First Night in Philadelphia

Yesterday evening I landed in Philadelphia with two other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) who flew from Seattle. Unfortunately none of us sat together so we couldn't get to know each other. I tried to sleep for most of the flight. It didn't work. When we landed we met up at baggage claim. One of the PVC's aunt picked us up and took us to the hotel, which saved us a hefty cab fare.

The front desk at the hotel told me that my roommate had already checked in, which was the case for the others, so we went up to find them. Once we gathered all of the other west coast PVCs (the only ones who had to arrive a day early) we walked over to TGIFridays to grab some dinner.

(This is feeling very 3rd-grade-play-by-play-essay to me... Let me know if there's anything you want to hear that I'm not getting to. I'm new at this..)

It was a huge relief to meet some people who are going through the same thing I am. Up until this point, the whole preparation process has been somewhat isolating and my mental strategy has been to prepare for a new solo operation. I must have forgotten that I will be going over with 40 some odd other people who are in the same boat.

Everyone seems very nice and with the roommate introduction it reminds me a lot of freshman year in college. All of us are eager to make friends so that we can go through this together. The difference is the upcoming challenge. Everyone here is the "type of person" who would up and leave for 2 years to go to a new and unknown country that speaks an unknown language to teach 60-100 kids (none of us are Ed. Majors). And somehow, it feels like we all have a bit in common. Go figure.

Registration starts in 20 minutes so I guess I should get out of bed.. Today we get talked at for a few hours and then I can only assume that we will all celebrate our last night in the USA and the beginning of a new adventure. "Tomorrow" at 2 AM we get on a bus to JFK to fly to Tanzania via South Africa.

Until next time!