It's got some slow internet, but I'm making due, and will still try and keep up this blog. I'm with a real cool group of people, we're training right now.

Gosh, I don't really know what to say, and I have to leave the cafe soon to go to my host family - who is wonderful so far. very nice people.

Anyway, here are some quick crazy things I've encountered the last few days.

1. WWE is a huge craze here right now. I was eating dinner and I was stopped mid conversation by a 45 year old man to tell me that the Undertaker was wrestling and then to ask if it's true that wrestling is actually fake.

2. The highest denomination is a 1000$ but that's equivalent to a five dollar bill in the US

3. Bootleg movies have creolese subtitles. The creolese here is mostly slang and english - it really is another language, I don't understand a word of it. The boys were watching Shrek - it said something like "Be out me way you donkey" when shrek said "Get out of my way, donkey"

4. Two types of main genres of music - fast paced reggae and then 50's style country music. It's bizarre stuff.

5. They have fried plantains which are delicious just by themselves, but they have this mango sauce with hot peppers, which is really spicy and awesome.

Other than that stuff, Heather and I have also experienced an indian festival and I got to wear a special shirt called a korta and heather a really pretty dress, I'll post pictures soon.

Anyway, gotta go, adios, bye./

I could post a lot right now, but it's all just boring stuff. I just wanted to post cause I am EXCIIIIIIIIITED to leave for staging in 10 hours!

I think a lot of us live in a bubble.

People seem to think that what Heather and I are doing with the Peace Corps is crazy of us. Why in the world would we want to go to another country to help others? Why don't you just stay in the U.S. and help our own people? Why do you want to go live in poverty? I can't see how people can even ask those questions. Granted, I dont feel like we are going to go and make a world change. We're going to go into it hoping to make A change, but how big of a change on others we have, I dont know. I'm most excited on us doing the changing. Right now, we live in a cozy apartment where we have all the amenities we could possibly want. We can change the temperature, have clean water, light, whatever with the flick of a switch. That's one of the many reasons of why I want to go into the Peace Corps. I want to go and live in an area where I have the most basic of basic living quarters. I'm talking about having to boil water, use candlelight, bucket bathe, take a crap in a hole, grow our own food kind of lifestyle. There are 1.6 billion people in this world who have no electricity. I've lived in this bubble my entire life, I am anxious to live simply. I want to be challenged. 1.6 billion people deal with this every day for their whole life, I think I can do it for 2 years. I'm anxious for the challenge and excited to be humbled, and I get to do it all with my wife!

Bear in mind, roughing it is not the only reason I am doing the Peace Corps. There are many other great, great reasons I want to. This is just something I thought of just now and wrote about. Sorry for such a serious post. I'm just pumped up and ready!

For the 10 people that click on this blog and read it, here's an update.

Passport stuff has been taken care of. Thank goodness. My back was getting a little sore from constantly being in the fetal position.

Christmas has come, and Heather and I got everything else we could possibly need for Guyana. So, we're ready to start packing. One thing heather and I got from my parents that was much cooler than I was expecting was the Amazon Kindle. I am a little hesitant with it because one of the things I am hoping to happen during Peace Corps is to be dependent from technology. But at the same time, I cant deny how cool this thing is. It has international wireless. It even has fairly decent wireless in Guyana. I can get newspapers, magazines, books, pdf emails all while in Guyana in the middle of the Jungle. That's pretty cool. As much as I want to separate myself from technology, I can say that it reduced our pile of books from 30 pounds to 10. Not to mention all the space it saved in our packs.

Right now I'm up in Charlotte with Heather visiting her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin. It's been pretty fun, we had our 1 year anniversary down here, went to a panthers game (courtesy of AK and UJ), ate a lot of sushi, played laser tag, and drove up to Roanoke to visit my Grandpa. I also accidentally took back roads from Roanoke and felt like I was going to die on every turn. Also while in charlotte, my relatives have had mindnumbingly stupid shows on non-stop. Can someone please tell me what draws people to these shows? Every reality show on that girls love seem to be about dumb (literally), spoiled, shallow, and famous-for-no-reason people being followed around on camera with fake drama. I swear that some country out there is implementing a long term strategy of using the media to make America dumber and dumber. AND ITS WORKING! Yeesh.

Last bit of news is that today we had a phone interview via satellite with some Guyana PC workers. It was interesting, the conversation had a 1 or 2 second delay that made it really hard to talk. The good news is is that it seems like me and Heather might have no problem getting placed in a rural area (which we want). I am excited to grow some of our food, raise chickens, and whatever else my brain thinks it will be like there. So, kind of a boring post, but there you go. That's the news of the day. Actually, I did think of something else, I'll probably post that later on. It's a whole 'nother post. Bye.

