From Conakry to Geneva: Wrapping Up, Moving Forward

April 13, 2005

Sorry about the long delay between updates, but I've been holed up at site since mid-February. I’ve officially moved out of Saramoussaya and am now here in Conakry until I close out my service.

My official COS date is May 2nd, and I’ll most likely fly out that evening or the next. Where to, you ask? I haven’t decided on my post-PC plans yet, but it’s starting to come together in my mind. Here’s what I’m currently thinking about: I’d like to fly to Brussels from either Conakry or Dakar. If I fly from Dakar, I’ll spend a couple days there hanging out with some other Guinea PCVs on vacation.

I’m trying to choose and enroll in an intensive/full-immersion French course—anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks. I want to do this because the French here in Guinea isn’t quite correct. I’ve picked up some bad grammar habits, and my accent—which I was once very proud of—has deteriorated to the point where I’m no longer comfortable with it. The school at the top of my list right now is in Spa, Belgium. If I go that route, I’ll hang out in Belgium for a week or so before beginning the course.

Once finished, I'd like to job hunt in Belgium and then travel down to Geneva to continue job hunting. From there I could cross the French border and visit my friend Catherine in Grenoble for a couple days before taking a train to Paris to continue the job hunt. From there I'd train it to London to job hunt and to visit with my friends the Lanes. I'd like to take some quick trips into Ireland and Scotland from London, seeing as flights on RyanAir are so amazingly cheap (like $10). I'd then fly home to Seattle, hopefully using a United pass.

Depending on how well the job hunting goes, I'm aiming to be in Seattle the first or second week of June. Where I go from there is anyone's guess. I'm going to be sending out a networking email soon with details on what it is I'm looking for in terms of work and giving my resume details, etc. So, be forewarned that I'll soon be asking for networking assistance!

I'm staying at the Peace Corps house in Conakry, and until 2 days ago it was packed. Now there are only 3 of us. I'm enjoying being able to get online every day and check email and research for jobs and travel prices. I'm also studying for the Foreign Service Exam, which I'll be taking for the second time on April 23 at the U.S. embassy in Conakry. I've got some good study materials this time around, and now that I know what to expect, I'm hoping I'll pass it this time—keep your fingers crossed.

As for my departure from site, it wasn't any big deal. I said my goodbyes several days in advance and was just basically hanging around for the last 2 days waiting for the PC car which was coming to get me. The saddest part was leaving my cat, Connie. It still makes me want to cry thinking that I'll never see her again. This is the reason why I didn't want a cat in the first place, but she found me—I didn't go looking for her. Brad, my replacement, will take care of her, but he's allergic so is not sure how he'll do. The house doesn't have carpet, just tiles, so it may be okay. If he can't handle it, he's going to give her to my neighbor who usually takes care of her and the house when I'm away from site.

I hear it's not too hard to bring a cat back to the U.S., but the problem is I'm not going right back to the U.S. Can you imagine me taking her traveling with me and to job interviews? At least I didn't have to drive away from Saramoussaya with her chasing after my car. She usually follows me to the road and sits there watching as I pull away in a taxi. This last time she followed me to my neighbor's house and luckily stayed there as I walked away back to my house and the waiting car.

From the 5th to the 7th I was attending a COS (close of service) conference out on one of the islands just off the coast of Conakry. It was a nice relaxing time. I did the conference with the group of PCVs who came into Guinea about a year before me. They were a great bunch of PCVs and I had a nice time getting to know them better. They will all leave Guinea in June/July.

As I'm only here in country for another 3 weeks or less, please don't send any mail to me at this point. Letters that arrive after I leave will be forwarded to me in Kirkland, but packages won't be forwarded. I'll update again once I have my travel plans set. Oh, by the way, I have amoebas again... or maybe still do since last July. We'll see what else is residing in my body when I finish up all my medical exams.

Here’s your full May 2005 travel update, formatted cleanly and consistently, with all your original text preserved and no errant spacing, HTML, or line breaks. It combines all three parts into one cohesive post:

May 20, 2005

Hi everyone. I'm currently in Geneva, Switzerland. After leaving Guinea on the 3rd I flew into Paris and took a train straight to Brussels.

Stayed in the train station a couple hours in Brussels as I was captivated by all the sights and sounds. I just wandered around the food court, drooling over all the yummy looking food. Bought some fruit in the little grocery store and some yoghurt before getting on a train to Bruges. I had made a reservation at a B&B in Bruges before leaving Guinea, which was good as there was some kind of religious festival going on and everywhere there were hordes of tourists.

My room was overlooking a pretty canal in a quiet part of the old town but a short 3-minute walk to the center square. Perfect. I had kitchen facilities in my room so saved a bit of money by not eating out. As the dollar is so weak against the Euro and just about every other currency, save the Guinean Franc :o), I found things to be wildly expensive.

I played tourist in Bruges for the most part but also worked on an online application to the Department of Commerce that took me several hours over the course of a couple days. After sending that online I felt relieved and ready for my next adventure. I stayed 4 nights in Bruges before taking a train to Spa where I would have my intensive French class.

I started right away on the lessons—4 to 6 private lessons a day. They were intense. I wanted pronunciation help and oral comprehension help, so that meant I was listening to tapes of news programs and seminars on logistics (to also get specialized vocabulary). The pronunciation workouts were just that. I was exhausted after each session and my head was spinning with all the tips and new vocabulary I was picking up.

