Staged

More than ten hours after a tearful goodbye at the airport, I arrived in San Francisco late last night, only to get stuck in the spinning door to the Kabuki Hotel's lobby (thanks to my too-big, too-heavy suitcase). A ridiculous start to a ridiculous adventure!

The jolly porter who rescued me escorted me up to my room, where my roommate Mathilde, who flew in from France, lay in deep slumber.

Porter: "You should wake her up-- otherwise she'll get up in the morning, look at you, and be scared!"
Me: "Ha-ha. You're so funny. But it's okay, I'll let her sleep."
Porter (ignoring me and flicking the lights on and off): "Miss! Your roommate is here! Wake up!"

Not wanting to disturb my poor roommate any more, I shoved a few dollars into the porter's hand, after which he quickly vanished.

In the morning, thank God, Mathilde awoke without a scream. We groggily greeted each other, then left to explore the city. We bonded as we made our way to Pier 39, from where we could see Alcatraz, a pride of fat, sunbathing sea lions, and the Gold Gate Bridge. Since we were of the very few who flew in the night before, we got a chance to see a good part of SF (enough for me to fall in love with the city!)

We got back to the hotel at noon, and by then, the rest of the 80 Peace Corps China volunteers had arrived. We spent the entire afternoon in "Staging", or orientation, in which we reviewed Peace Corps policies, health and safety matters, and most importantly, got to know one another. It was great to finally meet in person all of my Facebook friends from the Peace Corps China forum.

Words fail to express how happy I am to be in this cohort of volunteers. Everyone is so nice! We all seem to have a lot in common - including our anxieties and aspirations. Oh, and guess what? I met another volunteer from Hawaii! This was actually her second staging, as she recently returned from Peace Corps service in West Africa.

I just returned from a fabulous sushi meal with Mathilde and four other volunteers, and will be heading to bed soon because we're leaving for the airport at 5 a.m. tomorrow. After a 12.5 hr flight to Beijing, I'll finally be in China!

We've been warned that, due to the H1N1 pandemic, when we land in both Beijing and Chengdu, Chinese health inspectors dressed like astronauts will come on board to check everyone's temperatures. If we escape quarantine, we'll spend the first week at a hotel in Chengdu, then be sent to live with our host families for the duration of Peace Corps Training.

I'm not sure when's the next time I'll have internet access, so until then, take care! <3

who's laughing now? (reflections on joining the PC)

The hardest part about applying to the Peace Corps is the waiting. What makes it even worse is that I am definitely not a patient person.

After a summer of interning at the Tribune Herald, I entered my senior year of college more confused than ever about what I wanted to do after graduation. Try to get a real job? Yeah right, I'm way too immature for blazers and heels. After dismissing the 'real world,' I thought about getting my masters in journalism, but through my internship I realized that the most important lessons can't be bought with a $40,000 degree. Resenting the unnecessary financial hole I was about to dig, I half-heartedly (and half-wittedly) printed out applications to a few journalism programs that I had my eye on, all the while telling people that heck, if all else fails, there's always the Peace Corps.

My mistake? Making jokes about the Peace Corps without really understanding what it was all about!! Go on, call me an ass, I deserve it! Anyway, one day early in September, out of boredom, I logged onto the Peace Corps site and was immediately taken aback by the plethora of opportunities to help, learn and explore. If you could have heard my thoughts, they would have sounded something like, "Wow, AIDS prevention in Africa! OMG, look at all the Asian countries! No way, CHINA??!"

I quickly made an appointment with Rosemary, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Manoa's Peace Corps representative, to whom I owe much thanks for taking me seriously before I was serious. After she patiently answered all of my naive little questions, I went home and tossed out my grad school applications. What started as a joke ended up being the only thing I seriously wanted to do. How's that for a little bit of karma?

By the end of September, my mind was made up, and I filled out my application and indicated that I'd like to be considered for an English teaching position. (Journalism and Political Science degrees didn't qualify me for other cool jobs in the health or environmental fields.) Then in mid-October, I had an interview with Heather, another returned volunteer and the regional recruiter from San Francisco, who comes to Hawaii twice a year to interview applicants. She exuded enthusiasm and gushed about the Peace Corps, making the interview, which I had been nervous about for weeks, a surprisingly fun experience. She nominated me for a program in Asia (no, I didn't know which particular country), and asked that I be open to serving in other regions. Then the waiting began...

Shortly after being nominated, I underwent a series of health exams, including a dental exam, for which I had my wisdom teeth removed. Ick! Then began the long and painful process of convincing my parents that I'd be alright, that the Peace Corps means business when it comes to safety.

Other than that, I basically sat around, twiddling my thumbs, worrying that no government would formally invite me to serve in their country, and wondering if I had made a mistake by not applying for graduate school. It didn't help that my political science classes were rocking my socks off, and I started to wish that I could spend forever in that department, a real possibility if I handed in a Manoa grad school application. I almost did it, and then...

It was March! And I finally heard back from the Peace Corps. The recruiter, bless him for not forgetting me, asked in an email if I'd like to volunteer in China. I was about to reply a YES!, but then I read on and saw that I'd be teaching at a university in a city. Totally NOT what I signed up for!

What happened to working with children in a remote village? The cliche Peace Corps experience? As I thought about it, fond memories of studying abroad in China swayed me to the affirmative. The recuiter said he'd talk to the program coordinators, and let me know whether they thought I'd be a good fit. If not, he said he'd try to get me placed in another Asian program that would begin in August (I think it's Cambodia).

The longest two weeks of my life passed before I got an email saying that a formal invitation was on its way via FedEx, a.k.a. snail mail. The email said nothing about which country was inviting me, so I waited and waited and waited. Aside from learning that FedEx's 2-day service takes more than 2 days when sending mail to Hawaii from Washington, D.C., I discovered that CHEEPONO, I was being sent to CHINA!

After accepting the invitation, I underwent Round 2 of health exams, this time for the Chinese visa application. Currently, I am waiting for the Peace Corps to send information on staging, the 2-day orientation in San Francisco, that begins on June 29. Hopefully the pack of information will contain instructions on how to obtain my plane tickets. I don't think I'm going to fully believe that I'm going to China until I can hold those plane tickets in my hands! It still feels too good to be true. :)

I need a chill pill because AHHH I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!


Heather, Rosemary and me at a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer dinner.