Over the Mountains and Through the Woods...

Originally this post was titled, "Travel, travel, travel," because that's all the past few days have felt like. However, I decided not to put all of you through the tedious, detailed description of my traveling struggles. Instead, here's the condensed version.

Tuesday - Wake up, pack up, check out, and leave for the airport. Get through a tiresome baggage checking process which involved multiple sessions of reorganizing luggage on the airport floor for a few of us, myself included. Fly for 8 hours, 12 hours pass. Arrive in Paris with very little sleep and lots of leg cramps.

Wednesday - Paris: 8am. Realize I misplaced my Peace Corps Passport somehow while on the actual plane. Ask airline to check the plane, no luck. Continue with personal passport (so fortunate that I had one). Pass out on airport floor for two hours. Eat a croissant. Board for Armenia. Fly for 4.5 hours. 8 hours pass.
Armenia: 8:30pm. Three people in my unit are missing a bag. File paperwork, go through customs. Meet Peace Corps Armenia Staff, YAYYY!!!! Load luggage into truck. Board bus about 10:30pm. Cue 2 hour bus ride up a mountain in pitch black conditions. Arrive at hotel, 12:30am. PASS OUT.

Needless to say, Tuesday and Wednesday didn't really feel like they existed. When I woke up on Thursday, I saw this outside my window:

I found out I had a flush toilet, hot water, and breakfast ready at 8:30am. The rest of the day was filled with training, so I want to leave a few brief impressions.

#1 - Coffee and food, all of the time. It's really a great way to live and it's growing on me. About every 1.5 - 2 hours we have a scheduled coffee or meal break. There is always coffee and tea and fresh fruit and pastries. Meals have tons of options. It allows me to always have caffeine, get to know all of my fellow Trainees better, and eat smaller meals more often. It's kind of magical and keeps us all engaged and awake during training, too. If any of you own a business at any point in your lives, I highly, HIGHLY recommend this structure.

#2 - Everyone here sincerely cares about our well-being and success as volunteers and they are all super excited that we are finally here. This is a big year for Peace Corps Armenia as it is the 25th year of the program here and we are the 25th group of volunteers! There seems to be some big expectations for us, and I think this group is definitely ready to rise to the challenge. We've even been having voluntary study groups for language learning.

#3 - Everything, at the moment, is beautiful. While there are definitely some comforts missing, I am still in a honeymoon phase with this country and this adventure. From the mountains to the people to the way of life, it's all just wonderful still.

I move into my temporary host family on Monday, and I'm sure I'll have some better insights by then. I did go on a breath-taking pre-dawn hike this morning up a mountain, so I will post some of those pictures. I'm currently having some internet issues, so I will get the photos up asap.

Bari geesher yev shnorakalootyoon,

Emily