Philly

In about eight minutes, we meet for the first time as a group so this is going to be a short post. We have to get up at 2 am to leave for JFK tomorrow, so that will be fun. Mom, dad and I also devised a brilliant plan of putting one rolling bag on top of another. The easy trek from the Philly airport to our hotel told me that our plan was pretty terrible. Carrying everything in a backpack would have been a lot easier. Hopefully I only have to carry all of my bags at once three or four more times, so it shouldn't be that bad. Live and learn, I suppose. Today has been pretty rough. I didn't buy any close-toed shoes for the trip, which was silly but I thought -- hey, Botswana is hot! -- so why bring them? Well, it is reasonably cold in Philly and it was raining today. I am not averse to cold weather, but we had to walk to our clinic appointment today to get the Yellow Fever vaccine. I was also wearing relatively new shoes, so my toes got numb and I had blisters all over my heels. Awesome. But, no big deal. I put band-aids on and went to buy new shoes. I went into Ross, a local discount department store, and got a couple great pairs of shoes for cheap. Very psyched. I started to walk back to the hotel, in good spirits, when a cab drove through a puddle near the sidewalk and I was completely sprayed with water. I thought, "you've got to be kidding." Seriously, though. Doesn't this stuff only happen in movies? I was not having a good day. I came to the conclusion early on in the application process that the Peace Corps journey was not going to be easy for me. And I am okay with that -- I even welcome it. It's just sometimes hard to put that in perspective and not get upset over the little things. Then, as I came back into the hotel, "Norweigan Wood" by the Beatles came on. It reminded me of all the days I drove in the car with my dad up to school and I knew that everything would be okay. And if I can't handle a little water, I am out of luck when it comes to the harder challenges. So get up, move on and it will all work out.