead of 2! I'm so lucky in my friends, and Amanda is one amazing chica.

Amanda the lifesaver

The road trip was amazing. My dad flew into Boston to drive across country with me and it was one of the best trips I've ever taken. I'm so lucky Dad was willing to drive with me. Originally our trip was supposed to start with a drive to the Canada side of Niagara Falls, due to an unforeseen delay by the moving company we started out a day later than we planned, so we had to take Canada off of our trip list. The first day Dad and I drove from Boston to Buffalo to Chicago to Peru, Illinois where we stopped for the night. It was a long day driving about 17 hours but we drove through MA, NY, PA, OH, IN and IL what a start!

On our second day our goal was to get to Rapid City, South Dakota and we did it! It was a beautiful drive, and in SD we actually got to drive on an interstate with a speed limit of 80! I didn't even know those existed! We also got to drive through IL, IA, NE (because we took a detour to do so), and SD. Side note, as I'm sure most of you know I'm very focused on how many states I have been to, before this road trip I had 8 states I needed to visit, on this day I saw 3 of them (IA, NE, and SD).. When we started driving into Rapid City Dad and I realized something else, we were driving into the Monday of Sturgis Bike Week. It was insane! I've never seen so many Harleys in my life.

NE, we were supposed to be able to see the Mississippi River

 but the trees had grown too much

Speed limit sign in SD, because I wanted photographic evidence

On our third day Dad and I started out by going to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse both beautiful sights in a beautiful place. Then we took back roads from Crazy Horse to Cheyenne, it was crazy we barely saw anyone and it was just plains as far as you could see, as we got closer to Cheyenne we started to see the Rocky Mountains in the distance, which of course was gorgeous. We drove through Denver and made it to a small town in the Rockies for the night, it was called Dillon. So all in all we drove through a little of SD, WY, and CO and I am officially down to 4 states I need to visit!!! ID, MT, ND, and HI, I think making it a goal to see all of them by the time I'm 30 is completely doable!

Mount Rushmore!

I think this is where a selfie stick comes in handy?

Crazy Horse memorial

Reservoir in Dillon, CO

One more picture of the Rockies!

The night of day 3 Dad and I realized a miscalculation. It was Tuesday and we had until Friday to get to Phoenix...and somehow we were both thinking that we would do the rest of the drive in a day and a half and that would mean Friday. And knowing how hot it was going to be we weren't in a hurry to make that last 2 hours of the drive to get into the Valley, so we didn't want to come early...all of which meant we puttered around in Colorado on the 4th day and spent the night in Durango after driving back roads and visiting Vail for a short stroll.

Vail at the foot of one of the runs

 On day 4 we drove down to Flagstaff and went to Mission Impossible nothing extremely exciting but it was a fun day. And finally on day 5 we got up and headed into the Valley. And we land ourselves here, 3 weeks later training and residing in the Valley of the Sun. I'm living with friends from college and taking my time finding an apartment. I'm hoping to either be in Tempe or near work in Scottsdale, I guess we will see what I find. All I know for sure is that this is a grand adventure and I'm so glad I'm back West!

Laters with love,

Chloe

Here, There, and Everywhere

Hey all!

Soooo, remember that funny joke I told? You might remember...it was over a year ago (bashful look to the side) when I said I was excited to settle down in Boston and I would post more blog entries.

HA!

But in all reality I didn't mean it as a joke. As it turns out blogging just got lost in the jumble that has been the last year of my life. I started working at State Street, learned a lot about the financial services industry and even more about myself. Learned what it means to literally have no plans for an entire weekend and also learned that making friends after college is hard but we can all do it!

I wrote this blog entry for a reason, I sense a trend, I have some news! I will be moving away from Boston at the end of July! Just one week away! I know, I can hardly believe it. But I have accepted a job offer to work at Vanguard, another financial services company, in Scottsdale, AZ. WAIT. I know some of you are looking at that confused, could it be real? That's right my wonderful friends and family, I am moving BACK to a place I have lived before. I KNOW! I must be crazy. I'm really thankful for all the things I have learned while working at State Street and I'm excited to bring that knowledge to this great new opportunity. I figured since I haven't posted in so long I'd give you some highlights of the last year.