After lots of passport scares, it seems that everything is going to work out.

What happened is, Heather's step mom (when Heather was 15) did the paperwork to get her a passport. Well, she put the wrong birthday for Heather. And because the birthday was off by one day, a few red flags were shot up in the passport system. To make a long story short, we were going to be cutting it very close with how soon we got her passport and how soon we left for guyana. Luckily, a nice lady named Marsha Brown was able to help us out and simplify the situation. Thank goodness.

During the time when the passport issue was unresolved, I couldn't sleep, eat, concentrate. I usually don't ever get stressed out - I basically just laid on the couch helplessly. It was no fun, and I'm so glad that it's over - I hope.

A word to anybody else that is currently in the steps of being invited and waiting for their departure date - check your passport status online. The passport office did not call and alert us that there was a problem. We had to call them after checking and seeing that something was amiss.

In other news, go get the album "This is Mali" by Amadou and Mariam. It's good.

So, not much has happened lately. We're all still waiting. Our guy22 group has gotten larger though. For anyone reading this, there are two groups for us on facebook - "pc guyana 22" and "peace corps guyana" So if you aren't already on there, go join it, that's where we're all hanging out.

Heather and I have gotten nearly everything. My parents are getting us a few odds and ends here or there for christmas. There won't be much surprise to what we're getting, but we need the stuff, so that's good.

Anyway, I guess I'm writing this post out of excitement and boredom. You see, I am jobless right now. Well, I have a job, but it's seasonal - they only need me from March through November, and thanksgiving and christmas holidays. This means that I sleep in til 12, play disc golf, and waste way too much time doing absolutely nothing. However, lately I have been busy packing a box here or there, growing out my facial hair, and learning the countries and capitals. I have been OBSESSED with learning geography for some reason. I hated the subject in school, but love it now. bizarre. Just 30 minutes ago, I officially was able to list all the countries and their capitals. Did you know that Russia is the capital of Asia? Granted I'm going to have to keep practicing it to keep the stuff burnt into my brain, but, still, I'm very proud of myself. I'm not just proud of that. Whenever I hold my baby nephew, my college beard scrapes his face and he starts crying. That's pretty cool right? I feel like I should be proud of that. Despite my extra time though, I have slacked off BIG TIME with learning and practicing French. I need to get on the ball. The hardest step is the first one, after that, it's no problem.

In other news, Heather and I got our ring tattoos. It's roman numerals of 1.3 (I.III). That's our wedding date. I like them, parents - not so much. My mom is trying to be supportive of it, but you can just see this confused/slightly upset look on her face when she talks about it. My dad doesn't say anything about it. That pretty much means it isn't what he would've done if he were me. But I suppose it isn't about them. Heather and I love them, so that's good.

What else? Not much, except I am VERY ready to go to guyana. Thanks for reading. And again, if you got invited to Guyana feb, 5, 2010, check out pc guyana 22 and peace corps guyana on facebook.

Kellen

carson (the nephew) reacted favorably to the ring tattoos. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT CARSON!

Hello, and happy Black Friday, and Happy late thanksgiving. One of those holidays is boring, the other holiday is a collection of crazy idiots. I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, but Thanksgiving time is in my opinion the most boring time of the year. The only benefit to thanksgiving is that after it's over, you can play christmas music. Let me explain:

For thanksgiving, Heather and I went over to my parents house, that's not too bad, but it's not too exciting either, however my mom and dad invited our neighbors and their parents over. They are all quite nice people, but also the most boring people ever. They also live a more ritzy life style. Translation: They talk about real estate all throughout dinner, smell like rich old lady perfume, and wear stupid sweater vests (Bonus fact - they have a dog named looloo). That also made my mom slightly obsessed with trying to impress these aristrocrats. "Does the napkin go on the left or the right of the plate Kellen?" The answer is - it doesn't flipping matter. When they arrived we started dinner soon after. None of them sneered their nostrils in disgust, so the napkin must've been on the correct side (thank god). We had a 10 minute conversation at our table about boxes, and how the boxes get stuck in their dumpster at their business. We then went on to talk about the stuff on the table that we were eating. Yes, wow, that cranberry dish is so colorful, mmm, you put pineapple with the ham - ah I see, I'll have to write that recipe down later. Oh, the secret is that I added a pinch of brown sugar to the stuffing - just a pinch though. As you can imagine, I was on the edge of my seat throughout all of dinnertime.

