It's getting real!

      I know I promised a packing list, but one generally has to have started packing for that to happen.  And of course, being the master procrastinator that I am, I haven't started packing, nor have I even finished shopping for all my stuff.  My room is a disaster, I have boxes strewn throughout my mom's basement, and I have less than 4 days. Awesome.  I'm not worried though.  With great procrastinating power comes great responsibility, and I have learned that I work best under pressure.  It'll all get done because it has to get done, and having lunch with a friend or watching Lost and then a Yankee game instead of packing will not keep it from happening.
      The goodbyes have begun for real.  They started for real last Wednesday, when I spent an amazing day in New Paltz with the friends there.  In 12 hours, we managed to take advantage of almost everything New Paltz has to offer, which is actually a lot for little hippie college town.  I arrived at 9am, and met Kristen at the Muddy Cup for coffee (first goodbye), drove out to the Hudson Valley Lab to say goodbye to Anne and everyone there, wandered around Water Street and tried on skirts at the Himalayan store while someone woke up and got ready, and then met Megan to begin the real adventures.  Megan came equipped with a broken car to be dropped off, and a to-do list that reached epic proportions.  List items included:

- Tickling frogs in the waters around the abandoned cement mines of Rosendale (no swimming!)

- Attempting to break into the pretty church in Rosendale without looking suspicious

-  Trespassing to get to the waterfall in High Falls, where there is also "No Swimming", just in case you were tempted to take a dip in the freezing, rocky rapids (which we totally weren't....)

- Eating lunch at the Egg's Nest, a favorite restaurant of mine with tasty food and bright, kitschy, and generally indescribable decor, while completely weirding out our waiter and setting off alarms by taking pictures of everything and reassuring him that it was okay because I am moving to Africa.

 - Taking a picture of an Africa-shaped puddle, with me pointing to Botswana

-Going on a fourth grade field trip to the D&H Canal trail, historical brochure and all, and making it through all of 3 locks before losing interest and sitting and contemplating losing our shoes to the mucky depths below

- Driveby shooting of the camera variety of Mohonk Mountain

- Not getting run over when parked in the middle of a winding mountain road to take a picture of a pretty view, which was obviously okay because I'm moving to Africa

- Visiting the church in Highland and writing intentions that won't be found til about 2013


- Buying 3 skirts for a total of $7 at Salvation Army with the help of an overenthusiastic stranger

- Echoing across Lake Minnewaska with Megan and Brittany, trespassing on private property (again), not swimming (again) and rescuing Megan from the non-trail boat ramp.  Don't ask.

- Learning that gravel thrown into a lake from a good height makes an awesome sound.


-  Ice cream at Frosty Rock, where we met Allie, who gave up ice cream for Lent.  Sorry, Allie!

- CCM meeting, where we ate pizza and learned about Haiti

After a a full and actually rather efficient day, it was finally time for goodbyes.  They went pretty well, and there may have been a cake and singing and a card, and lots of hugs, but no tears.  Once I got in my car to begin the 3 hour drive home, though, it hit me.  I'll miss seeing New Paltz and the Hudson Valley again for a couple of years, but I said my goodbyes to them when I moved back to the island in the fall.  It's the people that I will really miss, and the community that won't be there when I come back and everyone has moved on to new lives. This is what is making saying goodbye so hard.  Everyone is so fragmented already, with friends in Wales and Italy and Boston and Ohio and Long Island and New Paltz and Virginia, and I know that two years is a long time.  We can say that we'll all keep in touch and get together when I come back, but how realistic is that?  All I can do is hope that the friendships are strong enough to last and not think about it too much.
    Goodbyes have gone on from there.  On Saturday, after an afternoon of crab legs and a safari in rich people territory with my sister,  I met up with two friends from high school who were up visiting from Virginia, and had a wonderful night of chocolate fondue, wine, wandering around Port Jeff, and millions of questions.  Katie actually wrote one of the recommendations that got me into the Peace Corps, and I'll be corresponding with Tim's social studies class through WorldWise Schools, so they're stuck with me and will have to keep in touch.  No worries there.  Easter brought a new batch, mostly full of relatives.  It was tough to say goodbye to my grandparents.  None of them have the internet, so I don't know how well we'll be able to keep in touch, and two years is a long time for them, too.  We'll just have to do the best we can.  
     Tomorrow brings a whole new day of goodbyes, with my last night of AYM (the youth group I went through in high school and now volunteer at).  My class actually thought the 24th was my last night, and all the kids made a special effort to show up, and one even brought a cake, which was very sweet of them.  AYM is another thing that will be changing while I'm gone- our youth director and our pastor will be retiring in June, and no one is sure what that means for the program yet.  It's been a huge part of my life and has really made me who I am today, so I am praying that it will work out and that AYM has a great future ahead of it.
After AYM, I'll be meeting my mom, my aunt, and my mom's best friend (who may as well be another aunt) for ice cream and goodbyes.  Aside from my mother and grandmothers, Jeanine and Julie have really been the strongest women in my life, and I know I've been lucky to have them.  They've been extremely supportive of me in everything, even though they both think I'm a little more than crazy for moving to Africa, and I'll miss them a lot.
I'll probably spend at least part of Thursday running around and trying to hit up all those people I thought I'd see by now but haven't, so if I haven't gotten to you, give me a call!  I'll be leaving for Philly on Friday evening, and my mom and the kids will stay overnight at the hotel.  Registration is at noon on Saturday, staging will last until around 7pm, and then at 2am Saturday night/ Sunday morning, we get on the bus to JFK.  The flight leaves at 11:15am, and we arrive in South Africa 15 hours later.  From there, we take an hour-long flight to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, and then a bus to a lodge there, where we will spend a few days of orientation.  Then we move into our host family housing and begin 3 months of training!
For anyone wanting to send me mail (and please, please, please do!!), here is my address:
Melissa Berger
US Peace Corps
Private Bag 00243 
Gaborone, Botswana
This address will only be good for a month or two, so look out for updates.  Mail generally takes a few weeks, so if you were to send something today, I would get it sometime around the middle of the month.
Thanks for reading this whole thing if you're still with me, and I promise the packing list soon!