Thank God I'm here for two years!

After throwing large piles of crap in 4 bags weighing a little over 80 pounds, I slept for about an hour Sunday night and then began the trip to Costa Rica.  My parents dropped me off at the airport at 5 am on Monday morning and I slept for a good portion of the car ride.  I awoke at the airport seriously disoriented and it wasn't until my dad was hugging me goodbye that I realized this was GOODBYE, for two years goodbye.  So after an hour or so of sleep, I went through security fighting back tears and losing the battle.  I flew to Chicago and upon landing we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes... yay.... By the time we got off the plane I was 15 minutes past my boarding time only to realize that I was on the other side of the airport from my gate, so with my bags flying behind me, I ran to my gate thinking I was barely going to make my flight.  No worries, when I got there we didn't even have a plane.  Unfortunately there was no food around me, a real bummer considering I hadn't eaten breakfast, oh well, I could eat in DC right?  Wrong.  I landed in DC at 12:30, the time I was supposed to be registering as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT).  By the time I got my bags and a taxi and arrived at the hotel it was 1:15... No lunch, no breakfast... but I had a tootsie roll and some water, so that was very positive.  We began staging which was really just sevenish hours of reviewing expectations for Peace Corps.  It was nice to see that everyone in my training class had basically the same worries and hopes for service.  But by seven PM I was ready for some dinner!  On the advice of a DC resident we walked 13 or so blocks (in the rain) to get some Chinese food and the restaurant was closed... We settled for an Asian fusion restaurant that was pretty expensive, but heck, Peace Corps gave us tons of Money for dinner and we were out to spend it.  Unfortunately my order consisted of 5 scallops which I gobbled up in 10 seconds flat, then I waited around till almost 9 until everyone else finished.  I went to sleep around 11 and slept fitfully knowing that in only 2 hours it would be time to wake up again!  27 volunteers and all their luggage checked out of the hotel at 2 am and boarded a bus to National airport.

Let me just say that sleep deprivation does some very strange things to a person.  All of Monday I alternated between a giddy silliness and being an over-emotional wreck.  The check in process at National was the strangest airport experience of my life.  27 adults in professional dress with hundreds of pounds of luggage having slept little to none the previous night...need I say more?  I had my first real meal in a couple days after getting through security and my mood instantly improved.

I don't normally sleep on planes but as soon as I sat down I passed out.  I woke up 40 minutes later, but those 40 minutes were key in getting through the rest of the day.    We arrived in Miami and I think everyone realized that this was our last hour in the US for the next 27 months.  Everyone was calling home and saying goodbyes and things got fairly intense there for a while.  Upon arrival in Costa Rica everyone was in good spirits, and then we remembered about customs...  My customs officer thought he was pretty funny telling me I couldn't come in the country and I would have to go back home.  He said it in Spanish so I am sure that this would have been a very funny private joke had I not realized what he was saying.  Unfortunately, I did understand but could not think of the words to explain myself.  When I started to cry he obviously felt bad and told me please not to cry and let me through.

The Peace Corps staff picked us up at the airport and we got on yet another bus to travel to Escuela Juan XXIII a retreat center north east of San Jose.  Upon arrival we immediately headed to a classroom to get oriented with the PC Costa Rica staff.  By 7 pm when we were released everyone was pretty much exhausted and went straight to sleep.

After 8 hours of sleep and a hot shower, I was ready to greet the day with a positive attitude and I actually had an amazing day.  We had our language placement interview today and though I was really nervous about it, I did better than I expected.  But my grammar was atrocious and there were so many words I couldn't remember. Quite allright, at least I could understand and sort of carry on a conversation.  We also got medical kits today which was really exciting!  I love getting medications, something about knowing that I can take care of my health just makes me feel good.  Today we also separated into groups and learned more about our specific assignments.  Apparently the Rural Community Development project is in transition so the goals of the program are changing.  We are now focusing on community organizing, and environmental education.  Definitely my favorite part of the day was our diversity exercise.  Everyone in our program was instructed to prepare a 7 minute presentation to help explain ourselves to the rest of the group.  Everyone got really into these presentations and it was fun to learn so much about our fellow volunteers.

All in all I am getting really excited to meet my host family and move to my training site!  I can hardly wait to get started.