After that, Heather and I had to go to her Dad's house for thanksgiving. Without going into too much detail - he's a religious nut who believes the rapture is coming and he always has a tumbler in his hand. Trust me, there is much more I could tell you about him. Eating over there wasn't half bad, Heather's sister and baby were over there. That made it a bit nicer. (The baby is pretty freakin sweet and it smiles a lot now). Back on point, our dinner at My father in law's house was a bit less mundane, but all the while not the greatest. Most of the night there was spent passing the baby around, and when that wasn't happening, the time would be spent with my father in law karate chopping heather and then laughing. The one positive thing I can take out of the night over there, is that Heather's dad signed a document stating that if the rapture doesn't happen by 2015, he will give me 5 thousand dollars. Seems like a win win situation to me. If the rapture comes - ok, if it doesn't, there's 5k waiting for me.

And then there's the issue of hanging out with your buddies after thanksgiving. You gotta wait, just like on christmas day, because you aren't sure if it's appropriate to call yet. You call too early, you feel like a jerk. Oh my gosh, I can't believe Kellen called during our Thanksgiving time. What a jerk.

Its just not so fun. I hate the holiday, it's too boring, and I'm thankful that it's over.

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving leads right into Black Friday. This is one of the stupidest, most idiotic, display of Americans. People become frothing at the mouth, just to get something they could've bought online for the same price. I went out last night for fun with my friends to the mall to enter our names in a 6 thousand dollar giveaway - this was at midnight by the way. And the place was PACKED. Lines 50 feet long went out into the street to stores like Coach and Dooney and Burke. I have news for you girls that think these purses are the greatest - they're not. They have stupid, ugly, and uncreative designs. You only buy them because people tell you they are fashionable, and no guy could give a crap what kind of purse you have and if it is or is not a fake or real version. BARF

We consume too much at a level that is dangerously stupid. I'm not saying I'm immune, I buy stuff unneeded all the time. I hope I get weened off of that lifestyle out in Guyana. Its terribly unhealthy to live how we do now. Too many uneccessary items in our lives.

Alright, I think I'm done ranting and raving about how much I hate Thanksgiving holidays. Heather's backpack came in this morning, as tempting as it is to open, I'll let her do it when she gets home from work. My travel atlas should be coming in today too. Lately I have been obsessed with geography and where all the countries are - go on, ask me where Canada is, I dare you. I'm going to try and work on bodies of water next. Other than that, our Peace Corps Guyana group is growing. It's so nice to see other people in the same boat, and as excited as I am. I can only talk about it so much with my friends, they listen about it now, but probably just to be nice and make me feel good. I mean, it's been two months and all they ever hear is Guyana guyana guyana. They're at the stage now where they just act interested because they're my friend. Still, knowing that, I will still slip in a guyana reference - I'm just too excited. "I'm sorry to hear that your mother is passing away. But you know, in Guyana, their main export is bauxite".

Ok, That's it, if anybody is reading this and they got invited to Guyana, and you aren't in the group yet:

Look for both of these groups on facebook - PC Guyana 22 and Peace Corps Guyana - That's where everyone has been meeting up. Hope you enjoyed the read. Kellen

Ok, peacecorpsjournals.com? Can you please switch me over to that country instead of applicant?

Anyway, Things are starting to get goin for me and heather. We have everything, besides a few small things, that we need for our time there. Our backpacks should be coming in the mail real soon so within a week we'll be able to get a rough estimate of how we stand as far as packing space goes. I'm excited. In fact, here is what we have so far. And now that I think about it, I'm going to just list what I'm bringing. Heather can list what she's bringing because I dont want it to seem weird if I list a liter bottle of lotion or a gross of tampons.

dress shoesnew balance sneakerstechnical sandalsrainbow sandals4 polos2 button up shirts1 tie4 24 inch bungee cords5x8 siltarpsuper gluenalgene bottleextra glassesbottle of excedrinpull and peel envelopesshortwave radio with guide2 leathermensqueen set of sheets and coversnetbook with case and cordstravel hammocklarge and small stuff sackjournalwhere there is no doctor/pet doctor book10 misc. bookssome banana game with scrabble tilesfishing lineduct tapeparacordziploc bags2 bandanas3 dress pants3-4 shorts7-8 shirtsunderwearsome socksmoney beltipodhatrain coatwatchguyana mapfrisbeeOk, so, it seems like a lot, but when it is layed out on the floor, it doesn't look like a lot. That's good though. I'd like to see how light I can get my pack. Of course I have to wait for that to come in.

