Chapter 3: Sold My Condo

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Two weeks.

That's all it took from the time I placed my condo on the market, to signing the contract of sale. As I signed the contract, the reality of I was doing hit me for the first time. Up until this point, joining the Peace Corps had been something that was going to happen in the future. I knew it would happen, but it almost seemed surreal. Now it has become real.

The comfortable life he have been living for the past few years was doing its best impression of George Bush's approval rating, by slowly crumbling away. I suddenly came face to face with the fact that I was an addict. Not to drugs, or alcohol, but to most addicting thing of all. The "routine". This addiction affects 90% of Americans, and is one of the leading causes of the terminal desease "Acute Boring-us Life-itus" or ABL.

The symptoms of ABL are very hard to detect, and it's onset can take many years. Some of the symptoms include:

• Going to the same bars/clubs every week.
• Going to the same party's every year.
• Developing and aversion to trying anything different.
• Not learning anything new.
• Not meeting any new people.
• Being able to recite T.V. Commercials from memory... even the boring ones.
• Trying to convince others that you don't have ABL.

What's even scarier is that the carriers of this disease can even convince themselves (with the aid of alcohol), that they are actually cured.

I realized to my dismay, that I was already showing many of the symptoms of ABL. Most apperant of these symptoms was his ability to recite a dozen different "Real Men of Genius" Bud Light ads from memory.

I was hoping I had caught the disease in time, and that the Peace Corps would be just what the doctor ordered.

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Chapter 2: K?

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For the past few weeks I have been trying to figure out what the "K" in his nomination code could stand for. After watching an especially stimulating episode of Law and Order, I thought to myself "if Lenny is able to solve a murder, and collect enough evidence to convict the criminal in an hour (with commercial brakes) I should be able to figure this mystery out."

So, by following the examples set by such great detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Matlock, and Chief Clancy Wiggum I set about sorting through all the facts...

1) By going to the peacecorps.gov, I found out there are four countries the PC goes to that start with K.

• Kenya
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Kazakhstan
• Kiribati

2) By comparing the work areas listed on peacecorps.gov I discovered Kiribati does not have a Business Advising work area... so much for spending the next 2 years on a tropical island. :(

3) After comparing the timeframe for departure (July-September), with my work area on the yahoo newsgroups Unofficial Program list, I was left with the following possibilities.

• Kenya - September - Business/IT Advising
• Krygyz Republic - July - Small Business Advising
• Kazakhstan - October - Business Advising

So in conclusion to my research... I still have no idea when and where I will be spend the next two years.

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