Our first day of Romanian lessons
We finally made it. "Look at all the Americans"
Clusterfuck
JFK
What I've learned in the Peace Corps thus far: I can function on a very small amount of sleep. These consecutive days of getting up at 6am have been rough, and it has only been compounded by the fact that I love naps and I haven't gotten to take one.
Like I said in my earlier post, we left Philly this morning around 7. Our bus driver conveniently disappeared when we all came out to load our bags, and so I ended up crawling inside the bowels of the bus and loading luggage (literally thousands of lbs). By the time I got on the bus I was drenched in sweat, which will only add to the misery of me and the people I sit next to for the next 10 hours on a plane to Istanbul (deodorant has proven worthless). Upon arriving at the airport, our group leader informed me that my passport was missing....GREAT. Settling upon the fact that I will be spending an undetermined amount of time in a hotel in NYC, another volunteer comes up and tells me that on accident he was given my passport, checked in and got his (my) ticket, and even went through security. We look nothing alike. After much undeserved headache we finally got it situated. Then came upon the issue of my overweight bag. I can only bring 2 bags that each can weigh 50 lbs, and one of mine registered at 60. Determined not to pay the $150 fine, I took out what I thought was roughly ten pounds....the scale registers 42 lbs...I start adding things slowly to my bag....43, 45, 48, 50. Everything I originally took out was back in the bag. Serendipity is my middle name.
About an hour ago I discovered that I forgot to put my "No Jet Lag" pills into my carry-on bag. I was told that these work great by several different people and was really anticipating the promoted no jet lag. Curious to see if I could home remedy these pills, Leah checked the internet and informed me that I would be one ingredient off from conducting witchcraft. All in all, couldn't find the pills, but did stumble upon free wifi and am now able to jot down this blog.
I'll go ahead and fill you in on what we've done so far: The entire day yesterday was spent sitting in a windowless conference room going over Peace Corps rules with (sorry PC, just my personal opinion) pretty shoddy analogies. After that all the trainees went out for pizza and beer for our last dinner in America. That pretty much picks up on where I started this nonlinear story.
Here is my address that you all can send me letters, pictures, goodies, etc:
Neal Collins- M24
Peace Corps Moldova
12 Str. Grigore Ureche
Chisinau, Moldova 2001
hahaha!! Of course that happens to you!!! I'm sure you were freaking out a thousand times more than putting the right songs on the ipod for your parents party. Can't wait to send you random goodies and I promise it will be better than the goodies I left in your Christmas stocking at Duvics.
ReplyDeletehahaha omg neal that would SOOO happen to you!!!! glad your trip has had an umm interesting start to say the least!! lol we miss u so much already! im still in shock that youre gone.. although very very jealous of all the fun and exciting adventures you have ahead of you! I will get with gretchen n we will make u a care package.. get excited !! im so proud of u!!! be safe!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSee, Neal. You can officially stop bugging out now. Nothing more could possibly happen...knock on wood.
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