Kristi

About a month and some odd weeks ago my friend Kristi, from the States, arrived in Hanoi. She had just finished her CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course in Saigon and she was up in Hanoi checking out the place to see if this is where she'd like to settle and teach English.

Since then she has luckily decided to make Hanoi her home and she now lives just a few blocks down from me!

I met Kristi in October of 2001 when we both found ourselves in Sacramento, California on the same team in AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. At first, I didn't really like Kristi because I didn't get her sarcasm. I thought that she was always trying to offend me in some backhanded way, even though she really wasn't. According to her, I actually flipped out at her over a shovel while we were cleaning up at a barn on some farm. I don't really remember that, but I'm sure it happened. However, after we were placed together in the same cabin at Kahili Mountain Park on the island of Kauai we started to hit it off quite well.

We were in Kauai for 5 weeks volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Our next project was for 3 months working at an elementary school in Sacramento tutoring kids and setting up an after school program. After that we volunteered at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon for 6 weeks doing garden maintenance and teaching environmental education to school groups. Our final project was in Salt Lake City, Utah at Camp Kostopolous - a camp for children and adults with various developmental disabilities. We worked as camp counselors doing all sorts of activities with the campers like horseback rides, swimming, camping, a ropes course and the campers would perform little shows for one another Thursday nights for our "Thursday night skits".

We graduated from AmeriCorps in August of 2002 and I will always consider that time I spent in the Corps to be the best year of my life. What was so special for me wasn't just the community service projects we did, or the travelling we had the opportunity to do, but the people I met along the way. Kristi was one of those people. I know that no matter how long or how far we're apart we will always come together like no time has passed. I said the same about my friend Youa, who I also became good friends with that year.

Since we graduated Kristi expanded her horizons a bit more in the Peace Corps on the island of Kiribati (pronounced: kiribas) in the South Pacific. Even though she was away for quite some time we remained in contact. When she came back to the States in October of 2004 we made plans to see one another that Thanksgiving. She gave me some great tips on my trip to India that I was to go on that December. In the Summer of 2007 we came together yet again in upstate New York to attend Megan and Nathan's wedding - two other team mates of ours. Then the last time I saw her in the States was last Fall when I drove up to Vermont, where she was living at the time, to hang out for a weekend.

When I found out that I got the job at Language Link this past January, I called Kristi because I knew that she would really appreciate the fact that I was moving abroad. When I told her that I was moving to Vietnam she said, "Me too!!!!!" Neither of us could believe it. Anyway, 11 months later and we're together again doing extraordinary things.