I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer!

After 10 long weeks of training, I am finally officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! In a ceremony at the Canal Museum in Casco Viejo, 37 of the original 42 trainees were sworn in. I can't even begin to express how amazing it feels to be done with training. We left our training site on Tuesday (it was really sad to say goodbye to the kids in my host family) and we've been staying in Cuidad del Saber. It's been great for us all to be together because on Monday we move to our communities and we won't all be together again until February. It's hard to think about because many of these people who I have seen everyday for the past 11 weeks will suddenly be many hours away, spread throughout the country. But, in celebration of our accomplishments and our last night together we went out in Panama City and had a great time. It's now 2 in the morning, we just back, and I am dead tired. our bus leaves at 9 tomorrow morning for the beach (2.5 hours away) and I still need to pack. So instead of write much more, I'm just going to post some pictures. Miss you all! (These photos are all out of order...)




Franco, Ashley, Me, Logan, and Jordan before our swearing in ceremony.













Panama City from the bus on the way to swear-in.












I'll be serving in the province of Veraguas with Andrew, Adam, Shawn, and Ashley














The Boys!!












The girls!!












Panama's bird is the harpy eagle, which is huge and beautiful/scary looking. We got to see one close up and watch him fly. It was pretty cool.












In Santa Clara we hosted a Masquerade Ball for our families before we left. My host sister, Irania, is on the right with the feathers.












This was my bedroom in Santa Clara. I love my mosquito net! It's like a little safe fortress.











To get to NY Bagel Cafe you ask the cab driver for the head of Einstein, literally.











New York Bagel Cafe- Best place on earth after a couple of weeks in rural Panama. It's a lot like a Noah's Bagels with great food, Snapple, comfy couches, wireless internet and, best of all, the owner is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer!















This was my host family in Santa Clara, during my ten weeks of training. I am really going to miss the kids and the mom, who was only 2 years older than me.