Bienvenidos a El Salvador!

We made it! The last two days have been packed and exhausting, but I feel like I am beginning to find my bearings. Yesterday, after a long travel day from Washington D.C. to Miami to San Salvador, we were picked up from the airport by two current Peace Corps volunteers with a giant sign that read "Welcome to your 2nd home PC13!" with signed messages from all the other current volunteers. We were then taken in an old school bus through the hills and on the main highway in El Salvador to our temporary stay in San Salvador. We are staying for two nights in a Catholic meditation retreat in the hills, right above the city where we have a beautiful view from high above. Although the humidity hit us like a brick when we got off the airplane, it is warm yet breezy and perfect temperature up here...the current volunteers still with us told us not to get used to it. Today was spent in classes, beginning medical and safety training. I got my Typhoid shot today, and began taking Malaria pills. I will have to take these pills twice a week for the next 27 months, plus 4 weeks after coming home! We are getting exposed to El Salvadoran cuisine, and have thus far had chiles rellenos, lots of beans and rice, tortillas, queso fresco, and steamed veggies. Tonight we are trying the famous nation dash--pupusas! Tomorrow we are finding the result of our Spanish test interviews conducted today--where we are placed within Nuevo Cuscatlan and with what other 2 volunteers (we are grouped with others at the same Spanish proficiency), and we will be spending tomorrow night with our host families. For the next three months we will be living with them, going to language and other basic training daily, and just trying to settle into life here, and get used to Salvadoran culture and build "confianza" within your community. Dinner time, I better get off my computer!

Staging

Welcome to the Peace Corps family!
Today was our official first day of work. It was quite simple, we sat in a conference room and listened to a returned PC volunteer (RPVC) explain the main goals and guidelines of the Peace Corps, with the interspersed interactive activity to get to know our fellow volunteers. Considering the material, the RPCV was very engaging and got us excited about service. After 6 hours of that, a group of 7 of us went around the corner to an Ethiopian restaurant for our last meal in the United States. It is so strange to finally be in Washington with all of these people I have been so excited to meet, just hours before our departure to El Salvador.
Last night my East Coast family picked me up from the Reagan airport, and helped me get all of my 120lbs of luggage with me back to my hotel. Then we went to a corner cafe for hot chocolate while my Aunt shared her contraband homemade delicious oatmeal cherry cookies. Although our time was brief, it was great to see some more family before I head off to the unknown.
As for the other volunteers, we make up a total of 13, and I really like each and every one of them. We are a diverse group, but all young in our 20's, and all so eager in anticipation for what's to come. There are 10 girls, 3 boys, and I am the lone vegetarian.
Tomorrow morning we head out at 2:30am for Reagan airport, and are on a flight to Miami at 6. We get into El Salvador at 1pm, and are to be greeted by the in-country staff and taken by bus to our first stop in El Salvador--Antiguo Cuscatlan.
As most of you know, my communication situation is a bit of a question mark at this point, and I have no clue how easy it will be for me to plug in. I am hoping to get into contact with you all soon after arriving and settling in my new home, but remember that if you don't hear from me for a while it is because I am so engulfed in all of the exciting new changes and beautiful sites, that my computer can't possibly lure me away.
I hope you are all doing well, I look forward to sharing the first bit of my adventure as soon as it begins!
Sending love from D.C.!

Queridos lectores fieles

I welcome you to my first entry of Blog #2. I found that documenting my experiences while studying abroad in Spain for a year was a very useful way to connect with friends and family at home, while providing a lasting record for me to reflect upon and remember in years to come.

Well, now there is a slightly new focus. I am headed to El Salvador in January to begin two years and three months of Peace Corps service as a Youth in Development volunteer. I have received and immediately accepted my invitation to serve just days ago, but am already eager and anxious to get this trip underway. 

I will not start to get into depth about anything until I am actually abroad and in the swing of things, but for now here is an introduction. I will update before I leave about what city I will be in and when I will hopefully be first in contact with you all at home. 27 months is a long time, but I look at this blog as an opportunity to close the gap in space and time, at least slightly, to bring photos and words of the experiences in El Salvador to my home in California, and your messages and comments back to me in my new home in Central America.