Well, it must be mentioned, it is what spurred me to look for work in other places, Snow. Such a small word, and I really thought I knew what it meant, I flaunt that mountain girl title like I was born to it. But I forgot two important words that go before it here in Boston, NEW ENGLAND snow. Completely different animal. It doesn't snow at night or in the morning and then the sun melts it off the roads, no, it falls, and falls, and falls. And then once it has fallen, it falls some more and then if you're lucky it will stop. But then the worst part happens. It doesn't melt, at all. How can that be? It makes no sense? But it is fact, You can go a week maybe even two with no snow, but does that actually matter? Not really, because you car is still buried under 5 feet of snow (and no I'm not using hyperbole).

That would be my car...under all that snow

First day, of first storm, pretty calm...until we hit 2 feet.

In all reality, I have been informed that winters are not all buried in snow and limiting of your ability to walk to work. But Boston managed to have one of the worst, if not the worst, winters on record. And I just picked the perfect time to live here. Surviving this winter and the snow getting dumped on us on a weekly basis may be the biggest adventure I have had in living on my own. But I did survive, with better snow skills (and bigger blankets) than I thought I would obtain.

I have also managed to at least stop and wander around in every New England state. That was one of my main goals in moving here, seeing a part of the country I haven't really seen before. Vermont and Maine are my favorites, they are so beautiful and relaxing, a wonderful getaway from the city. I went to a Darius Rucker concert in New Hampshire, explored a little of Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, and drove through Connecticut. And between these little adventures I explored a little of Boston, I was able to learn more about the city and show what I knew to a few friends and family that were able to come visit me!

Alaina and I went to Portland, ME! (May 2015)

VT snowmobiling (Februart 2015)

Mom and Dad came to visit before Christmas (December 2015)

VT February 2015 

VT Camp July 2015

New Years Eve in Boston!

Water Fires Providence, RI

I was also able to make some great trips around the country including everywhere from Seattle to New Orleans to Atlanta and Asheville (I have to see the nephew!) and a few places in-between. Not a lot has changed, I'm still wandering around trying to find my place and I'm still utterly hilarious (at least to me :D) but I did learn some interesting things.

I had to show at least one, the nephew and I at Thanksgiving!

1. Change, no matter how big or how small, is something you have to embrace or it can crush you.

2. It doesn't matter if you understand why you are learning something, learn it, and along the way it will start to make some sense.

3. Family, no matter how far away they are, will always be there for you.

4. It's not the money you make, or the things you have, it's how you use what you DO have that matters, make decisions based on yourself and not those around you.

5. No matter how desperate you feel or how scared you are, if you force a smile it will at some point become genuine.

6. Laugh at yourself and laugh alone.

On that note, have a happy day! And don't forget to laugh!

Love ya!
Chlo

Boston home of...SPORTS.

Hello my lovely family and friends,

I know many of you are curious what has been happening with me, it has been almost 2 months and I've been pretty silent. Well, there was some reason for that.

In May there just wasn't much to write. I moved in with my friend Michelle and enjoyed some Florida weather, I went to the beach a couple times and I tried not to freak out as I looked for full-time and part-time work.

I did get to see some great people during the month (thanks to my birthday and Michelle's being a great excuse for a trip!) our friends Alaina and Julia came to visit the weekend of my birthday and the following Monday Alaina and Michelle took me to Universal for the first time! I totally geeked out and loved it! I got a Transformers tank top and a Jurassic Park key chain but I loved everything! Well...except I made them go on a ride Michelle said was lame, claiming that I liked the idea but....it was lame. Very lame.

