Love from Philly

Today is officially my first day in the Peace Corps! I got to Philadelphia yesterday afternoon after a last minute change in flight plans. The short version: bad weather led to an earlier flight and leaving Kennett at 6am. Procrastination led to an all-nighter to finish packing. But that's how I roll.

Since I got to Philly early (PC registration was at 6pm), and hadn't met anyone yet or eaten all day and didn't want to walk outside in the snow, I treated myself to a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant. I enjoyed the last alone time I likely have for a while and got some journaling done. And I wasn't quite up for being in make new friends mode yet. But food and an exicted group of 50 future PCVs got me pumped up. We just did some paperwork last night, and then I found a few new friends to go out with for a while. That got me really excited to meet all these cool new people. We're all passionate about similar things but all have different backgrounds. So I'm really excited to learn from them and work together to do good things for Zambia in sustainable ways. BUT, it's still pretty surreal that I'm finally going. Thursday morning I'll actually be in Africa.

This morning we got up early for our first round of shots. Yellow fever and H1N1. Not bad. Then a group of us went to see the Liberty Bell and get Philly cheesesteak for lunch, leaving me very satisfied with my first Philadelphia experience.

This afternoon we had our first Peace Corps meetings. Not too intense, expectations, goals and anxieties, the 10 core expectations of Peace Corps, and logistics for our travel tonight. A big group of us went out for delicious Italian food for our last meal; I chose eggplant parm. Tasty.

Now I'm about to get all my stuff organized and ready to travel. We have to be ready at 1:30am and leave on our bus at 2am, drive to JFK (which takes ~3 hours), and our flight leaves at 10:30am. So I think we should have plenty of time to get through security. I'm going to try to shower as late as possible so I can be clean as long as possible. I'm pretty tired right now, but I don't know if I'll get a nap before it's time to get ready to go. Our 15 hour flight gets into Johannesburg Thursday morning, and we're in Zambia by 12:30pm local time, 5:30am Central. Then it's the real deal.

So that's it! Last night in America and I'm pretty excited to get started on my adventure. Peace out!

pack-pack...pack, pack it up

I should definitely be packing right now. But I found an iTunes gift card I haven't spent yet. So I just have to do that before I leave, of course. I think I'm going to go with more episodes of The Office, from older seasons I haven't watched yet.

The biggest packing challege: "The combined linear dimensions (length + width + height) of your checked baggage may not exceed 107”. The larger piece of checked baggage may not exceed 62”. Your carry-on baggage may not exceed a total linear measurement of 45”."
I can handle the 80lb limit, but 107" for 2 bags is not very big. here's hoping they're not too strict on that one.

If you didn't notice, I got my Zambian address, and it's on the side bar below the PC graphic. I'll change it after training when I get my new address, probably end of April. I should be getting a cell phone when I get there, so I'll post that number, too. It's $0.11 to send a skype text to Zambia and $0.98 to send a letter. ya know, just fyi.

but this packing situation is serious, as in I haven't actually put anything in a bag yet. so off I go!

Here I go!

I'm about to jump! Well, across the Atlantic Ocean, in a plane. I'm finally making the big leap. One week from today I leave Kennett for Philadelphia, then on February 17, 2010, I finally fly to Africa. Am I scared? Nowhere near how scared I am in this photo where I'm about to jump off a bridge. THAT was scary! (but so much fun) Africa? Well, I guess I might be a little nervous about a few things, but mostly, I'm pumped.

If you know me, you've probably heard me talk about joining the Peace Corps for a long time, or even as long as you've known me. Freshman year in college, when I hadn't even picked a major yet, I used to joke, "I have do idea what the heck I'm going to do with my life, maybe I'll just join the Peace Corps!" 6 years later, here I am.

For the longest time, introducing myself involved something like, "I'm doing such-and-such, but I'm applying to the Peace Corps." Then I finally got my application essays done and submitted the thing (Jan. 20-ish, 2009). It was so nice to have the ball rolling and be able to say, "I've applied for the Peace Corps." I had thought and thought and talked and talked about it for years by the time I finally decided and got my application turned in. By this point, I was ready! So I interview, fill out more paperwork, and within 2 or 3 weeks, I was nominated! (got through the 1st stage of the application process) Sweet!
Feb. 09: Oh, wait, I'm nominated to leave a whole year from now? Well, maybe I'll get through medical clearance and placement stuff quickly, and I'll get to leave sooner. Nope. I got everything medical done by June. Then I waited and waited to find out even what country I would get to go to. All I knew was Africa.

Lesson #1 of the Peace Corps: Patience.

So in the meantime, I read a few books by returned Peace Corps volunteers (example). Watched documentaries about Africa (example 1 or 2). Followed African headlines on BBC news. I enjoyed Columbia and my friends there without a serious to do list over my head. I also got the heck out of Columbia, when I could, to visit other friends. :) While in New Zealand in November visiting Jennifer, I got an email from PC saying to call them when I got back in the States. Hooray! I was finally going to find out my country!

3 or 4 weeks later (mid-December 09) my invitation packet FINALLY arrives in the mail! AH! And it says, ZAMBIA. "Zambia," I think to myself, "Do I even know where it is? I've even been studying up on Africa and its geography, and all I know about Zambia is that I've heard of it and that it's in southern Africa, somewhere, maybe." So (roommate) Jen and I get out the map. "Oh, ok, there it is. Sure, sounds great! I have no preconceived notions of Zambia whatsoever so that'll be cool--to start from scratch. I get to learn about and go to a place that I know nothing about and would probably never go to otherwise. Let's do it!" It was seriously great to finally be able to have a country instead of a whole continent. Africa is a huge and diverse place, I hated lumping it all together.

Since then I've been slowly getting ready to leave. Quit my job at the lab at Mizzou, moved my stuff home to Kennett, celebrated Christmas, visited friends in Kansas City, Hawaii, and Columbia. And now, packing.
Right, packing...I'd better get on that.