Kicking-off in Texas

Training center in Texas!

Today started very early, waking up at 5am in order to catch an 8am flight at Dulles.  Waking up early wasn't so bad though once I stepped outside and saw that my two best friends had snuck over in the middle of the night to write farewell notes on my driveway with chalk :)

The flight and checking in were uneventful for the most part.  There was a little nervousness when it came to weighing my bags, though-- one being 52 lbs. and the other 54.  The lady let the 52-pounder slide without saying anything but she was concerned about the 54.  We pulled the "I'm going to Africa for a year" trick out of the hat though, so she let it go, labeling it with a "HEAVY" sticker.  As for the flight, it was overbooked by 6 people.  Mom and I figured it would be okay to board later than everyone else because we knew we were in the very back of the plane.  Turns out, we were the last two people in the very last row and we were the last people to board!  The flight attendant told us that she was going to give our seats away in another minute if we hadn't showed up!  Phew!

We arrived in Dallas around 11am, claimed our baggage, then rode the shuttle to the rental car place.  We were helped by a very extroverted man from Guan named Kerry.  I know way more about him than I thought would be possible from chatting for a few minutes.  For example, his grandmother from Guam died in 2007.  Who knew?!  Driving here took about an hour and a half, shorter than expected.  We stopped at a Subway connected to a gas station for lunch, where they sell peanuts by the pound and cowboy hats on a stand.

After arriving at the Mercy Ships center in Texas (where it was VERY hot), I was given a room key and we went off too my room!  My roommate is Rebekah, a native Texan, is very sweet and knows a lot about the bugs to watch out for, and keeps track of the schedule for me.  She's only here till Friday though, for the first training session.  My room isn't too bad, there's wifi and plenty of closet space and outlets.  Rebekah did tell me that I should make sure I check around the bed for bugs.  Not too sure how I feel about that...

After getting settled into my room we were able to go on a tour and meet some of the people here, the long term stayers and those only staying through Friday.  Dinner followed, where my mom left from, and then there was a brief powerpoint on being called to do something by God, specifically being called to Mercy Ships.  It was well presented and the speaker's personal experience added flavor to it.

It's been a long day, though and tomorrow is an early morning.  Can't wait to learn more and get to meet new people!