Orientation in Washington DC

Today we had Peace Corps orientation in Washington DC. There are 45 other people in my Peru group and we all met today for the first time! These are the people that I will be spending the next three months with in Lima for training and then we will be dispersed to different areas all over Peru for our two years of service. I am not kidding when I say that all my fellow volunteers going to Peru with me are unbelievably friendly and genuine. I feel like I already have an instant family full of people who understand me and have similar values in life. Many people back home don't understand why I decided to join the Peace Corps or what motivates me to do it and nobody understand how much work I had to go through to become accepted and invited to serve in Peru. The 45 other fellow volunteers who I finally got to meet today understand and all. And it brings this instant bond and peace and puts away so much of my anxiety and fear about what I will be doing for the next two years! 

Orientation was about six hour long full of filling out and turning in paper work and presentations about the Peace Corps expectations of us and kind of an introduction to everything.

After orientation, the we went out for a night on the town together for one last night in the US. The people I ate dinner with chose to eat at a delicious Italian restaurant. Afterwards we went out to a bar to socialize with each other and about twenty of us chose to have a group tequila shot together!! "Cheers to two amazing years!!!"

After just one day spent with my fellow volunteers, I can already tell that I will have an amazing group of friends that will become family to me and my biggest support over the next two years. 

Tomorrow we head to Lima!! Peru here we come!! 

I got to see my sister Rhea this morning! She drove up from her home in Richmond, VA to have breakfast with my in Washington DC!

The fellow volunteers that I spent my last night in the US with. Such wonderful people!