This just in ...

Countdown until Fiji: 14 days. What does this mean exactly? It means ...

• 14 more hot showers
• 14 more days of constant internets and gmail/facebook chatting
  
• 14 more days of reliable electricity and water
• 14 more days of flushing toilets
• 14 more days of actually trying to care how my hair looks
• 14 more days of watching trashy television
  
• 14 more days of clean underwear
• 14 more days of no kava in my body
• 14 more days of any kind of weather below 80 degrees and humidity below 80%
• 14 more days of wearing pants
• 14 more days of junk food
  

The packing list has almost completely been covered, there are a few things missing that I will pick up from Great Outdoor Provisions in the coming weeks I bet. I've been stocking up on cotton undies - which I am told wear out pretty quickly when I am washing them on an ACTUAL washboard ... not my abs, but the real metal kind. Also have my leatherman ready to fix anything and ... of course ... travel Scrabble. I wonder how many people I will be able to teach in Fiji to play Scrabble. According to my research, the Fijian alphabet is similar to ours, but letters like F, H, P, X, and Z are rarely used - so much for those high scoring letters! I found a clip of someone reading a phrase in Fijian and it is here: http://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/udhr/udhr_fijian.mp3. You have my permission to be very amazed when I have the ability to say all that without laughing, spitting, or blowing raspberries everytime I mess up. For those who are curious, he is saying: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Oh yeah ... I'm deep.

As far as communication goes while I am away, I will have a cell phone - I KNOW! Bet you didn't expect to hear that. I obviously don't have that number yet, but I will also have Skype on my laptop but I don't expect easy internet access. I think calls and texts to me will be free (for me) and as soon as I figure out the cheapest way for you to call I will post it. You can search for me on Skype using my email address (julana.r.miller@gmail.com). Also - you can send mail! I know ... step back into the early 90s why don't you, that's what you are thinking. Well, snail mail can be fun! My address for training is:

Juliana R Miller, PCV
Peace Corps/Fiji
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji Islands
South Pacific

I am going to have an amazon.com wishlist of books since I predict having free reading time while I am there. I promise to be good with communication, but I can't make any promises on the Fijian mail services. I have also been told that packages be sent in padded envelopes not boxes as often as possible because boxes get opened more often.

2 weeks to go and counting ....

Become a Master of Science: Check

I did it! I have officially defended my thesis and submitted it online! My thesis defense can be found here if you are really curious as to what I've spent the last 4 years on. Granted, it won't be as insightful with out all my words of wisdom narrating along with the slides. And the picture is of me and my good friends Courtney and Carole who ALSO defended their theses the same week as me - go us!

It is a little scary to be done with this whole thing. I have been working on it for so long, I don't know what it feels like to NOT be working on it. After finishing yesterday and submitting, Jody set up his SuperNintendo and I played Mario Bros all afternoon while he worked - it was the laziest afternoon I've had in a while. I loved it!

I am so excited about Fiji, but at the same time I am so scared!!! Before I got to just say "Yeah, I am moving to Fiji for 2 years" and people would just "ooh" and "ahh" and I would be excited to go. Now I ACTUALLY have to go and I am still excited but the phrase "scared shitless" comes to mind - 2 years in a foreign country with a language you don't speak and completely different cultural attitudes towards religion, gender roles, EVERYTHING. This is what I signed up for and I can't wait for it to start, but there is so much that I know is just going to give me a reality check as to what things are like outside of the privileged lifestyle I have been living. Oh - and there is a fly in my bedroom that I had to lure out with the light in my brother's bathroom across the hall and then had to rapidly shut the door to trap it outside ... the whole sleeping under a net thing to keep out the bugs is going to be an interesting experience for me.

So, the next 3 weeks will be dedicated to trying to figure what I need and pack up 80 lbs of crap for the next 2 years! That will probably include 4 cameras despite all the best efforts of my friends to convince me otherwise. I have asked a couple other photography minded friends/family and they totally agree the dSLR must come with - thank goodness!!

AHHHH!

Holy crap - I defend in 2.5 weeks! Then its exactly 1 month until I go to Fiji. Someone pinch me. Then do my defense for me. It's 1 am right now and I've spent the last 2 hours reading the blogs of strangers that are already in Fiji for the Peace Corps. I can't stop! And I can't decide if it has made me feel more at east or more nervous!

Slacker McSlackerson Makes an Appearance

So it has been quite some time since I have posted on this blog that no one reads, so I felt the need to put something in. It's been a busy few months since I got my Fiji placement - but nothing in regards to Peace Corps stuff. I think in the last month I will start to have to do things again, like get my flight to LA booked for staging and all that. There are lots of questions people have been asking me about Fiji that I do not know the answers too and I'm sorry! Some I do know, and I think I should do a FAQ section here, so here goes ...

