A Month and a Day...

The past several weeks have been intensely boring -- I spend my time reading (so far: two of Chelsea Handler's books, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Barrel Fever), watching French movies, and wandering across the vast plains of the interwebs.

The positive side, though, is that internet surfing frequently leads to internet shopping, and I have a lot of shopping to do before Benin.  Now that I've made friends with Amazon and Ebay, I'm over 3/4 of the way there... yay!

Other major update: while shopping with la Mamacita yesterday, I found and bought what may be the cutest pair of ugly sandals on the earth.  I know because I tried all of the other pairs on already. Having accomplished the shoes, the sleeping mat (a good one for $30 on Amazon -- snaps for good deals), the one-piece swimsuit, and having found a backpack to buy, I'm feeling much less stressed about this whole thing.  Still need to learn French, and haven't really progressed there, but hey, I've got a month and a day, right?

Other good news/news in general:
 - I get to keep my ear piercings! According to one of the volunteers, pierced ears are sometimes the only way you can tell gender over there, because everyone has their head shaved.
 - My amazing Auntie B sent me a grad gift that will really, really improve the pictures I post here... I'm fairly excited.
 - Jeans, in Benin, are considered professional attire -- guess who's going to work every day in jeans?  Andrew, Katie, BillyandBryant, feel free to be jealous. : )

That might be about it -- with no work, no school, and no major art projects, I lack exciting things to tell le blogosphere.  In closing here's a picture of Kenzie's latest amazing cupcakes (dark chocolate cake, 100 Grands inside, vanilla buttercream frosting, and caramel, 100 Grands, and sprinkles on top), just because they're so pretty.

I Just Gotta Have Patience

...'cause patience is a wonderful thing.
Hurry up, hurry up, gotta have it now,
I want it more than anything!

When my younger sister Mandee was little, her level of patience was, to put it lightly, basically nonexistent.  Somebody taught her this rhyme to repeat when she felt like she couldn't wait any longer... imagine it said at top speed, over and over, by a front-toothless little girl who didn't pronounce her Rs.  So cute!

Anyway, so that's how I feel now.  I started my application last June, so it's been almost a year since I first sent my name to the Peace Corps.  An interview, eight doctor's appointments, several follow-up emails, and two states later, I'm still waiting.  But exciting news!  A guy emailed me a couple of days to ask if I could possibly leave in mid-July to go to West Africa, which means (drumroll please)... I won't be spending the summer in New York, but I should find out my assignment within the next week!  And also, that I'll probably be learning French.

This is particularly funny because my current repertoire of French phrases includes only the following:
Bonjour, bonsoir, au revoir, enchantee -- basic greetings gleaned mostly from Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Je suis la soupe du jour. -- I am the soup of the day.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? -- A line from Moulin Rouge that I will not translate here and promise to never use in everyday conversation
Luke, je suis ton pere. -- Luke, I am your father.

Basically, I'm screwed.  My friend Lauren has Rosetta Stone for French on her computer, so now that I've graduated from college and have more time, I'm going to have to buckle down and start studying.   Soon, I'll be astonishing everyone with my complex and thought-provoking sentences, such as "Please pass the mustard." and "Where is the restroom?" Survival in a foreign-language-speaking country?  Don't even worry about it.

So that's my basic strategy.  While I wait for my assignment, I will learn French, search for sturdy (read: ugly) hiking sandals, shop online for various outdoorsy things I may need, and recite the rhyme: I just gotta have patience, 'cause patience is a wonderful thing...

PS.  Hilarious example of kids trying to be patient: The Marshmallow Test