or "What it means to be an ELF". I have just returned from Washington D.C. and the orientation into the English Language Fellows program (ah! the ELF jokes are starting to make sense now!). Have you ever walked into a room full of strangers and suddenly felt at home? Known in an instant that the decisions you made were the right ones? That everything was going to be what you wanted and then some? It's truly an awe-inspiring thing to find your niche and listen to 100 other people that have been living your dream. What an insanely amazing group of people. I've made friends in the last three days that I hope to know for the rest of my life. My fellow ELFs range in age from 50+ to a couple of years younger than me. And the experiences they have had! Seriously, I only hope that someday I can fill my resumee with one-tenth of what they have done. We spent the last 3 days picking each others' brains, acquiring a million new ideas, learning all the boring logistical stuff that we had to, and just when we were getting pretty comfortable as a group and finally starting to learn each others' name without wearing the stupid nametags... it was time to go home. Some people were going to post straight from D.C. while others, like me, get to go home for a while and prepare. I have more questions now than I did before I went to this orientation, but at least they are more focused and I know who to get the information from. The next twenty days will be spent doing just that. I have so much to do!!!! There is a huge opportunity here to really make a difference. If nothing else, we can all make an impact on the places we're going just by lending a hand. Others may change the world. Who knows... I couldn't be more excited than I am right now though.
I met all the Fellows that will be in my region of the world (for those of you who don't know - that would be Kosovo). I have another Fellow in Pristina with me, Travis, and an hour or so away in beautiful Prizren, we have Phil. I could be in serious trouble with these two around, cuz they's crazy!! We all three feel pretty fortunate to have each other so close by, as some of the other fellows are out in some pretty remote places without even another foreigner within miles.
Charlie's Angels, Kosovo Division (me, Travis & Phil)
So the crazy travel schedule continues. Tomorrow I leave for Houston to go visit my mom for almost two weeks. Then its back to Ft. Worth for 10 days. September 9th - departure date for Kosovo. I have my plane tickets in hand now, and a reason for being. I can't wait. Truthfully, I'm just ready to be in one place for a while. All this bouncing around is killing me. (It's that damn nesting instinct! I bought a comforter for my bed at my dad's house because it needed to match my Pottery Barn throw pillows. Oh, yeah. There's even a matching table lamp now too. Did I mention I'm really only here for two weeks??? Pathetic.)
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