Californication

It is Tuesday morning and almost impossible to believe that yesterday morning i woke up in my bed in Charlottesville and Sunday morning in a bed in Fredericksburg with Ned and Carlisle. Well, I am officially a Peace Corps Traineed, not quite volunteer status yet, but exciting none the less. I arrived in LA yesterday about 1030am local time and checked into my hotel. I am sharing a room with another volunteer named Sally who is from upstate New York and also working in the special education program. At about 2pm yesterday we checked in with the peace corps and began our staging classes. There are 16 of us in our training group with only 4 girls, which I found surprising. Everyone seems really cool and there is so much energy in the room which is really cool to be around people equally excited about the 2 years we are about to embark on. Last night we finished about 6pm and I was lucky enough to meet up with katie heitman and Louis Marquis, 2 friends that I worked in Wisconsin with, for dinner. Great to see familar places one last time in this smoggy city.
Today we have classes all day which concentrate on safety issues, fears and anxieties, getting to know everyone, etc. We are checking out of the hotel around 7 or 8pm and then all heading to the airport together where we will get on the plane at 1145pm and arrive in Samoa at 545am. Once in Samoa we will have 10 days of training while we stay in a hotel and then we will move in with our host families.
Phew! Sorry this is very dry, but the internet is expensive here and I am trying to get it all out. At any rate, I was freaking out a little yesterday once I realized that I really did sign up to do this and it really is going to happen, but at the same time I am very excited. I feel like we already have a great support network within our training group which will probably come in handy in the next few days. I am not sure how else to express the barage of feelings that are going through my head right now, but I do know that I am looking forward to getting on that plane and spending the next two years on a beautiful island with some pretty amazing people! With that being said...here we go!

ps- On an unrelated sidenote, my poor little sister had to go have surgery on her ankle after she broke the bottome of her fibula playing rugby. Those of you that do know her I am sure she would love a call and your love.