9:48 a.m., Santa Fe

As I begin to finalize plans for this upcoming fall, I'm realizing how soon all of these changes are going to materialize. Essentially I have one more month of normalcy before my life takes a turn for the awesome. My sublet is up at the end of April and because I am trying to save up cash for travels, I have secured a spot in my friend's front yard to set up my tent for May/June. Yes, I will become a hobo-drifter. Not only is that another $1200 in my pocket from not having to pay rent, but I'm envisioning long nights spent next to a small fire, getting yelled at by my friend for making a fire in her front yard, and brisk morning walks to the bathroom...paradise.
Either way I'll be in Ireland and the UK for half of May so it won't be so bad. I'm really looking forward to visiting the motherland and checking out my school in London. I'm half expecting to run into some evil twin version of myself in Galway. Come June 30th I will have had my final day of this tedious job and hopefully will have packed up much of my belongings and shipped them to my mother's house. Then I'm hoping a train to LA to stay with a friend for two weeks, then another train up to San Francisco, staying 2 weeks, then riding my bike from San Fran up to Oregon on highway 1 for a few weeks. It feels great to have fairly loose plans/no plans until September. For now, back to work, to sleep and to dreaming.

8:03 a.m., Santa Fe

It's official. On Monday I was accepted to Univ of London's School of Oriental and African Studies for a Masters in Near and Middle Eastern Studies/Arabic. I had originally applied to grad school as sort of a back up or additional option to Peace Corps and after months and months of waiting to hear from the PC my priorities shifted. Frankly, if Peace Corps is going to remain viable through the next few decades they're going to need to do some MAJOR restructuring.

Regardless, I am absolutely thrilled to finally be going back to school and study what I'm passionate about and on top of that live in foggy London town. To those of you still waiting patiently for word from PC, I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming adventures and I will continue this blog as sort of a journal of my travels and studies. Toodles!