yesterday, when you were young, everything you needed done was done for you

Today, I got all my travel information for staging and for leaving the country.

I'm officially booked to leave at 6:20am from Chicago to head towards Philadelphia for staging for one day. Staging is actually a lot quicker and less time than I thought. I will arrive in Philly at 9:15am, and then I can head to the hotel, where I will register at 12. Our sessions start at 2pm and go until 7pm where we cover any number of things. And then, we are free to spend our last evening in the States. We get picked up at the airport at 6am the next morning and are taken to the airport where I have a 355 flight from Philly to Frankfurt and then I fly the rest of the way to Kiev.

Enough of the logistics, I'm starting to get really excited. It feels real, and as if it's coming on fast. BUT all that aside. . . I'm mostly excited to see everyone meet new people.

I've met some girls who I am going with already, and as far as I'm concerned everyone is fantastic. I really like a girl named Linnea who is originally from Champaign. We seem to get along really well and she's a francophile too so that's nice.

I don't think people really understand the peace corps process, this of course, is inevitable. In the end, the process of the bureaucracy and all that doesn't really bother me. Similar to everything I had to go through in France, except it's more papers and less having to go to the consulate, sous-prefecture, etc. All in all, I think it's pretty easy. I seem to be the only one. . .

OK I probably won't write until it's closer to the date. woo!