my very first day

well I haven't written in a while (clearly) - Ireally dont know where the time has gone - it's been 3 months already - crazy!

I am sitting in my hotel room write now in Philadelphia- my staging location. I have finished my very first day. I am exhausted but even more excited now for everything thats to come.

Back tracking a bit now but since receiving my invitation in February, I slowly but surely started preparing for everything. And once again there was a lot more to everything that I expected. Very intense getting things in order to leave the country for 2 years and I really don't know how most people even do it - fortunately I had a lot of help from my mom and I didn't have too many things like a house or my own apartment or anything to worry about. But still of course I waited until the last minute to do some rather important things kind of like packing which I didnt finish until ooh about 5 minutes before I walked out the door this morning. And I was so worried about going over the limit but apparently I have no concept of weight as my 2 checked bags were only about 60 some pounds all together.

everything pre-packed

and everything packed (actually in my hotel)

And now I sit here in my room - all the months, weeks, days, minutes that have been leading up to it all and now its here. I arrived this morning in Philadelphia and my great friend Ashley picked me up and took me to my hotel- she even got to see some of the other volunteers I'll be with. And then she was off and it all started. What a long day - but it was so great to finally meet everyone. All the planning, researching, worrying about what to pack and if i have enough - its all over now. It's all still a bit surreal - maybe it hasn't hit me yet. But forreal -

tomorrow I am off to Africa.