In other news, this past week, people have been popping up online as people who have been invited to serve in Guyana. Heather and I have had our invitation for 2 months now and it seemed like we were the only ones. It is so nice to see others are in the same boat. So far, there have been 2 other married couples, and 2 others. Guyana group 22 is growing slowly. I had made a facebook group for all of us to join at, but it turns out that so did they. However, they also decided to name it a much easier and more simple name than mine. So I think we should use theirs.


Heather and I are both excited. I'm ready to get this thing started.

So, Heather and I have been preparing to leave. One might gather that from the title of my post.

But, here's what I've found out, here's what we're doing, here's my insight:

What I've found out:

Heather and I have accumulated so much CRAP over the years. We had a yard sale last week and got rid of a lot of crap. 95% of it we never really ever used. It's amazing how much junk we have. And, I hope I'm not stereotyping, but, I feel like most Americans do this. We are a consumer culture, and its just kind of stupid that we buy buy buy, when we can get by on so much less. In fact, even though we are in the process of getting rid of our junk (we'll probably have 2 or 3 more yard sales), this culture of consumerism is still engrained in me. You might think that knowing I will be leaving in 3 months that I would have no desire to buy anything. Wrong. Even though I certainly don't need anything, when I walk in a target or whatever, I still have this desire to buy something. It's ridiculous. I'm really looking forward to peace corps breaking that lifestyle of mine. It's wasteful, superficial, and only makes me happy for what? maybe a few days before that purchase high wears off. One thing I am glad of is that I'm conscious of this. I realize that its kind of shallow to buy for the sake of buying. I recognize that. Having a yard sale and seeing all the unneccessary crap that Heather and I have accumulated over the years allowed me to see that. That yard sale is hopefully the first of many smacks in the face I will receive in preparation for and during my time with the peace corps.

On a side note, does anybody want to buy the following: one fifteen pound weight, an eight ball, or guess who (missing a few pieces)?

Other than the yard sale, we're starting to get ready for all of the financial obligations. Stuff like our 30 thousand dollars of student loans, storing furniture and other possessions, power of attorneys, life insurance beneficiaries, personal property insurance and so on.

I just now bought a personal property insurance policy tailored just for peace corps volunteers. Its not affiliated with the PC at all, but they tailor their policies to the volunteers. If you are interested in checking them out, the people I bought from are "Clements International". Their website is missionsabroad.clements.com . It cost me and Heather 180 bucks each year starting with the date of our service (feb 9, 2010) to cover about 3500 bucks of valuables. It's worth looking into. They also have Health insurance for returning volunteers.

So, that's what I've been doing. I think Heather and I are a bit lucky in the fact that we received such an advanced notice on our assignment. 4 months of notice I dont believe is typically the norm. I feel fortunate that we have ample time to get this done. For those expecting your invitations soon, get a head start and get rid of all the crap you have.

Now, I'm going to go take a look at the life insurance forms. Hope this is of help to anybody. Kellen.

Oh, and for fun check out wordsmith.org

Georgetown, Guyana - A young reggae town

I decided I would post a story I wrote for my creative writing class I took my sophomore year in college. Its an untitled piece. I know it has nothing to do with Peace Corps, but it is the halloween season, so Enjoy.

