From an Invitee to a Trainee

Hello all! I am exhausted (already!) but I am now no longer a Peace Corps Invitee but am now a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). I'm in San Francisco, just writing this entry before going to bed. It has been a very long day. I got to bed last night at 2 AM because I was packing and repacking, trying to make everything fit. I did not get everything to fit and left a trail of clothes and shoes and various other sundries at Nathan and Marilyn's. Sorry Nathan and Marilyn! I tell you, the best laid plans. Then I got a call from United at 3 AM, saying my 6:00 AM flight was cancelled and they put me on the 6:00 PM flight, arriving in San Fran at midnight. In a fog, I figured out that if I was on that flight I was going to miss staging. So I called the travel agency's emergency number (by this time at 3:10 AM) and they got me on a 6:25 AM flight on Delta that got me to San Fran before noon. As I was waiting for the travel agent to get authorization to change my flight, I thought this is probably the perfect introduction to life in the Peace Corps--requiring great patience. So I got back in bed at about 3:30 and got back up at 4:15 AM. So, I didn't get too much sleep last night. But I got here successfully. As I was lugging all my bags through the San Fran airport, I was wishing I had spent a little more time thinking about the baggage and how it was all going to fit together rather than what was going to go in it (especially since I had to leave a lot behind) so I could carry it. I ended up purchasing a backpack in the airport and transferred a bunch of stuff to it, which is now my "personal item." I've already met a bunch of friendly, cool people. We learned a lot about the PC's core expectations and talked about our own expectations among other things. We did skits and drew on big paper. It's a little like camp. It was fun. I met another woman who is a lawyer. She left a firm in Atlanta, but she has only been out of law school for 2 years. I thought I was going to be the only lawyer in the bunch. (She's a Gator! She went to Florida for law school, but I will try to overlook that indiscretion.) There are 76 volunteers going to Mongolia in the M21 class! I had no idea there were so many. And about 80% are English teachers. There are only 2 other University English teachers besides me. One of 'em has 2 master's degrees and a Ph.D. and left a job teaching business at a college. He's got more degrees than I do! Well I must go to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open. And we have to be in the lobby at 5:30 AM and load the bus to the airport at 6:00 AM. My next entry will be from Mongolia! WOO HOO!!