So, I graduated. Officially done with 16 years of education- no more tests, papers, tedious textbook readings and long lectures for at least two years pending the inevitable graduate school experience. Maybe by then school will be something sort of exciting again. As for now, I am joining the ranks of the unemployed graduates across the country, although I at least am able to say it with a smile as it is entirely by choice. (The one job that I half-heartedly applied to in November I am just not going to count.) But being unemployed by choice doesn't mean that I don't have a plan. My plan is to be a volunteer. As my dad likes to tell his friends, "If Ali could, she would be a volunteer for the rest of her life." And I guess that it's true to some extent. I can't pinpoint if volunteering just seems more selfless and dignified than getting minimum wage for working a job where I do tasks that I don't love. Maybe its that there is less of a responsibility and more flexibility for volunteers. But I also don't think that those are the reasons. After all, I do eventually plan on getting paid for something, and I chose the program that I will be volunteering with starting in September because I liked that they were more professional than other organizations. I guess when I am into my volunteering I can figure it out.
Moving on... after spending the next two months in Madison, and August traveling to NY, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (definitely) and Utah (possibly), I will be beginning the next chapter of my life. The first weekend of September, I will be taking my one-way plane ticket to Santiago, Chile ready to start the next four months volunteering. The organization that I am volunteering through is VE-Global. From what I can gather at this point it will be great- I will elaborate more on it in a later blog post. Anyway, the current plan of mine is to be in Chile for four months (my contract ends mid-january but I can always extend it) and then at some point making it to Peru. As I continue to read South America travel books and blogs I want to go EVERYWHERE and so if I can figure out logistics and potential companions, I am hoping to spend about 3-4 weeks traveling around (While it doesn't really make geographical sense my plan is to spend time in Venezuela and Colombia). And THEN I will spend until the end of May in Peru volunteering with another volunteer program which I will have to research further or possibly go independently. And to finish off this year of adventure, I am hoping to get a job with a teen tour/community service-esque program that goes to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (there are quite a few of them that I have found). And that way, I go home the beginning of June, start the application and/or interviewing process for real life jobs and get a dress for my little brothers bar-mitzvah so my mom doesn't have a heart attack. And then get back to South America for a month or so and then back to the US for good (or not if I can't bear to leave). So, this is my current fairly solid plan that I could be completely changing as soon as a week from now and as far away from now as November. I love that I have such open-ended plans.
Finally, why 1. South America 2. Chile 3. Santiago:
1. Spanish
2. Awesome and under the radar
3. Safe and modern compared to many other cities in South America- makes my parents happy and thats a good enough reason for me. Also a great starting point to be going off alone to.
Bye for now!
Moving on... after spending the next two months in Madison, and August traveling to NY, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (definitely) and Utah (possibly), I will be beginning the next chapter of my life. The first weekend of September, I will be taking my one-way plane ticket to Santiago, Chile ready to start the next four months volunteering. The organization that I am volunteering through is VE-Global. From what I can gather at this point it will be great- I will elaborate more on it in a later blog post. Anyway, the current plan of mine is to be in Chile for four months (my contract ends mid-january but I can always extend it) and then at some point making it to Peru. As I continue to read South America travel books and blogs I want to go EVERYWHERE and so if I can figure out logistics and potential companions, I am hoping to spend about 3-4 weeks traveling around (While it doesn't really make geographical sense my plan is to spend time in Venezuela and Colombia). And THEN I will spend until the end of May in Peru volunteering with another volunteer program which I will have to research further or possibly go independently. And to finish off this year of adventure, I am hoping to get a job with a teen tour/community service-esque program that goes to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (there are quite a few of them that I have found). And that way, I go home the beginning of June, start the application and/or interviewing process for real life jobs and get a dress for my little brothers bar-mitzvah so my mom doesn't have a heart attack. And then get back to South America for a month or so and then back to the US for good (or not if I can't bear to leave). So, this is my current fairly solid plan that I could be completely changing as soon as a week from now and as far away from now as November. I love that I have such open-ended plans.
Finally, why 1. South America 2. Chile 3. Santiago:
1. Spanish
2. Awesome and under the radar
3. Safe and modern compared to many other cities in South America- makes my parents happy and thats a good enough reason for me. Also a great starting point to be going off alone to.
Bye for now!
