Unterwegs

Here I sit in room 331 of the Crown Plaza Hotel, minutes away from Dulles International Airport. I have half an hour to kill before lunch and then another couple hours to wait until the orientation officially begins. I have said all of my goodbyes and now all that lies between me and Germany is a day and a half of seminars, workshops, and speeches. United Airlines Flight #916 leaves tomorrow at 5:26pm, so this might very likely be my last post from the good ole' United States and last blog entry in English.

I woke up before the sun this morning at 4:00am. A quick ride got me to the airport and fortunately for me, checking my luggage went smoothly with my suitcase weighing 49.5lbs, just half a pound below the limit. I said goodbye to my family, which was clearly very difficult for some family members, and proceeded through security. Both the flight from Burlington to JFK and the flight from JFK to Dulles went smoothly. As I waited to board my second flight I met a fellow AFSer, Janeen, who was headed to the orientation as well. In Dulles, as the blue sheet of paper that was sent to me indicated, I was greeted by an AFS volunteer named Joe. He guided Janeen and me to a shuttle to the hotel. I met the few kids who had already arrived and went to my hotel room to freshen up and write a blog post. That's what I'm up to right now!