There were 3 other students, all at fairly high levels of French like myself. We took breaks for coffee and tea and chatted in French along with the instructors. We took lunch with the instructors so they could correct any errors we were making, and breakfast and dinner was taken with the couple that ran the place. Each meal was more impressive than the last. Seriously, we're talking gourmet stuff and wonderful wine with dinner.

The course was for 5 days and I felt like it did me wonders—except for the fact that I was mentally exhausted at the end of it and could barely put a sentence together. I knew after resting up I would be thinking and speaking clearly again. Unfortunately, there was a rail strike going on in Belgium the day I was to leave to travel to Brussels. I ended up tagging along in someone else's taxi to the airport and then taking the metro into Brussels. It all took much longer than necessary, so by the time I got to my hostel I was pooped. The hostel was nice and cheap, but as you shared the room with up to 3 others, there wasn't much privacy. You also had to leave the hostel between 10 and 2 as they closed it for cleaning. All I wanted to do for a day or two was lie around on a comfy bed and watch TV.

So, the next day I booked myself into a plush hotel and did just that. I felt I needed to pamper myself a bit, and after saving so much money on the hostel the night before, it all evened out to a decent rate for the 4-star hotel. I actually moved hotels every day of the 5 days I spent in Brussels as I got online and got some great last-minute deals at top hotels. It was fun but also a bit tiring lugging my luggage from place to place. I sure got to know the town though! If anyone needs info on Brussels hotels, I'm the one to talk to.

Just before leaving Brussels to come to Geneva, I mailed off some stuff that I wanted to keep but didn't need with me for the rest of the trip. I therefore pared my luggage down to just one bag... yea.

My train from Brussels to Geneva required that I go through Paris. Fine. No problem. I had one hour to make a connection from one Paris station to another where my train to Geneva was departing from. Well, the train from Brussels took a delay en route, so I only had 30 minutes to get down to the subway, connect to another Paris station, go up to where the trains left from, and get on the correct train.

It took longer than I thought to get down to the subway part of the station, and I had to stand in line to buy a ticket. I would have just skipped buying a ticket, but you couldn't get through the gates without one. The subway took forever in coming and I sweated while watching the minutes tick by. By the time the subway train got there I saw I only had 5 minutes to get to the other station, up to the trains, and onto my specific track (which I didn't yet know). I raced through the station lugging my wheeled bag behind me and didn't even take time out on the escalators to rest—I ran up those as well. I frantically searched for the correct track for my train and luckily it wasn't far away.

I raced to the train and was about to board when I took a good look at the panel near the door. It said Dijon, not Geneva. I double-checked the track number and it was correct. As I was standing there, panting heavily, heart racing, totally perplexed, an announcement in French came on over the speakers. It was saying that the train to Geneva was departing and for everyone to get onboard. Luckily it said the track number—and luckily the track was the next one over from where I was standing. They had changed the tracks but hadn’t updated the TV screens to reflect this. I jumped onboard and the doors closed not more than 10 seconds later, and we were off.

I had to just stand there for a couple minutes to get my breath back. By the time I made my way to my car and seat, I was exhausted. The adrenaline rush was over and now I was spent. Napped off and on for the 3-hour journey. I had already booked a place in Geneva, so once at the station I grabbed a map, oriented myself, found where my hotel was, and took off on foot. Found it just fine after a 15-minute walk through town and across the river. I was staying in a hotel and residence. This meant I was actually in a studio apartment with my own kitchen. It’s fairly central and quite pleasant. Everything is expensive here too, so I’m glad I can do my own cooking.

I’m off tomorrow for Grenoble, France to visit with old friends for the weekend. I’m then going straight to London via Paris. I’ve decided to skip staying in Paris as I’m tired and just want to settle in at my friend’s place in London.

As for the job hunting, things didn’t quite go according to plan, so I changed the plan. I’m now doing job research. I wasn’t fully prepared with my resume and company research as the internet was down my last 10 days in Guinea. There was a holiday in Belgium that threw a wrench in my plans as well. Plus, I was just so tired of running around that I just felt like being a tourist. The job stuff will come in due time.

I’m doing well and enjoying myself. It’s a bit weird knowing I’m not going back to Africa after this “holiday.” The strangest cultural shock had to have been the week in Spa at the French school. The owners were very nice people but very upper class. We had fine china, real silverware, courses to our meals, etc. Very odd to be around that. I felt quite guilty actually and like I was an imposter.

Otherwise, I don’t feel like I’m doing too badly with the culture change. It is quite odd not being the only white person wherever I go. It’s nice to be able to count on public services (except for that strike in Belgium and the train delay into Paris) again. Being able to watch TV all night and get up to get a cold drink of water from the mini-fridge still makes me giggle with sheer delight.

I hope everyone is doing well. For those of you who passed along job info or contact info, thanks. I haven’t been able to get online much since leaving Guinea and couldn’t for my last week or so while in Conakry, so I’m sorry if I’ve yet to respond to you personally. I will. I’m hoping to be able to settle in a bit in London and tie up all the loose ends that are nagging at me with respect to emails.

Oh, one other thing that makes me happy to be out of Africa is the fact that I can walk all over town on a warm day and not sweat through my clothes. It was very nice yesterday in Geneva and I must have walked 8 miles, but even though I broke a light sweat while climbing a hill, I didn’t feel like I needed a cold shower and a clean change of clothes. My last weeks in Guinea were sweat-filled. Just standing outside made the sweat run down your legs, face, arms, etc. Mild weather is definitely for me!