It hit me

I thought it would take getting a departure date for it to hit me, but it was actually purchasing my deltamethrin treated mosquito net that did it. I feel like I've almost been in a daze for the last 22 hours since I bought it. I feel like crying and laughing at the same time. Tiana took a picture of me at the bar last night with the "I just realized I'm moving to the rainforest for 8-9 months, what the heck?!" look on my face.

I'm so sad that I won't see almost everyone I now know and care about for at least 9 months. I won't see Tiana, who I now see probably 9 days out of 10, for like 16 months! Really bummed about missing Jeffrey -especially not being able to talk on the phone for ridiculous lengths of time for free! It's nuts. Fortunately, my mom and cousin Shawna (who I almost never see in Canada oddly enough but is my evil twin) will be visiting.

Updates?

• Health coverage is APPROVED! No issues at all, which is amazing considering I have asthma, chest pain and a million food intolerances. Woot!


• Police check is a bit of a messy situation, however. Which is ironic considering I've had no problems with the law and tons of stupid health crap. You can only do your police check in the city where your permanent address is. Which is in Ottawa. So I really screwed things up when I picked Wii over my police check in March. Fortunately, if you pay an extra fee, they'll give it to you that day provided you've lived in the city for the last 5 years. Hopefully they consider me living there for the last 5 years!! It's going to be so last minute since I won't be going back to Ottawa until May 4!


• CUSO forms were couriered over yesterday. So Claudia should be booking my flight really soon! Fingers crossed for a date within the next week.


• Still no passport.


• Hiking boots are in! But in the States so I won't actually get them until April 23. Here's hoping they fit.

I still have some forms to give in to the school. I wrote the first version of my long packing list in a Starbucks last night. I'm really trying to aim for a suitcase and a big hiking bag. One of those is just going to be bathroom stuff (shampoo, conditioner, prescriptions, sunscreen, repellent, etc) by the looks of it!

Turns out an international licence isn't any good since it's so unprofessional looking (taped in passport pictures!) and says that it's only valid with an Ontario licence to accompany it. So I'm going to have to apply for a new licence while I'm in Guatemala, by the looks of it, and just have a version with no picture along with my regular licence. Oye.

Spanish is moving along! It's hard with exams for us to meet as a group now. Doing activities and things on my own and Jeffrey harasses me every time he talks to me to work on Spanish. Which is actually really helpful.

Ottawa: wasting time, getting yellow fever and birthdays!

Well, my whole plan of getting my passport renewed, driver's licence renewed and police check definitely didn't happen when I went back to Ottawa last weekend.

I checked to make sure that I was 16 when I got my passport so I knew to bring my renewal application form. WRONG! I was 16 when it was issued but I was 15 when I applied. My cheap 15 year old self got a child's passport. So after parking in the Market and paying for parking after nearly 30 minutes of driving around downtown, running across downtown to the far end of Sparks Street and running through the door 2 minutes before they closed, I was sent away. UGH. I totally understand but was super frustrated.

Stop #2 on my super productive Ottawa trip was to get my driver's licence renewed. It expires on November 25, 2008. After getting totally lost and ending up at Hog's Back (don't ask me how), I managed to find the office at Merivale. Turns out you can't renew your driver's licence more than 6 months before it expires. "So that's, like, May 25!" Um, yeah, you know when I said I leave MID-May? Grrr.

So my two big errands were a bust. Fortunately, Tiana had the great idea of getting my international driver's licence. That doesn't expire for a year, so I have to get on that soon. The police check just didn't happen because I was having a good time hanging out at home with Jeffrey and Brendan, so I really don't have an excuse for that one...

Nancy noticed last Thursday that I had a rash where my yellow fever shot was. I didn't think much of it, but then on Friday started getting symptoms. There's a 1 in 200 000 chance of getting yellow fever from the vaccine and the nurse said I would know if I got a rash. Well, surprise! When I got off the bus to Ottawa on Friday, I was super dizzy. I actually called Jeffrey (55 cents a minute!) to tell him to call my mother if I didn't call him back in half an hour because something was wrong with my brain. I made it home fine but every time I stood or walked, it felt like the ground was moving. It was messed. I also had a headache constantly from Thursday until Sunday. I had muscle pain in my arms and jaw. Plus some other symptoms that aren't so fun...The Telehealth nurse who didn't know anything about yellow fever told me to see a doctor on Sunday. Instead, I emailed Dr. Wise, the travel doctor that's our contact for placement, who responded: "it will go away! don't worry". The dose in the vaccine shouldn't be enough to cause any serious symptoms but that hasn't stopped me from joking about bleeding out of my eyes. Yum.

Jeffrey has requested I don't die before he visits for Easter this weekend, so I suppose I should accommodate his request.


My little cousin Gerald turns 7 today and Brendan turns 15 (!!!!) on Wednesday, so we had their birthday parties on Saturday. Unfortunately, everyone couldn't be there (hockey and Florida), but it was good times. I stole some of Jeffrey and Daddy's ice cream cake and ate delicious salmon. (While everyone else ate pork...so sad.)





Daddy bought a Wii which was a blast all weekend. Jeffrey made me watch him play for over 70 minutes to become an expert at tennis...I spent the majority of my weekend parked on the couch (or standing in front of the TV) with Jeffrey and Bren. We also went out and watched "Be Kind Rewind", which wasn't as bad at the first 30 minutes make it out to be. Although Jack Black really lost a lot of credibility as an actor for me. Very sad. All in all, this means that I got no school work done (although I was very productive on the bus) and 0 Spanish studied. Woops.

On that note, I'll be spending this St Patty's Day doing readings, Spanish studying and rounds since I'm on duty*

*for those of you who don't know, I'm a residence advisor at UofT Scarborough. So I'll be walking around dealing with drunk people all night and answering phone calls for noise complaints and lockouts. Whoohoo!