Starting Year #2

I'm done with my 1st year of service! I started my 2nd year of service by going home to California to visit first :) Here's a quick summary of my trip and I've been up to since I got back.

Visiting Home
8/31/14- 9/19/14 I flew home to visit right after I had my mid service conference. I had an awesome 3 weeks of seeing my family, friends and vovinam family again. Some highlights of my trip are: eating mom's bitter melon soup and home cooked meal, camping trip and performing with vovinam, super date with the boyfriend and crossing off jet skiing off my bucket list, hanging out and playing board games with friends, attending 2 aerial silk classes, drinking starbucks almost everyday, and eating.. a LOT of eating. After being away for 15 months and coming back to America, I realized how good we have it here. A lot of things we have available in America would be considered as privileges or luxury in many other countries. I definitely took a lot of things for granted that I wasn't even aware of until my Peace Corps service. For that, I'm grateful for my experience making me more appreciative of everything, even the smallest things. The first couple of days were definitely hard to readjust! I went to walmart the second day I was back and left empty handed because I was too overwhelmed with the many choices and variety of things haha Here's a list of the top things that I've miss about America and got to 'rediscover' during my visit:

1. free wifi practically everywhere!
2. hot running water
3. FOOD! fast food, restaurants, drinks, desserts, everything!
4. driving
5. toilet that flushes.. and toilet paper
6. diversity of people
7. speaking English
8. walking around in public with my iphone and not having to be on guard 24/7
9. walmart and grocery stores
10. laundry machines, microwave, gas stove, oven, pretty much all basic appliances

Work
9/23/14 First day back and it was back to the grind. We went out to the Miriangone community to do malaria outreach. There's been an increase in the number of malaria cases so we talked to the community leaders about prevention methods and the importance of seeking for care at the first sign of malaria symptoms.

REDES group
9/24/14 & 9/25/14 Back to dance practice! They're getting better and better! :) more in unison and less bumping into each other and doing opposite things hahah

Hora Das Criancas
9/27/14 When my friend Caroline came to visit in April, she brought over a bunch of crayons for me. I finally got around to distributing it to the kids. I gave out 63 boxes of crayons and they loved it! I gave out Winnie the Pooh coloring pages for them to try out their new crayons right away.

9/28/14 Bryan's awesome dad bought a bunch of snack like Hello Panda, crackers, and granola bars for me to bring over. The kids went crazyyy! Trying to get them in line was impossible so I had dozens of kids surrounding me. They ate it right away so I couldn't snap a photo ):

Other updates
-The kittens are so big now! They're soo cute!! I'm giving them all away soon though ): Oh and I think Zambie might be pregnant again...
-Starting English and Vovinam classes again next week! I was jetlagged the first week I was back and then I got sick with a cold ):
-All my tv shows are back!! I've been spending a lot more money to buy internet credits but it's totally worth it! I'm just going to spoil myself this way hahah
-I reorganized my closet as well as made other changes to the house.. will post pictures next blog! :)