What we've been up to, and post-Peace Corps updates

It's been a busy few weeks! How have they been busy, you ask?

Travels with Liz and Dave
The same morning that we said goodbye to my brother Neal and future sister-in-law Erin in Casablanca, Justin and I rushed up to the Rabat airport to meet his sister Liz and brother-in-law Dave. They visited during a school holiday in Morocco, so we were able to take some time to travel around with them to a few places: Rabat, Meknes, Azrou, Fez, and of course Tiflet. A few photos are below, and look for future blog entries about some of our travel experiences!

Dave and Liz in our riad in Rabat.

In Rabat's Kasbah, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Justin and me in a beautiful old Koranic school in Meknes.

Liz and I try out Moroccan style scarf-wrapping in a cooperative in Fez.

Justin and me in an old Koranic school in Fez.

Dave shows off his scarf-wrapping, in Fez.

Liz and Dave, at a beautiful outlook en route to Azrou.

Justin and Liz in the Chellah in Rabat.

Springtime in Tiflet
Even though we were traveling, it was very much a working holiday! We have lots of exciting plans for the coming months, and now that we're back in Tiflet, expect more posts soon as projects come to fruition. Meanwhile, spring has (finally) arrived in Tiflet with beautiful sunny weather every day! And with that beautiful weather, I have proven myself as a gardener. Check out my handiwork:

I harvested the spinach to make a birthday pizza for Justin, at his request. But I've planted a new round and am keeping my fingers crossed that the green thumb wasn't just beginner's luck :)


Women's Leadership Workshop
One of the projects that I had been preparing for was a women's leadership conference in Rabat, that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer planned along with a Moroccan NGO called "Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc."  I brought 2 women from my site to the training, and I stayed for the weekend to help the Volunteer. Being around this group of 20 women, of all ages and backgrounds, from small and large towns across Morocco, was absolutely inspiring. Here's a photo of all of the workshop participants and the trainers:

Post-Peace Corps Plans
I haven't really written much about it on this blog, but post-Peace Corps plans have been a topic of much discussion, consideration, and anxiety for Justin and me, really since before we even came to Morocco. One of the things we knew we wanted when we left the US was change, and Morocco has given us plenty of that. As we think about returning to the US, what seemed impossibly far off when we first got here is now surreally close, and we’ve finally decided to continue that theme of change by readjusting back to life in the US while at the same time integrating into a new community, the Washington DC area. Granted, it won’t be nearly as different from New York as Morocco was, but will certainly be quite the change from our lives now! We’re confident that our skills and experiences from integrating into a new community here in Morocco will serve us well as we return and reintegrate in the US.

Now here’s where you come in, dear readers. I plan to return to the marketing/advertising world and am seeking opportunities as a Marketing or Brand Manager in the Washington DC metro area in late summer/early fall. If you are involved in the marketing/advertising scene in the DC area, know people who are, or your company is looking for a new marketing person, I would be immeasurably grateful for any and all tips, leads, referrals, or introductions! The same goes for any insights on places to live in the area. Click here to view my resume, or here for my LinkedIn profile, and read a bit more about my marketing and advertising background. And you can be sure that we’ll be experiencing as much as we can of this amazing country as our remaining time ticks by - and of course sharing it here! 

Where "Mad Men" Meets the Peace Corps

For those of you who don't know, before the Peace Corps I worked in advertising agencies in New York City. My life has gone from developing marketing strategies and producing television and radio commercials, billboards, websites, and lots more... to teaching English and aerobics, developing programs for youth, spending time with people in the community, studying a new language, learning about a new culture, teaching about America, doing activities for women in the community, and so on. 

A pretty big change as you can imagine! But one thing that I did not count on was being able to continue some marketing/advertising related work in Morocco. Recently, I was highlighted in a "Peace Corps 101" radio interview to provide marketing tips for Peace Corps Volunteers. You can check out the interview here!

On this blog I haven't talked about all of the projects that I've done in Morocco, but here are a few specific things related to marketing that I talked about in the interview. With Peace Corps Morocco's Gender and Development Committee, I helped to revamp the committee to be more relevant and helpful for Volunteers and used strategic planning models to develop a vision and mission statement. I created a website and new communication channels to make it easier for Volunteers to learn about and access resources for gender initiatives. For Peace Corps Morocco, I created a website (which is almost finished!) at the request of staff to showcase Volunteer efforts and to promote our programs to governmental and NGO partners in Morocco. And lastly, as the PR Senior Advisor for the Serving Volunteer Advisory Council, I'm currently running all PR outreach efforts for this global group dedicated to connecting Volunteers and helping provide strategic solutions to worldwide issues.

These are the big ones - and I have one more big marketing-related project in the works that you'll hear more about in the coming months. So while a lot has changed, it's been nice to continue some of the marketing-related work that I enjoyed back home!

Life is Calling*... Part Three

(continued from parts one and two - click back to read them first!) 

