I’m a planner, and I mean that in a very literal way – I still use a paper day planner, and it’s the only way I can keep track of my life. I do see the irony in the fact that I much prefer blogging to journaling as a form of expression, but that’s another subject for another day. Anyway, it’s almost assured that if I don’t write something down somewhere, it won’t get done. When I think about all the things I want to do and learn and see in my life, it’s easy for me to get overwhelmed. What to do first? How to start? What can I realistically get done, and what is simply out of reach? I cope best with these questions when I make lists, so here’s a peek into my schemes and dreams for the future:
Learn
- Get out of my cooking rut and learn some new recipes, and stop being afraid to tackle the complicated ones
- Continue to learn more about photography, and feel fully comfortable with all the manual settings
- Learn to code
- Learn enough Spanish to get around Central America comfortably.
See
- Explore the Balkans – Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia
- Go back to Spain, get to Barcelona this time
- Portugal (Lisbon and Porto and everything in between; go on some Port tastings in Porto)
- Road trip though Italy
- France, get to Bordeaux and Nice this time and go back to the Loire Valley and Normandy
- Greece and Turkey
- Take the train from Berlin to Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava
- Explore the UK – Ireland and Scotland, revisit London
New England road trip (Boston, Maine,Nova Scotia,Quebec, Montreal, Vermont,Niagara Falls, Amish Country)Minnesota- Road trip through the South (Asheville,
Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston) New Orleans- Backpack Central America (Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)
- Argentina
- Peru and Ecuador, Galapagos Islands
- Antarctica
- South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya
- Island hop in the Caribbean
- Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines
- Australia
- New Zealand
- See the Northern Lights, maybe in Iceland
- Revisit Northern CA (Yosemite, Big Sur, Tahoe, Napa)
- Alaska
Do
- Take long bike rides
Join/start a book club, read at night instead of wasting time on the internet
The Uprooted Path 
Hey Laura,
I love your blog! My husband and I in the midst of the application process and are actually also looking at Macedonia (it’s our top choice too). I’d love to hear more about both of your experiences- especially working in community development since that’s most like what we’d be placed in.
Thanks!
Kim
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Thanks! One thing to keep in mind is that in general, Peace Corps won’t place both spouses in the same sector – I had to request to change sectors once we were in country (I was originally assigned TEFL) and it definitely wasn’t a given. The official reasoning is that it’s hard to find two placements in the same sector in the same town in most countries, so if you both want to be in community development be prepared to fight for it. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have!
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