And so it begins

So I made it to Philadelphia in one piece - uneventful flight but a very eventful day. Leah dropped me off at the airport and I made it through security without any trouble although I kept my goggles (my HUGE sunglasses) on until I boarded the plane - I slept the entire way to Phily got my bags and jumped in a cab to the hotel. I made it here in no time at all and found a few other volunteers waiting. We collected almost the entire group before registration which was great fun to meet and talk about our funny experiences and adventures with the Peace Corps thus far. Staging was interesting - a lot of information and common sense stuff all rolled into an afternoon. at one point the staging director said to us if this is not something we think we can do we can still back out - I have to say I thought about it for a second "should I want to back out" and the answer is NO I am so ready for this! three of us went out to an ok dinner and then crashed.

we've made it through half of staging today and we found out this morning one girl decided to go home last night - to get this far and turn around we all were a little shocked, to say the least.

Love to everyone and if I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to anyone I'm sorry but I am not really good at the whole goodbye thing!

xoxo

and the countdown begins...

So I officially leave in 13 days...

I first have three days in Philadelphia for staging then on the 30th I fly to Johannesburg (which will be may 31st) spend the night there then fly up to Lilongwe the following morning (June 1st).

my address for the first 2 months of training is

Allie Hoagland, PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 208
Lilongwe, Malawi
Southern Africa

any letters I receive I will respond to (just include your address so I know where to send it to)

please bear with me I am new to this whole blogging thing...