Excursion #1

Hola friends and family! I am finally here in CR. Today is day #3. After two days of pre-training in Washington, DC where I met my 32 newest friends and learned many rules and operations of the Peace Corps, we all headed out on a 4 hour flight to San Jose early on Wednesday morning. The flight went really well and I was surprised to not have even shed a tear as we left the USA. I guess I'm just overwhelmed with all of my new friends. It's amazing that we all get along really well. So many of the PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) are from CA and other states out west. There is one married couple and they are actually from VA like me. They just graduated from UVA in May. Everyone is very young too. A majority of us are between the ages of 21-25. 4 are 26-29 and one girl is in her early 30s. We are about 12 guys and the rest girls. It's a very young group they have told us. Everyone is super nice and I have met some really fun and crazy people...namely my roommate in DC named Kelley who is from CO and my current roommate at the retreat named Zoey who is from NYC. These are crazy kids, let me tell you.

Fresh off the plane, we were taken to a cabin retreat in the mountains near San Jose for the first 4 days. Here we have been meeting all of the PC CR staff, sitting through long lessons about how PC CR works, being given shots, taking language placement oral exams, eating lots of good food and drinking even more coffee. I actually kinda like it. One thing is for sure, we do not go hungry. Today we have taken our first trip away from the cabin retreat where we've been staying. Unfortunately it is pouring and it was hard to see out of the bus windows as we made the 20 minute bus ride to the town of Heredia. Of course the first thing we have all done was stake out an internet cafe. It's been days! LOL Tomorrow is our last day of the retreat and we will find out which town we will be living in for the next 11 weeks. We are all very excited (and nervous) to learn of our host families and which 4 of our new friends will be in our towns with us. It is all based on our language skills and what projects we will be working on eventually...I will be working with Children, Youth and Families (CYF). So, by Sunday afternoon I will be in my new home with my new host family. Be sure to tune in soon to how that experience goes. Love to all.