5. Philly

I made it through my first day as a Peace Corps Trainee!

This morning I almost missed my flight to Philadelphia. I hung out with my parents a little too long and security took a little longer than I thought. I walked up to the gate and asked if they had boarded the plane to Philly and they said "Yes, please board the plane Mr. Hornsby."  Needless to say I was the last one on the plane.

I got into Philly with no problem and had a few quarters to call my aunt Susan, who lives near Philly, who picked me up at the airport. We went to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and finished our time together with a cheese steak. It was a lot of fun and I was glad I was able to hang out with my aunt and see some historic sites.

There are 71 people heading to Moldova with me. I knew a fair amount of their faces because I am friends with most of them on Facebook. I have made some pretty good friends so far. It is a fun group. I have a roommate with a 50+ year old man (there are 3 men over 50 on this trip, one of which has served 4 years in the Peace Corps) who is originally from Cleveland but now lives in California. He has a wife and child but has always wanted to do this. I also met a two other people from Ohio.

Today we went over paperwork, rules and regulations, expectations, fears and ambition.  It was good to hear others who have similar concerns and fears. Tomorrow morning we head out at 7:30a on a bus to JFK. We then have a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt before flying to Moldova.