Since Tuesday I've been in DC with the other 52 YES Abroaders, program staff and group leaders that are either YES inbound alum or YES Abroad Alum. We are split up by country at different tables for everything besides meals.
Each day is comprised of  many workshops. The topics range from health and safety to host family communication. We also have endless opportunities to ask our group leader questions about our specific country's culture and customs. Although tedious (we were in the same room for 10 hours yesterday,) all these workshops are helpful and have definitely provided me with many coping mechanisms and advice about going abroad. Things like cultural sunglasses, cultural icebergs, and the confusing sandwich probably sound completely absurd to you, but all 53 of us all have learned what these are. Probably the best part about this experience is our group leader, Gabrielle. She is beyond helpful and so laid-back, while still informative; I entered the PDO understandably nervous about going abroad and Malaysia specifically and am leaving it tomorrow with almost a completely different point of view on the country.
We do have some down time. We've gone to 2 Mexican places and a Greek restaurant for various meals, as to escape from the coffin-like room all our orientations are in. It's also SO cold in that room, it was totally understandable to see a group leader wearing a fleece over their traditional Ghanaian dress.
Today was really different from the other days, with some time out on the town, but I am completely exhausted and have to head to bed. I'll try to post about today's happenings some point over the next 3 days we'll be spending at another orientation in another hotel with other orientations.

For now, pictures from the past couple of days