Arrived in China!

What a long haul, from Boise, Idaho to Chengdu, China!

Our group, known as China 18s because we are the 18th Peace Corps group to volunteer in China, arrived this afternoon.  About 75 people, mostly in their 20's, make up China 18, but there are a few of us older ones too.  Since the group is big, it took us awhile to move along through all the check points and it felt like we spent most of the last 40 hours waiting, sitting, standing.  My feet and ankles are so swollen, I can barely walk.  The trip had a night layover in Bangkok with too little time to see much, other than next to nothing right around the hotel.

In Chengdu, we are staying in a hotel on the campus of Sichuan University, and our training immediately started with instructions on 1. don't lose your passport, 2. don't lose your stuff, 3. don't lose yourself, apparently in order of importance.

We checked into our rooms and were greeted by a huge accordion folder with tons of information about the various training sessions we'll have over the next 3 months.  If nothing else, I can say everything is amazingly organized.