Reintroduction, and what I have done and will be doing in the near future

Hello everyone!

I've been writing in this blog detailing my experiences in the Peace Corps, but did not tell anyone about it until now. I did this because this blog is about me in Kazakhstan. I'm still not there. I leave tomorrow morning.

However, now that I've sent out e-mails detailing what I'm doing, where I'm going and how to access this, I wanted to make sure that newcomers to this blog (well...everyone!) to know what they can expect from reading this.

First, I'd go back and read my first post . While badly written, it lays the groundwork for everything else.

So, a quick recap of my past couple of days as I think of them, and what I will be doing in the next couple of days:

• I am in Philadelphia, where I have just completed Peace Corps Staging. Staging is a small conference where we learn about basic Peace Corps policy
• I leave for Kazakhstan tomorrow. I go through these intense feelings thinking about it: joy, impatience, nervousness, and pure terror. In less than 24 hours, I will be in a country where the only Russian words I know are my name, the word apple, and the sentence "this is my family". A great start, right?
• I ate a Philly Cheese steak today. I wasn't impressed, but I'm not a big meat eater anyway. I'm glad I tried it though.
• The best thing about PC Staging: You meet people who can relate to why you are deciding to move across the world to help people, and they think it's quite natural and not crazy.
• The worst thing about PC Staging: It can get intense, and tedious filling out paperwork, but it is for everyone's good.

Tonight will be spent typing, finishing some grant reviews, and packing. Tomorrow is a new day, and a new country. Here's hoping that all goes well!

~K-Chuck