March 30, 2009
Day One:
The craziest day of my life. Joining the Peace Corps.
Woke up at 4:30 am after a sleepless night. Got ready and gathered the remainder of my things. I know I left a lot of stuff behind…I already apologized to the Burchams for my left over mess.
We left the house at 5:30am, right on schedule. Stopped at McDonalds on the way out. I couldn’t eat but I had a Sprite, had to get some calories in my system. Way too nervous to eat.
Aaron went inside the airport with me to check my bags. We sat for a little bit just outside of the security checkpoint. I tried not to cry, failed. But at least it wasn’t as much as I thought. Is this a mistake? If I don’t like it, I can always come home early. I am a volunteer, a volunteer is not obligated.
I cleared security and headed for the gate. Grabbed a bottle of water. Went to sit down, I think the lady nearby is studying our Ukrainian language sheets.
Decided to get up and walk around for a bit; really, I was just trying to see if that lady really is studying Ukrainian…if so, she’s a fellow PCV. I walked down a few gates and looked around a shop. Stopped by the bathroom.
Went back to my gate waiting area. I guessed that I should just get used to introducing myself to random strangers. The lady is studying Ukrainian. I sat down and introduce myself after explaining that I noticed what she was studying. We talked. Talked about the language learning, our assignments (she community development and me youth development), our hopes, fears, leaving behind loved ones and friends, how this is so surreal.
The lady next to us overhears our conversation and tells us one of her friends just left for Jamaica, with the Peace Corps. She said that she had similar conversation with him before he left; was he making a mistake, if he doesn’t like it after 6 months he’ll just come home. She said that he’s been there a week and once he was able to get there, get settled, meet people, he felt much better.
My fellow PCV is also a redhead, I think that’s awesome…what are the odds. We’re even sitting next to one another on the flight, probably planned out by the SATO booking agents, but it’s a nice coincidence.


Day One…Evening.

Arriving here at staging was pretty hectic. We arrived at the airport and had to wait like 15 minutes to get my valet bags. Ellen was a sweet heart to wait for me. Then down to the baggage claim to pick up the luggage. Funny…there was a PC ad that said “Never have to start a sentence with ‘I should’ve…” hmm….good job PC marketing. Haha…I did take a pic for the begin of my photos.
Then we called the shuttle and he came…loaded up all our bags and drove to the hotel. Checked in and brought my stuff up to the room. No room mate yet so I got ready and headed down to registration. In the registration line I met some people…really helped to ease the nerves.
We had training for 4.5 hours. We went through EVERYTHING. Although when I say that it doesn’t mean that all of our questions were answered. A lot of things we have to wait until we actually reach post.
After the meetings, a bunch of us went out for din and drinks…that was way better than any ice breaker. Although I guess if it weren’t for the ice breakers we wouldn’t have known each other in the first place to even plan din.
Anyways, I got my student loan deferments sent out…hopefully that goes through. Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 am to take a bus to NYC and load the plane at JFK to leave at 3pm and fly to Frankfurt. We arrive in Frankfurt at 5:30 am and then our flight leaves for Ukraine at 10am.
Oh my! Tomorrow is going to be crazy!