It's official.

I've been sworn-in, and now I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV for short). Our ceremony was last night - at a local tavern, no less.

The soon-to-be PCVs gave intro speeches in their new languages (absolutely butchered mine, but my host parents said they understood me), we did performances (singing, dancing, chanting) and the girls that did local dances ROCKED!, the Peace Corps staff member that swore us in gave a really nice speech (she actually quoted my aspiration statement, anonymously, in it - when she got to the part where I quoted 'sociologist Irvin Goffman' it kind of gave away whose aspiration statement she was using, though). Then we did the PC Oath and the Yap State Oath, and it was official.

There was good food, some beverages, a local band, Eriks and I were rocking our loin cloths and the girls were also traditionally attired (aka, topless but well covered by an immense amount of leis. Not trying to be dirty here, they looked great. Beautiful leis, traditional grass skirts for main island PCVs, lavalavas for Woleai PCVs and a frond skirt for the Ulithi PCV. We had delicious food and great people there to celebrate with us. It was a blast. I'm so grateful to have made it here, but I'll be even more grateful to make it to Woleai.

Be well, readers. You can trust I'll be doing the same.