posted by Ashalah on Life

4 comments

I realized after watching a bunch of vlogs and seeing my own in comparison, that I didn’t really talk about my brother. About who he is. Yes, he’s insanely tall. Yes, he’s a nomad. Yes, I’m extremely jealous of his lifestyle. That’s not all he is though so I thought I’d tell you a few stories about him here on this ol’ blog.

He’s the complete opposite of me, a reason why we’re not terribly close. It’s not like we have a bad relationship but it’s hard when you have a very introverted, serious person like my brother and then me, who’s much more outgoing and bubbly. My mom can’t even wrap her head around the fact that she gave birth to two totally different personalities, a fact she often ponders over out loud. My brother and I like many of the same things though: nature, travel, animals, and being environmentally friendly.

He went to school for Environmental Science and works in conservation with the Peace Corps in Fiji. He applied for the PC about a year before he got accepted; originally he was supposed to go to Armenia and I bought him a Lonely Planet guide for him for christmas. He was really excited to go, he’s the type of person who wants to see war-torn countries and doesn’t want to see the tourist traps. He spent 2 months in Turkey and Georgia right after Georgia had the war.  (I think it was only a few weeks after. I’m amazed my mother lived through this adventure considering she was convinced I was going to get raped and killed in GERMANY.)

A few days before he was due to find out where he was being stationed (he had been told Armenia from the get-go. He’s got a rare blood disorder that has him immune to Malaria. Not such a bad thing but the PC requires you take the malaria tablets and THAT could kill him. Being that he was immune, it was really hard to place him.), he got a call asking how he felt about a change in location and how well could he swim? We all started guessing which island he could end up on in the pacific. Turns out it was Fiji.

He lives on a small island in the most beautiful part of the country off the west coast of the main island. The island has 66 people on it and he’s the only PCV stationed there. It suits him, some people would want to have other people around them. He does not. He was actually hoping and praying he did not get put in the main city that a lot of the PCVs were going to be stationed at in Fiji.

He may be introverted but he has the best luck and always manages to befriend the most interesting people. He hitchhikes a lot and he has several interesting stories from his time spent thumbing it across various European countries, as well as here in the US. One such story was from the time he was in Ireland and was trying to make it to this one city to catch a ferry to England the next day. This little old lady picked him up and they started talking; turned out she was German and my brother speaks German fluently (he did live there for a year and minored in German!). When she discovered this she was so happy that she brought him home to her family, made him an enormous meal and insisted he stay the night. The next morning she drove him to his ferry.

This has happened SO many times. He was taken back to this wealthy Turkish man’s home and they got drunk off of homemade vodka; he wound up in Moab, Utah camping with a Swedish couple and getting drunk off Polygamy Porter; he somehow wound up driving a woman all the way from Wyoming to Seattle in her car after she had passed him three times in two different states.

For someone as tall as he is, he certainly has luck hitchhiking. Especially with little old ladies. I only did it with him once, in Italy and it was an interesting experience, to say the least!

He also has the best judge of character of anyone I know. If he doesn’t like someone, it’s for a very good reason. He will talk to anyone though and while he prefers being alone in the middle of nowhere, if we happen to be sharing a train cabin with a racist Czech man (which yes, we did find ourselves in that position) he has no problem having a heated debate with him where I feel like we might die. He’s extremely opinionated and stubborn (a trait we both share–we’re Italian, Irish and German. Three of the most stubborn, alcoholic nationalities out there!) and it can drive me crazy.

Traveling with him is good in small doses. I can handle ten days. After that? It’s downhill. We were together for three weeks at the beginning of my trip. First ten days were fine. By the time we reached Hamburg we were ready to murder each other. It started around the time when we went to Schwerrin and he lost me because he was walking so far ahead of me (something that comes with having really long legs) and I just stopped and waited for him to realize that I was no longer behind him. It then escalated to a full on screaming match while waiting for a ferry to Denmark. In a way, it was good that we were so fed up with each other because by the time it came down to us departing on our seperate trips, I didn’t have time to worry about traveling alone. I was so ready to go solo that I relished my freedom when he stepped on his train to the west coast.  And then I freaked out.

For the most part though, we get along. We can take walks through the woods and not say anything to each other and be perfectly fine with that. He came to visit me shortly before he took off for Fiji and we had a few very nice days of hiking, exploring and going to baseball games, much like we used to do when we were younger.

I’m not really sure how I’m going to live with him for about a month when I go to Fiji. I probably will not be with him the entire time but for the majority of my month spent there, I will probably be with him. We may kill each other. Or we may be fine. Who knows.

He may have stole all my height, as well as my ability to learn languages (he knows three other than English–four now that he’s in Fiji) and the ability to retain useless knowledge (he knows every state and world capital, as well as every car brand by sight) but he’s my little brother and I can’t hold that against him too much. If you didn’t see my video from yesterday, watch it here!

Tags: Ma Familia