Soon: Snow to Sun

I'm leaving in a couple days! Yay! I'm excited and nervous, packed and ready to go. Two years sounds like a long time, but then I remember that I was in Korea for 2 years and that flew by! So that is a reminder to appreciate the days and experience while there because days and weeks and months can pass by quickly without even realizing it.

It will be weird going from this:

to the South Pacific! I'm used to dealing with cold over humidity. 

People have been asking a lot of questions, so I'll write some quick info about what I know.

I am going to the country Vanuatu  with the Peace Corps (I didn't know that was a country before I got an e-mail from  Peace Corps saying I was being considered to go there haha). Vanuatu is an archipelago kind of between Australia and Fiji. The capital is Port Vila and the national language is Bislama. The time is GMT + 11, so 16 hours ahead of Buffalo currently.

I recently found out which island I will be going to (there are 65 inhabited islands that make up the country) and I am very excited about my placement! I will be living on Ambae, a volcanic island in the middle of a bunch of other islands.

Map of Vanuatu, with Ambae marked

I will be an education volunteer. I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing, but I am assigned to a school. I'll have to post more about that while I'm there!

Before becoming an actual volunteer, there are 10 weeks of pre-service training in Vanuatu. I'll swear in as an actual Peace Corps volunteer on April 1st.

Last but definitely not least, I'd love mail! I love sending and receiving letters and postcards, so if you have some free time and are bored, want something to do while watching Netflix, or have spare postcards lying around, write to me! My address (for training at least) is:

Liz Atallah PCT

Peace Corps/ Vanuatu

PMB 9097

Port Vila

Vanuatu

I also have it in the 'address' tab above. A regular 1 oz letter should cost $1.20 to mail. I'm not sure what my internet situation will be, so this will probably be the best way to tell me everything going on in your life! 

Flag of Vanuatu

Needless to say, I am very excited about going to Vanuatu with the Peace Corps! I don't know how often I'll be able I'll be able to post, but you can put your e-mail in the 'subscribe' box to get an e-mail when I do if you are interested. 

Ok, I don't know how to end a blog post. Tata!

8,105 miles...

...is the approximate distance from Buffalo, NY to Ambae, Vanuatu. 

5 Months in the USA

The last 5 years continued...

As sad as I was to leave my great life in Korea, I was excited to have time to spend with family and friends in Buffalo and to see more of the USA. Turns out the time was a bit longer than I was expecting it to be, but I got to visit many people and places. Having people scattered around is a definite con when I am in Buffalo and want to hang out, but luckily I always love visiting people and am well acquainted with the Buffalo airport and bus terminal.

Places visited August - December 2015

Before these trips I had never been west of Kansas, so being able to see a bit of the west was VERY exciting. The majority of the places I've been to in the US are in the Northeast, so it was interesting to be able to expand that just a little bit. What a beautiful country this is!

I felt like I had so much time at home, but now I only have 1.5 weeks left! Lots of things to do, people to see, and food to eat before then! 

2 Years in Korea

The past 5 years continued...

While in Georgia I met many people who had taught in Korea previously and I also had a cousin there, so I applied to the EPIK program. After a month in Buffalo, I was ready to head to Korea in August of 2013. I lived in Gwangju, a city of 1.5 million people about a 3.5 hour bus ride south of Seoul. There is a national park (Mudeung) on the east edge of Gwangju- near where I lived- which was a great escape when the city felt too crowded. I taught at 2 elementary schools, both which were walking distance from my apartment. It was a great life! I was able to save money even while often travelling around the country on weekends and abroad on vacations.

Teaching in Korea was interesting, and my situations were quite different at both schools. Altogether, I had over 300 students a year so it was difficult to get to know everyone. Luckily I had a group of 30 students at 1 school for the entire 2 years multiple times a week, so I grew close and was able to do a lot of fun things with them. I also did 7 weeks total of camps (2 weeks of overnight camp, 5 weeks of day camp) which were some of the best teaching times there!

I tried to see as much as I could of Korea while I was there. Some of my favorite trips were to Seoul (often, to visit my cousin), some islands, and the mountains. Actually it's hard to say "my favorite" trips around Korea because really every trip I took-either with people or alone-was great. There's a lot to see around Korea and it is really easy to get around with their public transportation. I was very sad to take Greyhound when I got back to the US after riding on Korean buses for 2 years. 

Around Korea 

During school vacations I took trips to Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, and China. Prior to coming to Korea, I had very little interest in East or South Asia. (And, well, before I went to Georgia I had little interest in Eastern Europe). I think a lot of that was ignorance- I had no idea of the diversity of cultures and food between and within the countries. I also thought of it as so foreign until I internalized that people are people and cities are cities and schools are schools no matter where you are. In college I never would have imagined that I'd spend time living in Asia. I don't know if I'll ever make it back to Korea, but more of Asia is definitely on my list.