Anticipation

Our staging event has finally come to a close. Today our sessions focused on the concepts gender and identity and their respective impacts on our Peace Corps service. On the whole, I enjoyed myself. Even though it was more of a broad discussion, it was nice to talk about how these aspects of our lives will effect our Peace Corps service over the next 27 months. I was also stoked when they handed out Hofstede’s cultural survey (if you know, you know).

Last night a bunch of us got wandered around and got take-out from a Burmese place near our hotel. We found an Irish Pub who allowed outside food and stopped in for a few drinks. It was a warm and peaceful night in San Francisco. I had never been to the area, and spent a bit of time taking photos by myself. That said, meeting the other trainees has been a smooth experience thus far. Everyone has been friendly and I’ve been thankful to be included in other people’s plans. It was a night filled with mohinga, cheap beer, and saw dusted shuffleboard fingers.

Tomorrow we check out at 4:30 AM and leave for the airport for our flight to Seoul. I don’t want to imagine what getting 75 people with two years worth of luggage to the airport will be like… It’ll sure be madness, but I’m stoked to get to Mongolia.

Here are some photos from our second night of staging. Enjoy and stay safe.