I'm Here

Our group arrived in Manila last night/this morning at about 2AM after two gruesome flights, 11 and then 4 hours long each. I got to sleep at about 3:30 and woke up at 7, and didn't sleep so much while I was in Los Angeles either, so needless to say I am severely sleep deprived. Forgive me if I write anything that reflects my state of extreme brain mush.

We have been sequestered in a hotel compound outside of Manila for the first five days we're in country, due to the fact that national elections will be held tomorrow and Peace Corps would like to keep us away from all of the hubub in the capital city that goes along with that. The hotel is nice, much better than I expected - air conditioning, good internet cafe, free drinking water, hot showers. Peace Corps is taking really good care of us.

I really like the vast majority of people in my group. I was kind of worried about what they would all be like, but so far almost everyone has been awesome. There are 64 of us, which is large for a P.C. training class, but on Friday we will break off into three groups and move to our pre-service training sites, which will make it easier for me to get to know my fellow trainees. On that day we will also move in with our first host families, which is exciting/terrifying.

I am looking forward to getting a good night's sleep and waking up refreshed and ready to work on learning more about Peace Corps and the Philippines.

That's really all that my brain mush will allow me to type for now.