On procrastinating, being homeless, and going-away parties

Here I sit in the Natural Resources Building, passing the 3rd day of nice weather all semester in the windowless, cinder block prison that is my office, noticing the blatant lack of blog-posting of which I have promised so many people I would be diligent about.  “Once begun, a job’s half done,” so I thought I would get at least one under my belt before I leave behind the comforts of wildly abundant wireless internet.  Honestly, it’s probably not healthy to be pregnant on a college campus what with all the criss-crossing LAN signals around here…

Over the last few days I have been participating in an exercise in Peace Corps flexibility by moving out of my apartment right before finals week and being homeless in East Lansing until all my finals are done.  It is also an exercise in Peace Corps frugality because the main motivating factor behind this was avoiding paying rent for the month of May.  I would say I’m going to miss living there, but I wouldn’t want to lie in my first ever blog post (if you don’t count the Xanga fad in early high school – which I don’t).  But honestly, what’s not to miss about paying through the nose to live in a cramped studio apartment thats a bajillion miles from campus?  Oh yea and the nymphomaniacal neighbors who’s idea of a fun Tuesday night is letting their love resound through the entire apartment complex (you know who you are)…

Anyways, being homeless has been an enjoyable experience.  Lucky for me Kevin “the legend” Stover and Elliot “marathon man” Rudert have taken me under their wing and let me crash on their couch whenever I want.  Also, Kevin’s lovely fiance, Kate, was visiting this weekend so I got to play the “Dupree” to their “You, Me and” without all the jealousy and crooked noses.  I thought it was an interesting contrast between two people who are so stable and the trainwreck that is my life right now, living under the same roof.   I say trainwreck endearingly because I love the spontaneity of my current pre-departure lifestyle.  I am also quite fond of having a justifiable excuse (leaving the country for 2 years) to drive around the Midwest and spend unreasonable amounts of money at going-away parties.  Here are some samples of the debauchery:

Notice the "Reserved for Ryan LeMier" sign - the cherry on top of an awesome weekend in Chicago. I promise that girls also attended.

Unfortunately, the only picture taken of my trip to Ferris State was of Will and I hoisting this woman up at the Sean Kingston concert to help her find her daughter

Me dancing with a local Lansing woman at Oade's Bar and Grill (a very reputable establishment). I later helped her meet the much more age appropriate man of her dreams.

This blog currently comes to you at the expense of time I should be spending writing final papers for class.  While there were times over the course of the last year I cursed myself for going back to school right away and not joining the Peace Corps right out of undergrad, I have come to reflect mostly positively on the decision to do Masters International** for several reasons.

1. I have met some amazing people doing incredible work in their respective fields and made really good connections with academics, professionals, and otherwise outstanding people.
2. I will never forget the friends I have made in my short time in Lansing: people from my cohort and the CARRS department, people from Carrabba’s of Lansing, and people from the Landscape Architecture program at MSU.
3. I literally get to talk to at least 3 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) every day, sometimes about Peace Corps, but usually about other things.  The CARRS department at MSU (and MSU in general) is a cesspool of RPCVs and future PCVs.
4. I have learned so much in the last year that will help me be such a better volunteer. Between coursework (oh yea some of the professors here are RPCVs too), talking to people about their service, and reading a TON of literature about development (another blog in itself), I feel infinitely more informed and confident than a year ago.

I am currently mad at school because I am 9 days away from my departure and have to focus on final papers.  Massive caffeine injections help, although I can already feel a kidney stone genesis occurring deep within the nephrons of my kidneys.  Needless to say I haven’t even started thinking about packing yet.  Once I submit my last final its going to be a frenzy of packing and goodbye-saying before I board that flight on May 10…

**Masters International is a recently established program at several Universities in the U.S. in which students attend a year of graduate coursework, followed by a 27 month commitment as a Peace Corps volunteer.  Upon completion of service, the student returns to finish the last year of coursework and complete a thesis, usually based on the work done during Peace Corps service.