Right Place, Right Time.

  Hey Everyone!
       As most of you know, I went off to Boston ( Which ended up being New Hampshire) for a pre departure training with United Planet. This was my first time ever flying solo, so Mom was naturally pretty scared. She asked me to send her a picture of the people I was with just incase I went missing and she needed to use photo evidence to find me. To her annoyance, and my amusement, I sent her a 10 second snapchat of a blurry photo of Emily, the Canadian accountant with United Planet. The photo was useless. I had an amazing time, and really realized that I am exactly where I need to be, what a great feeling.
          You could ask me where in New Hampshire we were staying, and all I would be able to tell you is that it was snowy, by a lake and close-ish to Boston. I loved it though, the location reminded me a lot of Bend, OR. The journey to this location actually really sucked. I had a 4 hour layover at 6 in the morning in Atlanta, but was so hopped up on caffeine that I was making friends left and right. Of course most of the people I befriended were men between 50-70. I found all these well traveled and intelligent men to talk to about why I was going to Boston. I get so excited when I meet new people. I'm like a puppy.
           I arrive in Boston, and find the rest of the volunteers. Slowly we all start talking, saying where we are from, our names, where we are going. It's always hard to start talking to a bunch of strangers, at first. Luckily- and the same time unluckily- whenever I get nervous, I ramble. On our way to our location, Stephanie ( currently living in CA and going to the UK), Anna ( From N. Carolina, headed as well to the UK), Andres ( From Florida, headed to Sweden?) and myself spent an hourish talking about ourselves as the rest of the group fell asleep on the bus. We arrive at a little church camp on a lake and unpack. Spending the rest of the night playing Hide and Seek, Ping Pong, and Foosball. By the end of the night we were all aware of each others names, and personalities- I personally liked every single one of them.
          We spent most of the day discussing cultural differences, and playing games to portray such differences. One that stood out to me was we each were given a slip of paper with directions of some behavior to do while we were talking to different people- except we couldn't tell anyone what we were supposed to do. Mine was snapping my fingers over my head every time I started talking. One of the boys had to get really close to everyone he was talking to, and another girl was supposed to stay an arms length away from everyone, so when those two paired up it was pretty humorous. Our conversations were pretty helpful, I feel like I was always pretty prepared for this since I had a German exchange student, and have traveled to some unique places. I expect culture shock, which I believe will help me out in the long run.
        I have to kick myself, however. I lucked out that UP actually is a good organization. I walked blindly into this organization, not knowing a thing about it until I had already put thousands of dollars into being able to go on this journey. I didn't know anything about Skorea before I applied for that location, I did all of my informative research later. My whole goal in this was to push myself completely out of my comfort zone, and go to some place that I have never known. The culture is so different, that I'm actually a little scared of the culture shock that I WILL be experiencing. I have grown up in a very matriarchal family, my opinion ( as long as it had back up and made some sense) was always listened to by the men of the family. We have shared the work in the house, and I was expected to have a job. In Skorea, I will be the bottom rung of the latter. I had comparing South Korean women to house help and maids, but from what I have heard and researched.... that;s what they are. And that scares me. Also makes me glad that I'm only going to be gone for 6 months. I will likely have a curfew and won't be allowed out at night if I'm living with a host family. At this point I'm praying that I actually DO get put into a dormitory/hostel. A month of a host family, when I've learned more of the language will be doable, but otherwise I'm not sure how I will do. And that's a major fear of mine.
Also, apparently the coffee sucks.
       But I have made some amazing friends this weekend, friends that I hope to keep for a while. I'm so excited to have bonded so well with the other girl going to South Korea. 54 days until the date that I hope to fly out on.

 Just a view on our way down to the lake.

 Thin Ice! The lake was awesome, Andres and I both threw rocks into the water. His broke the ice and fell to the bottom... mine hit the ice, made a hole and then ended up sitting on the iced over lake.

 Some of the United Planet volunteers, Myself, Jessica, Leah, Elise ( who is also from Central Oregon) and Lauren ( who will be joining me in SKorea).

 Instant homies, Lauren, Andres and myself.

 A late night pyramid with Alia, Anna and Lauren

 United Planet '14! For some of the volunteers this was their first time in their double digit lifetime that they have seen snow.

 Elise, Noah, Leah, and Anna on our way back to the airport.

Stephanie, myself, Andres, and Alia.