What I should pack according to my brother.

Over Christmas dinner my older brother was asking me what all I was taking with me to Ethiopia. According to him it shouldn't be that difficult.

"All you need is some tank tops and g strings."

"Oh and feminine hygein products"

I get my weirdness from my older brother. I hope that helps to explain some of my posts. 

Oh how things change.

Its interesting to me how quickly things can change. One minute your sitting back wishing you had someone else's life and the next minute you have people telling you that would give anything to be in your shoes.

It just blows my mind. I am actually living my dream. 

I guess I should find new dreams to turn into reality. That cheesy saying about shooting for the moon because even if you fail your in the stars actually has truth to it.  Who would of thought? 

Can you hear me now? Good.

Last week while in Austria I attempted to listen in on a Peace Corps call with staff members in Ethiopia.
Saying it was difficult to hear is an understatement.
During the call I was messaging one of the other volunteers.
I will now transcribe our notes from what we believed to be happening during the call.

1. This is the hardest job we will ever love.
2. Throwing yourself in is the hardest part.
3. It costs a lot of money for us to go.
4. Lots of loud noises
5. Possibly something about North Korea...
6. Few people leave early, a lot stay longer
7. Someone named Greg spoke.
8. Is this call in English?
9. Some list of numbers.
10. Echos
11. The list might of been the jobs..
12. The list might also be the things that will kills us.
13. Something about inappropriate touching
14. Are we being inappropriately touched? Or are we doing the touching?
15. Still confused about the inappropriate touching....
16. Bring cameras and laptops
17. If you don't bring a camera your a fucking idiot.
18. Customs will take that shit if you try to mail it.
19. Binoculars for bird watching are suggested
20. I hate birds
21. Thanks ornithology
22. Cash is good
23. Being Johnny Cash is better
24. Rehab/ Withdraws in Ethiopia would suck
25. That might have not had anything to do with the call....
26. But is related because of Johnny Cash
27. Can't understand more loud noises....
28. Something about malaria and having a good time
29. Not sure if they are connected
30. Hopefully they are not connected
31. We get to ride a bus through Ethiopia with all our shit
32. That is going to be an experience in its own.
33. After PST they will take our shit for us to our final site.

Now this might seem like a decent list of notes. Mind you the call was an hour long.

Also I understood one out of every 15 our so words.

A good amount of this list is most likely incorrect.

I hope they didn't list off things that will kill us.

I am taking this as a welcome to not understanding anything for the next two years.

Lessons from Europe.

So I am back from Europe and here are somethings I learned.
-Family vacations work better when your a child.
-I am the only person in my family who can figure out how to ride a train.
-Hand gestures can describe just about everything when language cant.
-I need to learn a second language.
-Skype calls are exponentially cheaper that using your phone.
-I have approximately 239826483743 cousins I never knew about.
-How to navigate a train in two different languages.
-That Austria is by far one of the most b-e-a-u-tiful places I have ever seen.
-Beer.
-Beer.
-Beer.
-Danish people like horrible tasting liquor.
-Danish beer isn't too bad.
-Much to my fathers disbelief speaking broken English very loudly will get you no where.
      - If someone doesn't speak English yelling it at them does I REPEAT does not make it any better.
      - If someone does speak English and you speak broken English to them YOU SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT!

-My brother thinks that if you say English words with a German accent it makes them German.... It does not.
-Danish hotdogs are good after a night of drinking.... and only after a night of drinking...

This could be the start of something new.

With two months left until departure and my final medical clearance still yet to be achieved I am taking off for a nice little trip to Europe.
And by nice little trip to Europe I mean that if I don't end up pulling my hair our or leaving miscellaneous members of my family in a foreign country it will be successful.
In all seriousness though I am really looking forward to taking off in the morning.
I figured I will use this trip to see if this whole idea of travel writing is something I could actually do.
In my head it sounds fantastic... lets see how it pans out on paper.
I should probably correct myself and say screen rather than paper... no one uses paper anymore... well except for those climate change denying never heard of global warming crazies.  Shout out to the GOP...
Whoops did I just say that?
Anyway I will be spending the next ten days between Germany, Denmark, and Austria with my slightly insane family.
I can only imagine the stories that I will be able to tell at the end of this adventure.
Here's to hoping I can use grown up words enough to make a half decent travel blog.
Or at least have a few good drunk stories to tell people.
If both happen to...well... happen then I will be applying for VICE immediately upon returning.