Love in the Peace Corps

Nope, this blog is not really about my love life though I have been lucky enough to find love in the Peace Corps. I recently returned from a trip to the U.S. where I attended a wedding of two RPCVs, visited with Dylan and his family, and thought a lot about my fast-approaching post-PC future. I spent about a week in DC before moving on to Atlanta for a weekend. In order to save hundreds of dollars, I flew out of Cancun which meant over 24 hours of travel to go a pretty short distance (well compared to Africa!). Lots of time on the bus and in the airport but a great final vacation before I finish the Peace Corps.

I met many of Dylan's friends and family and just enjoyed hanging around this fun city that I'm planning to soon call home. Thats right, I've decided to move to Washington DC after Peace Corps and start the next adventure of my life there. Dylan and I went to a bike sale one day and purchased matching year-old Trek hybrids for about half off. I have grown to love biking since joining the Peace Corps and knew I wanted a bike when I got home with the hopes that I will continue riding frequently. I'm so excited to have a bike waiting for me when I move to DC! Its been not so enjoyable returning to my crappy Beach Cruiser in Belize though! Dylan and I enjoyed biking around the Mall and while he was at work, I took several other nice bike rides along the Capital Crescent trail. I loved experiencing fall for the first time in years. It was at its peak in Washington (after surviving snow the week before I arrived) and the leaves were beautiful. The weather was crisp (yeah I still froze) and I enjoyed apple pies, jumping in the leaves, and wearing sweatshirts!

Last weekend, Dylan and I went to Atlanta to celebrate the marriage of some Peace Corps friends. Zach and Dylan had trained together in Guinea back in 2009 before they were evacuated and Dylan transferred to Burkina. Zach went home only to come to Burkina a year later where he met Christina in training. Their sites were in our region and during the violence in Burkina last spring, Dylan spent a lot of time with them. They decided to come home because of this violence and were engaged last summer. The wedding was held along the river in Atlanta with a beautiful outdoor ceremony and fun reception afterwards followed by an evening of bar hopping. Its a pretty well-known fact that many couples meet and fall in love in Peace Corps and PC marriages are not that unusual. This was my first PC wedding though I know of several other couples that married after meeting in the PC. We enjoyed celebrating with our friends and reminiscing about Burkina Faso together!