Goodbye America!

Newark airport I have decided is the last place I would ever want to get hurt. I'm sitting at one of those weird cellphone/laptop charging stations at terminal 90 watching a crowd of about 30 people surrounding a woman who just slipped in a puddle of water and slammed her head into the ground. She has been waiting for a paramedic for thirty minutes. Pretty comforting huh?

Anyway, we got to the airport incredibly early and have been playing in the airport for the last 4 hours. We probably will not start boarding until 5. THEN we have an 8 hour flight, a 4 hour layover in Brussels, and then another 8 hour flight to Banjul. So 20 hours...hello Gambia!

Staging was pretty painless. We had looonnng loongg discussions about the Peace Corps. What was expected of us, skits(i know, cringe right?), safety, anxieties and aspirations etc etc. Overall it felt pretty good to be with a group of people who finally understood what I'm feeling, what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. This morning we went to a government clinic, got our first of many shots (yellow fever)and got our WHO cards. I mailed my cellphone and my social security card which I forgot to leave behind home, and then hopped on a bus for New Jersey...took a little ride on the jersey turnpike (nothing like what I expected from watching bad television, cough cough jersey shore cough) and here we are. Goodbye New Jersey, goodbye America. See you in two years!!