Then Katie came to visit for Michelle's birthday, it ended up being a great week of birthday celebrations and was a great way to have an unemployed birthday. I did find a part-time job working for Marshalls as a cashier, I worked for 4 days. But I had to leave because.....I got a job in Boston!!!!

That is right I am now working in the Bank Loan department of State Street Corporation. It isn't a boring as it sounds, the company is really cool and a mainstay in finance (you should google it...) and I have a job! Needless to say I had to leave Florida kind of quickly, I got to stop off in Georgia, I stopped at the family reunion and got to spend time with the most important person there, my new nephew :) he's so cute.

I had a couple weeks of extreme confusion, during my slow move from Florida to Boston I was getting contacted from another company that was extremely interested in hiring me. And for those of you who know me well I don't do well with personal decisions on a timer. I was stressed and confused, it was in VA so I would be close to my parents and closer to Kate, Ron and the baby but...it wasn't right. I love State Street and I love the opportunities I will have here in the future.

I'm sorry I haven't kept you guys updated but I wanted to have some definite news before I told you all something and then changed my mind, like, I don't know, leaving for Africa and coming back a week later. I've been there and done that and learned my lesson, no sharing until I know what I'm doing.

I do have one more thing. Apparently I do not love sports, professional sports to be specific, enough to live in Boston. If someone feels like it, it would be much appreciated if I could be guided to a book, article, website that kinda dumbs down Boston sports for me? I am at a loss...and definitely need some knowledge.

Well, that is all the news I have for the moment, I plan on posting a little more regularly now that I'm in one place but we will see. I love you all for your support while I haven't thanked you all personally I cannot express what it has meant to me to have so many people in my corner hoping for my life to work out. I hope in the future I can help someone out as much as you all have helped me, it is definitely owed.

Love you!
Chloe

Laugh a little

I have had a small life epiphany. Now, I am sorry to say but nothing exciting has happened to me, I don't have a job part-time or full-time and I'm still searching for both in lovely Florida. But at this moment I am extremely happy.

There are a lot of things we all assume are necessary to be happy. A loving family, a job we love, a person to share our lives with, and many other small things. But really, isn't happiness all about the journey to find those things? Really happiness is a decision we all make every day. And I am deciding to be happy.

And the sign that I can make that decision is, in my eyes, being able to laugh with no one around. When you're laughing because it's funny and not because you're around other people, well, then at that moment you must be happy. And I have spent all day alone and laughing and have to say its been a great day.

Just thought I would share my new goal with all of you, and if you need something to make you laugh here's a video that is...HILARIOUS.

Hopefully soon I'll be posting about a new job or something but until then, don't forget to laugh!

Best,
Chloe

It is all OK

Hello World!

Well, I know many people thought this blog would, in all reality, end when I came home from the Peace Corps. Sorry friends, I seem to think I'm more interesting than that. Now don't worry, I don't actually expect a lot of people to keep reading but I think this is important. Because I think a lot of people my age, even ones with jobs, and apartments and all that other awesome stuff I want to deal with are still wondering what life means and feel like we are supposed to have the answers to the rest of our lives. And the truth is, we don't, and we never will. But you know what, IT IS OK.

I started reading a new book yesterday, courtesy of my parents and their helpful friends at church who have had kids who had to reevaluate their plans. It is titled I Just Graduated...Now What? and it is by Katherine Schwarzenegger the daughter of Maria Shriver. I know, I know, the title kinda gives the point of the book away. But I've only read the introduction so far and it has already changed my outlook. The most important part is, I am not alone, most people my age question their plans, their life, and their futures even when it seems like they are the ones who have it completely together. And honestly, for the first time since I started caring what other people were doing I'm really happy I'm not different, I'm actually the norm.

I came home from Madagascar, for my own reasons, thinking I would start applying to jobs and POOF I'd get a job in about two months. Well, it's been almost three months and I've only had a couple phone interviews and a lot of rejections and that two months is just not going to happen. I know that I was thinking this would be too easy, but I don't think I realized how defeating being unemployed can feel. Some days you want to apply to any job you can get your hands on (that can lead you to bad decisions like taking phone interviews for a call center even though you know it is absolutely the wrong job for you) and some days, getting up and doing anything seems pointless. And while I am in this limbo, I slowly watch my savings disappear. Not the most fun experience ever.

