These songs have also experienced near death due to the Z100 style repetition in my brain:
1. Make You Feel My Love – Adele
2. Forever My Friend – Ray LaMontagne
3. See the World – Gomez
4. Graceland – Paul Simon
5. Take No Prisoner – Alpha Blondy
6. Kids – MGMT
7. Minha Galera – Manu Chao
8. I Follow You – Amadou and Mariam
9. Jai Ho – Pussycat Dolls
10. Angel From Montgomery – Susan Tedeschi
11. Redemption Song – Bob Marley
12. Halo – Beyonce
13. When Love Takes Over –Kelly Rowland
14. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z
15. I Want You Back Remix – Jackson Five
16. I’m Alive – Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews
17. Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
18. The Heartache Can Wait – Brandi Carlisle
19. Sweet Mistakes – Ellis Paul
20. Any World Cup Song
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
SOUNDTRACK 2.0
If the songs that have been stuck in me head at differing points during my two years of service were played out load, this would be the sountrack of my life in Cape Verde:
1. Regresso – Cesaria Evora
2. Danca Ma Mi Criola – Tito Paris
3. Bulimundo – Bulimundo
4. Sodade – Cesaria Evora
5. Boa Sorte – Vanessa de Mata and Ben Harper
6. Algo Especial – Nelson Rock
7. Dispidida – Mayra Andrade
8. To Martins – Lura
9. Sampe – Dudu Araujo
10. Padoce de Ceu Azul – Cesaria Evora
11. Tentação
12. Mari D’ascenson – Lura
13. Tanuka – Mayra Andrade
14. Cabalo – Ferro Gieta
15. Dixi Rubera – Vadu
16. Febri de Funana – Tito Paris
17. Jóia – Bius
18. Preta – Vadu
19. Rebas – Cordas do Sol
20. Rebound Chick – Nelson Freitas
1. Regresso – Cesaria Evora
2. Danca Ma Mi Criola – Tito Paris
3. Bulimundo – Bulimundo
4. Sodade – Cesaria Evora
5. Boa Sorte – Vanessa de Mata and Ben Harper
6. Algo Especial – Nelson Rock
7. Dispidida – Mayra Andrade
8. To Martins – Lura
9. Sampe – Dudu Araujo
10. Padoce de Ceu Azul – Cesaria Evora
11. Tentação
12. Mari D’ascenson – Lura
13. Tanuka – Mayra Andrade
14. Cabalo – Ferro Gieta
15. Dixi Rubera – Vadu
16. Febri de Funana – Tito Paris
17. Jóia – Bius
18. Preta – Vadu
19. Rebas – Cordas do Sol
20. Rebound Chick – Nelson Freitas
FRENCH PLAY
Laurance, a French professor that I worked with organized a play with her second year students. The play incorporated traditional CV dance and music and a famous french story about a young man looking for love. Apparently the young man meets a girl, but when he brings her home his father tells him that he can't marry her because he had an affair when he was younger and she was his daughter. This happens about three times and the young man is about to give up on love when his mother tells him not to worry. His father isn't really his father. Ba-dum!
They did a great job and I had the chance to watch them perform twice.
LEAVING...
Leaving was for many reasons bittersweet. Packing up my apartment was exciting but in some ways heartbreaking. My Mom has been asking me what my apartment looks like so I figured I'd take some pictures before clearing out.
ENGLISH DISPIDIDA
A friend of my colleagues let us use his colonial house on Rua Angola to host an end of the year dinner and festa with our English students.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
PIG ROAST
My former students invited me to a pig roast. It must have been huge because it was just food on top of food. Good times with an amazing group.
Monday, August 16, 2010
ENGLISH LESSONS
Saturday English lessons at a local elementary school. Do you remember the colors song?
FORMACAO
I worked with the US Embassy English Fellows in the Spring to present a professional development seminar on 'Backwards Planning' to the local English teachers.
DOCTORATE!
My colleague in the French Department received her doctorate, so we had a little dinner to celebrate!
COS CONFERENCE
Three months prior to leaving all volunteers attend a COS (Close of Service) Conference. Ours was in June. We kicked it off with a volta ilha (trip around Santiago) before heading to Cidade Velha. Kudos to our group, we were the first group in Cape Verde without any ETs (early terminations) and everyone seems pretty happy and excited about what's next.
Monday, August 9, 2010
August 3rd - COMPLETING THE CIRCLE
School is officially over and it was put to a close with a dispidida (going away) lunch with my co-workers. My secondary projects are all wrapped up and the last of the books and study guides are being distributed. I’ve given away most of my belongings, and packed up the stuff to send home or to bring with me. In my need to be completely organized, I’ve even taken the decorations off my walls and scrubbed the apartment clean. The only problem is that I still have a month before leaving. In exactly one month from today, Dacia, Leah, and I will be landing in Senegal to begin our four month trek through Africa. I blame my Mom on my obsessive need to organize and straighten up, but I guess these habits aren’t the worst that one can pick up from parents, right?
I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.
Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.
I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.
I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now. I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.
I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.
Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.
I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.
I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now. I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.
August 3rd - COMPLETING THE CIRCLE
School is officially over and it was put to a close with a dispidida (going away) lunch with my co-workers. My secondary projects are all wrapped up and the last of the books and study guides are being distributed. I’ve given away most of my belongings, and packed up the stuff to send home or to bring with me. In my need to be completely organized, I’ve even taken the decorations off my walls and scrubbed the apartment clean. The only problem is that I still have a month before leaving. In exactly one month from today, Dacia, Leah, and I will be landing in Senegal to begin our four month trek through Africa. I blame my Mom on my obsessive need to organize and straighten up, but I guess these habits aren’t the worst that one can pick up from parents, right?
I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.
Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.
I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.
I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now. I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.
I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.
Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.
I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.
I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now. I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.
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