Oy. Who knew that having two months at home to pack could be a bad thing? I've been going through Gambia packing lists online, which are all really long, and I found another education volunteer who'll be going at the same time I will, and we've been chatting back and forth, mostly about good durable shoes that are breathable. I have to prepare for being away two years and somehow fit it into a duffel bag and personal backpack. And looming over me is the fact that I'm going to be gone for TWO YEARS and that I'm going to be a teacher. Confession time: I may have gotten a degree in Biology, but English has always been my best subject. I've always had to work at science and upper-level math, yet somehow I find that now that I've graduated (which still hasn't quite sunk in yet), I have a degree and most of my course and lab experience has been in molecular biology, discovering genes and making mutant strains of Streptococcus pyogenes (the bacteria that causes flesh-eating disease). What happened to other important aspects of biology, like anatomy and ecology? I have some experience, but nowhere near my experience at the molecular level. And yet, anatomy and ecology are probably much more practical to teach in Gambia, where they don't have equipment like microscopes. I've talked with the chair of the biology department at Coe about getting some of the old optic microscopes (the kind that have a reflective surface to catch sunlight or roomlight and reflect it up into the microscope), though I shudder to think at the cost of that.

Anyway, that's what's going through my head right now. Back to studying for the GRE.