Staging

It's finally happening. I flew into San Francisco last night, and today our thirty-one person group convened for pre-departure staging. We filled out forms. We did ice breakers. We defined our expectations... pretty much what I'd expected. Here are just a few, quick observations:

• Of our thirty-one man cohort, I'll be the only Southerner (Florida doesn't count).
  
• Men outnumber women.
• Though most trainees are fresh from college, we do cover a broad spectrum (married couples, retirees, expats, minorities, vegetarians, etc).

I also learned that a 6.7 magnitude quake hit off Java's coast this morning, resulting in tsunami warnings and some coastal evacuations across the island (Article). Luckily, nothing ever happened.

Tomorrow we leave the country. After a one day layover in Hong Kong, we'll finally arrive in Surabaya, Indonesia, Java's second largest city of about six million people. In-country staff will give us a quick, three-day orientation. Afterwards, we'll move about three hours further southeast to Malang where we'll be given over to host families in the city's surrounding villages. The homestays will last for three months, helping to facilitate faster linguistic and cultural training.