And so it begins

Yesterday, while walking to my car, I absentmindedly pulled out my phone to check my email. I expected Change.org petitions, blog updates, notes from my internship - the usual. Except this time, right at the top, in what seemed to me like huge red block letters, popping out of the screen and ringing bells and whistles (but surely were not doing anything of the kind) were the sender: EMA/Morocco and subject line: Peace Corps Morocco.

I'll be honest: Although my first thought was that it would be an email about staging, my only-a-micro-second-later second thought was that it was going to be a notice of our program being cancelled. The subject line was so simple, and as a result so cryptic, at least to the anxious brain.

If you have an iphone, you know that sometimes, though rarely and apparently only when it senses your anxiety about something, the mail application takes eons to load a single message. The cutesy circular version of the Microsoft hourglass spins and spins, taunting you with the information hidden behind it. I may or may not have stopped walking and gasped audibly when I saw the email. I also may or may not have then shaken the phone and yelled at bit at it when it wouldn't load the message.

FINALLY, after my phone had had its fun and several people were staring, I was able to read the email. It was from the Morocco Country Desk, giving us the first pieces of information about staging! Whew! The email said a lot, but it was basically some updates about our online Welcome Book, a request for resumes and aspiration statements from those who still hadn't sent them (mine are long since turned in!), and - this is the fun part - some questionnaires about training for us to fill out! 

- Language questionnaire: For our first two months of training, we will be spending a lot of time in intensive language classes, mostly learning Darija (Moroccan Arabic). In order to split us up effectively into our smaller language learning groups, they want to know some information about our past language learning experiences, what types of learners we are (visual, audio, etc), and any experience we might have with Arabic. 

- Homestay questionnaire: During training, we will also be living with a Moroccan host family! This questionnaire is meant to help our future host families get to know us a bit, and it looks fun - it asks about our background, hobbies, and preferences, and will be given to our host families (translated into Arabic) before we arrive! Awesome!

As Glinda said, "It's always best to start at the beginning!"

This is certainly the start of a beginning, the beginning of an adventure.

Hold onto your hats!