There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

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Thursday Nov 02, 2006

grasping at straws

Belated Boo to Y'all! Halloween here at the library yesterday was a blast. Most of the staff dressed up and we had fun with all the kids who came in for the free goodies.

When I bought my costume (McDonald's milkshake),

I thought I'd have to grasp at straws (pun intended) to try and tie it to volunteering so that I could chat about it here, but thanks to the 'kindness' of some co-workers, I'm actually going to get a proper international vol blog post out of it.

A girl started singing some obnoxious (& rather rude) song called 'Milkshake' by Kelis at me over and over and seemed stunned that I had never ever heard it. She kept at me until I smiled, shrugged and said, 'Musta been drinking in a Scottish pub when it was out here.'

The whole incident brought to mind one of the off-hand, little-thought-about ways overseas work can change a person. While you're out of the country living the vol life, tv shows come and go, celeb dish splashes across the tabloids, and Blair or the Twit from Texas (I've got other names for mr. bush but they're not fit for polite blogging) says/does something newsworthy. Months later, you're sitting with hometown friends, the conversation shifts and suddenly you're left defending yourself when you say, 'Huh? Who got killed? He said what?' And, for a moment, you can't help but think back wistfully on what you were probably doing when whatever happened.

Sometimes it's hard to explain to people that, no, really, you don't know what they're talking about. An English friend of mine wanted to volunteer internationally, but said he couldn't face losing a year of music and Everton football. I don't think there's anything here in America that I couldn't walk away from for a period of time. You?

For me, the experience of living somewhere new, meeting new people far outweighs anything mundane. Certainly, there are things I miss (like my thrice-daily Mountain Dew fix), but... come on. Really. Who cares if you miss two or three or twenty stupid pop songs?

When I wiggled into my costume at lunch, I certainly didn't think I'd end up with a proper post!

 

 

 

Posted by Dana ( 2:30 PM )
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