Q: When do you leave?
A: I leave for staging on May 19th which is in LA, but then on the 21st of May, I leave for Fiji with the whole group of volunteers. I have gotten in contact with some via facebook, but this is my chance to meet them all, get last minute immunization shots, and sleep in a comfy bed for one last time.

Q: Where will you be living in Fiji?
A: No idea. They will tell me when I get there and they have figured out an assignment for me. Well, I have SOME idea - it will probably be on one of the main islands. I found out that due to unpleasant situations, women are not placed alone on the outer islands - they only go there if they are married and with their husband in PC.

Q: What language will you be learning?
A: In Fiji there are 2 main languages: Fijian (duh) and Hindi. There is a 40% Ind0-Fijian population so I could learn Hindi depending on who I will be working with. I don't know which language I will be learning.

Q: What will you be doing there?
A: I have been put in the position of "Environmental Resource Management Promoter" and I do NOT know what that means. :) There is a wide range of things I could be doing from environmental outreach, environmental surveys of reefs or mangrove forests, or even just cleaning trash off the streets. Who knows.

Q: Will you come back in those 2 years?
A: Probably not. It will be too difficult to get back.

So those are just a few questions I have been getting - the main ones I guess. Meanwhile, I have been working on the old thesis (dubbed Jake), going to Jackson Hole for snowboarding, visiting family in Chicago, and currently relaxing just outside of Boone, NC with some close friends. Life is good, but just waiting for comments back on the thesis to turn it downward again!

Fiji Baby!!!

So it is official. I have been invited to join the Peace Corps in their Environmental Management Program in Fiji! I will be there from the middle of May 2009 until July 2011!! I am so excited and so damn scared you would not believe it. I accepted the invitation and proceeded to the bookstore to find what I could on Fiji. I was a little disappointed and only found a couple small travel guides telling me about the Fiji I will probably never see. I also found a book called Getting Stoned With Savages. It is about a man's travels to the Pacific Islands and is actually a sequel to his first book The Sex Lives of Cannibals (which I recently received as a wonderful gift from my friend Courtney!!). So hopefully I will get an honest look into what it is like to live in the islands. I also read the 109 page welcome book for all those traveling to Fiji with the Peace Corps. It got me pumped up and of course, nervous at the same time. Anyone not nervous to make such an enormous life choice is in for a big shock in my opinion. I look forward to the opportunity for growth, though. It is going to be an experience of a lifetime. I also can't wait to share with everyone all the exciting things I am going through. I can't be sure of where in Fiji I will be living until I get there, therefore will be unsure of my access to communication besides snail mail (imagine if you will, the slowest snail on the planet, put 10 pounds on his back, and THAT may be what is actually carrying my letters to you). But I plan on updating when possible and throwing some photos up here as well if I can. Of course, I have until May 2009. I am also noticing I am promising a lot considering the ease of internet access I currently have and the little I have actually update this blog. Im new to this - cut me some slack. Meanwhile, there is still this pesky thesis I have yet to write and have completely lost focus on - all I can think about is catching my own fish. And blue water ... and cockroaches ... and rain ... and coconuts ... and lush forests ... and gastrointestinal disorders ...

A smidgen of self-recognition...

Check me out - I am famous! Also read about LEEP and how wonderful this organization is!

Medically and Spiritually Cleared?

After a deferral scare, the Peace Corps has decided that I have no medical or mental health problems and that it would be safe for them to send me to a far off land! I am now waiting for them to officially extend an invitation my way for service in the Pacific Islands. WOOT! Apparently the process can still be competitive and someone else may be nominated for the position I was previously nominated for. Fingers are crossed, but I've done all I can. It's out of my hands now.

I've been going through an old movie phase and have watched a lot of Audrey Hepburn movies. I can't decide what my favorite is so far - but I am leaning towards Sabrina. Audrey Hepburn plays the part of Sabrina, a chauffer's daughter. She starts off being in love with a man she doesn't know. She also does not have a lot of confidence in herself at this early point in the film. So she takes the chance to go to culinary school in Paris and falls in love with Paris and becomes more autonomous. When she returns, she finds herself falling for a different man, the brother of guy number 1. This man she gets to know, and is not simply in love with the idea of him, but who he is. Lots of women get so caught up in trying to get a guy to like her (like Audrey Hepburn does with William Holden) that she does not take the time realize she has a choice, and she should not have to wait for a guy to pick her. In the end, she chooses Humphry Bogart. You go girl!! My other Hepburn favorites: Breakfast at Tiffany's (of course!), Roman Holiday, and Funny Face (ahh Fred Astair).