News! Tuesday I received an email regarding staging! *happy dance* They sent it exactly one month to the day of Staging. Sorry it took an extra day to update, but there was a small hiccup which I will explain in a minute. And once again, I am blogging at midnight (I <3 you Lindsay!) lol
The email included basic information about Staging, when and where it will be, how to dress and what the next steps were for us to follow. For those of you who do not know what I am talking about at all: Staging is a day and a half orientation of sorts. My training group for Malawi (and I suspect the Mali group as well since we are all leaving the 1st) meet in Philadelphia. Peace Corps gives us an overview of what to expect, what they expect from us, yadda yadda. I don’t actually leave the country until July 2nd.
So! Part of our info we get in the email is to call SATO Travel, Peace Corps’ travel agency and have them book our flight from our home city to Philly. I called yesterday around noon and talked to an agent, who says, “Ok, lets see…..” *click click click… click click* “hmmmmm….”
I joke, “What? Nothing?”
To which he replies, “Well… yeah, no.”
WHAT?
Apparently the earliest flight from my city to Philly would not be early enough for me to get to registration on time. He says, “Well, we’ll just put you in the night before!” Huh? The night before??? Doesn’t this man know that I already have IMAX tickets for Eclipse at 7:30 the night before??? Apparently not. And you don’t just tell the Peace Corps, “No, sorry that’s not good for me.” So I grudgingly agree that I can leave the night before.
Except the night before means I ARRIVE the night before, meaning I leave here a ONE PM! Which means NOON really, since my flight is at 1:00. Ugh… Oh well, Eclipse IMAX tix anyone? lol I get an extra night in Philly all by my lonesome, which I guess could be a mini vacay for me, especially if a certain someone *coughLindsaycough* takes a train in to come see me! hehehe
Needless to say, I’m leaving home a day early. Making these plans, printing my itinerary, makes it all feel more real on a level I have yet to experience. I think I’ve been in a slight denial until now. Like, “Oh, one day I’ll be leaving…” But now it’s like, I’M LEAVING! HOLY EFF! lol. I’m bummed it’s a little earlier, but a little glad it wont be too ridiculously early in the morning, which may allow me to get lunch or something with my family one more time before I head out. 
“What comes after all that, Ashleigh?” Good question!
SO! My Itinerary on July 2nd after Staging is over:
7:30am Take bus to New York JFK Airport (8.5 hours)
4:00pm Fly from NYC to Amsterdam, arriving 6:00am July 3rd (8 hours)
10:25am Leave Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya, arriving 7:25 pm ( 8 hours)
9:45pm Leave Nairobi to Lilongwe, Malawi, arriving 10:55pm (2 hours 10 min)
That’s a total of 8.5 hours on a bus, plus a whole 18 hours and 10 mins of flight! Wow… that’s almost 27 hours of travel in 2 days straight…. I’m gonna be tired!!
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Now I just really need to work on my packing list. Since I’ve been in denial about leaving, all my stuff is just in a big pile/mess in our spare bedroom *shrug* I guess I need to actually start getting organized! Hmm…
Right now I’m such a roller coaster of highs and lows, except mores highs than lows. But I’m scared and excited in one jumbled mess, it’s hard to keep my head straight a lot. I am so incredibly stoked and then I’ll be lying in bed and I start thinking, I won’t be in this room any more, this bed, watching Colbert… Oh my gosh, what am I doing?! and then I snap out of it and tell my self to stop dwelling! It’s going to be fine, and I will survive without Colbert for two years lol. I really can’t wait! As freaked out as I am about leaving I’m ten times more excited about what the future as a Peace Corps volunteer holds. VERY soon I will be in Malawi, living with a host family, learning Chichewa and a whole new way of life!
Can I go tomorrow?