So I had to make some decisions.
1. I can't expect to just get a job and be financially secure.
2. It is time to get a part time job and stop hurting my savings.
3. Living with my parents is nice but I'm using it as a crutch so I need to go elsewhere.

So because of these decisions I am leaving Alexandria to stay with a friend in Orlando, FL (in her spare room) and get a part time job while I continue to job search. I know that it is not what I expected and no one who knows me thought I would be here, they all thought I would be in Africa right now. But I am figuring out my life, and doing in a way that will make me feel so proud of myself and secure in my independence when the right job finally comes along.

 I am going to keep updating this blog. I hope you all enjoy it!

Best,
Chloe

It's always my choice

Life is never as simple as you can make it out to be in your head. That is the lesson I've learned in the past week or so. You can make decisions and even if they are the right decisions they don't make things afterward easy and simple. I think as we grow up it always seems like if you make the right decisions then everything will work out and it will work out quickly but life isn't a Boy Meets World episode.

I have come to the conclusion that I was absolutely correct in deciding to come back to the US, find a job, and start my career on the same continent as my family and friends. But man, finding a job is hard. I have three different resumes, two cover letters that I change for each job, and a job speadsheet that makes me wonder how long this is going to take me. I mean, I didn't think I would find a job in a week, I'm not an idiot (although that would have been very nice). But I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before I DO find a job. And how long before this gap between graduation and my first job will actually negatively effect my job search.

I've applied to 13 jobs and gotten 1 rejection and have 5 more jobs that I'm waiting for advice before I apply. And that is just the start, I probably won't be lucky until I am far past 50 job applications, probably close to or even over 100. And the hope is that by May (wince) I will have a job and know when and where I am moving. It feels so good to have plans and know that my plans should end up working but I have started to realize something else. The job market kind of sucks.

Its not that there aren't jobs, there are. In fact, there are a TON of jobs that would be great second or third jobs but not a lot of people want new graduates and there are enough unemployed people that they can be picky. But how do you get the experience required when people don't want to hire you without experience?

I have to say, that I am nervous and hoping that it will all turn out right, because I am where I need to be. Worst case, I have to reevaluate and figure out a new plan. And I know how to do that now, how to look at my path and figure out how to make a new one. And that's the best part really, I am DETERMINED to make it work and when you have that as a focus, and know you want it to work that's a large part of the battle.

But if any of you know of an entry level job for a recent college graduate with a degree in Management, a concentration in International Business, and a minor in Anthropology. Please, let me know.

I found a few more quotes this week, I am using them to motivate myself.

"Even if you fall on your face, you are still moving forward."~Victor Kiam
"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." ~Wayne Dyer
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." ~Norman Vincent Peale

Love you all,
Chloe

New Adventures

Hello my lovely family and friends.

Big news, I am writing this from my parents' home in Alexandria. I know, SHOCKING and honestly not what anyone was expecting. I did go to Madagascar, and I did spend time with my host family and then I realized something. I am not ready for this.

Please do not mistake me. I was physically even more prepared than I thought. I could eat the food, take the bucket baths and deal with all of the requirements for healthy living. It was surprisingly easy in most cases, to the point where two years of doing those things wasn't something I was even worried about anymore.

What I was not ready for was the emotional requirements to going to Madagascar for two years. I have a lot of reasons why I came home and for me they are the right reasons. But most of all it just wasn't the right decision for me to stay in Madagascar.

I have a few other comments to add. First of all, the Peace Corps is a wonderful organization that really gives you great opportunities and if you realize it is not for you they also support you through your process of leaving and returning home. And I hope, in the future, I can help other people make the decision to join the Peace Corps and make a huge difference. Second, I am so excited to start my life here at home so I look forward to trying to see some of you in the near future.