Setting is the woods. Things are scary. It is in the old times. Indians are chanting and you see a human sacrifice. Then you see a hand that is really scary and then you see it kill the Human. Blood is everywhere. IT sprays on teh camera so much. Present Day. Man decides to buy house that is very cheap, the realtor knows why but wont tell him (Its because of strange deaths). Man and family buys home and everything is very happy until notices strange things. His microwave flashes 666 and his smoke alarm detector goes off when there isn’t any smoke OR BATTERIES IN THE SMOKE DETECTOR EVEN!! Things are very scary now. The man can’t get any sleep all the time. One night he goes and has to make a sandwich because he is hungry for some scary reason. On the way to kitchen He hears a noise in his son’s room. The son is talking to someone but his father can’t see what to! He puts his hand on his sons shoulder and his son looks pale. His father thinks he is sleeptalking. But hes not. He’s talking to the monster that killed the human a long time ago. The father doesn’t know this, but the house he bought is on the same place where Indians killed people and where the monster was that killed the human. Thats why there are so many deaths – because of the monster. That is why the house is so cheap. The dad goes to make a sandwich but when he opens door to the refridgerator, he gets water from the refridgerator water dispenser, but when it fills the galss with water it actually fills it with blood, even the ice cubes are blood! The man screams and opens the refridgerator door only to find his wife’s head and her hand is decapitated and on his shoulder now! This is Very Scary now, the man is screaming a lot and he grabs a knife from the kitchen, he doesn’t know where the monster is, but he knows its somewhere alright. The man hears a noise in the pantry door, he opens the door but its his son, He accidentally stabs his son! He was only six years old. The man cries and plans to kill the monster with fire – The only way it CAN be killed. He should have known that. Just then the monster comes out at him while the man is doing planning. The man stabs him but no use, the monster is invisible to knives. Even bullets to. The monster grabs the man with his hands and starts to choke him and chants in a strange language. The man grabs a cross that was hangin g on the kitchen wall and the monster starts burning like acid. That buys the man some time to get a torch from the garage. The monster is now disappeared but is secretly watching him from somewhere. No one knows where though. The secret to killing the monster is fire. The man knows this now. So the man gets tricky and pretends to be hiding behind some boxes, but really it is a trap. The monster tries to get the man behind the boxes but it is only a bag of potatoes and a broom. The man screams that this is for killing his wife and son (even though the man killed his son) and then he blow torches the giant monster. The monsters brains explode and the monster also hisses. The man killed him. Hurray he thinks. But just then when everything is calm the hand is still alive and starts choking him, but then the dog that the man owns jumps and bites it offand then the hand melts again into a puddle of acid. The dad is so happy, but also sad because of everything bad that happened. But still hurray for the monster dying. Movie ends with man leaving house out of driveway in his car (lambergini) and a house sign that says for sale. Then it shows a new family almost exactly like his own buying the same house and the man saying to his wife that the house is for such a great deal. And the realtor doesn’t say anything at all. Then you see a monster hand or maybe the whole monster come out and j ump on the wife. IT cuts to black and credits.

I took out my shortwave radio today, wondering if I could find a guyanese broadcast. After looking online for the station, I realized that my radio won't receive their stations from where I am.

However, looking online, I did find this

http://87.117.250.2/radioguyana

A free streaming of Guyana Radio. Wonder what they listen to over there? Wonder no more! Behold the local music mixed in with 90's R&B, this is Guyana Radio!

Anyway, I'm sure if you do a google search, you can find several other countries - zambia, macedonia, bolivia, bulgaria, and many other countries that end in ia - all with free streaming radios.

[update: found this site here that might help your search for other stations - http://radio-locator.com/ ]

So, After receiving the invitation, I have managed to calm down just enough to write this post for all of you out there. I remember during the application process that I wish I just had more information on what happens when you get the invitation. So here for you, is what happens. I hope this is a good resource to anybody who is interested. Enjoy.

So, Here is what happened for us -

On a Tuesday, our placement officer called me and told me that we had been invited and that she would send the invitation in the mail.The next day On WEDNESDAY - our online toolkit has changed to say we have been invited. It provided the date the package was sent out, a few details on what to expect, and even a cool language training program that is free to use for peace corps invitees - it does not yet however tell us what country we will be serving in or any details on when we leaveOn Saturday the invitation comes inWe celebrateThe invitation packet is LOADED with things to do in it. Of course you probably are thinking - open the package - call and accept the invitation. Well, Cant do it. Before you accept you have to read a list of responsibilities and terms, a small booklet detailing your job description and location, and then a welcome book online in pdf format that is about 100 pages long.All of the stuff you have to read before you call to accept is exciting to read. In fact, I think if you google "Peace Corps Welcome Book" you will an example of what to expect to be reading (each one is different based on country). Its really fun stuff as it tells you tons about your country, your safety, etc, etc. Lots of stuff

We still have yet to accept the invitation. We called, but of course, the person on the other end was either on the phone or not at their desk - How frustrating - we just want to accept!

However, after we accept, here is what I do know we have to do:

Immediately after accepting, we have to get started on getting our special peace corps passport as well as a visa if necessary (guyana doesn't require visas for us)Then there is an updated resume and aspiration statementStudent loan defermentI need to make my parents our power of attorneypersonal belongings insuranceCopy of Shots for travel purposesAnd then there is stuff like - sell everything in our apartment, store what we will keep, and then probably the most fun pre-departure event besides getting the invitation - packing for the trip.

So, I hope this helps, I know that I always wondered what you have to do or what happens after getting the invitation, so there you go.

Heather and I anxiously awaited for the mail today, sho nuff, our invitation did come in! As the title might suggest, we have been invited to go to Guyana. This couldn't be a cooler location. I'm so excited. The information in the packet is overwhelming, Heather and I don't know where to start. I can't express our excitement, this is an awesome awesome time.

