72 hrs left in the U S of A

First of all, THANK YOU ALL for coming last weekend. It was all so nice and I seriously felt so loved :) I hope you all had as good of a time as I did!

Leenie Leenie this is a fab idea and I love it. I'm sure I'll be laughing my ass off in an "internet cafe" aka grass hut in Benin and telling all of my shaman friends. I'm also keeping a blog while in Benin so you can check out my ridiculousness abroad there as well. It is:

http://noraslifeinbenin.blogspot.com/

I think I'm going to make it Perez Hilton Third World-style, aka draw cum stains on all the volunteers I don't like (hahha kidding). Anyway, Allisondro I loved your story, especially about your mother telling you that your sins were too long and she had to be somewhere at seven. hahahahah. So you all are going to Milwacky next weekend? Boo. I arrive in Benin on July 4, think of me....

I went to the Cubs vs. Sox game yesterday, my dad has season tickets and let me take them (he is a psycho Sox fan even though we are from the Northside of Chicago and it makes no sense). I myself am a true fairweather fan and think the whole rivalry is stupid since we're all from Chicago. Anyone, my dad's stipulation is that I had to wear a Sox shirt and root for the Sox, so I was a Sox fan yest. It was amazing! They're both in first place and the Sox ended up winning. I took my friend Claire b/c she's a huge Cubs fan and she just got heckled the entire game which was hilarious. People were shouting "100 yrs! 100 yrs!" at her b/c its been 100 years since the Cubs have won a World Series. Anyway, we went to the Taste of Chicago beforehand and got huge frozen lemonades which we dumped vodka into before we got on the L to the game. It was really fun and a great way to kiss goodbye my favorite city before I go :(

Anyway, I leave for Philadelphia on Tuesday to meet the rest of my Peace Corps peeps and do three days of orientation and vaccinations. My flight is at 6:30 am. I finally get to Benin on July 4 which is weird, especially when the 4th of July is my favorite holiday! I'll have my cell phone on me until I leave for Africa. It's going to be insane. Even know when I'm sleeping in strange places like with Allie in Ben's bed in Milwaukee, or at Claire's sisters', I'll wake up in the middle of the night and be like; "OMG am I in Africa?". hahaha because isn't that going to be weird?!

My parents keep calling it "Elle Woods Goes to Africa", the girl from Legally Blond. Which is actually sort of fitting hahah.

I'm not really that nervous. I spent most of last year doing that. I just have this sort of melancholy feeling, like am I crazy? Am I making the right decision? It's weird. I'm also very anxious.

Love you all. Good luck with everything and take care of yourselves. You won't even know how much I'll miss you guys! Really.

These next couple of years will fly. Now I'm balling.

Love,

Nora