She's Going to Africa! Let her Sit on the Floor!

The past few days have been jam-packed, but very enjoyable. We drove down to DC on Friday night. I went to Cait & Tessie's apartment in Clarendon, VA. We met up with my dear friends Dustin and Oscar for dinner in Dupont, and then hung out at the apartment with some AU friends, Justine and Lauren.

On Saturday, Cait and I met up with my Mom, Dad, Uncle Marty, Aunt Cindy and cousin Molly at the National Zoo. It was a great day walking around (mainly watching Molly, who just turned 1 year old, look at the animals) and enjoying the pleasant weather. The big highlight for us was that there's currently am adorable baby gorilla at the zoo, who was a source of constant entertainment.

Today (Sunday), my Mom and I dropped my Dad off at Dulles for his annual Summit conference, which is in Orlando this year. I was sad to say goodbye to my Dad, but I'm already looking forward to him visiting me in Senegal. Then we checked into the Holiday Inn Georgetown, which is where our Staging is being held. My best friend Taylor (who's more like a sister) took a train down, so we picked her up at Union Station, and have been hanging out since then.

We made a trip to the hotel bar at one point in the hopes of meeting other Peace Corps kids who are already here. No such luck, but we did meet the parents of a PC kid. They were very nice to talk to, and I think my Mom greatly appreciated meeting other parents.

The highlight of this so far is that Taylor has discovered my Peace Corps Senegal facebook group and spent  a significant amount of time deciding which people I'm going to be friends with, which cute guys I should chat up, and who to try to avoid. What would I do without her?

And another funny moment.. at one point I went to sit down on the floor of our hotel room and my Mom said "Ew, Fae! Don't sit on the hotel floor. That's gross!" And Taylor responded with, "She's going to Africa in 2 days! Let her sit on the floor"

So, tomorrow- my Mom and Taylor leave, I have my orientations and meetings, and then it's down to business. I'm very interested to see what takes place at these meetings. I wonder if we're going to go around the room and say our name, age, where we're from, and an interesting fact about ourselves. I'm thinking probably not. I feel like we'll probably be learning a lot about "what the Peace Corps is," "what they do," "what they expect of volunteers," etc. Fun, fun, fun!

There's a pretty good chance I might not update again until I'm actually in Dakar, unless I manage to write a new entry in the airport on Tuesday. So, if you don't hear anything for a few days, don't freak out. I'll try to update at soon as I can.

FYI-
my e-mail: fae.patton@gmail.com
skype: fae.patton1

Ba Beneen!