Bienvenido a Miami!

At the end of July 2007, I was on the plane to Miami for a three day, two night staging event for the new Peace Corps trainees assigned to the Eastern Caribbean. The good-byes were not nearly as hard as I thought they'd be and I didn't have as many panic attacks as I thought I would have so I was off to a good start! Upon arriving in Miami, I was absolutely starving, but if you've ever been to Miami International Airport, it is truly the toe jam of airports. Nothing to eat, nowhere to shop, and on top of this my luggage was lost. Great. It's late in the evening, I'd been flying all day and now I had to wait in this line with the million other people who hadn't received their luggage. Did I forget to mention that I had packed my entire life into these two suitcases that the airport couldn't find? I stood in the lost luggage line for at least two hours trying to suppress the urge to chloroform the person in front of me just so I could move up the line a little faster. Finally after making it through the line I hailed a taxi, had him take me to the nearest fast food restaurant, and finally checked into my hotel.

The hotel was swankier than any place I'd ever stayed before and it sure beats the Travelodge. Of course, it was mostly amazing because I wasn't paying the $500 a night rate. I knew that we would be assigned a roommate and I was anxious to see who my first Peace Corps co-volunteer would be. Let me just start off by saying that I was very very concerned that all the people I'd meet in the Peace Corps would be hippie types who I'd have nothing in common with. This, I realize now, is a complete stereotype. We do have the occasional tree huggers but for the most part, there is a very diverse mix of personalities. Anyway, back to the roommate. I opened the door and there sat Amy on the bed and next to her on the nightstand. . .a rum and coke. Yes!! I loved her already. After telling her my whole lost luggage fiasco, we got to talking about her boyfriend that she'd left back in the states and all the usual get to know you banter. The night was late already so we eventually called it a night.

Day one of staging had arrived and still. . .no luggage. No clothes, no clean underwear, nothing except for some toiletries I'd brought in my carry on. Peace Corps is all about dressing "business casual" so wearing the dirty outfit I'd worn to fly in the previous day was a no no. I knew that they would understand the circumstances, but still it wasn't the first impression I wanted to make. Bless her heart, Amy offered to let me borrow some clothes which I did. Since I didn't have clean underwear I was able to get a head start on the hand washing. Have you ever tried to hand wash a thong? Well, it's hard to do because there's not much material to work with. On the bright side though, it only took a few minutes to dry with the hotel blow dryer! Yes. . .this was the rugged Peace Corps life I was waiting for.

Staging is basically Peace Corps' way of giving you a last chance to bail out before dropping you in your region of assignment and some people took the opportunity to change their mind. Meeting the other volunteers was exciting but really nerve wracking. There were some people who I met and I didn't understand how Peace Corps would have accepted them. I wondered if maybe they were lost and wandered into the staging event by accident. It sounds judgemental I know, but I figured that social skills were kind of an essential trait for a volunteer to have and some people just didn't fit the bill at first. "Oh he/she will never make it," crossed my mind a couple times. Knowing these people a little better a year and half later, I am glad to say that I was wrong about them. One can't help but judge and if you say you don't judge people, you're lying. For the most part, however, I was really pleased with the group of people I met. The nice thing was that there was an immediate sense of commonality amongst the trainees even though the personality types were so different. We were all going on this adventure together and we all came into this needing to make new friends. Also, you realize that it is a certain type of person who will go on an endeavor such as Peace Corps, and in that there is an automatic amount of respect that is given and received.

One of my best friends, Colleen, whom I used to bartend with in Seattle had moved to Miami a few months prior to my arrival and I had arranged to meet up with her on my last night. The two of us, along with a group of other volunteers hopped on the bus and went to a shopping mall in South Beach. I had heard from Colleen that the people in Miami were beautiful but I had no idea. I got to South Beach and felt like the ugly kid at the school who no one wants to play with. The men were way too metrosexual for my taste, but nonetheless, so pretty! The women tan, tall, skinny supermodels. . .God bless plastic surgeons. There was much eye candy to be had and it was then and there that I decided that I would never move to Miami. After ordering far too much pizza and drinking some well deserved beers, we all went back to the hotel and I said good bye to Colleen.

The next morning I was on a plane to St. Lucia to begin phase one of my training. . .