STAGING!! And oh yea I'm alive

I AM HERE AND IT FEELS SO GOOD! It is actually perfect outside a nice cool breeze at around 87 degrees with the added bonus of 100% humidity, but actually it feels pretty great. Staging was a whirlwind of amazingness and as a result I have completely lost my voice... so you know it's been a wild time and it hasn't even started yet

All 48 of us arrived at staging in DC lucky me I just had to pretty much roll out of bed and drive the 15/20 minutes up the road all the while silent screaming to try to get rid of all of my anxiety and nerves and stress -my father has this on film and he is aware if it is shown to anyone I will never come back (also in hind sight this is probably what led to me losing my voice). We got checked in I met my roommate who is awesome and a far more efficient packer than myself (she has a backpack and small bag compared to my huge ass duffel, big backpack, small backpack and guitar...) But then again she is a CEC volunteer and TE volunteers have to have both a professional and casual wardrobe anddddd I have no concept of self control when it comes to limiting what I think I'll "need". Though aside from having to drag it around everywhere I don't regret it, once I get to my site I will be grateful for the selection I'll have available.

Staging was pretty much like college orientation- a bunch of icebreakers and bonding activities and skits (Julia you would have had a ball) that were all made relevant to PC prep things. Let me just put it out there that OUR GROUP IS AMAZING! I could not be happier with the people I'll be sharing this experience with, they are all so unique and different but we all have this common bond that no one else could possibly understand. Our Staging Leader hit it on the head, we have this great connection with one another because we all just "get it" we don't question why we decided to leave everything behind and move to another country to live uncomfortably and serve a foreign community because we all made the same decision to do so. Aside from that everyone is just so friendly and really wants to get to know each other, I did luck out because I had met one of the girls in my group while we were both living in Mendoza Argentina and we just happened to get the same placement so we were pretty much attached at the hip for all of staging. Also our group is all pretty much 22-27 year olds I was expecting a lot more retirees but there is actually only one in our group and she is absolutely precious, we also have one married couple and they're awesome as well. All in all I have lucked out in every regard.

I had volunteered to be a group leader which basically just meant I made sure everyone in my group paid their tips to the hotel staff and made sure we were all accounted for but it still felt fun nonetheless. Once we finished staging we had our group leader meeting and then since everyone else had already left to get their free money from the ATM we went out to Thai Tanic for dinner then ChurchKey for drinks....since we had to leave the hotel at around 3:30 am most of us didn't see the point in sleeping though in hind sight I wish I had gotten more than the meager two and a half hours since I'm kinda struggling right now.

Today was just a mess of traveling and flights and being sad that my voice was gone and being amazed that this is actually real life and not just a dream. We got to the site that will be our homes for the next couple days before moving to our host families and it is pretty swanky. It used to be an old military compound but now it just got turned into a bunch of bungalows with a training facility and awesome running paths.

OH and we saw a sloth!! A group of about 15 of us stood around like a bunch of crazy gringos just staring at this tree watching as the sloth moved about a mm per hour. At one point it actually grabbed a branch and shook a bunch of leaves on us and that made standing there like fools a completely redeeming experience.

Just walking around is absolutely stunning the mountains surround us on all sides and the nature is beautiful and just can't believe I am going to be spending the next couple years of my life here.

Alright I know I just kind of brain dumped on you but I am going to go to bed now at the alarming time of 8 pm... I know it's wild.

Oh p.s. our training is going to be "dry" so that means no alcohol or we get sent home, I am actually pretty okay with this so don't worry mom I will be "making good choices"

Hasta pronto lokos