Endings

It's hard to believe, but today was the last day of the first semester. School isn't quite over – I've got piles of papers still to grade, and the rest of this week we have semester exams, and then getting through the paperwork that results from those may well take me into the new year. Still, the atmosphere in school today reminded me of my own last days of school, before the summer breaks – the students were in a good mood, classes were relatively disorganized, and nobody – teachers and students alike – seemed inclined to do any real work. (Of course, come to think of it, that's pretty much school every day here . . . so maybe my impression of the eager anticipation of break was all in my head).

It's crazy how quickly things are changing. That is one difference between Peace Corps Response and “regular” Peace Corps, I guess – the pace of everything is hugely accelerated. In Kenya, we had new volunteers come into country twice a year; here, they arrive every two months or so. The next batch is coming in January, and we're supposed to be getting two more here at my site, with one possibly teaching at my school. Then of course since all volunteers' terms of service are so much shorter – six to ten months being the case here – there's just a much more rapid turnover rate in general.

In any case, I feel like I finally got settled into a little bit of a routine, and now things are up and changing all over again. School is over and I'll have to find something else to entertain myself for the next few weeks. My roommate is going home to the US. I'm going back to the US for interviews for most of January (side note: Yes! Interviews, plural! I was offered another interview that I was actually able to schedule, so hooray!), and by the time I come back, a new semester will be underway, and there will be new volunteers in town. In February and April, the other volunteers currently in town will be going home, and then of course only a few months after that, I'll be on my way back to PA myself. And after that, who knows?

If you can't tell, I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic right now.

Sometimes, I think there's something wrong with me, that several incompatible personality traits were all thrown together into one person. I love doing new things and going new places and meeting new people, but I absolutely hate to see the experiences end or the people go. Even though it's true that everywhere I go, I meet new people who are equally as awesome (in totally different ways) as the people I left behind, it still really makes me sad to come up to an ending.

Or maybe there's nothing wrong with me at all and that is a completely normal and universal human emotion. Either way, that's what's going on right now.