Staging info

Today I recieved my staging material. I can't believe how close I'm getting to the departure date. So here are the details. I'm taking a plane to Philly bright and early December 1st I'm gonna be arriving at 9am. I'm pretty nervous. I'm really going to be exercising my passport. hehe.

I also recieved my international itererary as well. It's gonna be three long flights after pre-service orientation. We are going from JFK to Brussels. Brussels to Dakar. Dakar to Guinea. Its gonna take a day but we are going to get to Guinea one way or another.

I'm very psyched about pre-service training and meeting everyone. It's going to be a jam-packed three days in Philly. We have training scheduled all day for two days. And then the day we leave we have our shots and then off we go on the third. It's been comforting talking with a handful of people on facebook. When I made my flight arrangements today the guy said our group have 37 people. WOW! I hadn't expectd so many people. Hopefully we'll be pretty close while in country. Like maybe a half an hour bike ride.

I'm still trying to figure out an appropriate gift for my host family. I want to get something American and something that is also very personal to me. I was thinking about getting a Christmas tree. But I dunno, maybe some alcohol like wine or something or a game. LOL. I'll think of something.

Thinking of packing makes my head hurt. I know I NEED to start soon but I've been keeping busy with work and spending as much time with friends as possible. I have so many "potential" packing lists and guidelines and such, I just have to actually get down to it and figure out what I'm really gonna need for two years. Good thing it's a warm climate, I don't have to worry about packing heavy sweaters and/or jeans.

I'm very excited for Guinea and can not wait. I can not imagine how I'm going to feel once we arrive in Guinea. It' s hard to imagine anything right now. I'm just very nervous with anticipation and can't believe it's less than a month away. I got three more weeks!