All posts by gastonhannah

Welcome to Malawi

Peace Corps

The views expressed in this blog do not represent the United States Peace Corps or the US government in any way.

A Definition of Peace Corps, according to Urban Dictionary:

1. an ambiguous government agency designed to quash the idealism of recent American college graduates over a two year process
2. an international American government organization with continual rotating foreign staff and a fleet of white Landcruisers aimed at catching volunteers out of site.
3. two years of one’s life determined in a brief 20 minute interview after 15+ hour international flight.
4. committees, sub-committees and exploratory committees for both.
5. the automatic and immediate forfeiture of four of the first ten Amendments.
6. a mechanism for those who cannot get laid stateside to remedy their situation and for those who could to forget how.
7. groups, flipcharts and markers.
8. commonly preceded by “Oh shit! I just graduated with a degree in international relations”
9. A whole lot of seriale (often dubbed over)
10. where CD, PTO, AO, PM, LCC, SSC, TM, PCMO, FA, GSM, and GSA speak to PCVs and PCTs about SPA, PCPP, MSs, WWS, ICE, IRC, and RA as well as EAP, ET, MS, and COS in acronyms.

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HOW DID I GET HERE?

Peace Corps

Disclaimer: the contents of this blog are entirely my own and do not represent the United States Government or the US Peace Corps in anyway.

In less than 24 hours, I will be in Philadelphia, and a few days later, Malawi.

The biggest question from everyone has been this: When did you decide to do this?

I honestly don’t remember.

I can’t remember not deciding or not wanting to do this. In high school I had some vague idea of what the Peace Corps was (as I think most people do. I can’t count the number of times that people here have assumed it was some sort of missions organization and it sounded cool. Some friends and I were curious about what it actually was, so in 12th grade we were in a class that had computer screens and we weren’t doing anything (who does anything in 12th grade?). We looked up what it was and how to apply online. I liked the idea for some inexplicable reason that I can’t verbalize, but I did notice that at the bottom it said that almost every Peace Corps Volunteer has a college degree and this will make you much more likely to be accepted. “Alright,” I thought. “Go to college. Get a degree. Do Peace Corps. Sounds simple.”

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Jiuhuashan Day 1

China

With two weeks until I left China I had to think carefully of where I wanted to visit. My co-worker and friend suggested Jiuhuashan as it was one of his favorite places in China.

I hadn’t explored much of Anhui province besides Huangshan so I was excited to check it out. The only problem was the train left Yangzhou at 20:47 and arrived in Chizhou at 2:30 in the morning. Usually I like to arrive after 6am because I don’t like wondering around in an unfamiliar city that early. But there were no other trains Sunday night so I decided to go for it. There were bound to be a bunch of hostels or coffee shop open near the train station for me to wait until I could catch the morning bus to Jiuhuashan.

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Cambodia: Day 5

Bike Touring

Day 5: Koh Trong to Ponleu Themey 

I planned for breakfast at 7 but I was up almost two hours earlier once the chickens started clucking. They had been clucking all night but even the best earplugs couldn’t drown out the sound of a roaster. 

For breakfast, I had baguettes with black currant jam, lycees, oranges and a rice cake with pork fat in the middle. I wasn’t a huge fan of the rice cake but the fruit was delicious. It seems that baguettes are common for breakfast. I was told it’s a leftover tradition from when the French were in Cambodia. 

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7,200

China

I recently visited Mt. Tai in Shangong province. Mt. Tai is the eastern mountains of the 5 greatest mountains in China. Actually according to various websites it’s the greatest of the 5 mountains. Mt. Tai symbolizes a peaceful and unified country. Supposedly many emperors would climb the mountain to give thanks for peace and prosperity. Over 70 emperors are said to have climbed Mt. Tai. In folklore climbing Mt. Tai is the first thing a new emperor would do so their reign will bring or continue peace in China.

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Time

Bike Touring

Days go by, you’re now a full-blown traveler, your clothes (or rags by now) and bicycle have plenty of character. If your tent could talk it’d have so much to tell. If you’re a guy you’re probably sporting a beard that would scare bin Laden himself and if you’re a girl, you couldn’t care anymore now about doing your business in the bush. Because squatting is so much better than toilets anyway, right? None of you two care anymore because you are incredibly fulfilled with your current endeavor.

Then, it is over.

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Fresh Air

China,

It seems like I just had vacation but yet again I found myself with not just 3 days off but 4. However so does the rest of China. I’d been warned by everyone that everywhere would be packed. I didn’t find out the exact days I had off until the week before so when I checked train tickets it looked like everywhere was booked. Standing tickets as well. However 4 days off was too long of a time for me to stay home when there are so many places to visit. After spending about 3 hours searching for a cool place to visit that also had train tickets left I managed to find tickets to Jiujiang where I could then take a tourist bus to Mt. Lushan National Park. The first plan started out like this: after work on Friday I would go home pack and go the train-station where I booked a hard sleeper seat directly to Jiujiang. That way I would be well rested to do some sightseeing right when I got there. I should have known that planning wouldn’t work because when I woke up the next morning I got an email saying the train was overbooked and my seat to Jiujiang was canceled.

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12+ hours on a train

China

I spent 12 hours and 12 minutes on a train. I decided to take an overnight train back to Nanjing where I would then switch to another train that goes back to Yangzhou. My train left at 20:44 (8:44pm) and got to Nanjing at 8:56am. Then I would have an hour to get to the next train into Yangzhou arriving there at 11ish. I had to be at work at 2pm so that would give me 3 hours to get home, shower and change. Looking back I was cutting it a little close if something had gone wrong. (hint nothing went wrong)

Anyway I was completely exhausted from the last couple days and looked forward to sleeping on the train. Both trains I took to get to Xi’an were very nice. They had reclining seats, power outlets, and lots of leg room. This train nowhere near resembled what I pictured riding a train would be like. Let me paint the scene because I did not take any pictures.

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Xi’an part 3

China

Still excited that I successfully made it to the terracotta warriors without getting lost once or having to ask for directions, I made my way back to the parking lot. I really enjoyed walking out of the site with the Huashan Mountians as a backdrop. I don’t know if it was smog or mist that made them look shadowy but it was pretty cool. (Later I googled that in April, Huashan is misty so it wasn’t smog!)

Continue reading Xi’an part 3 →