Armenia

We arrived at 5:40 this morning. It's been a long day since then, sightseeing, meeting existing volunteers and local staff, sitting through training sessions, eating. We haven't had a real night's sleep in a bed since Wednesday night, and it's now late Thursday. But we're both more excited than ever. This is going to be good. Our short-term priority is to get internet access; our long-term concern will be staying healthy.

Vienna?

We've made it to Vienna. This may not sound like a big deal to you, and it wouldn't normally to us either: you go to the airport, you check in, etc. But in a group of 58 people it's a bit more complicated, especially when the buses carrying us take a wrong turn and end up in a traffic jam on side streets in Alexandria, Virginia. It was 91 degrees F (34C) outside, and our bus had no AC and the windows didn't open. Our group is forever split into those who were on the hot bus and those who traveled in comfort.

Then there was the airport. I won't go into details, but the airline is not popular among us, and the Peace Corps is not a term the people behind the counter want to hear ever again. Oh well. The flight itself was eventless.

Maybe this is just a way of weeding out the ones who aren't ready for the Armenian way of travel. Or maybe the Peace Corps is toughening us for all the frustrations we will inevitably encounter as we move from a culture where the expectation is that things function to one where that's the case to a much lesser degree.

In Vienna - well, we never made it into the city. Susan and I got to our day room at an airport hotel and passed out for four hours. Then we wandered into the local little town and had a late lunch and bought a surge protector. Now we'll have what may be our last real showers for a while and head back to the airport. Early.

About an hour ago, before we boarded the busses to Dulles Airport

IT'S OFFICIAL!

We are now officially Peace Corps trainees. Things really are about to change. We spent the day in a conference room in the hotel with a group of 58 people (I think) going over everything from a little PC history to our anxieties and aspirations. We had the pleasure of hearing Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams speak (and no, he doesn't speak at all 100 staging events that the PC puts on each year).

Our group is not at all as uniformly young as I had expected, which is nice. Traditionally most volunteers join right after college, with a small minority (a few percent) signing up after they've retired. In our group, however, there were at least a dozen people - including me - who had given up or suspended careers for this opportunity.

Susan is asleep. I'm beat. Tomorrow will be another busy day, and much longer. It won't really end until 4:50am on Saturday, when we get to Yerevan.

Standing in line to join the Peace Corps

Sisters

Can you tell? They usually wear almost the same clothes - without
consulting each other at all first.

Stuff...

This is about half the pile of stuff we have in Cyn's basement. We
also have a smaller pile at brother Bill's.

I can't even remember what's in these boxes. If I don't, it's still
too much.

Family farewell party

We had our family farewell party last night. Needless to say, it was wonderful to be surrounded by people we know and love. We won't be going to Mars or anything, but most of them we likely won't see for a couple of years, so this felt big.

Liza and Billy

Future Armenians

Paul, Dave, Liza

Cyn, Susan, Bill

Apologies to those who weren't included in a picture here. I'll be sure to take better pictures of you at the welcome home party in late 2012.

Shedding karma

It's been a strange path toward Armenia, so far. And it started so innocently: a form to fill in, an interview, some waiting. Then came an extensive medical exam with documentation on this and that, more waiting, requests for more information, phone calls, emails. And suddenly a couple of weeks ago we were busy with little else. Packing up a home and two lives for storage and getting ready for two years in some cold place is not the simple two-day project I remember from my teens and twenties, when I moved from country to country as a matter of routine. For example, the other day we were running around looking in seven stores before we found a 6mm (metric!) cross-dowel nut. Why? We gave our dining room table to Susan's sister Cindy, but this crucial nut got lost during the move. Then there have been tasks like getting a cover for my laptop replaced because the one the company sent was defective; bringing the pile of wire hangers to the cleaners because we just have to be good recycling people; shredding any papers with SSNs or credit card numbers (health provider statements, credit card bills, various statements and contracts); canceling old inactive credit cards; setting up family with Skype so we can stay in touch; fixing the car so we can sell it with a good conscience; buying little presents for our host families in Armenia; trips to the dump; trips to charitable institutions; 17 for-sale ads on Craigslist; the list goes on and on. Much of the time has gone to getting rid of stuff - what my friend Elliot calls shedding karma. But there hasn't been nearly enough time to say goodbye properly.

Susan has been amazing. I am grateful. She has done most of the packing and more than her share of running around, and not only because I worked until the beginning of this month.

One last word: we're getting there. There's a ton left to do in the next six days, but it will happen. I'm glad we changed our plans and decided to fly to staging in Washington DC a day early, on Tuesday May 25: now we will just have to be ready in time to relax the last day, have breakfast with my godson Charlie, walk past the White House, and not rush until the last minute.

Last day at work

Today is my last day at work. I'm going to miss the people of Pyramid Research. We all went to lunch at Desfina, a Greek restaurant near our old office in East Cambridge where we used to hang out a lot. My friend and former Pyramidian Jose Mario showed up. This job was good to me, but it's time to move on. I wish everyone at Pyramid all the best.