Swearing In

I’ll admit I was not really that excited for swearing in. To be honest it felt really anti-climatic. I guess pre Peace Corps I had this notion that this would be the biggest moment of my life considering how long it took to apply, get here, and then finally survive training. Needless to say, I was not too pumped. I think it had to do with the impending stress of living for our sites, the medical session beforehand, some ridiculously placed PC enforced rules about our whereabouts after swearing in, etc. It was looking like swearing in was going to just plain suck… But then I saw our little group of trainees all dressed up. And then it all changed.

Everyone looked absolutely beautiful/handsome. It was amazing to see us all looking so nice for a change (no offense to anyone but we usually look like tired, semi-professional but sloppy, gringos. But this night we looked super sharp. I stop going on about how beautiful we are and move to the fact that the ceremony was also a very big success in my eyes. The ambassador came and not only delivered a nice speech, conducted our oath, but more importantly she stayed afterwards to take lots of pictures with us and talk with our host families. I mean seriously, what a freaking champion of a diplomat. I just cant believe how nice, humble, and down to earth she is. Note to self: when you become an ambassador, be like her. And to top it off, our star gringo Andrew, delivered an amazing speech in Spanish on behalf of all of us. I was just so proud of him and us as a group that I am not ashamed to admit I did that tearing up at a happy moment thing.

Following the ceremony we were locked down in the training center (to avoid the trainees going out and drinking). We had a good time anyway. It was really nice to just to spend the final night together and then hang out in the hotel all night. Because the next morning we headed off to meet our counter parts. But that is another post.