Lucca Baby Schlange

So I have to admit that one of the hardest things about leaving for the Peace Corps is leaving behind my dog Lucca. Most of the time you will never hear me refer to Lucca as a dog. If people ask “is that your dog” I say no she is my baby. I call Lucca many things: Bug, Monkey, Monster, Sharbotski, Lucca Baby, and stinky butt to name a few, but never dog. I adopted Lucca when I moved out to Long Beach after college, and I have had her for 4 years now! We are inseparable, often to the annoyance of family and friends when I am invited somewhere and ask, can Lucca come? So even though Lucca is staying with my mom and dad, it is really hard for me to know that I will be saying goodbye to her. I know when I come back she will be here, but I don’t even like to be away from her a day, who will cuddle up on my lap and keep me warm when I am in Armenia?





Lucca's Christmas Picture


Lucca with her souvenir from Australia


Lucca on Halloween as a monster, hence the Nickname Monster



Lucca and I cuddeling, She is my little cuddle bug! Hence the name bug, plus sometimes she bugs me...


All tucked in to bed ready for sleep!



No Matter how bad of a day I have had, no matter what she gets into or where she makes a mess, Lucca is the best lil baby ever! People may make fun of her because she only has one eye, they may say she isn't cute, but I love her no matter what and truly feel that life would be boring without her.

So the past week or so has been absolute craziness! I finally got my official invitation last week, along with all of the paper work that goes along with it! So with basically one day to go before I left for my Cousin Louies wedding in Michigan I applied for my official peace corps passport and visa, the most urgent of all my peace corps tasks. It’s actually kind of embarrassing that I don’t have a passport yet, it just seems that everyone has traveled somewhere, but really when have I ever had the chance to travel?

So with that taken care of, I took of to Michigan to spend a peace corps free weekend… ok well not really because I had a whole packet of things to read and learn, and of course no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stop talking about it, or thinking about it. I really did have an amazing week though. I am convinced that I have the best family ever, and even though I had a lot to do, it was the perfect opportunity to spend time with them before I leave.

But now that I am back in CA, I realize just how much stuff I have to do. I started to make a to-do list of everything that needs to be done, and I broke down and had a panic attack after I got to number 30! It’s a bit overwhelming! Luckily my family is awesome and each of them has taken a few small things from my list to help me with.

I received my travel reservations to staging in D.C. Crappy thing is I leave the 25th which means I miss Brianna’s graduation, which makes me really really sad! Awesome thing is staging is in DC, my favorite place in the country. Maybe I will have the chance to have some crab legs before I go! So I have less than 30 days to get everything done! I have no idea what I am going to pack and what to leave behind! 1 month is really not enough time to settle your accounts and move to a new country. My goal is to get everything done and stay sane… Prayers are welcomed

A few pictures from my cousins wedding in Michigan



Me with my Aunt Linda and My Aunt Sussie



My family minus my dad, I love them and am going to miss them so much!



My new Cousin Jill. Doesn't she look beautiful?

I'm going to Armenia!

Hello family, friends and internet world!!

I have been waiting a long time for my Peace Corps adventure to start, and now it's finally about to begin! It's been such a long and tedious process since I decided to submit my application back in November of 2008, but I finally got a call from the Peace Corps asking if I would like to leave May 27th!! My Placement officer wouldn't tell me where I was going, just that it would be in Eastern Europe, but due to some internet snooping I discovered that I will be going to Armenia!

This whole time I have been expecting to go to Ukraine and now that I have learned that I will be in Armenia instead, I don't really know what to expect. I mean isn't Armenia in Glendale? haha Just kidding, but seriously I don't know anything about it, and it seems to be much more Middle Eastern than Eastern European to me... So I guess I am going to have to be a model Peace Corps Volunteer and be flexible and adjust =)

In the coming weeks I hope to get more information and hopefully get everything together and be prepared to leave my family and friends...

In closing I just want to say thank you to everyone that has helped me along with this process, my brother, my sister and my parents! You have all been amazing and I will miss you soo much! To Betsie, Valeria and Tawny, thanks so much for recommending me and filing out all that paperwork!