Miami Staging

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for your warm goodbye notes and phone calls. It makes me feel really loved.

So I got into Miami last night after a long smooth flight. I got to watch Slumdog millionaire on the plane and was excited about that. No luggage was lost but it was probably quite entertaining watching me drag four bags around (internal frame backpack, large duffel, small backpack, and tiny guitar case gig bag). I jumped on the hotel shuttle and a girl got on right after me that had the Peace Corp look about her and her luggage so I took a minute but finally asked her - Peace Corps Dom Rep and she said yeah and that she had seen me in the Airport in LAX and had wondered the same thing haha. Her name is Woodley, she is 29 and also in Environmental Development - and was really quite extroverted and friendly.

We had lunch today where I met many new volunteers - most are around 22-24. It was really exciting to see everyone and it makes you feel better to think you aren't going into this completely alone. The staging orientation lasted a few hours and then everyone went to Dinner - we each got an ATM with 120 dollars (and the machine broke on me! The hotel still gave me my money though so I was fine) and that will cover the next few days worth of costs.

I am horribly excited at the moment. I need to stop making comparisons to Costa Rica but it is hard to do so since the Staging event also had 35 people around my age all of whom seem very friendly and interesting.

That's all for now. Hope all is well! It might be a while until my next post but feel free to email me and send me letters. (stermondt@gmail.com)

Take Care - Abrazos fuertes,
Sarah Termondt