Monday, June 6, 2011

Staging and Getting Over There!

I guess this is really kind of where my story begins (at least the exciting part). Yesterday (Sunday) me and my parents drove up to Philadelphia. It was a rough day, to say the least, with a few tearful goodbyes.

Today, Monday, was a day of training known as staging. It was the beginning of preparations for what is to come in Moldova. It included a few get to know you games, overview of Peace Corps goals, Mission, and Core Expectations. By the end, myself and the other 54 volunteers were all beaming. All the nerves and sadness leading up to today has mostly evaporated. I am with a great group of volunteers and can not wait to spend a lot more time with them. After training we went to dinner together and got official Philly Cheesesteaks… it was yummy but I have to give my dad props- his are better J

The most exciting part was at the end, we were given the names of our training cities. I will be in Budesti with 6 other volunteers. We will stay here for training until August 17th which is when we will be officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. Whoo hoo!! Until then, Ill have A LOT of language training and technical training so I can be a somewhat effective health teacher.

The nitty gritty details: Tomorrow morning all of us leave from the hotel to take a bus up to JFK airport. Our flight leaves at 5:45pm and 8 hours later we will be landing in Munich, Germany. We have an hour long layover there and then a 2 hour flight into Chisinau (the capital of Moldova). We’ll be landing in Moldova around noon Moldova time (aka 5am Maryland time- ouch!). We have a few hours of intro stuff and then at 5pm I will be off to meet my host family.

On a side note- I managed to pack within the limits (maybe overweight but whos counting) and I dont think I forgot anything!

Fun fact- or not so fun fact- there are mannny wild dogs and they recommend we carry stones in our pockets to throw at them when they chase us!

Well, I don’t have too many more exciting things to say. Im sure the next few weeks are going to be crazy! Ill be in touch again soon!

1 comment:

  1. good thing you are already skilled at un-PETA like activites, the stone-throwing shouldn't be too much further of a leap ;) Love you so much, enjoy exploring Moldova :)

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