Time to go

So I wake up Wednesday morning to my brother (who is visiting at the time) handing me the phone. On the other end is Danielle, dental liaison for the Peace Corps. She tells me, "Hey, I was noticing that you leave on the 6th (Saturday) and we still ain't got yo' dental packet yet."

Adam freaks out.

You see, this was supposed to have arrived weeks ago via priority mail. It's a long story, but more or less I can't go to my assignment without their having received this packet, approved it, and sent the word along to the proper department to issue my plane ticket. Naturally, I've got copies of the pertinent information, but much freaking out was nonetheless in order.

A regular-sized FedEx envelope costs precisely $21.52 to get to D.C. overnight, by 10:30 the next morning. To get it there by 7 costs about $49. 10:30 it is (was). Obstacle overcome.

I wish I was more excited to go. I'm more apprehensive than excited right now. Relatively afraid. Like I've made a string of wrong decisions from whether or not to bring a laptop (decided against, kicking self now after seeing TONS of extra room and weight to spare in suitcase) to whether or not to even accept the invitation to Bangladesh rather than waiting for another one (overcrowded, mosquitos, corruption . . )

A friend recently observed something like this: "Whatever it is you're looking for [Adam], you're probably going to need to go through some pain for it." I think he was implying that I'm sort of looking for pain. Which is probably true. A little dramatic, perhaps? A little bit naive? A little bit of flawed logic? Individualistic, narcissistic? Not that the Peace Corps is the most painful thing a person could do, but it could suck. Part of me is hoping it does. Weird.

For what it's worth, my address for the next 3 months will be:
Peace Corps Bangladesh
House #10F, Road 82
Gulshan 2, Dhaka,
Bangladesh

and the best way to e-mail is arbutus1440@yahoo.com

Even though it was like 2 months ago, congrats to Matt and Brielle on deciding to shack up together permanently in a marital fashion. Happiness.