Staging

I arrived in San Francisco via Los Angeles and made my way via Super Shuttle to the Miyako Hotel. Upon arriving I was met with a couple of unwelcome surprises. First, the room was not ready. Second, I would be sharing the room with not one but two other people. And if this weren't bad enough, there were only two beds for the three of us. I don't think Bush would approve of this! Well, we got a bunk bed up there quick enough and flipped a coin (I lost).

The meetings started at three. There are rougly 60 of us, and we are seated at talbes of 7 or 8. We started the meeting by having everyone introduce themselves--give a short biographical sketch: where are you from and what were you doing before this. The most interesting part of the whole day was when each group brainstormed about their "anxieties" and "aspirations" and had to draw them on a large piece of paper. Not surprisingly, most people came up with a lot of the same stuff. It seems most people are concerned with the infamous bad air of China, and with the difficulties of communicating in a language that few know, and with getting ill, and with missing loved ones. People seem to split on whether the spicy food is an anxiety or an aspiration (I voted for anxiety). And people seem to be excited about travelling and about learning Mandarin.

We went out on our own for dinner and I bumped into a nice young man recently graduated and we decided to stick around the area and have sushi. One of the group leaders warned us not to have bowls of noodles since we will probably be eating that for the next two years.

One last thing: age. At least I am not the oldest person here. There is one woman who is retired and who drove a bus for thirty years before becoming a teacher, and one gentleman probably about my age who taught in universities for a while. But for the most part, the profile of the average Peace Corps volunteer seems to hold: the average age seems to be mid-late twenties.

Also, we received debit cards with $160 on them which is supposed to cover our expenses while were are hare--a nice surprise. Well, tomorrow is another day (and we start at 8:30 a.m.).