Staging in Miami

Until today, I had never been to Florida ever in my life. And much to my suprise, I really like Miami (or at least the small portion that I saw). The traffic was a little crazy around the airport, but I think that is to be expected in any city.

Once I arrived, I took a cab to the hotel where the Peace Corps made reservations for our staging group and again was pleasantly surprised to see that they were putting us up in this really nice hotel.

It was really great to get to know all of my fellow trainees at this event. I didn't really know what to expect (about what the other volunteers were going to be like), but everyone is our group seems to have their hearts in the right place, and I am looking forward to being able to work with them. It was very welcoming to be able to meet people who all shared my same passion for service and had been going through the same things that I have been experiencing lately. As I left the airport to head to staging this morning, I realized that I had never felt so alone in my entire life, but it was a great feeling to get here and meet my new "family" that I will be spending the next 2 years of my life with.

We are leaving in the morning for our first stop in the Caribbean, St. Lucia, where we will have the begining of our training all together. After a week there, our group will seperate to our individual islands for training and begin our official 7 week training.

After going through staging today, I feel more prepared and even more excited about leaving tomorrow! Wish me luck!

The Next Chapter

This is the first and last blog entry I will be writing before I leave for the Peace Corps. I am headed to Grenada in the Eastern Caribbean and will be there until April 2011.

In the final weeks before I attend my staging event in Miami, I have been getting more and more excited/anxious about the experience I am about to embark upon. I have started having dreams about what I think things will be like. I still can't believe that I was picked to become a Peace Corps Volunteer and am very thankful for the opportunity.

I have been trying to wrap up all loose ends before I depart, but the most important has been trying spend as much time as possible with family and friends. There are some people, I sure you know who you are, that I just can't imagine what it will be like to be away from for 2 years. It will be a very challenging experience, but I hope that my relationships grow stonger because of it.

I keep counting days the days until I leave....I just can't wait!