Big Fish

This Saturday afternoon I made an adventure into a world I've never experienced before. A territory filled with creatures and species unknown to me. A country where lovers of musical theatre, dry British humor and President Obama are surely shunned. This place is known as the land of the Bass Pro Shops.

I went in search of various items for my upcoming trip, but my main objective was to find a good pair of hiking shoes and water sandals (also for hiking). Luckily, these items were both easy to find in the Land of the Bass, but not before having to navigate my way through various stuffed animals (no no, not cuddly toys, we are talking actual stuffed bears, deer, ducks, you name it), every kind of clothing you could ever think of in camoflage print (seriously, underwear. why would that even be necessary? Anyone??) and several well-kept mullets.

But in all seriousness, I was able to accomplish my mission and bought my shoes (and some delicious gummy bears, too!) Who knew you could go to one store to buy a tent, ammunition AND go rock climbing right there in the middle of everything? Brilliant I tell you!

Thank you Bass Pro Shops for opening my eyes to a new world of shopping.

Shoes: purchased. Next on the list: waiting for my actual work assignment so I will know what I need to prepare for when I get there.

On a side note, thank you to all that is good and holy for Ray Lewis. What a game!

An American Tail

Hello!

Welcome to my blog! I've never done the whole blogging thing before, but as I am preparing to leave for a month long trip to Peru, I think this is the best way to reach everyone. As I'm sure you know if you are reading this, I am leaving old Bawlmer at the end of October to do volunteer work in Ayacucho, Peru for a month. What you may not know is how this trip came to be....



My best friend, Elyse, decided well over a year ago that she was going to spend the summer of 2009 in Tanzania doing volunteer work with Cross Cultural Solutions. She researched it and had a very successful fundraising campaign....so successful that she actually ended up with more money than she needed for her program fee. Instead of losing the money, she decided that she wantd to plan another trip, this time to South America in the Fall. As soon as she booked the trip and told me about it, I decided "well wait a minute, I want to go too!"



The next few days happened very quickly, as I went through a whirlwind of telling my parents, best friends and (most importantly!) Everyman Theatre (my employers) my plans. Luckily, I work with some amazing people who very much supported my desire to do volunteer work. Ian's only stipulations about the trip were that I 1. don't call work mid-way through the trip and tell them I got married to a Peruvian and am never returning or 2. Pull an Angelina Jolie and come back with 6 adorable babies just in time for Thanksgiving. I easily agreed to these rules :o)



I quickly jumped on the fundraising train and received incredible support from friends and family. I was able to not only fundraise for my entire program fee, but also for my round trip airfare to Peru...just amazing!



The next few weeks will be dedicated to purchasing the various travel supplies I need, packing, organizing and...vaccines (more to come on that later. October 10th is the big day for the shots!).



Can't wait to share the next few weeks with you!



<3,>

((For those very accute readers, you will notice that the blog itself and the entry title are both movie titles. That's going to be my thing...a little shout out to my love of Hollywood :o))