T Minus One Month

Yesterday I booked my flight for staging in Philadelphia. It's real!

I will leave Atlanta at 8:45 AM on Sunday, June 24 and arrive in Philly around 11 AM. A few other volunteers who get in around the same time plan to share a shuttle to the hotel where orientation will take place from noon to 7 PM. We will take a bus to JFK at 9:30 AM on Monday for a 6:15 PM flight to Brussels (7 hours and 40 minutes flight time). After a 6ish hour layover, we leave Brussels for Cotonou and will arrive 6 and a half hours later, at 7:35 PM on Tuesday, June 26 (2:35 PM EST... 5 hour time difference). Yikes.

NextPCVSE

A blurb about Michelle Chirby (a blurby!) was published on a blog about upcoming Peace Corps volunteers from Atlanta. See me here! Is this partially cheating because I was not initially recruited in the southeast? Oh well, still pretty cool!

Departure Date Change

Over the last nine months, Peace Corps has become one of those flakey friends: unreliable, doesn't return my calls in a timely fashion, and usually my schedule has to accommodate hers (yes, PC is a lady - at least 60% of her). But this morning, PC came through for me. While this may be insignificant news overall, I am ecstatic to announce that I will be departing 2 days earlier than initially planned! I will leave for staging (most likely in Philadelphia) on Sunday, June 24. Then on Monday, June 25 I fly to Benin and arrive on Tuesday, June 26. My countdown clock below now refers to the time at which I will set foot onto Beninese soil - even better!