Staging, Day 1

Here I am in Philadelphia completely exhausted after 6 hours of intense mingling, information overload and no food. Let me back to to give you a better sense of today's events.

At 6 am I waike up in Boston nervous that I've forgotten to pack things, I get up start getting ready to leave, change my mind and go back to bed.

At 8 am I realize that I need to go to the post office and mail my cellphone to my brother or else he will not be able to take over my plan that doesn't run out until October.

I get back from the post office at 9:15am and with only an hour until my plane is scheduled to leave for Philadelphia, Ryan and I hurry down the stairs and hop in a cab. No real breakfast.

We get to he airport and I run in to check my two suitcases. They are both overweight (big surprise, this is me after all). I had anticipated this and had brought a bigger duffelbag to use as my carry-on. I give Ryan a big good-bye kiss - I won't see him until Christmas after all - and snap my suitcases wide open. Sure enough, the airline representative lets me slide by with 2 pounds over the limit on either suitcase and I am ready to board the plane.

Except first I have to go through security and it is taking FOREVER. With 10 minutes until departure, I run to the gate only to realize that the flight will be 20 minutes delayed so I take a deep breath and free my arm from the duffelbag which had pretty much cut off the bloodflow.

Arriving in Philadelphia I go from exiting the plane to baggage claim to the shuttle bus, arriving at the hotel just in time for registration. My lunch consisted of Peanut m&m's.

After turning in four forms, I start chatting with the people at my table, all whom seem very nice and from 3-7 we sit through several talks on safety, aspirations and anxieties, nuts and bolts intertwined with various icebreakers. It was all very interesting and quite useful. The things that I took away from that session are:
1. I am definitely allowed to keep a cat during my service!
2. I will almost definitely have access to cellphone coverage
3. Pre-Service Training (PST) is only 9 weeks which means I will be sworn in as a full volunteer on September 12 as compared to October 10. Yay for coming home a month earlier in September 2010.
4. They will be giving us ALL our shots on Wednesday morning, right before heading to the airport for our big journey. Luckily my sleeping pills also have a pain-killer component because that's going to HURT.

Finally, at 7:30 I join up with three girls for dinner and practically swallow a stuffed portobello mushhroom in a nice japanese restaurant. The gils were supernice and I was glad not to have joined the much larger group that set out for Philly Cheesesteaks.

Now I'm in bed in Holida Inn. I still have a handout to read for tomorrow and I started reading Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass on the plane. They certainly keep us busy though so Pullman might have to wait until the Africa plane on Wednesday.

Hopefully I can write tomorrow again. Please post a comment with any questions or just to say hi. I miss you all already but am excited to finally be on my way to the adventure of a lifetime.