I am joining the Peace Corps.....again....

Nothing really going on of late. School is over and the kids are running wild around outside in the bright sunny and warm weather. Good for them. Each passing day the countryside hills get a little less yellow and a little more green. I figure by Saturday ill upgrade the hills to full on green. The herders are all in good spirits as i run past them on my morning runs.

The past few days i hosted my first ever Couchsurfer. Very cool woman from New York who at 33 decided to finally get the whole "see the entire world" thing going. Good for her. She taught me to saute and i showed her the abandoned air force base. I even got to give her some pointers about travel she plans to do in Cambodia. It all went very well.

About 30 or so days and Peace Corps for me will wrap up. Mom drops in with her friend in a couple of weeks and i am trying to save a little bit of my money by staying at my site this weekend. That will work, and i can get some longer distance runs in.

So, i just got my third reference back in to the Peace Corps. This looks like its gonna happen. Ah..... Peace Corps..... round two! Most of the volunteers i know are counting the seconds until their service is ending. Not particularly unhappy with their service, but rather ready for it to be over.

For me, I don't think this is over. I want to do this again! I loved the last two years, in good times and hard times. I have the masters degrees already, zero debt, no real desire to settle, and though i am still waiting to hear from a few dream jobs (relax, i know i am not getting them, hence dream) i just don't see myself permanently back in the states just yet... I want to do this again.

I have even decided to seek out a launch date earlier than the start of 2012. I was thinking of sometime in September or so. The idea being to get back to the states, see everyone in the family, but not just sit and loiter in my moms basement. To really get right back into it after a month or two off. Yea, i like the sound of that. Of course, that means i will be missing yet another Thanksgiving with my family but i cant bring myself to modify my career interests for a single holiday. Nah, ill be there in spirit, but my body's going back into Peace Corps.

I actually looked over the Crisis Corps jobs. To those of you playing the home game that means that people who have already been in the Peace Corps can apply to short term emergency projects in various countries if they fit the criteria. ATM i couldn't really find anything of note in them, but ill keep my eyes open.

I wonder how the process will differ given that i am already in Peace Corps and whatnot. I imagine its not all that different, except the key to saving myself a couple thousand dollars is being sure my medical stuff from my current Peace Corps exam can transfer over to clear me once again. Here is hoping!

I think i feel similar to James Cook back in the 18th century. I wrote one of my thesis's on the guy. He too couldn't quite get the hang of a sedentary lifestyle. "I have a pressing urge... to go as far as any man has, or perhaps even can." In fact, i myself have a desire to serve on one of the many islands that James Cook explored in the Pacific. Actually his inability to stay put led to his death in Hawaii after a third tour of service... but then again i will probably be a little more ambitious after another round of service. Oceania would be a good place to have sort of an opposite experience as the one here in Mongolia, while at the same time many of the challenges that i have encountered and enjoyed overcoming would remain:

-exotic language
-completely different lifestyle
-unorthodox living arrangements
-unique education system/opportunities
-off the grid

Yea...that's sort of becoming my specialty.

So, ill wait for that interview! Ill probably need to make yet another blog if i do this again. Maybe ill quote Captain James Cook for the next one instead of Tolkein. Meanwhile ill savor the easy and enjoyable last month of my time in Mongolia.