I packed too much.

HOLA desde Colombia!!

For those of you who may not know, after 14 months of waiting, I'm FINALLY living in Barranquilla, Colombia, training to be a Peace Corps volunteer. I'm so excited to be here and look forward to keeping you all up to date on my experience here in Colombia.

Up to this point there really isn't much to report. We've been in training sessions from 8am until 5pm every day and we're slowly getting into the rhythm of life in Colombia. All the other trainees are great; we're an entertaining group and I'm so impressed with everyone's background. I know I'll learn a lot from every one of them. Tomorrow we move in with our host families where we'll be living for the next three months during our training. I can't wait to meet them and am really hoping they have children I can play with…or a dog or something.

As most of you could imagine, I had an difficult time sticking to the baggage allowance -- only 2, 40 pound bags!! I ended up bringing 3 bags, two of which weighed 50 pounds each. I really thought that there would be at least one other person who loves shoes as much as I do, but instead I'm the idiot in Colombia lugging around three massive bags, while most of the other volunteers are cruising with their two feather-light packs. WOOPS. At the hotel in Miami, a woman in the elevator took one look at my luggage and asked with disapproving astonishment if I was moving. I told her that I was and that I liked my clothes only to find out half an hour later that she was the Peace Corps employee that would be running our orientation. Yikes. I can't wait to settle into my home stay where I can hide my bags and enjoy all the wonderful things I packed them full with.

So that's all for now! I'll try and whip out the camera these next few days so I can bring this blog to life. Cross your fingers for me in hopes that I have somewhat easy access to the internet at my home stay. Until next time, love you and miss you all!

Carla

ps. Ignore the layout. It's a work in progress.