After a final lunch with our host families, we gathered at the center today to pack up and leave Lima for good. We were all dressed up in suits and dresses for our swearing in ceremony, so watching everyone throw around massive suitcases and hiking backpacks was pretty entertaining. We piled in buses and waved goodbye to teary-eyed host families as we began our official Peace Corps adventure. Happy soon-to-be volunteers outside the US Embassy!

We traveled to the US Embassy in Lima, which is the second largest US embassy in the world. We showed our official government passports as we entered the building to prepare for our induction. We sang both the Peruvian and American national anthem and listened to words from a variety of speakers. My host Dad was invited to accompany us to Lima and give a speech on behalf of the host families, so that was pretty neat to have he and Grease participate in the ceremony. We took our oath and were officially sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. It was a really special day, and I think it will definitely mark a pretty memorable moment for all of us.

This is Ian- He´ll be the closest volunteer to my site, so we´re sure to be very best friends!

After our swearing in we headed to Miraflores where we spent the night. Our training group of about 50 people have become really close, so it was a lot of fun to celebrate together. Everyone in our group has such an awesome, unique personality, so I´ll surely miss them as we go to our separate sites. I think the unique circumstances we´ve been in over the last 10 weeks have made us really close, and given us a special bond that few people can relate to. I´m excited to hear how everyone´s sites go and know that we´ll all be in touch.