First few days in Philly

I'm officially in Philly!
So, last weekend was counselor reunion, which was fabulous. It was really great to see a lot of people, a lot of my "family." We had some beastin bible studies and worship, which was uber refreshing before leaving for this adventure. Sunday night I got to hang out with Martha, Sarah and the munchkins, which is always a blast and a half. And then Monday morning, the adventure began!!!

We left for Nashville pretty early in the camp van. Gotta love the camp van. I took a cat nap on the way there. Mr. Sanchez enjoyed the ride.



Got to the airport. Checked my bags. Helped an older man get the knot out of his shoe laces so that he could take his shoe off to go through security. Didn't get selected to go in the body scan thing [yay!]. Then I just chilled for a good 45 minutes until time to board the plane. Now, I haven't flown much. I flew to NYC and back in Fall of 09. But I love it so far. I managed to snag the last window seat on the plane, which was fabulous. It was rainy in Nashville when we took off, but soon we rose above the clouds and BAM! Sunshine :).

Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again

This was the first time Mr. Sanchez had ever flown anywhere before. He liked it a lot, and spent some time looking out the window.

"I wonder if they have any bananas...I don't really like peanuts"

It was a rather uneventful plane ride. My left ear was not being very cooperative at all and wouldn't pop or anything like that, which was a tad uncomfortable. They gave us two bags of peanuts instead of one, and I mostly just read and looked out the window. I saw a few jets go by. Like, those fast ones that leave a trail behind them. That was really neat. 1 hour and 55 minutes later, we landed. It was amazing seeing the city from up in the air.

This was probably where a lot of the nervousness started kicking in. The "what ifs" started filling up my head. What if my bags got lost? What if I couldn't find the person who was picking me up? What if I told them the wrong day? On and on. But, I found my bags just fine and right after I found my bags, I found Kelsey :)

The drive to the housing site was nice. She took the scenic route and we just talked a little, found out a bit about each other. Upon arriving, we took my things up to my room on the second floor [which I share with my lovely roomie, Mo.] I unpacked and went downstairs. They gave me a bag of goodies, which was super duper nice. It had my staff manual, my map, some pens and highlighters, hand sanitizer, lotion, chapstick, peanut m&m's, cookies, pita chips, sweet tea and my keys in it. Mr. Sanchez approved.

Monday and Tuesday I just hung out. Monday night I went to the grocery with Kelsey. Tuesday morning I went to Freshgrocer with Mo to get groceries for breakfast and lunch during training. Both were fun times, and really gave me my first glances of the city. Aside from that, I mainly just read in my manual and things like that. Tuesday I joined Justin, Kelsey and Mo for Bible study and I got my schedule and folder for training.
And then yesterday, the fun of training began!

Yesterday, after eating breakfast, Justin, Kelsey and I got in Kelsey's car to head out to go to our first site visit of training [at Salvation Army.] I got in the car only to find out that I was in charge of giving directions! Woo, crazy stuff. Luckily, the manual has directions from the housing site to each place, so that's helpful. They weren't too hard on me :). So, we went to the Salvation Army and talked to one of the guys there. Talked about the work that groups will be doing there, a little bit about the different things that they do, things like that. Afterwards we had some time before going to our next site, so Justin and Kelsey took me on the prayer tour. The prayer tour is one of the first things we do with groups. It's a 2ish hour tour that goes all over the city. Going on the prayer tour really let me see a lot of the city. It was rather foggy yesterday morning! During the prayer tour we stopped to visit another site. The lady we talked with was so passionate, and you could really tell that she cares about the kids she works with. After that we finished up the prayer tour and headed back to the housing site. We had lunch and then we had some "classroom" time. Talked about cultural differences, language learning...got to know eachother a little more...all that good stuff. Then off to supper at one of the restaurants we take groups...an Indian restaurant.

Now, let me just say this...I am a picky eater. It isn't something I'm proud of or anything. I have gotten more adventurous the older that I've gotten, but I am still super picky. So, aside from learning how to get around Philly, I think one of the things I was most nervous about coming into this was the food. Taking groups to a ton of different ethnic restaurants, eating food I never would have dreamed of eating. Last night was a definite step out of my comfort zone, haha.

The Indian restaurant has a buffet. I went up and got food and started to come back to the table when Justin laughed at me and told me to go get some of the two things on the end. The two things on the end? Definitely not anything I had much of a desire to eat. But, I got them and sat back down. They were both kind of like...stews? I don't know. One was a redish color with chicken in it, and the other was brown with lamb in it. The other things I'd gotten? Rice, some bread, a fried chicken thing and some fried vegetable thing. So, yeah...if he hadn't told me to get what I did, I probably wouldn't have ventured very far. The red chicken stew stuff was quite spicy, but it wasn't too bad. And I actually really liked the lamb. I'm pretty sure it's the first time I'd ever had lamb, haha. Then we got dessert. I got something called Gulab Jamun. It's milkballs in a honey syrup. Um...can we say DELICIOUS?! It was so good. For real.

Anyways, when we got done we got in the car and I had to give directions back to the housing site [I had given directions there as well]. Justin told me I was doing really well at giving directions, which was really great to hear! It's really been a lot more simple than I expected it to be. Not that it isn't still hard. Just...I feel like I'm getting the hang of it a lot better than I expected.

When we got back, we debriefed and then I had a date with Google Maps...going through the prayer tour, trying to take note of landmarks by the different turns and things like that. Then I had ice cream with my amazing roomie and wrote a letter to a super lovely person :)

Today was similar to yesterday. We had a devotional this morning and then Justin and I went for two site visits. Both were really amazing and I'm looking forward to working there more. Then we met up with Kelsey at the Jamaican restaurant that we take groups to. Yeah, that's right....another eating adventure. Brown stew chicken, jerk chicken, and chicken and beef patties. Oh my! Oh, and more rice, which is always lovely :). I was a little unsure of the patties, but I really liked the brown stew and jerk chicken. I even brought home leftovers because the serving size was rather large and I couldn't eat all of my chicken and rice. I also got some yummy Jamaican soda called Ting. It's kind of like Fresca. After lunch, Kelsey and I went to another site and talked about the Chinatown tour [where we let groups explore some of Chinatown]. After the site visit, I practiced the prayer tour for the first time [giving directions] and Kelsey gave me lots of pointers. I got to see the skyline of the city and it was absolutely beautiful [I'll post a picture eventually.] We went back to the housing site, debriefed, and then headed out for supper at a Thai restaurant. Yep, another food adventure! Tonight I had wonton soup, chicken dumpling stuff, and tilapia with some crazy sauce on it. And rice, of course. Oh! And I tried some thai iced tea. I can't even describe what it tasted like. It was definitely very interesting, but I loved it. I actually really liked all that I ate tonight. Although I felt miserable afterwards because both lunch and supper were super filling. Now I'm just chillin. Been looking over the prayer tour and my manual some more.

That's about it so far. Tomorrow I've got more site visits, some "classroom" time and tomorrow night I'll be eating at a Malian restaurant [I'm kind of nervous!]

It feels like I've been here so much longer than I have been. I'm absolutely loving it! So is Mr. Sanchez!

Haha, I stole Emily's keys. She'll never find them now :)

Well, I've written a short novel for you guys. I hope that this finds you all well.
Remember that you are loved and that you are cherished!

Hugs and love,
Emily and Mr. Sanchez