Since I received my assignment in Mali, I have received many perplexed glares of confusion, stares, blatant disbelief and a slew of questions starting and ending with ‘Why?  (Disclaimer: this does not pertain to my family, who have always been 110% supportive of my life).

Well that has come to an end.  I arrived at headquarters today for a week-long training with several other colleagues departing for countries all over the world on similar assignments.  Not only did we have similar assignments abroad, we also shared similar life experiences, educational programs, attitudes, and similar stories on how others react to our choices.  What a relief!  Over dinner tonight, we all exchanged stories of previous stints abroad and what made us want to do it again.  Not only are they all similar in background, they are down-right flipping out of this world COOL!  I felt the same way the day I met my Peace Corps group (scroll down) over 5 years ago in Philadelphia, although unfortunately this time I will not be going abroad WITH the others but alone. It’s nice to be ‘normal’ again.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let you all know I arrived safely at training and am planning on spending the rest of the night in the bubbling hotel hot tub, followed by a dive into my king sized plush bed and hours of reality cable TV, sipping on Chardonnay and French Onion Soup.  (When my 3rd grade teacher asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told her I wanted to ‘live in a Holiday Inn.”  I am a sucker for hotel rooms.

Heaven on Earth