Finally, I really would rather not talk about it more than I have to, it was a difficult and personal decision. But if you need to talk to me about my decision to leave Madagascar please feel free to let me know.

I think, at least for a while, I am going to try and still update my blog. I know some of you will be extremely curious as to what happens with my life now. But as of today I am searching for a job and figuring it out for myself.

My mom sent me a quote recently:

"As one goes through life, one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move." ~ Katharine Hepburn

Well, today I'm taking some of my first paddle strokes because it really is time to get my canoe moving.


Love,
Chloe

Off to Africa!

My adventure truly begins

As I write this I am getting ready to go to bed so that I can get up and shower before my 2:30am departure from Philadelphia. We will all drive to New York and at JFK we will get on a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa. After the short 15 hour flight we will take another flight to Antananarivo, Madagascar and arrive by afternoon on Wednesday. After our afternoon staging event I can tell you three things.

1. I know nothing. But I will learn during training and on the job all of the important things to making it in Mada. But really this is an entire new life adventure and I will be experiencing so many new things that I will have to learn a lot every day.

2. I am not alone. I have to tell you it was comforting to sit and a room and realize that the same fears and hopes are in the heads of most of the people there. We will get through the stress and get to enjoy our adventure together!

3. I am so scared and ready for this I can barely breath. I have been talking about the Peace Corps for years and Madagascar specifically for months and the fact that it is finally real is crazy. But it is a crazy I am so ready for. The knot in my stomach has butterflies and is the greatest uncomfortable feeling I have ever had.

I know this is a short one but I will try to post again soon. For everyone I didn't get to talk to I love you! And a special bit of love for my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and my soon to be nephew! I will miss you all like crazy but I'll come back a stronger, better person.

Love you all heaps!

Chloe

Purdue Strong, Packing, and Friends

Ok, this is a bad sign. I haven't even left for Madagascar yet and I fell off the blog-wagon! But to be fair its been a crazy couple of weeks.

I have this awesome post written about my friend Michelle's visit to DC. We went to the Smithsonian and the monuments and I wrote this awesome post about how cool it was to be able to visit parts of our nation's history without even having to travel.

Unfortunately, when I went to publish my post on 1/21/2014 something else focused my attention. There was a shooting at Purdue University and one student was killed. So of course, me being me, I wasn't going to post about my awesome weekend and I decided I had to share my thoughts about the shooting. But after some reflection I decided my opinions had no place in such a tragedy. Click here for a touching letter written by one of the victim's professors.

After an awesome weekend with Michelle in DC and some upsetting news the next week I then got to spend the weekend of 1/27/2014 with two of my best friends Alaina and Rosalie, in San Francisco and Sacramento California. It was awesome, we got to be tourists in San Francisco and then we got to explore Sacramento. I have never spent time in Northern California and  I really liked it, I can't wait to go back for another visit.

And this weekend I am getting to spend time with two of my awesome cousins! Rachel and Whitney and I have gotten to spend the weekend hanging out, having fun, and packing for Africa. I'm also really lucky that they were here because they were able to help me go through all my clothes and pick out everything that I am going to take with me. Thank goodness they were here because I would never have been able to cut down on all the items I want to take without their brutal honesty.

Since it is getting so close to the time I am going to leave I will try to post a couple more times in the next week. I hope you all had a good January and the start to our shortest month is good.

All the Best,
Chloe

Packing is as packing does...

Ok, so here's the problem. I created a packing list and started figuring out what I need to buy (I know so unlike me!) BUT that was bad bad idea.

I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!

Not only do I need to start packing and figuring out what I can take in my two suitcases but I have to go BUY a lot of it! I feel like the time I have until I leave just keeps rushing by and I don't have enough time to see people, pack, buy the necessities and be ready on time. How did I ignore this for so long?? I should have started weeks ago and the fact that I didn't was just silly.

