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Hello all!

Well I'm officially on Day Two of my Peace Corps service!! SO surreal! I kept saying to everyone, "can you believe we're moving to AFRICA. . . TOMORROW?!" haha. I am so excited for the next two years!

Yesterday started out hard, not only did I have to say goodbye to my parents but I had to do it on just a few hours of sleep... : / needless to say I was a mess. The lady sitting next to me on the plane asked me if I was moving away from my family and I was so embarrassed because I couldn't even get the words out! But I did get out "But I'm really excited!" which was true. It was SO hard to leave, but I was very excited about what was ahead.

I got off the plane in Atlanta and it was hot! Like Africa hot! : ) Guess I should just shut up and get used to the heat... I got off the plane and trekked it to baggage claim and met up with a few other PC people at the train station to head to the hotel. I thought it would be difficult to find them, but we all had an obnoxious amount of luggage so we were actually pretty easy to find! So we jumped on the train and headed to the Buckhead Station and I called the hotels complimentary shuttle service there. And as we headed up to meet the shuttle, dripping sweat from carrying all of our luggage in the Georgia heat, a limo pulls around the corner. We all joke about "oh yeah guys! that limo is for us! we're going into the Peace Corps, but they sent us a limo!" but then the limo stops in front of us and we see it is from our hotel. No joke we rode in a limo from the station, to the hotel. HILARIOUS.

We got to the hotel and met some more people and started registration about 20 minutes after we got there, so it was perfect timing on the whole schedule, except I hadn't gotten anything to eat but those little Biscoff crackers on the plane so I was starving. We had a workshop the whole day about expectations, what to expect, our anxieties and aspirations and then logistics of the next leg of our travel. None of the staff is traveling with us to Swaziland so we were all split into groups and someone from each group volunteered to be a group leader. So he had everyone in a group stand up so we could see who was in our group, then we had to sit down if we didn't want to be the group leader. And each group had a few people who wanted to be the group leader and he made a comment about it right before my group's turn. And of course, when he asked us to sit down if we don't want to be the leader, we all sat down as fast as we could. So we had to do it again, and we sat down even faster. So I said FINE, fine I'll do it. So you're looking at the Group 3 Leader and Hotel Group Leader and I'm helping at the airport today as well. So I have to be in charge of my group's tips, and making sure everyone is checked out, and no one left anything behind, then helping the Airport GL get everyone checked in at the airport, then my big job is finding the hotel in the Johannesburg Airport and getting everyone checked in there! Fortunately there is one other Hotel GL. At least I'm not the Document GL in charge of everyone's passports and tickets. : /

After our seminars ended, at 7pm, none of us had eaten all day, save for the cookies the hotel brought in at about 5, so we went for an adventure. We ended up at some dive of a pizza place that I was sure would not fit the 25 of us that rolled in. But they did and since no one had eaten all day, we all had a lot of Pizza and Beer. Nothing like it for our last night in America!

Today, we have to check out and load onto a bus at 2 and head to the airport to watch the USA vs Ghana game, because I'm going to Africa I have to care now, and we head to South Africa at 7:25pm! We get to Jo'burg 16 hours later at 5:05pm local time, about 10am in Minnesota.

I think that's about it for now. I'll try to update in Johannesburg, and after that, who knows when the next update will be... Miss everyone TONS! Love you!!

Megan