Jason Pearce

I completed my move to Raleigh Saturday evening. My parents and I spent most of the day Sunday unloading the UHaul and trying to find places to store my stuff. I could have sworn that I sold or gave away much of my stuff before leaving Indianapolis, but it sure didn’t seem that way as we carried box after box up to the loft in my old room.

Much of this week will be spent unpacking and sorting, only to pack some of it up again for Friday’s trip to LA and Hawaii, and the following move to Guyana.

I suppose I’ll be living out of boxes for the rest of the month. On that thought, I might be living out “a box” when I arrive to Guyana; so I guess I should get used to it.

While I may have joined the “Peace Corps,” I am the “Pearce Corps.”

I can’t tell you how many times that I have mistakenly typed Pearce Corps instead of Peace Corps. But when Aileen O’Leary, a “lost” Elon friend, typed it into Google’s search engine by mistake, she found my site to be the number one result. How funny is that?

Curious, I wanted to see how “Pearce Corps” placed for other search engines. Here’s what I found:

First Place:
AOL, dmoz, Google, Lycos, MSN, overture, Yahoo.

Second Place:
LookSmart

Kind of fun, huh? Since “Pearce Corps” seems to be so popular online, perhaps I’ll start using it offline.

Today I sold my car. While it’s great to have one less thing to worry about before moving, it feels as if some of my freedom has been taken away.

Do you know how you feel when you leave the house without your keys? Well it’s much worse when you realize that the reason you aren’t carrying any keys is because you no longer own a car.

I suppose the good news is that I won’t have to feel that way because without a car, I won’t be able to leave the house. I suppose it’s a chicken vs. egg scenario.

The irony of this all is that I made a special trip today to get an International Driver’s License. Perhaps I’m just being hopeful. Or perhaps I’m in denial. Regardless, I’m now car-less.

In one month, I will begin my Peace Corps adventure. I will arrive in Miami, Florida, on June 3 for a Peace Corps staging event and swearing in. By June 5, I will be in Guyana. How can one month seem so close and yet, so far away?

Much will happen between now and then. In one week, I’ll be making my trip back to Raleigh. Many of my belongings will have been sold or given away to friends or folks on ebay. By May 17, I’ll in be Los Angels attending my brother’s graduation from Chapman University. From LA, our family heads to Hawaii for two weeks. A few days after returning from Hawaii, I’ll be off to Miami.

I spent much of today reviewing a Welcome Packet that I received from the Peace Corps just a few days earlier. It is quite lengthy and contains a lot of information about what I should expect in the next two years. Because of its extensiveness, I have posted it online for me and others to reference (removed June 1).

Tomorrow is also a big day for my USAV volleyball team plans on winning the Michigan/Indiana Regionals B-level Tournament. We have trained long and hard for tomorrow, so please wish us luck.

I’ll really miss my team and perhaps volleyball altogether. I’ve been told that cricket and soccer are the most popular sports in Guyana. Perhaps they’ll be open to learning something new. Have a nice weekend.