T minus two weeks

Two weeks, 5 hours, 45 minutes, 14 seconds and counting till I’m out of here! Not that I’m keeping track.

Back in October I accepted an invitation from the Peace Corps to go to Ecuador as a Habitat Conservation Volunteer. Now my date of departure is quickly approaching, and I’m hoping that I haven’t forgotten to take care of any matters that will take more than two weeks to complete.

My desk is filling up with lists – “to do,” “to buy,” “to enjoy before I leave for 2 years,” my bed is strewn with clothes awaiting my executive decision on whether they get to come with me for the next two years or whether they will be exiled to the attic, my computer is filled with websites detailing “what to bring” and “what not to bring,” my brain is filled with the impending necessity to sort the stack of papers sitting on my filing cabinet that will certainly not sort themselves, and my body is filled with anticipation to leave this cold, windy Connecticut weather and bask in the lovely Ecuadorian summer.

I leave for DC on the 5th, where I’ll meet the other Peace Corps Volunteers who are also going to Ecuador. And then we all leave for Ecuador on the 7th, stay in Quito for a night or so, and then head north to Cayambe to begin our training. Fun fact: Mt. Cayambe, an extinct volcano, is the only place on the equator that has snow cover. I’m beginning to think I’ll see more snow in Ecuador than in Connecticut.