After the summer ended, Justin and I realized that our Peace Corps dreams would likely not come to a reality until the following summer, and as much as I wanted to stay in my volunteering bubble for a while longer, I thought it might be best to combine that with working full-time. So I started freelancing back in ad agencies to keep the paycheck coming in, and I continued my work with the Taproot Foundation as I mentioned in my last post… but alongside these, we had a lot of other incredible experiences, including:

Trips: Justin and I were fortunate to be able to take a massive amount of wonderful trips, both together and separately, over the past year. We traveled to destinations for friend’s weddings (Austin, Boston, Connecticut, Pittsburgh), visits to friends and family (Alabama, Memphis, Wilmington, Monroe, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Jersey), and some very fun travel experiences that also included friends and family (Baltimore, Santa Fe, Iceland and Scotland!). We were even fortunate enough recently to have the whole of Scotland come down to Brooklyn for my wonderful sister-in-law’s wedding (we’ll be traveling back to Scotland over the summer for more wedding shenanigans, so more on this later!).

A gorgeous wedding in Austin
with friends from Justin's law school

Running a 1/2 marathon with my bro
in Atlanta (I only joined in for 6 miles)

Visiting my sister-in-law and
now husband in Edinburgh

Snowmobiling on a glacier
in Iceland

Visiting our friend Sarah
in New Mexico

Visiting my parents in North Carolina

Looking out over the Ring of Kerry
in Ireland

Visiting my second family in Louisiana

Sandy: This is by far the highlight of my last year. Probably even my last 10 years. Justin and I decided to temporarily foster a dog, since we both wanted to have a dog together and as I was freelancing, I had far more time than ever before. So we found Sandy, a stray from the south, who had been brought to New York by a foster organization. We spent 4 months with this sweet, amazing dog who we opened up our hearts to. We fattened her up (from 52 to 68 pounds!), taught her tricks, and generally just gave her lots of love and affection. After we launched an intense marketing campaign in the spring that included YouTube videos, a Facebook page, and lots of emails, we found Sandy a wonderful new home and had to say goodbye. It broke our hearts to part with this dog who truly became a part of our family, but we know that we did a great thing for her and that she will have a wonderful life!

When we first got her (very skinny)

Justin gives Sandy a big hug

How can you not LOVE that face?

Family portrait

So there you have it. I summed up an entire year in 3 blog posts which isn’t too bad. Now we are spending our time planning for THIS SUMMER which I’m sure you will be reading more about soon:

• A trip to Vietnam, Thailand, and Scotland
• A road trip across the country to say farewell to friends and family
• A goodbye NYC tour of all of our favorite places 
• And packing up our lives for the next 2 years… OY!

* Footnote: In case you are wondering, “Life is Calling” (also in my header on top of the blog) is the current Peace Corps motto.  The whole thing reads “Life is calling… how far will you go?”

Life is Calling*... Part One

I mentioned in my last blog post that the last year has been quite a journey for me. I’m going to spend the next few blog posts talking about some of those experiences.  But first, where it all began. Starting last summer when I

QUIT MY JOB. 

My 1st billboard, in Times Square (the Nokia one).
One of the sexier parts of the job!

Yes that’s right. I said goodbye to my 15-hour work days in the flashy, sexy ad world to spend the summer volunteering, reading books about my Briggs Meyers personality, and generally exploring new paths in which I could take my career. I said goodbye to some of the very good things about the advertising industry – an amazingly creative environment, some incredibly smart and talented people, and the excitement and satisfaction of seeing my work on TV or on a huge billboard. I also said goodbye to some of the very bad parts of the industry – a 24-hour work environment, high stress and insane deadlines, and most importantly, the feeling that I was not contributing as best as I could to the world.

Quitting was very out character for me, given that I started working 3 days after college when the rest of my friends were taking the summer off to relax (those 3 days, by the way, included packing up my life and moving up the east coast from New Orleans to NYC). And I pretty much kept that pattern throughout my ad career, working long days/nights and taking very little time off.

And quitting was absolutely the hardest thing that I have done in my life – just the scariness of leaving the comfort of a job, leaving a world that although wasn’t right for me, was still very much what I was used to, and attempting to embrace the unknown of what would come. But I didn’t have the time while in my job to really figure out the path that was best for me. And since I supported Justin while he was in law school (both financially and emotionally), I decided that it was payback time!

Speaking of Justin, just a quick shout-out... I am incredibly fortunate that he was my ROCK during this time, supporting me in whatever I needed to do and nudging me when I started to falter or lose my drive.

So May 21, 2010. This is when it all started! To be continued in the next post…

*Footnote: In case you are wondering, “Life is Calling” (also in my header on top of the blog) is the current Peace Corps motto.  The whole thing reads “Life is calling… how far will you go?”

We have lift-off!

It only took me about 6 months but my blog is now up and running, with a VERY exciting announcement... Justin (my husband) and I have accepted an invitation to join the Peace Corps as Youth Development volunteers in Morocco, leaving in September 2011!! We are both so excited about this new step in our lives. 

I thought that having a blog would be a great way to keep in touch with friends and families, and also to connect with other Peace Corps new and returned volunteers. 

For those of you who don't know, I left my full-time advertising agency job in May 2010 to pursue a new path that allows me to contribute to the world in a more meaningful way. Since I've stayed a little quiet over the past year, I plan to use the next few blog posts to talk about these experiences. It has been an exhilarating, confusing, overwhelming, exciting, eye-opening year and I look forward to sharing with all of you :)