Allie does stuff.: On the road again. (And Day One of Allie's Newest Adventure!)

Sooooooooooo, I kind of disappeared from the blog after I left Chile. (You've all heard this story before...)

I kept feeling like I had to write some sort of conclusion of my experience in Chile. I just couldn't. I needed more time to process. Time to figure out what I felt, where I was going, where I even was and why...

And, yeah. I still don't know anything. I was a little concerned about reverse culture shock, but I experienced next to nothing. The closest near traumatic cultural disaster was my first trip to the grocery store. I just wanted everything, but I couldn't decide what I should actually purchase. All the options were overwhelming. Even more so was that I knew I'd be able to find all these interesting and diverse items again. If the store sold out of coconut milk, they would restock. In Chile I had been known to buy 10 cans of coconut milk at a time because I knew that once they ran out, it would most likely been gone forever. Sooooo, I ended up going home with canned chickpeas, feta, and plain yogurt. Nothing that you could really make a meal from, and I don't even like yogurt.... Hmmph. Anyway....

I spent the summer in the US working as a Youth Specialist at the Broome Country Urban League's Summer Enrichment program. It had its ups and downs, to put it lightly, but it turned out be a very valuable experience. If I could live through that and still want to be a teacher, I feel confident that this desire is not just a whim. This reassurance is exactly what I wanted to get out of a summer job. So, yay!!

Some of the little angels:

The building:

The logo is actually an equal sign in a circle. As you can see, the building is in pretty bad shape. The organization is actually in such financial distress that they are in danger of having to close down.

More pictures of my summer with the little snuggle-muffins can be found here.

Well, now I'm on my way back to Seattle. I started the cross country drive yesterday with the lovely Ms. Meredith, former Chile roommate, by my side. We had a turbulent first day, as Meredith managed to consume some questionable chocolate milk from a roadside gas station. She's almost better now, after a quick spin by the hospital this morning, and we'll be ready to hit the road again tomorrow afternoon.

I'd like to document this trip on the blog. I hope to post pictures, and maybe even a little commentary, every day or so. Aaaaaand, I'll start with that right NOW.

Day one: Binghamton, NY to Pittsburgh, PA

The weather sucked...

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I found a produce store while stopping for gas. TURKS TURKS TURKS! No Turks in sight. Meredith was perplexed.