After 7 months of being somewhat in the dark, we have officially been INVITED! I got a call from our recruiter at about 9 in the morning. My usual wake up time of 11:30 was changed, as my body's adrenaline shocked me into a state of extreme alertness when I saw "Karmen from DC" on my phone. After telling me that we were in fact going to go to "Latin America", she warned us that our post would be a typical peace corps post - roughing it basically. After that, she said that she was going to send the invitation packets to us. She said it as if it was nothing. I had to double check and make sure she meant the OFFICIAL invitation packet. YEP. We are good to go. This morning another beautiful thing to see was that our peace corps tool kit is now updated to say we are invited - unfortunately it does not tell us what country or when we are serving. I believe we have to accept the invitation first before they upload that information. Anyway, in a few days we will get a packet in the mail. And I am bouncing off the walls - this time with excitement instead of anxiety. Hang in there to those who are in the dark now, when the day finally comes, it is so awesome. I've included a beautiful screen shot that I saw this morning.

Beautiful!

A friend of mine is learning how to breed her two pythons. Here are some tips for those interested in trying as well:

1. Romantic snake music, like Snake jazz or Snake R&B

2. Forge a note to the girl snake From the boy snake that says something like "you are pretty", make sure to add extra s's to some of the words to boost the legitemacy of the note

3. Oysters and wine

4. Encourage the female snake to spruce up her image - a new snake bra, maybe something lacey or a type of animal print

5. if you see your snakes stick out their tongues - that's good news. This is the snakes way of saying, "lets make out"

6. If neither snake does stick out their tongue, this method might work: Grab both snakes by the neck, one snake in each hand, and then bump their heads slowly together to try and force them to kiss.

So, I love free stuff. And I figure, I'm probably going to take my ipod with me, and podcasts are great at being free, so I figured I'd share what podcasts I like and you guys out there can share what podcasts you like. That way, when we all go to whatever country we are going, we can listen to whatever podacasts we all like. SO, here are the podcasts that I like:

1. Stuff you should know - a GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT podcast. A member of the www.howstuffworks.com website. Easily the best podcast ( at least in my opinion). Josh and Clark tackle a new subject sometimes science, sometimes history, sometimes just whatever, and discuss it in detail giving out facts, and explaining how that subject "works". Definitely check it out. Each podcast is about 25 minutes long and is awesome. They should use that last sentence as their synopsis. Anyway, download every episode, they rock.

2. The other podcast that is pretty cool is NPR Live Concerts. Sometimes 45 minutes, sometimes 2 and a half hours. This podcast will have some of the best artists out there with recordings of their concerts. All free. It's pretty much a free cd of that band's music. The best one of theirs that I have heard is easily Tom Waits. It's 2 and a half hours of great music. Check it out, see if they have your favorite band. Enjoy




So what are yours? What podcasts do you listen to? Comment and let me know.

So in a constant effort to keep ourselves educated, Heather and I have decided to learn all of the countries IN THE WORLD!

I must say, it's actually pretty fun. We also want to learn the capitals too, I'm trying to learn the countries first then capitals. Heather is trying to learn Countries and Capitals together. Either way, its a fun challenge and I feel great actually knowing where certain countries are.

So far, I have the following Continental areas down pat - South, Central and North America (with the exception to some of the caribbean island countries), Africa, and Europe.

Asia and Oceana are pretty much the only ones left, with a few stragglers here or there I need to get down.



Can you believe this is the best picture of globey I could find on the internet?

Its a fun challenge - try it yourself - you can find blank maps to print out and practice on, or even try this game -

How many countries of the world do you know? http://www.sporcle.com/games/world.php

Try and beat my record of 151/195

They also have individual continental regions if you want to start small.

Have fun and learn. Sayanora (another french word for goodbye), Kellen.

Rap is something that I like. Even though I'm white.

Hey man, it's alright.

Thats an example of rap, I can do it pretty easily, that example above, I wrote literally in under 5 minutes - it just comes easy to me.

So, I know that this is a peace corps journal. But, its fun to write about other things to just keep things a little interesting. One can only state how excited they are so many times. I'm sure my friends will attest to that when I officially get the invitation. So, I decided, lets make a list. This list will be best rap albums - ever. I'm not a big fan of having a perfect ten items in my list - if I end up with ten, fine, but, I will try to keep it a low number.

Deltron3030 - Del the funky homosapien3 feet high and rising - De la soulWu Tang Clan: Enter the 36 chambers - Wu tang ClanBeauty and the Beat - EdanWow, all I could think of were 4 for right now.

