Grounded in DC

Ah. I guess I am learning why Peace Corps emphasizes the need for flexibility and patience in their applicants. We were supposed to come to Washington D.C. on Tuesday the 11th for one day of "staging" (basically just ice breakers and logistics) and then fly to Panama on Wednesday the 12th. Thanks to the snow, our flight got cancelled. 40 people is a lot to reroute, so it took them awhile to figure it out, but I'm really impressed with the Peace Corps staff who have managed all of this chaos. They got us all on flights to Panama but unfortunately they had to split us up so 18 went this morning and the other 24 of us are going tomorrow. It was kind of weird because they did it alphabetically by last name so I should have been in the group that left today but Fried was at the end, after they Ys. Apparently I have a silent Z in my name? So now some people are jokingly calling me Zried. Gotta roll with the punches, and I didn't mind being shafted to the second group. The whole group is awesome. I don't know when else the word "awesome" is actually appropriate, but it is here. It's so fun to be in such a big group of people all my age (there are only or two older than 24, and by older than 24 I mean like 28) and we're having a blast getting to know each other. We are overwhelmingly female (only 12 boys) and all 40 of us are English Teaching volunteers. There is also a group of 40 or 50 health volunteers going to Nicaragua who have been stuck here as well, but they are also getting out of here tomorrow.

They gave us a free day in D.C. yesterday which was really nice - I hit up 3 Smithsonian museums and tried to walk around to see some of the monuments but it was really COLD. (Lesson #1: Even if you think you'll only be in D.C. for one day, bring a damn coat.) Today I guess they didn't want us to lose too much time doing the training we would be doing in Panama so we had a full day of classes about safety and security, "the role of the volunteer in development," and Spanish. I was really nervous for the Spanish classes, but they actually went really well. The first session they threw a pretty difficult short story at us to read and interpret but the second session was just talking and playing Jeopardy and fun stuff. I was surprised that I could understand everything that was being said and could follow and take notes in Spanish, though I don't have the confidence yet to speak as much as I'd like. But I'm sure that will change once I'm in Panama. It seems like most people in the group have a higher level of fluency except for two girls who are close to beginners. I like to situate myself in between a native speaker and a beginner so I can get help but feel good about myself at the same time. A good strategy, I think. I'm not too worried about being near the bottom of the spectrum, though. I'm sure once we get to Panama I'll have no choice but to increase my fluency. Sink or swim!