Philadelphia

            I arrived safely in Philadelphia today for "staging," which is basically a one day orientation.  My flight got in at around 4 o'clock, and after I got my bags I went outside in the freezing cold to wait for the hotel shuttle.  There were two other guys there who also had an obscene amount of luggage (and I figured they were probably in the Peace Corps too), but we were all too frazzled and awkward to make an actual conversation.  After about twenty minutes of waiting, we were finally told that a shuttle for our hotel doesn't actually come to the airport...great.  This is when we figured out that we were also all in the Peace Corps together.  Well, one of them suggested we just take the train to the hotel because the security guard told us that the hotel is a block away from the train station.  I thought to myself, "Um, can we just take a cab?  I don't want to have to haul around my huge suitcase, backpack, small backpack and purse."  However, I didn't want to be seen as the annoying LA girl, so I decided to go with the flow.  BIG MISTAKE.  Seeing me try and maneuver all of my luggage onto the train, and get it out of the aisle, was quite a sight to see.  People were staring/glaring until some man finally took pity on me and helped me out.  I was sweating by the time we made it to the hotel!

I had to maneuver all of this on the train

            After arriving, we registered and turned in all of our paperwork.  We were given $120 for our stay in Philadelphia for food, drinks etc.  I still have yet to meet my roommate, but I admire how little she was able to pack.  She has ONE suitcase and it's smaller than my larger duffel bag.  She was probably really taken aback by my four bags...maybe I over packed a little.
             Tomorrow we get our shots and play ice breaker games in order to get to know each other.  Then we leave Thursday at 2:30 am for New York (by bus!) where we are catching a flight to Johannesburg.  From there we fly to Entebbe, and then take a 30 minute bus ride to where our pre-service training will be.  I should be in quite a delightful mood by the end of all that traveling :)  I'm sure my next post will be all about our traveling mishaps, but I will also finally be in Uganda!!