Things are wrapping up, and not a moment too soon. We finished our small business presentatinos yesterday, and tomorrow we have our groupement presentations, and then we are basically done, except for the language test on Monday.

I’ve been thinking a little the past few days about what I want to do when my two years here is up. There are a couple of people here who are interested in hiking the Appalachain Trail, which I think might be pretty cool, and since I will be done in February but (if I go to law school) starting anything till August or so, it fits perfectly in that time.

But I’ve also been thinking about extending my service for 6 months to continue working here until school would start. Ou bien, if I don’t go to law school right away there are a few other options, like working for USAID or the state department. I think under President Obama I could (maybe) feel like I was doing some good work. Lately I’ve also been wondering about the possibility of going to France for a while, either for six months before I go to law school, or for a longer period if there is something like a UN job there. There are various confluences going on here. Cornell and Columbia law schools both have a tiny and hence tres selective program where you take two years of courses in the U.S. and then go to France and spend two years there studying law. When you are done you are eligible to practice law in both countries. But it would be necessary for me to learn to at least comprehend vrai French, which sounds somewhat different than the French of West Africa. Here its almost like they took French and spanishified it. They roll their r’s like in Spanish. So anyway, six months in France would help a lot with my understanding and speaking of vrai French. And I haven’t really looked into it, but if there are some interesting opportunities in France, perhaps I could stay longer and work there for a little while.

Yet all of this is being thought of within the context of feeling a little like I need to settle down a little, find a place to live to establish roots and live for the foreseeable future. I can’t tell yet whether this is something I feel like I’m supposed to do, or something I want to do. I haven’t really felt settled in a spot, and I think I would like that feeling of knowing I was in a place to stay.

Thirty-one, which I will be when I finish with the Peace Corps, isn’t young, but it isn’t really old either, and so I feel like I have a lot of flexibility in what I want to do. Its just a matter of sorting out the conflicting desires to live in different places and experience different cultures and do really interesting things, like living in France, whether for six months or longer, or whether I want to go to law school and settle down in a city, like Seattle or Boston, and establish some roots. I’ve really been missing living close to my friends, and there are also some pretty cool things about staying in a spot for a while, like buying a house and developing serious expertise in a field, and maybe even, gasp, starting a family.

Anyway, not to get ahead of myself too badly here, at some point after I’ve settled in a bit I need to take advantage of the internet in bigger cities to do some research on the various options. How do I go about getting a visa to live in France for six months or longer? How do I find a job there? That sort of planning is fun.

Of course, I also have to consider that if I don’t go to law school directly my LSAT scores will expire and I’ll have to take it again. And if my English continues to deteriorate as quickly as it is, that won’t be a good proposition. Its amazing how much learning French and French sentence structures and vocabulary has screwed with my ability to say things intelligently in English.

Also, you only need one song in Guinea, and that is Akon’s Don’t Matter. They listen to it 24-7.