what's with the altitude?

One month left and my mind is a mess. I know I'm in for a world of change, but the main thing on my mind these days is the change in world. The physical environment is just going to be so completely different from anything I've experienced.

• Climate: I currently live in a high desert. Very dry lots of sage brush, and yet very harsh winters. I went to school in New Mexico, lived in a desert there also. Before school the high desert as well as many other tiny communities in Wyoming with harsh winters and if summer ever came it was mild. Not quite the story in the Philippines. They are the tropics with 10 degrees difference all year round. They have typhoons and a rainy season, and always humidity. Deserts don't have humidity. That may do me in.
• Land forms: Wyoming is a mountainous state fairly land locked, and by fairly landlocked I mean 2-3 giant states sit between it and the ocean. Very similar story with New Mexico. The Philippine Islands are just that. Islands. 7,000 plus islands right smack dab in the middle of the Ring of Fire. Which means volcanoes, several of which are active, see Mount Pinatubo . Also earthquakes and there fore tsunamis. I've experienced countless earthquakes with out even knowing, but have yet to see a tsunami.
• Altitude: In all my life I have never lived below 4,500 feet. The highest point in the Philippines isn't even 3,000 feet. Can we say energy galore? I'm going to be bouncing off the walls.

These are just some of the things I've been thinking about, not even to mention the other aspects of culture. More on that later, and welcome to my Peace Corps experience.