Where to even begin? This summer has been incredible. Exhausting and frustrating at times, but incredible. It feels as though I just arrived in Armenia and now I am days away from being sworn in as a PC Volunteer and moving to my permanent site. It’s all so surreal. Lately, life has been full of last minute nonsense. I’ve signed many papers (some probably much more important than others), crammed for a daunting language interview, and tried to spend as much time with everyone as possible.
Our final central training day was last Friday. There was definitely a different mood in the air than all other Central Days. For one, we had our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI). I’ll get more to that later, but all you need to know now is that most of us were a bit nervous. On the other hand, all of the PC staff seemed very nostalgic and regretful that our training was soon to be over. They said some very sweet things, essentially hinting at the fact that we are the best training group to come through PC Armenia. It’s true. (No offense intended to any A18ers reading. Yall are a close second I’m sure.)
The LPI was over quickly and anti-climatically. To assess our level of language acquisition during training, PC staff conducts interviews (in Armenian, of course). The idea is to get you to talk as much as possible and as complexly as possible. From these interviews they gauge your language proficiency level. There are four levels: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior. The first three are broken down further into subcategories: Low, Medium, High. The last level, Superior, essentially means that you are a fluent speaker. In order to meet PC standards, we had to achieve Novice-Low on our first LPI. If you scored lower, you would receive some additional help to bring you up to speed. Thankfully, I scored Intermediate-Low! I’m content--though not thrilled--with this score. I’m glad to have surpassed the minimum expectation, but I think (ok, I know) I could’ve done even better. However, I will have two more LPIs during my service: one year from now and two years from now. I feel confident that I will improve by the time those LPIs roll around.
The biggest thing that’s been weighing on my mind lately is saying goodbyes [again!]. I have become very close with my host family and people in my training village. They are all such wonderful, wonderful people and I’m so sad I don’t get to spend the next two years with them! Luckily, my permanent site is not too far from here. I’ve already suggested plans to visit for Nor Tari, or New Years. In Armenia, it’s a 10-day celebration, so there’s a big window for visiting. On the other hand, I’m preparing to leave the comfort of living nearby and interacting with 40 awesome Americans. As I mentioned before, the A-19 group is incredible. I’ve grown very close to some of them in a very short amount of time. It’s going to be difficult not seeing them every day. Of course, we all have phones and internet, so communication is easy. I will just miss the human contact and ability to speak English frequently!
This all being said, I’m excited to move to my permanent site. I know it’s a difficult placement and there are many challenges ahead, but I think I’m ready. The PCVs geographically closest to me seem great and all the people I met during my site visit were friendly. I just have to remind myself that this is what I signed up for – not the summer-camp vibe of PST.
Next time I update, I will be a full-fledged PCV! Hurrah!
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