6/5 -- Wildly and Uncomfortably

NOTE: I'll add pictures as soon as I have more reliable internet... right now, a kind PCV is allowing us all to use his wireless. It's a bit too busy for uploading photos, sorry!
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Where to begin!? The last few days have been a blur, that’s for sure. I’ll try to run through all the major points of my trek  from Philadelphia to Armenia. Highlights include Gulliver the Gnome, Vienna, ancient ruins, and one BIG mountain.

On Wednesday, my folks drove me up to Philadelphia for our Staging Event.  Here, I met the forty other wonderful people with whom I will be working for the next 27 months. We’re a fairly eclectic group, especially in age and hometown. I’m surprisingly not the youngest trainee! People traveled from far and wide for the event; one even came from as far as Alaska, which makes my drive seem like nothing! 

Staging basically consisted of general information about Peace Corps, their expectations, and our expectations.  It was also a great opportunity to just talk and get to know people.  Everyone is extremely nice. It’s great to be around people who totally understand my desire to do Peace Corps. We’ve all been in similar boats for the past year or so, explaining our reasons and motivations.

We were on our own for dinner Wednesday night, which provided me the opportunity to play Philly tour guide. For those of you who know me, you know that I really don’t know the city very well. It just so happened that our hotel was in city center, just down the street from Love Park, City Hall, and an Irish pub—Tir Na Nog—that I went to with camp people last year. 

Thursday morning we all woke up early to take a bus up to JFK Airport in NYC.  After tossing and turning all night, I ended up waking up an hour before my alarm went off (about 6 a.m.). I was feeling super antsy and decided to go for a run. (Yes, you read that correctly). I didn’t go far for fear of getting lost. I also wanted to get some inaugural shots of the gnome Bethany bought me. At this point, he was still nameless...

The bus ride to New York was pretty standard. We had two coach buses. This was totally unnecessary for just 41 people, but when you think about the luggage… yikes. We got to JFK pretty early, which is always nice.  Surprisingly everyone’s bags were under the 50lb limit!

The flight to Vienna was LONG. I got stuck with a middle seat, which made it very difficult for me to sleep. I watched Dilemma, read some of my book, and chit-chatted.

Upon our arrival in Vienna, slight chaos ensued. We had been told that we’d have a day hotel to use in the city, but no one with the airline knew anything about it. There was a lot of back and forth calling between PCTs and our travel agent, but not much progress. Eventually, some other people and I just stowed our baggage with the airport and took off to Vienna. 

Vienna is a beautiful city. None of us had ever been before, so we just roamed in the general direction of sights. We had a great lunch, chocolate cake…everything necessary to a day in Vienna. We had a LOT of time to kill so we were able to relax (re: nap) in a shady park. This is when Gulliver got his name… Thanks for the suggestion, Trent!

We ended our day back in Vienna Airport, boarding a flight at 10 p.m. for Yerevan, Armenia.  Luckily, I had an empty seat next to me. Another PCT was on the other side. We somehow managed to both lay down and sleep for most of the flight.

At about 5 a.m., we arrived in Yerevan! The airport is super modern and easy to traverse. Peace Corps staff was there to greet us and take our luggage. We boarded another coach bus and drove off to Zvartnots, a site of ancient ruins that overlooks Mount Ararat. At first, you couldn’t really see the mountain, but as the sun rose it came into clear view. To put it in a word, stunning.  It really was a great start to my adventure here. I think it opened all our eyes to just how much history is in this region of the world. I can’t wait to learn more about it. (Unfortunately, my camera was stowed away under the bus, but I’ll swipe someone’s photos from Facebook soon).

We have a few more days in this hotel, then we will be moving to our villages for Pre-Service Training (PST). I will be with about six other trainees and two language teachers. We each will have our own host families (well, not the teachers...they're Armenian..). I must say, I really like the people in my group. I think we'll have a blast struggling through this challenging language together!

The country director gave a great introductory speech while at the ruins which included an interesting piece of advice passed down to him from another RPCV. “Live wildly and uncomfortably.”  Hopefully I will get to embrace this fully and reap the most benefit from the experience.