A Warning

As I’m sure you can guess, I am very excited to visit home in a few short weeks. But before I come home I feel like I should give everyone a fair warning… I’ve picked up some annoying habits in the Peace Corps. I’ll outline a few below:

1) The sewage system in Peru (and, in general, most of the world) is not good enough to allow people to put their toilet paper in the toilet and instead they need to throw it into a garbage can. This has become second nature and when I was at the US Embassy I was baffled by the fact that there were no garbage cans in the stalls. A Peace Corps friend once told me the story about when he was at hotel in the States and actually brought his toilet paper out of the bathroom to throw it away, never realizing that this was a strange thing to do.

2) I now feel comfortable talking about things that are considered off-limits in polite conversation. Please read the above paragraph for an example.

3) It doesn’t seem weird to wear a variation of the exact same outfit for a week. Or to never take off my pajamas but instead just throw jeans and a sweatshirt on over them because it’s so cold out.

4) If you ask me a question and I just stand and stare at your for awhile do not be alarmed. I’m probably trying to translate my answer into Spanish and it might take me a minute to realize that I don’t need to.

5) Speaking of Spanish, there are now some words that come to me quicker in Spanish then in English. My apologies for the uses of: tranquilo (calm), de nada (you’re welcome), aqui (here), como (what?), and que piensas (what do you think?), among others.

6) My world consists of way too many acronyms so, again, my apologies if I say something like: “Some PCVs went to the PCVLs and PCVCs to talk about their RC and the APCDs for the YD and SBD programs.”

7) I have absolutely no grasp on current events happening anywhere but in my site. And those current events mainly consist of whether or not it looks like rain.

8) I'm used to being able to say whatever comes to mind because nobody understands me. Hopefully I don't say anything too embarrassing in public.

So that's the ridiculous behavior you should prepare yourself for. I'll be home in 27 days... the days are currently moving like molasses but I know as soon as I'm on US soil they will be going into hyper speed. Regardless, January is a pretty busy month so hopefully I'll be seeing you before I know it!