Saturday, August 20, 2011

Brice's 2011 Parade of Homes

Not counting tents, cars, and forest service cabins, I can still easily say that I've called 5 different places "home" this last year. Let's take a look back at the various roofs over my head:

Anchorage, Alaska:
 If Adam is ever able to fix up one of his few Honda 90s to be either amphibious, or capable of flight, it would take him nearly 6,200 miles (as the motorcycle flies) to get to the start of this parade of homes: Anchorage, AK.

The place in Anchorage was a great little apartment, with awesome Chinese landlords, and CrAzy neighbors. It was a steal of a deal for two good looking, outdoors orientated, (occasionally) dog loving, school district employees, in search of something close to work, and where they could stable a 1970's red tandem bicycle. It was also the epicenter of my feverish reading of Peace Corps blogs and PC application status checking.

Cowboy  and I sharing a meal.




Missoula, MT:
A place I haven't really thought of home for almost the last decade. However, it is my home town, and the place that I'm slated to return to in August 18, 2013 (barring any meltdowns related to 2012 Mayan Calendar). Zoo-town is a nice place, with an unbelievable reputation, and they might have a football team too.

I'm looking forward to seeing Missoula again one day (but it can wait).

Mom and Dad right before my last meal in Missoula.

My home.

Look at Mt. Jumbo from my house.



Seeley Lake, MT:
My preferred home. It's home to many great outdoor adventures, and other fun activities. This place is also home to countless fond memories and great people (notable memories including: boating, fishing trips, skunks, starting my Alaska journey, family time, games, and night time bike rides).

Ever since elementary school, at the end of every summer (usually in late September) I always found myself melancholy as I reflected on the summer as things were being stored for winter. This year was no different, except for summer was only a few days long, ended in June, and stuff was just being brought out (a bummer, that was quickly plowed over by the my trip to Peru).


The cabin with stuff still put away for winter.

Last photo taken by me from the cabin.




Yanacoto, Peru:
Not my first choice to live, but also not the worst place to live. A very arid community 30 K east of Lima, Peru. While not necessarily Club Med, it definitely has what I needed: a great Peruvian Family to help me acustombarme (get adjusted to/accustom to) Peru and the Peace Corps.

The Hinajosa Family is what makes Yanacoto. They've treated me like a long-lost memeber of the family since day one. And thanks to them, the culture shock and homesickness never sets in for too long. However, in addition to the Hinajosas, Yanacoto has sports the probably the highest amount of amazingly nice and tolerant people (per capita). A few examples: Andria's family (random kid wearing a Griz sweatshirt that gets hunted down, and interrupted during family lunch by a mumbling gringo with a camera), the multiple mototaxista that wave to me every time I walk up or down the hill; heck, even the little gangsters in the community are nice.

Here is a video of the mansion I've live in the last 10 weeks:

Yanacoto Home Video

Yurocoto, Peru:
The final resting point for that dart tossed at the map on March 25th, 2010 (see application time line). It's hard to think that Yurocoto is "the place". I think back to all that daydreaming I did after I submitted my PC application (will I be on some tropical island, or in the highlands of South East Asia, or Sub Saharan Africa...), and to think that I finally know what my home for the next two years looks like, is just mind blowing for me. To think that somewhere between Africa and Asia (all were possibilities since I put "Anywhere" on the application), I landed in Yurocoto, Peru; and finally know what it looks like.

It's too early for me to really describe it, since I was only there for 4 days, but here is a video of my home.

My home in Yurocoto

AND here are some pictures from my site visit:

9th week of Training: Site Visit


There surely will be more information to come with time.