Honorable Mention

Zion I: The Takeover, Josh Martinez: World Famous Sex Buffet, Mighty Casey: Original Rudebwoy

Del the funky homosapien and me. He had some nose and lip piercings. That's pretty funky if you ask me. Meanwhile, I pose as tough as I can.

Are there others? Heck yes, lots of super cool awesome rappers. But no time to list them, and I dont want to be one of those guys that lists every flipping band they are a fan of. I have to go and work a double tomorrow. BYE

So, as Heather would tell you, I get very excited about the Peace Corps. And Heather would also tell you that this is sometimes not a good thing. Because when I get excited about something, I usuaully do lots and lots and lots of research about that said thing and then purchase lots and lots of related items to said thing. For example, behold this picture - this is what I have gotten in the last year to prepare for the peace corps:

So As you can see, I did get a bit carried away. But let me explain my purchases, and maybe that will help you if you are just now starting the process . Ssome of these purchases are actually pretty cool, and I'm kinda glad I got them, some - not so much, but I learned from my mistakes. And so thats why I'm posting this - so you can learn from mine too, as well as give you some resources to draw from and use.

For example, take a look at the stack of the books on the left side - These are lonely planet travel guides. I have used other travel guides before, but none of which even begin to compare to how cool and easy to use the lonely planet books are. I recommend them hands down over any other travel book. Even cooler still, is that there website has tons of free resources - message boards and the likes, that you can use to find out about wherever you are heading. Another cool feature is that suppose you are heading to Peru of South America - well, you probably dont want to buy the entire book of South America, but you like what it said in it about Peru. You can go on their website and download individual chapters. Pretty handy if you ask me. I personally like to have the whole book, but its a good way to save money.

Check out www.lonelyplanet.com and explore the site, very cool.

Moving over from that stack over to the next one (second from the left) you will see that I have a radio and a few books under that. That there radio is a shortwave radio, and is something that is cool even here in the States. Imagine being able to pick up a radio station being broadcast from China. You can hear the banging of a steal drum without rhythm while a man chants a strange language - Heather doesn't find that so cool while she does homework - but it is cool. This thing can pick up stations from all around the world. And as other peace corps volunteers have recommended - you should get one, it provides a source of entertainment, news, and so on. Even more entertaining than the cultural music you can find are the christian extremists that I have heard on there - you wont believe the insane stuff they say on it (ie - obama needs to be killed, michael jackson deserves to burn in hell, christianity is for white people only) - definitely a bunch of wackos, and that's pretty fun to listen to.

Underneath the shortwave is a few books, the very bottom one is a shortwave radio guide - I recommend you get one - it's pretty much a tv guide for shortwave radio - and it's a pretty large network of radio waves being sent out there, this book helps you find what you're looking for.

That middle book is something I got on amazon.com for probably 10 bucks. Its a pretty easy read, and it answers a lot of questions that you wonder about regarding the peace corps. Its a great book to give to family members to borrow to put their minds at ease (mom), as well as flipping through to answer any questions you might have as well as pump you up when you're feeling like you're never going to leave for the Peace Corps. Well, it works for me anyway.

Above that is a very VERY useful book. I took this book with me when I went to Africa, and it proved to be worth its weight in gold. It basically tells you how to diagnose and treat many common illnesses, infections, and so on when you are in a remote location. I dont know what I would have done if that book wasn't there. I had the worst case of jock itch, and that book told me just the right medicine to go hunting for at the pharmacies. I use it still at the house whenever I am curious or need to treat something. Even better still is that this book is available FREE from this website www.hesperian.org for download. Its a little annoying that you have to download by chapter, but, thats a free book we're talking about. If you want the hard copy you can buy it through them or through amazon.com. They have many other great books that would be useful to take too (I plan on getting Disabled Village Children book if I do end up doing Special Education in Peace Corps - btw, that book is also FREE) In fact - I think almost all, if not all, of their books are entirely FREE for download. FREE FREE FREE.

Having the actual book though is pretty nice, makes it easy to leaf through and find what I'm looking for. I got lucky and found the where there is no doctor book for a quarter at a thrift store.

Ok, moving right along, the next two stacks, would be my french books. Dictionaries, workbooks, story books, conjugations, etc, I got a lot of french books. Why? Well, I wanted to better my chances of going to Africa, I figured learning french would help - it ended up they aren't going to use us in Africa, and thats fine, but I kinda went ahead of myself and bought a 500 dollar Rosetta stone program (which works great), and a ton of french books. I definitely jumped the gun. However, I've already put in so much time and money into learning French, that I am going to continue and teach myself. I figure there is no sense in wasting what I've already spent so much effort, time, and money on. The hard part is to actually push myself to work on French - it is tough. I have already completed levels 1-3 on Rosetta Stone, and that does a lot of groundwork for you to start using books, now I just need to keep up with the bookwork, and most importantly develop an ear for it. I can read it and adequately speak it, however, I can hardly pick it up when listening to it. I suppose I could simply dominate all french conversations and not give the other person a chance to speak, however, I would like to grow in this area, so I still need some work.

