And they're off!

We are in the middle of a blur. After eating at our favorite Bellingham breakfast spot Sunday morning (the Little Cheerful), we left town and headed to H's parents in Anacortes. Whoosh! S's parents stopped by, we said goodbye, then to sleep. Wake up at 2:30 am, load four over packed suitcases, four gigantic carry-ons, and one confused dog into the truck, and drive to Sea-Tac airport. Whoosh!

The dog had to fly a different airlines since ours did not have climate controlled cargo holds. He was scheduled to leave 30 minutes after us, so Heather's father took the pup on a walk and put him on the plane after we left. Whoosh!

Our itinerary took up through Dallas on the way to Miami. While waiting for our delayed connection in Dallas, we met a future co-worker who was also on the same flight. When we arrived in Miami, we picked up Henley (aka the confused dog), took 2 full taxis to the hotel and started meeting people. Whoosh!

So we are now in Miami, ready to fly to Medellin tomorrow afternoon. The school has four representatives here to provide a mini-orientation. They are all great, excited, and amazingly helpful. We feel very lucky to have such an supportive group of people meeting us. Today we had meetings in the morning, where we met most of the other new hires. I believe that there are about 24 of us. Most are probably about 25-35 years in age, with an average of maybe 3-5 years of teaching experience. In that last regard, I am a bit odd because I will be a first-year teacher this year (there are 2 other first-years). After introductions, we had mini-seminars on culture shock, living in Medellin and Colombia in general, and an introduction to the school. Whoosh!

Afterwards, we went to the kennel to visit Henley, and then went with another couple to South Beach for some swimming. Alas, it is hot here, and so we came back to the hotel and crashed for 4 hours - the best sleep I've had in weeks.

So tomorrow we are off. Now that we have left home, we are really excited to get to our new home and start learning the ropes. I'm not sure when our next post will be, but as soon as we get internet access we'll let you know what we are up to next.

Whoosh!