Sumguyit

I can't spell the name of the city I'm in, but I'm finally at my training site with my host family. They are EXTREMELY nice. They keep feeding me and giving me tea. On of the sisters is studying to be an english translator so the language isn't as big of a problem, plus she has already started to help me study my Azeri lessons. We are in the main part of the city today getting cell phones (yes cell phone sin the Peace Corps) and running other errands. Tomorrow we start out training at the schools (mine is pink!).

From the other side of the world!

We made it to Azerbaijan on Tuesday night. It was dark when we drove out of Baku to the hotel, so I didn't get to see much of the city. Right now all the trainees are staying in a resort hotel/waterpark but Saturday we move in with our host families. I'll try and upload pictures soon but some of the highlights of this hotel include: Bread and cucumbers at every meal (awesome), the creepiest clown statue known to man, a Napoleon statue, no elevator (not awesome when hauling 2 years of luggage up to the second floor), coke served in one of those juice machines (often seen in america filled with ice tea or lemonade, the kind that is constantly being stirred), and a room with a view of the Caspian Sea (also awesome).

Leaving

We all leave for Baku tonight. I'll get in around 9:00am Tuesday, California time. We were told that we won't be able to make phone calls or send e-mails for about a week and a half once we get there, so just assume everything is going great unless otherwise informed. Hopefully I'll sleep across the Atlantic, then I can just watch Three Sheets and listen to music over to Baku.
I can't wait to see how 61 adults go about getting 2 years worth of luggage on to 2 busses, drive to NY and then all check in to the same flight. It promises to be an amazing mess even though the AZ6 group is pretty awesome.

Staging

Made it to Philadelphia for a few days of training. I hate the Philadelhpia airport ground transportation system, just in case anyone needs to know that. At least the hotel is nice as has a computer in the room, and I found a 7-11 so I bought a sandwich for dinner.

10 days left

It seems to be quite the trend among Peace Corps Volunteers to start a blog before leaving the U.S. in order to keep people posted on their lives, so I'm joining the bandwagon for those of you who aren't MySpace of Facebook types.

I leave California in about 10 days and head out to Philadelphia. So far my itinerary looks like this:

9/19 - Fly out of San Jose to L.A. ridiculously early in the morning, Fly from L.A. to Philly with another Peace Corps Volunteer, lug two years worth of stuff from the airport to the hotel, figure out what to do in Philly for a night.

9/20 - Find something to do in the morning, start Peace Corps training in the afternoon

9/21 - Peace Corps Training

9/22 - Leave Philly and take bus to JFK airport, get on late flight to Frankfurt

9/23 - Flight from Frankfurt to Baku, arrive in Azerbaijan!!!!

Azerbaijan is 12 hours away from the west coast which makes it easy for you to know what time it is over there, just change the a.m. to a p.m. or vice verse and there you have it. This also means that I will be just about exactly halfway around the world, as far away as I could get (which is awesome).