I received my staging email this week as well. I officially have a staging date and location and a flight. It's crazy that I have less than 30 days until I am out of the country for over 2 years...But for those who are interested, I am leaving DC on February 9th and arriving in Philadelphia late that night, I have about 7 hours of staging in the hotel on February 10th and I leave on a bus for New York at 2:30AM on February 11th. I will fly from New York to Johannesburg, South Africa and then from there I will fly to Antananarivo, Madagascar. Then I will start my time as a trainee and if I learn enough and have enough language proficiency at the end of my training I will officially become a volunteer. My journey has begun!

On a side note, I started writing my "just in case" letters this week. And let me tell you, its HARD. First of all, figuring out what you want to say if something bad happens to you is hard to imagine, what do I want to say if I never have a chance to say anything again? Umm...mostly sorry I didn't stay with you. But I'm managing I need to get them done before I leave for California because I'm leaving them with Alaina along with a few other odds and ends.

I know that some people have a lot of questions about the Peace Corps. I know a lot of information and I still have questions! Here's a cool video that recruiters often show at universities at info sessions. Well, there is not that much else that is going on with me. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

Best,
Chloe

Happy New Year, Cheers!

That's right, I was in London for New Years!!!

I got to spend a week in London with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. It was the best possible family vacation I could have had before leaving for two years, I got to spend a ton of time with Kate and Ron and we got to explore and have an adventure as a family.

Some of the awesome things I got to do include:

- The London Eye, I'm going to be honest, its amazing, the views from the Eye are incredible and if you are ever in London (even if you've been there before) get a ticket and enjoy the view!

- A trip down the River Thames, this was awesome and you got to see a large amount of the city all at once.

- Shopping on Portabello Road. This was awesome and we saw some awesome stuff and if you are someone who loves to shop this should be a great stop. I would love to make it on a weekend in the summer when the weather really allows you to see the street vendors instead of mostly just the stores.

                                                                    Portabello Road

- Canterbury Cathedral may not technically be in London but it is worth seeing. I took my first audio tour (thank you for insisting Kate) and really enjoyed walking around the beautiful cathedral while learning a lot of interesting history. My favorite part was the cloisters which was the area where the monks lived in the past, it was beautiful.

                             View from the area where the monks would worship and sing all day

                                                                             The alter

                                                                   View of the cloisters

                                             Some of the cloisters with the Cathedral behind it

                                                                It was just beautiful!

- If you ever go to London, do a bus tour! There is so much history in London that it was awesome to learn more of it.

                                                                A newspaper just for mom!

                                                             St. Paul's Cathedral

                                                                 View of Tower Bridge

                                                               Crossing Tower Bridge


- The Tower of London was something my mom and I did just the two of us. It was really beautiful, we didn't see the crown jewels because we didn't want to wait in a long line but we got to walk the battlements and see some medals and learn about the history of the tower. It was so cool to see but...the Tower is so SMALL compared to what I saw in my mind. But it was still awesome!

- The British Museum is something I would love to go visit again. We didn't have as much time as I would have liked so we only got to walk around a little but it was so cool and they have so many artifacts that I would love to spend a day or two going from the top to the bottom. We did get to walk through the African area and found some textiles from Madagascar and then we walked through Egypt and Ancient Rome. It was awesome!

                                                Dad and I in front of some ancient Roman art

                                        Mom in the center of the main floor of the British Museum

I bet you can't guess but I thought my whole trip was awesome! It's the first time I've been to an English speaking European country and I loved that I still heard French, Spanish, German, and many other languages. I'm pretty sure I heard Finnish which was pretty cool. I can't wait to go back and it made me want to live in Europe even more.

In other news, while I was in London I got confirmation that I have been medically and dentally cleared! And the night before we left I submitted my graduation transcript so I have EVERYTHING turned in. YAY!!!!

