Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens. -Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Well, well, well. . . As of 12:00:01 AM this morning I officially became a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, better known in these foreign aid and expat circles as an RPCV. 27 months have been completed and it is my turn to leave Armenia. This morning I sat with Rani, Vinnie, Erin, Chris and my mother downstairs at Envoy hostel. I realized that except for Rani, Vinnie and I, ALL the other A17 volunteers from our group have already left. Yeah, we've said our goodbyes, had our last get togethers and our final drinks but because of the slow trickle out of people it never really hit me that these people were leaving, probably never to be seen again for a really long time. Of course I am certain I will run into a few who have the same aspirations and life goals as I do where International Aid and Foreign Development is concerned but it will not be a time like we've had here ever again. Later on we'll all be in our work suits, with our families, running our businesses, trying to get reports in on time, managing our employees or being managed ourselves. It'll never be us, hanging with the villagers, chilling in Yerevan at jazzve , or the hostel, kicking it at the vernessage, speaking Armenian and Russian, singing some Tata Simonyan, drinking black coffee straight up or eating out of desert dishes, doing the akbher squat while we chew sunflower seeds, taking the sweaty marshutni rides where the tatiks are afraid to open the windows because they swear by the matsun that we'll all catch colds and die. It'll be different. So different. Many of us have opted to do extended trips. I don't think we are , all of us, quite ready to let this life go.
I know my Ajan is probably right now sailing on a boat through greece, Jsu and Coeman are already in Georgia, others are in Thailand, some have made it back to the US and are doing road trips, yet others are in the Balkans or left just this morning to fly to Germany and Prague. So what will I be doing? Well here's how that story starts. I am in the process of my Foreign Service Exam. Already leapt over the first hurdle and passed the written exam, I just submitted my PNQ's (personal narrative questions) and now will have to wait for about a month to see how I do. In the meanwhile Ranijan, Parks and myself will be traveling East.
I will be taking the train to Tiblisi, Georgia on the night of the 17th where I will be spending only 3 days since I've been there before. On the 20th I'll be flying out to Istanbul, Turkey and then taking the bus to Bodhrum where I'll be getting my diving certificate. During that time I may or may not take a boat to Greece and take in Santorini , Kos and 1 other island. Next Rani , Parks and I will be flying into Sri Lanka , where we will spend 3 weeks until we leave for India on September 24th. We'll be there for 6weeks hanging out at Ashram's and other temples, trying to find peace in our restless, too young souls .Rani's aunts live there so it'll be a fun time. On November 12th we fly to Bangkok, Thailand and seeing as we haven't bought our exit ticket for there yet, we don't know how long we'll be there.
Thus my blog will go through a Peace Corps reflection and recollection transformation and become more of a travel , off the beaten path blog. We'll be trying some vlogging and also load more pictures. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading of any faux pas to be committed and all the mistakes I will undoubtedly make. For those of you who stuck with reading my not too timely updates and sent me messages facebook, I miss you all too, and I'll be home, at some point , maybe even in 2012. :)
Dee
The epic conclusion (not really)
8 months ago