07/08/2013 Washington D.C.

Surprise everyone! My wife and I are on our way to COSTA RICA! After spending almost all of our lives in the American Midwest and always wishing we could do something adventurous we took it upon ourselves to join the Peace Corps. I think that may be the trick to doing anything you want. Do it with someone who is also motivated so that one, you can share it with someone your whole life long, and two, you can't chicken out.

Peace Corps was kind enough to set us up with mentors who are Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV's) in country from the last class. We consulted with them about all sorts of things including what to pack. They advised us to pack lite as anything we want we could purchase there. I tried to pack as lite as possible but I think paranoia got the best of us. What do you think?

I mean I might as well have done this:

For those of you who have never been to Costa Rica it's pretty highly technologically developed. By that I mean they have things like clean water running out of the taps, they produce microchips for Intel and they have a WAL-MART. We probably could have gone with a few pairs of shoes and bought everything we need down there.

Today we are did a staging event with Peace Corps in Washington DC. This is where they tell us what they expect of us and we sign all our paperwork.We had a bunch of team building exercises during which I met Mark who just came back from the Philippines where he is doing microfinance work. Exactly what I want to do when done here. I also met a girl who graduated from the small liberal arts college I went to in Michigan. Kalamazoo college. Small world.

Tomorrow we get up at 2:30 for a 6am flight to Miami then ON to COSTA RICA! More on this as soon as I am able.

PURA VIDA