And as of yesterday I am FREAKING OUT about leaving in a month. How am I going to get everything done? I have so much to do to get ready for Madagascar and I just hope that I get it all done in time. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a completely last minute packer and I had an epiphany yesterday that I cannot do that this time. This could be a hilarious time to witness, my parents are going to get to see my attempts and getting things done early and I'm sure they will have many stories to share.

Hopefully my next post will be about how awesome I am at preparing but...we shall see. I hope you have an amazing week!!!

Love,
Chloe

Here goes nothing...

Now that I've promised about 50 people I have decided it is time to actually start a blog. Just a preface to this whole thing: I AM NOT A WRITER. My mother (the amazing journalist and editor that she is) often points out that I have a great tone to my writing but I don't really like punctuation. I'm still going to try my best and I hope you're reading this more for entertainment and to stay up-to-date on my life than to see some great writing. Kinda like Twilight I want to entertain not win a pulitzer.

ANYWAY, let's start with the reason I am writing a blog. In February I will be leaving to go work in Madagascar with the U.S. Peace Corps and this is my way of keeping in touch. I am so excited and I cannot believe that one of my biggest life dreams is coming true!


Above is a map of the continent of Africa with Madagascar conveniently labeled.

The process was pretty demanding and I actually could still end up not getting to go because the medical clearance has become complicated because of some awesome testing that I forgot to have done with my initial medical paperwork. But as of right now I am leaving for Madagascar on February 11, 2014 and I can't wait!

I'll give you the basic process as I experienced it, they recently redid the whole thing so someone applying tomorrow would experience something different but it was as follows:

1. Online Application (medical questionnaire, tons of random questions, resumes, cover letters, recommendations, etc.)

2. Interview (this is the first place they get rid of people, my interview was done on webcam since my recruiter was in Chicago -- Purdue -- and I was in Alexandria, VA for Spring Break)

3. Nomination (this isn't a guarantee in location or job but is the recruiter telling the Peace Corps they think you are an ideal candidate and that you would probably be good at "X" in my case community development)

4. Background Check and Medical Questions (you give the Peace Corps the information to do a background check and if your medical questionnaire left some questions for your suitability you would answer more questions at this point)

5. Selection Pool (now you are in a pool of Applicants that have been deemed suitable for work with the Peace Corps, you could be here for days or weeks or months)

6. Invitation (a Selection Officer reads your file and sees a good project for you and places you in a country and project area and sends you an invitation, you have one week to accept your invitation)

7. Medical Clearance, Orientation, Safety (TONS of medical paperwork, online paperwork, orientations online and an online safety course that all must be completed by 30 days prior to departure)

8. Staging and Pre-Service Training (where you meet in the US travel to your country with your staging group and go through up to 3 months of training in your country before you go to your site)

So I am still in step 7, I had some mix-ups with medical tests that I didn't get done so that is still where I am at but I need to be completely done ASAP! But it should be fine.

I realize I've been rambling but I wanted you all to know where my life is currently! So I guess I should give you a few other updates.

- I graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Management, a concentration in International Business, and a minor in Anthropology on December 15, 2013.

- I am about to leave for London for a week with my parents, my sister, Kate and my brother-in-law, Ron. As far as ways to spend time with family....I'LL TAKE IT!!!

- I'm also heading to California for a weekend to be with two of my best friends Alaina and Rosie and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

-And I'm very lucky that two people in my life are coming to see me before I leave my friend Michelle and my cousin Rachel.

With all of these occurrences in my life I will hardly have time to breath before it is time for me to pack my bags and head to Africa! I can't believe how much my life is going to change in such a short period of time!

I promise I am going to post more soon but I wanted to get my first blog post out there so people find out it exists!

Side note: I will post my mailing address as soon as I know it but there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. International postage can be expensive
2. If you are going to write letters or send packages you need to number them because they tend to get lost or come out of order
3. If you want you can just send things to my mom and she'll send them when she sends me things (email me at chedden90@gmail.com and I'll give you her address)

Okie dokie I will be back soon but until then click and enjoy!

Best,
Chloe