almost there

This past couple of weeks have been really busy at fpo (orientation) with little free time or weekends off. Despite the lack of free time, we do make creative use of the time we do have and enjoy venturing back into American culture briefly to go to the movies, bowling, or meet everyone else at Panera and Starbucks trying to get access to high speed Internet. The other day we were at Panera and nearly half of the restaurant was filled with friends from orientation and we joked that it was like "studying" at the coffee shop in college when all you did was run into people you knew.

Yesterday we went on a field trip to Washington to apply some of the tools we had been learning and meet some people from our countries. Our group had the opportunity to meet four people from the city I am going to and were able to hear the language spoken in real life for the first time. That was really exciting for me and David (he is going to the same country) because we were able to learn a few basic words and then use them to greet others in their native tongue. I don't know if we said it exactly right, but they were impressed that we tried. Two of the people that we met had just recently moved to the states and their eyes lit up when we told them we were going to visit their city, they are so proud of their country and wanted to share all about it with us!

I have less than three weeks before leaving for the field and I am so excited. However, I have not received my visa and passport back from the embassy yet and without them my plane tickets had to be canceled. Hopefully, the visa will come in this week and the travel agent can book my same flight again so that I can get on the field.


Cortney, Amy, and I bowling


Derek, David, Joanna, and I in DC