Hooray, Washington, DC!

>> I made it to Washington, DC! Despite a very difficult goodbye to my parents amidst O'Hare Security and a frightening descent into Washington, DC, everything is going well. My hotel roommate is a guy named Tyler, a nice guy who agrees with me on.. everything, including the frustrations he too had with the application process, which was refreshing, because I thought it might have just been me. We and the rest of the Peace Corps volunteers went to registration and got our Peace Corps debit card, which came pre-loaded with $160 and instructions to immediately withdraw the money and to spend it on whatever we wanted, which we did on a pizza dinner and drinks at a local bar, the perfect time to begin to make friendships, find similarities, and discuss our fears and hopes for our time in Sierra Leone. Laying on a soft bed in the Holiday Inn, it feels like a nice vacation, but I know that this is the 'posh' part of the trip and that soon, writing on my blog via WIRELESS INTERNET on a soft bed with AIR CONDITIONING cooling my feet will be a thing of the past...