The Beginning of a Great Adventure

Hello All!  I am at the DC Georgetown Holiday inn.  The flight and shuttle went smoothly - all is well.  I just got back from having a beer with a fellow volunteer.  I just wanted to check in and let everyone know all is well.  The following was written on sunday after a few hours of walking around DC.

This is officially the beginning.  Right now I am in Georgetown DC (Sunday).  My Peace Corps adventure has officially begun.  I am excited, vervous, happy, thrilled, and ready for anything.  Gottcha life! - I am going to squeeze every F*&%ing drop out of you!  It is 6:30 & I have already checked in at the Holiday inn and am now at a restaurant called Chadwicks having a Burger & Beer.  Just trying to enjoy all things american before I go.  Impressions of DC:  big, Diverse, openminded, and feels like a foreign country when compared to Utah. Now that it has all begun, I find myslef thinking about everyone and eveything I am going to miss.  My family and friends have been more supportive than I ever thought possible.  I can't help but feel honored by everyone that have supported me over the years.  I will not let them down.  I am going to be the best damn Peace Corps volunteer possible.  Infinate possibilities, opportunities, and experiences ly ahead.  To say I am excited grossly understates the situation tho it is also a very stressfull situation which makes it difficult to step back and take it all in. 

Written today (Monday):

This morning we (6 fellow volunteers and I)  went for a 3 hour walk around the reflection pool then had breakfast.  After that, we just went though 7 + hours of orientation which had made me even more excited about PC in general.  Everyone is friendly and outgoing - I am sure we are all going to be great friends.  We have a very diverse group of people in Group 38.  There is a total of 77 people in the group with half doing Community Development (my field) and half doing Youth Development (lots os social work backgrounds).  We have people fresh out of college and people with 30 + years of experience.  We have people from all over the country, from a variety of backgrounds, and about 15 people over the age of 60.  Everyone gets along great and i am excited to get to know everyone better.  After the orientation, a group of 9 of us all went out for one final meal at a nice Italian restaurant (PC gave us $140) then we went to a houka bar and ended the evening with one last american beer at a cozy little bar on the popular "M" street.  Awesome day but I am beat so don't get on my case for spelling/grammar/orgainization : )    Well, It is 2 am and I need to get some sleep.  We fly out tomorry to Germany then on to Ukraine & we have to get to the airport ooober early due to the mass amount of people we have.  Also, I volunteered to be a "team leader" so I have to help ogranize some of the crazyness so I better be rested. 

Cheers!

Conor (the now Peace Corps Trainee) Steffey

PS...We were told that we will have "limited internet access" over the next week or so as they say "no news is good news"