"It's great to be around people who love compost!"

That's what one girl said last night at dinner, and it definitely describes the sentiment I think a lot of us are feeling - that it's nice to finally be around people who are all in the same boat. We've gone through the same application process and agonizing waiting, the endless forms and medical checkups, and the same questions from our friends to which the answer is almost always, "I don't know!"

Orientation - or staging, as the Peace Corps people like to call it, cause they like to make up fancy names - has been intense, but surpisingly informative and interesting and not too draining.

We've discussed pretty predictable topics - safety and security, dealing with unwanted attention, Peace Corps policies. We had a capstone activity to prove that we actually learned something in the staging, in which we got to choose a category - writers, dancers, symbologists, or musicians and poets. I chose to join the dancers, and we got to do an interpretive dance of sorts to represent fundamental components to grassroots development. It was pretty sweet.

Tomorrow we have to be up by 5 am to make our flight, though we won't get to Ecuador till the evening. The next stage, training, is 8-10 weeks, and apparently quite intensive, so I'm not sure how much free time I'll have, but I'll definitely find some time to update, hopefully with pictures, and maybe even video!

So, here's a current emotional update from Anna:
I am:
excited to finally be leaving the country
nervous about speaking Spanish all the time
satisfied from my sushi dinner
worried about carrying my baggage all over the airport tomorrow
eager to meet my host family
sad about all the goodbyes I've had to say these past few days
happy to be going to nicer weather
and overall very optimistic and pumped!!!

Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Ecuador!