As far as the books I really like - here goes:

A good dictionary is a must, I would also recommend getting a program called ultralingua for your computer - which is basically a dictionary that conugates, translates, and many more functions.

I have a visual dictionary and it is very useful in learning vocab. I would definitely recommend getting one of those - for whatever language you are learning.

The 6000 essential french words is a pretty cool book I like to use to pick out new vocab words to learn.

And last the other language book I would recommend - and I'm not sure if they have these books available in other languages, but Merde. This is pretty much a book about French Slang, expletives, and common phrases. Its a fun and easy book to read, definitely something to pick up and look at when you want to learn something but you aren't in the mood to conjugate.

Last, up on top of the books- last stack on the far right - is a netbook. Heather and I were going to get a laptop, but then a friend told us about Netbooks. They run about 250-400 bucks, which meant Heather and I could get our own. In addition to that, it's got a built in webcam for skyping, perfect for surfing the internet and working with documents, and best of all - a 10 hour battery life (ours has that anyway). A 10 hour battery is pretty nice to have I would imagine when there is a chance you will be sent somewhere without stable electricity. All of that to boot, plus, it's small making it much more portable, there are no moving hard drives, so they are even better for travelling because you don't risk a mechanical failure due to mishandling or whatever. Anyway, go to www.cnet.com and check out some reviews and ratings if you are thinking about it. It's worth looking into.

So, that is that, I hope this helps. I'm not even sure if anyone will read this. But, I wont know whether anyone does or does not, and it's kind of a fun way to channel my excitement about what is to come. SO, even if this wasn't helpful to you, it definitely made me pumped about the Peace Corps and ashasmed about my spending habits. Have a good day, Adios (french for "goodbye")

Thought I would start one of these. I know that Heather and I check the peacecorpsjournals.com site nearly every day to pump ourselves up. We are in the middle or maybe toward the end of our application process. Here are some quick things that we've done to catch you up to speed.

Filled out applicationHad interviewGot nomination to Eastern Europe for Youth DevelopmentVERY VERY EXCITED!Slightly bummed out though, because Africa was my first choice, Eastern Europe was uh, my last - still really excited thoughMedical and Dental applications completedbecame pumped about peace corps againHad 1000 dollars of cavity work done bummed because I had 6 flipping cavitiesreceived call last Thursday from P.C. The lady says she wants to use me for my special education degree down in S. or central america, Heather would do Health EducationShould find out by or around Sept 1stMight have bought the 0 degree sleeping bags and snow boots a bit prematurelyVery very pumpedstarted writing this.Ok, so thats basically what has happened. I cant tell you how frustrating waiting in the dark can be, but at the same time, it definitely adds to the excitement. One thing that continually scares me is that the P.C. is very good at reminding us that nothing is official yet, and there is still a chance they might not use us. While I think they will, the fact that the possibility remains is something that leaves me uneasy. Right now I am just waiting to hear back from the lady that called Heather. Going to S. or Central America would be awesome. Europe is really cool too, however, if I had to choose it'd be S. America. Either way, I am proud to have the opportunity to serve for this organization and am very anxious to start. No matter where I go I will do my best, I will finally be on my way to starting my career.

I guess, now that I've caught you up to date on our peace corps process I can tell you a bit about myself and my wife. I just got married to this super hot chick this last January, we both graduated within the last year. Heather's degree in Psychology, she is pursuing a masters in social work. My degree in Elementary and Special Education. Right now, we're pretty much just chilling out in Niceville. I'm bussing professionally at the Back Porch in Destin, Heather is working at some hotshot doctor's office helping patients receive and use the services they need, as well as helping around with filing and other misc. tasks. Other than that, we're excited, we can't wait to go to the Peace Corps, use our degrees, help others, get a dog, and live somewhere new. I'll write more later, certainly when we hear back from the Lady in D.C. - I think her name is Carmen.

Note to Carmen - please call as soon as you find anything out.

I'll try to include pictures with my journal. I know it makes it more fun to read - usually I just skim all the writings and look at the pictures. Sad but true - you'll probably do the same. For that reason, I'll try and make this journal worth your while.